Synths

**Synths** (Synthetic organisms) are a large part of Stormbite with the majority of the cast being one form of Synth or another. They are not human, neither are they animal, or even somewhere in between, they are instead entities of their own, capable of abilities beyond what humans can achieve naturally.

The key types of Synths are Avios, Preternaturals, Canids, Pards, and Transhumans, though there are many more other synth types, and are usually classed as ***Sapiential-Synths***which means "A Synth that bares resemblance to a human in that they can talk, think, create, and understand complex things." ***Critters*** are also synths, but ones which were made to be more animalistic and to fill ecological niches or sustainability purposes.

## History

The creation of synths had a very long and complex history; a mixture of both ethical and unethical experimentation and production that was not always legal or even declared to those who were funding the production of 'non-natural life forms.

However, in Sirocco, Griffin gives a short and simplified version of how Synths came to exist.

> “Back in the very very early days of genetic engineering, they manipulated the genes of crows to change them. The result after many tests were smarter crows, crows that could mimic and comprehend human speech as well as any parrot and follow instructions. They could even express how they were feeling and could understand emotions. Then they got other ideas of what they could do with these intelligent birds who were on a par with humans in their eyes. Some were used as spies for various people around the world, others for fancy pets. Then some of the smarter crows saw their wild relatives living and surviving and realised ‘hey, we don’t need to go back, we can fly and be free’ and so they flew away - you’ll sometimes find the descendants of these crows in the wild.” She smiled and gave a little shrug.
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> “Then what was to become ARCDA started considering making their own crows from scratch, ones that didn’t have a place in the natural world and wouldn’t give in to that call of the wild. Synthetic technology was becoming an ever perfected art and they tried their hand at it for themselves. Turns out, with the right people they were very good at it and went from creating synthetic bacteria and viruses and basic plants to bigger organisms. After a long process, with many variants and prototypes and brand new ideas, we were made.” - Griffin, Sirocco.
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There were many more steps involved, and it wasnt solely just because of crows that Synths came to exist but it was influencing factor that lead to their creation.

## Creation

### What Are Synths?

**Synths are not human.**

Neither are they hybrids or chimeras as they are not part human, part animal. They may have animalistic features, called Bases, but this is because of morphological bases for specific traits (wings for flight, armored skin, prehensile tail), they are not actually that animal or in any way related to any organically evolved creature. They have only been made to mimic those particular creatures and express specific features.

Genetically they bare no resemblance to humans or animals or plants, as all non-transhuman DNA has been created from scratch using additional 4 man-made synthetic nucleotide bases (SBPZ), to create an 8-base genetic system rather than an organic 4 (ATCG). This is called Hachimoji DNA.

> **A - T | C - G | P - Z | S - B**
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As their DNA is synthetically created, containing non-organic DNA bases which were made to mimic specific traits and aspects of other creatures they can be considered to be inorganic organisms and because Synths are not natural, evolutionary aspects can be skipped or replaced so long as it can be coded correctly.

> *E,g. : Humans despite being from the primate family, lack a tail unlike monkeys because of evolution, yet the majority of Synths possess tails that can be used for locomotion, balance, differentiation and identification.*
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> *E.g. : Humans are too heavy to fly; Volant Synths are not human, and have been specifically designed to be able to fly whilst appearing to be human.*
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It is the S base which makes it the most difficult and causes most of the faults in replication as there is there is two different nucleotides: rS in DNA and dS in RNA. Hasekura went to great lengths and succeeded in stealing data from ARCDA on unnatural base production.

Most synths do not actually appear human-like as there are synthetic plants, bacteria, viruses, as well as animal-like creatures such as the Drake Raptors. The human-like, *Sapiential-Synths,* only appear as they do because they were created in a way that would allow humans to feel more comfortable with them, as well as the hubris of creating synths in their own image with many prototypes directly based upon the genomes and phenotype of either the doctors themselves who made them or at least someone they knew.

> *E,g. : If a doctor creates a Synth based upon their own genetic code modified to have specific other traits, though they have a face value resemblance to that doctor, they have no genetic relation.*
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### **Bases**

Bases are often used to copy and mimic traits from. This can be as large as getting the pattern and coloration of a butterfly's wings to be expressed onto feather structures of bird-resembling wings, or as small and overlooked as being immune to specific allergens and plants and chemicals that would otherwise be toxic.

*E,g. : Storm is an Avio based upon a Peregrine Falcon, however this does not mean that she is a falcon, only that she bares a physical and attributable resemblance to one.*

ARCDA prefers to have living bases that they can work from and have in vitro genomes from rather than using a database, which means many prototypes have Bases that ARCDA has easy access to such as dogs, falconry birds, cats, and other easily maintainable animals as well as their own staff members.

#### **Prototypes**

Because so much goes in to making sure that the synthetic DNA produces a living and functioning organism that works in the correct way intended.

**See Also**: Aura, Type-7 Avios

## Synth ID Codes

The standard formulae for Synth ID Codes go as follow:

> *[Year of Creation]:[Day]:[Month]: [Prefix]:[Shortened form of the Scientific name of the base being mimicked]-[Batch Number]-[Birth Number][A/B for twins]*
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There will be variations if smaller subspecies/breeds are used, with canid breeds based upon specific dog breeds using a native form of the breed name, or simply being called by a shorter name such as Hawk, or Hummingbird. The short forms of these will be similar but with less detail.

**Example**:

> ***Wilny***: *E:22:05:LoddiMirab-1-1* [Long Form] | *Hummingbird-E-1-1* [Short Form]
> ***Raoul***: *V:31.12: CanisFamil;NorskElghund-22-24* [Long Form] | *Hound-V-22-24* [Short Form]
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##### **Prefixes**

* Proto (Prototype)
* Neo+

**See More: Synth ID Codes**

Preternaturals have a different system, as they have their own subtypes in a similar way that Canids have different subbreeds.

***See More**: Preternatural Codes and Origin Differences*

## Synth Types

There different categories of Synths depending on the appearence bases used.: ***Preternatural*** (*Human based*), ***Mammalian*** (includes *Pards*, *Primates*, and *Canids*), ***Reptiles*** (*Snakes*, *Lizards*), ***Volants*** (*Avios*, *Chiros*, *Pteros*, *Raptors*), ***Aquaceto***, **Tribrids** (mixed), very rarely are there amphibious based Synths. These categories also include synthetic 'critters' such as the Drake Raptors.

Only Preternaturals share no 'critter' relatives.

**Read More:**

* Preternatural
	+ *Transhuman Preternaturals*
* Mammalian ( Synthacauda )
	+ *Artadactylian*
	+ *Aquaceto*
	+ *Canids* *( Synthacauda caninaceps)*
	+ *Lapin*
	+ *Mustelia*
	+ *Pards* *( Synthacauda feliens)*
	+ *Pinnipiea*
	+ *Primates ( Synthacauda simidactyl)*
	+ *Rattan*
* Reptiles (Synthasauria)
	+ Sauridiae (Synthasauria Squamata)
		- Scylla
		- Reptile Critters
	+ Aphanosauri *(Synthasauria anthroaphanosauae)*
		- Tlaloc / Toxicoferis
		- Naga
* Volants (Volanoton)
	+ Avios (Volanoton avios)
		- Raptors
		- Type-7 Avios
	+ Chiros (Volanoton bimanapteros)
	+ Pteros (Volanoton pteron)
* Tribrids

## Synth Abilities

There are a number of different abilities among Synths. Some are very benign and are innate to certain types of Synths where are some are labeled as 'Talents' and have been engineered to function in a non-natural way.

> ***See More: Abilities***
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#### **Physical**

* Strength, Endurance, Stamina, Reflexes
* Skin Adaptations: Camouflage, Diamond Skin, Adaptive Skin, Bioluminecence
* Claws, Teeth, Prehensile Tails

#### **Talents**

* Musers
* Telkens
* Bioelectrics
* Pyrros
* Axolomeh

## See Also

* Ferals
* ARCDA
* Hasekura
* Avios
* Preternaturals
* Talents
	+ Musers
	+ Telkens

## Trivia

* Synths are not mutants on the basis that by definition mutations occur naturally or byproduct of radiation or other environmental factors, where as synths have been created synthetically and thus engineered.
* There are more synthetic plants and bacteria than there are 'animals'

## References

1. ↑ ***Sapiential-Synth**:* "A Synth that bares resemblance to a human in that they can talk, think, create, and understand complex things.", from Sapien - wise, human, and entity - being, but also directly from the word; *Sapiential* meaning; relating to wisdom.
2. ↑ *Directly from T.Hearts' notes.*
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachimoji\_DNA

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