Preternaturals

**Preternaturals or Preters** are human appearing Synths, created initially as clones, but with major overhauls to the flaws of humanity. They are among the most numerous synths, as they are easily creatable as transhumans, though are used more as canon-fodder for any testing done by ARCDA.

> ***See Also:** Preternatural Origin Bases*
>
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## History

#### **Creation**

With all of the advancements in Synths with bases and morphologies based on animals, a lot of what was learnt from how these Synths were made was used in the creation of Preternaturals. Taking elements of different synths; The bones and blood of Avios and Chiros, the senses and reflexes of Canids and Pards, and various other abilities such as diamond or camouflage skin that Reptiles often had, the biggest task was making these synths appear human.

Many failed Preternaturals were labelled as Tribrids and if there was no chance of these synths surviving they were disposed of quickly, whilst those that were able to sustain their own lives were transferred to Atlas and Risio to study.

Preternaturals were officially created after the Type-7 Avios, making all non-transhuman Preters twenty years old or younger, with one of the first Preters being Roux, swiftly followed by Amelia Samodiva making herself the first Transhuman Preternatural and using her 'daughter' Roux as a base to test traits and genetics on before including them into her own genetic makeup.

### Clones of Clones of Clones

*“There’s no such thing as a pure-human clone...we’re all Preternaturals. Or at least the closest thing Atlas can get to human clones without all the issues of aging and death.*” - Roux

The majority of Preternaturals are clones, all coming from Origin bases of specially created prototypes, which there are then batches of produced en-mass. However, as the originals are often held within the safety of Hrimfald, getting a full and accurate transcript of their genomes is difficult and so the genetic data to produce more gets taken from another clone of the same origin.

The downside of this is that the genetic degradation means that the clones-of-clones do not live as long and have more health problems than the first clean batches, with RIGEL, VELA, and TIANYI originating Preternaturals being among the shortest lived.

Risio produced Preters do not suffer with this degregation and Core and Atlas are very happy to accept them if they are damaged.

## Biology

### **Genetics**

Like all Synths, Preternaturals have synthetically created DNA which has played a large part in how Preternaturals have developed and what they are capable of doing. As they are technically the newest form of Synth, they have had their genetics based on other Synths, primarily Canids, Primates, and Chiros as they have qualities that ARCDA were looking for such as senses, brain plasticity and adaptability, and muscle and bone structure.

Most Preternaturals of the same *Origin* and *Year* of creations will be of the same batch and will be siblings to one another, and although they are technically clones as they share the same genetics of those within their batch, they do have physical differences and diversity. Because Preternaturals were never fully intended to be able to reproduce by themselves, a lot of sexual characteristics usually seen in humans, are missing from Preternaturals, with a lot of physical traits between 'genders' (ie the different origin bases) being almost purely aesthetic.

Chromosomes in Preternaturals are also very different to humans, as even though they share some similarities with base pairs, they have more chromosomes (due to the introduction of synthetic DNA meaning that new chromosome layouts had to be constructed), with 104 chromosomes (52 when diploid) where as humans only have 46 (23 when diploid). Another point of this is that the chromosome lengths are much shorter.

Transhuman Preters get these extra chromosomes added into their genetic makeup after a virus first destroys as much of their original human DNA as possible and hijacks the cells to recombine what is left over to make them Transhuman.

### **Internal Biology**

#### **Bones**

The bones of Preternaturals are denser than that of humans, but also lighter. Later versions of Preternaturals have similar bone makeups as Volant synths (Avios, Chiros) that makes them stronger and able to handle impacts more, though they lack the structure that makes Volants able to fly.

#### **Blood**

Humans and Preternaturals cannot have blood transfusions from each other, as it will make both parties ill (sicker if the recipient is a human), as Preternaturals have a different type of blood to humans. It bonds with oxygen far more efficiently than with humans, a trait carried over from Chiro Synths. This is overall an advantage, but can also be a major disadvantage as if a Preternatural gets severely injured and there is no available blood for transfusion they can die of blood loss.

The white blood cells of Preternaturals are also highly advanced, and they have a preset immunity to the majority of major infections and diseases, including zootropic diseases.

#### **Organs**

Because a lot of the genetics of Preternaturals comes from other Synths it is theorized that there is a very low chance that Preternaturals can reproduce with different types of synths such as Canids and Chiros even though they cannot with each other, though what could happen from this is unknown.

#### **Brain**

Preternatural brains are similar to human brains, except that they have more folded structures that make up the different parts of the brain. There are also different new and non-human structures within Preternatural brains

**See Also:** Musers, Telkens

#### **Growth and Regeneration**

Preternaturals grow faster than humans, with a 6 month old Preter being equivalent in growth to a 4 year old human child in terms of development, and by the age of 7 they are fully grown with some variation as to maturity rates differing between different origins and production years.

As far as regenerating limbs and organs go, Raoul notes that some variants of Preternaturals are capable of fully regrowing their limbs but the process takes a long time and is painful.

In the American bunkers of ARCDA there is a horror story of a bunker which harvests the blood and organs of Preternaturals who are failures in the Elite program to use for the Diamonds whenever they are injured.

### **Physical Abilities**

* **Senses**

Preternatural eyesight is superior to Humans, as is their hearing and sense of smell and taste. They are only outperformed on sight by Avios, and scent and hearing by Canids. Like all synths, they exibit eyeshine, which can be anywhere from blue to green in colour.

* **Reactions**
* **Strength**
* **Endurance**
* **Camouflage Skin**
* **Diamond Skin**

## Preternatural Codes and Versions

Each generation of Preternatural has a different Prefix within their ID codes (similar to how Non-Preter synths have the shortened versions of the names of the creatures they have a base on), with differences between male and female Preternaturals.
***[Year]:[Month].Day]:[Base]-[Birth order]***

```
Examples

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```
**J:01.01:DRACO-01** [Long form] | **J:DRACO-01** [Short form]

```

```
**R:03.22:VE-RA-23** [Long form] | **R:VE-RA-23** [Short form]

```

```
**N:10.14:LEO-166** [Long form] | **N:LEO-166** [Short form]

```

Origins usually stay in production for up to ten years before they are discontinued.

Transhumans also follow this system, though they do not use year of birth but instead the year and day they were first changed into a transhuman, and they have an additional suffix of ACEUM, or ACE in short form.

```
***Example***:

```

```
**AA:09.02.TIANYI-ACEUM-728** [Long Form] | **AA:TIANYI-ACE-728** [Short Form]

```

```
**Q:03.01.VELA-ACEUM-612** [Long Form] | **Q:VELA-ACE-612 [Short Form]**

```

### ***Origins***

There are 17 different origins for Preternaturals. Every batch produced within each origin aren't exact and perfect clones of one base but more rather siblings to one another with minor differences varying with appearence, and sometimes the extent of each individuals ability. Each origin has a period of 7 years where they remain in production before they usually stop using the origin base, with older first run batches often having more faults and flaws than the later batches, though these flaws often get fixed with software updates.

Usually, up to 100 Preternaturals of each Origin are produced per month. Making Numbering them an small mathmathmatical equation of (Months between first creation to birth x 100) to get an approximate number of their birth order which can have a hundred or so added onto it depending when in the year they were born.

```
Example:

```

```
M:03:19:VIRGO-3849 | 36 (aprox) Months between J-M X 100 = 3600 (+200)

```

Any Preters with a ID code that is 7+ years beyond the useable date is usually a Transhuman. The newest transhuman will have aproximately 8,400 as their birth order as some may have had more or less Preternaturals produced

***See Main Page: Preternatural Origin Bases***

  LEO
  CETUS
  ORION
  RIGEL
  SIRIUS
  TIANYI
  DRAC-US
  ZHANG

### **Software Updates**

Due to the ever evolving technology and selective breeding and reproduction of different traits, often it is easier to update older versions of Preters with '*software updates*'. What this entails is a series of patches and vaccines which help to recode or change parts of the genetics within Preters to fix any mistakes. This also acts as a test run for any modifications which may be released to humans.

Sometimes these Software updates can include 'installing' abilities such as Telkens, Muser abilities, and physiological improvements. However, this is seemingly reserved for Preters who advance into the ranks of the Diamond Elites where they are allowed to improve themselves.

## Preternatural Characters

* Roux Cuélebre
* Amelia Samodiva
* Xavier
* Roanoke
* Reykjavik
* Iowa

***Minor Characters***

* Rainbow
* Fury
* Maira Foley
* Valiant - T:ORION-302
* Diogenes - S:DRACO-76

## See More

* Roux Cuélebre
* Synths
* ARCDA
* Hasekura
* Avios
* Canids

## Trivia

* All origin names (except the combination names) come from stars and constellations.
* DRACO and VIRGO type Preternaturals actually are based and cloned from Roux.
* Preternaturals have blue or green eyeshine in the dark.
* All Preternaturals are actually younger than Storm, excluding Transhuman Preters, and several Preternatural prototypes.

## References

1. ↑ Information directly from T.Hearts' notes.
2. ↑ **Stormbite**: Chapter 3
3. ↑ *Table created by T.Hearts from her notes.*

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