Humaran Patch Notes - Notes on fixing Humaran Things

[Fleetwolf]

Magic and Humarans
(A Study on Retconning an Essential Part of a Society to be More Believable)

To be very honest, this has all been inspired by the hard work my mate has been doing on providing me with cultural notes on the Lupinossai, for which I’m eternally grateful for and lost without as work on rewriting them for the better. We’ve had many discussions during long nights over this very troublesome race I’ve made. Humarans. Just like Humans, they are a pain in every sense of the word. Yet, that is why they exist. Every realm needs some sort of ‘Human-ish’ type standard to draw a baseline at for good, bad, grand, vile, do this, don’t do that status quos. That said, what has this to do with magic? Indeed, what has it do with magic at all?

Well when you deal with literary works and writing and settings for worlds you hit an issue with readers and people that like to put things into boxes, boxes for days. Is it Science Fiction (possible things to come in the future with more science adultery) or Science Fantasy (we just laugh, roll eyes and pat it on its head and leave it to the imagination). Magic is a tricky topic with literacy genres. Depending on how you describe, detail and prove how it functions in your world settings and how much importance it has, magic can make or break your Sci-fi realm into Sci-fantasy realm in a single sneeze of sparkles. Many literary greats often gloss over the inner workings of magic in their worlds, leave it to the reader to imagine and move on. Some literary greats actually detail how it all works. Some literary greats just take aspirin and drop magic all together, brand the lips of any imaginative character to utter the ‘M’ word shut forever and hand them the latest and greatest technological gizmo of the day.

This is leading somewhere, I promise. It’s how my brain works. Anyways, Humarans, as with many of the historical posts made by me, seem to mimic magic. Mimic, not perform real magic, but mimic magic. My worlds have been in a vise like tug of war between Sci-fiction and Sci-fantasy trying to sort out which way to go. When I started to write out the Humarans as a break from the Lupinossai, Sci-fi grew stronger in the realms of my world, making way for DNA this, DNA that, Matrices, Tech, etc. Yet, I did something odd. I had Humarans making DNA modifications that allowed them to mimic magic but also using fantasy terms. Unicorn, Alicorn, Archangel, Liger, Juggernaut and Atlas. Now many of these terms, are not too awkward as they can be pointed to the Human mythos and legends that Humarans were modified from on ancient, nuked Earth. What got me and my mate really talking was how my creative mind moved to the old comfortable pairing of terms and physical traits that magical titles often have. A person with Unicorn matrices would have a pale, small horn in the middle of their forehead. Uhm, why? What’s the horn for? Why is it there? Did Humarans have access to Unicorn DNA? Are Unicorns real in this setting? Rinse and repeat for each of the other names. It wasn’t a bad point; it was a very valid face palm in realizing that fantasy settings have familiar pairings with magical things.
So how does “Magic” work with Humarans? And why does this matter? Humarans are the key to everything in the realms I write about. They are the blame for it all. So what Humarans do and can do matter severely for every sentient species that exist in the realms I have. The magic like effects the Humarans figured out in their nuclear hell of Earth was brought about by DNA manipulation. This manipulation allows the modified Humaran to absorb environmental radiation (radioactive decay, normal radioactive energy, etc.) and store that energy like a battery then expel that energy when they reach capacity. As many may guess, the first few Humarans that could do this were most likely just raw outlets of lightning arc like discharge from energy from too much stored energy. As more research and testing was done with this phenomenon, Humarans were most likely able to fine tune the DNA modifications to absorb and filter radioactive waves absorbed as well as giving the Humaran ‘battery’ better contact release points and control of that energy. From that point on, most likely, through the use of equipment, accessories, and the knowledge of physics and chemistry, the Humarans that could store and release energy could experiment and get various other “Magic” like effects (making water appear by manipulating condensation, fire by rapid oscillation of molecules, etc.) leading to the lower or lesser educated Humarans calling this use of high physics as simple ‘Magic’. Just like a smoker, with practice and effort can learn to do fanciful tricks with the smoke they exude from their lungs.

These discussions circled around to the point that the names used for the DNA modifications for Humarans that could cast energy and some of the physical deformities really need to be redone or removed. More or less, most of the changes would be actually internal for the unique Humaran and less external, or at least, not severely obvious. Granted many of the modifications like wings, claws and such were deemed by many in the Humaran military as useful in combat specific units. But if you have someone with great abilities, you definitely don’t want a massive calling card on them. Unicorns and Alicorns were traditionally using their horns as a gathering and release point for the energy, but on review, lop off the horn and there goes the Humarans ability to store and properly channel out that energy.

All of this does translate into the rest of my worlds, as any species on Sliinkaa or Moresh that can do “Magic” like abilities all have DNA ancestry from the modified Humarans that could use radioactive energy. Given how most likely massive static discharges of lightning like arcs was their first emergence into the supposed arcane/physics realm, we shall hence forth re-class these modified Humarans as Teslans. This is in honor of Nikolai Tesla and the Tesla Coils that are well known for casting out arcs of energy. From this designation, the types of Teslans will form their own strata or caste as that fits well into the caste like structure of the Humaran society. Those graced with Unicorn matrices will be renamed the Coil Caste as they retain the arc like lightning ability and use the raw energy in more weather and at static discharging ways. Those graced with Alicorn matrices will be renamed the Arc Angel Caste. Those graced with the Archangel matrices will be renamed the Valkyrie Caste and adjust for females only. Those graced with the Liger matrices will be renamed the Dragoon Caste and still male only. Those graced with the Juggernaut matrices remain the same name; it is just Juggernaut Caste now. The same applies for those with the Atlas matrices; they shall be the Atlas Caste.

Now to re-sort and edit history for a better flow on how these details will work within the notes. As to how they are different internally, Teslans from standard Humaran, I am not sure yet. I propose an organ like a lung or liver perhaps, additional one, mind you, that is tasked with storing and filtering the energies collected. Unless with go with growth nodes within the brain of the Humaran, but a collection well or charge/storage point within the living body is still needed.