#godstride lore

For those interested in lore, here's some terminology to chew on!

Gods: Enormous mechanical entities possessing a titanic pseudo-consciousness. Their bodies solely exist to house their minds and give humanity a means to interface with them, allowing pilots to guide Gods through times of war and peace alike.

The God Complex: A method of mathematics discovered in the early 21st century that permitted the calculation of exponential data growth sequences, which led to the creation of true artificial intelligence and, eventually, to the minds of the Gods themselves.

The Corporations: By the 25th century, the privatization of space exploration led to the weakening of local governments and the rise of the megacorps such as Dissidia Galactic, The Ios Conglomerate, Pantheon, and the Carta Bon Lafwa as their own governing bodies for controlled sectors and systems.

Genemolding: In order to facilitate colonization of planets with less-than-ideal atmospheric and local conditions, a variety of methods were devised, and by the 23rd century, three essential schools of genemolding were codified: Beastbreeds, Genebreeds, and the Geneforged.

Beastbreed: Favored by the most expansionistic corporations like Ios, beastbreed genemolds were ideal for survival conditions. Using a human baseline, the genome would then be spliced repeatedly with a variety of mammalian genetic traits favoring endurance, strength, flexibility, and durability. Although suitable for colonizing efforts, their overly robust immune systems made beastbreeds unsuitable for most high-end cybernetic implants, as rejection syndrome would often be too high to sustain.

Genebreed: Favored by more mercenary or combat military-industrial corporations, Genebreeds were designed not for longevity of lineage but durability for mass production in cradles or cloning facilities. Often genetically tailored for more specific traits rather than the generalized beastbreeds, the Genebreeds were favored for high compatibility with Gods, exoframes, and even the most invasive of cybernetic implants.

Geneforged: The final and most expensive form of genemold, the geneforged are born 'naturally,' modified in-utero over the course of normal pregnancy to refine and enhance only pre-existing human traits; strength, reaction time, mental processing power, and longevity. Geneforged often live two-to-four times the lifespan of an unmodified human and rarely, if ever, fall ill. Geneforging is the favored genemold for Corporate executives seeking to establish or maintain their dynasty.

Descended from a line of spliced, beastbreed genestock tailored for colonial survival on partially terraformed planets by Ios Corporation, Sappha is short, stocky, and flexible. Her greater genestock was tailored for greater physical strength and endurance, which, combined with her curious nature and knack for machines, made her a born engineer.

Born in a small village south of Godforge Tuathe and raised a devout worshipper of Nimue, the Eliphasian Goddess of Water, Sappha Artoria witnessed her patron achieve Godstride from the creche of Tuathe at a young age and since then has nursed a devotion that borders on obsession with the Gods. That obsession drove her to study the arts of holy machining, and she rose quickly through the ranks until becoming a steel-thumb. From there, the instructor in her village could teach her no more, and she made her way to the nearby Godforge, where she apprenticed under one of the Forge's Iron Vestals, Eefa.

To serve the Carta Bon Lafwa is to live and die at their command. Carta Corporation owns thousands of patents covering hundreds of thousands of custom-tailored genomes, but the most coveted of which was maintained for their own use.

The Warrior Genebreed 71-13: Hunter-Killer

Born over a century ago in an orbital cradle as one of a batch of ten thousand 71-13's, she was, at birth, designated: Hunter-Killer 55.451.7113. Accelerated physical growth combined with hypnotic learning protocols implanted Hunter with linguistic data, baseline technical knowledge, battlefield tactics, and most importantly, piloting skills for the many marks of Carta exoframes, including the dreaded Tombstone.

Once she achieved full growth, she was implanted with a full cybernetic suite of augments--cyberoptics, a full spinal nerve-linkage, skeletal reinforcements, a cybernetic arm to house additional cyberware, and, finally, a series of adrenal implants designed to trigger her suicidal battlerage, ensuring that she wouldn't flee even in the face of impossible odds.