The Manipulation of Flesh (2/3)

The Manipulation of Flesh: A Review of Biomantic Research

by Hera, Queen of Olympus

Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.

[This must be the most pretentious warning label ever written.- M]

Our humble pantheon exists alongside a large number of surviving Titans and their progeny, and has itself produced a number of bloodlines due to mixing with half-titans and humans. Due to interbreeding, clean taxonomies of human and Titan subspecies is nearly impossible, what I will offer here are the general categories recognized by lay audiences, and an account of their origins.

Titanus titani ("Titans") is the general category for the creatures which arrived here on the Tartarus and their descendants. We are (as I have outlined before) natural shape-shifters with a wide range of abilities not found elsewhere on this world, such as telepathy, matter creation, and elemental manipulation. We are long-lived, resistant to disease and can survive significant physical trauma. However, element 26 ("iron") has a unique capacity to disrupt the fundamental forces which hold our bodies together. Where our natural defenses can shrug off most attacks, any object made from an iron alloy can penetrate our natural armor and inflict serious slow-healing injuries. Pure iron requires only proximity to unprotected skin to inflict cellular damage, leaving injuries similar to severe burns.

[There was an exception to this: anyone who has possessed the Legacy A.I. which Prometheus and now Hephaestus have hosted can handle iron without being harmed, and can even create iron-based objects with their thoughts (something the rest of us cannot do). Notably, these individuals are not proficient shape-shifters, supporting the conclusion that our vulnerability to iron is somehow tied to that ability. - M.] 

Homo sapiens (humans) are the dominant indigenous species of this world. Their potential intellectual capacity already rivals our own, but their species is young, and they have not developed the body of inter-generational knowledge which would allow them to make full use of their mental abilities. Proximity to iron does not harm them as it does us, though there are other, rarer elements (e.g., elements 33 and 92) that are harmful to them in a variety of ways. Humans seem to have descended from simple arboreal primates, and have spread to every corner of the earth, relying on ingenuity (rather than evolution) to adapt them to its varied environments. This being the case, humans are individually harmless, even compared to the creatures they evolved in competition with. A single human being, taken by surprise, is absolutely no threat to any titan. However, when working together in large numbers, as they are wont to do, or when given time to prepare for a conflict, they can be surprisingly dangerous.

[This is actually high praise coming from someone like Hera. - M.]

Homo-Titanus ("half titans") are the result of titans breeding with humans. These hybrids seldom retain the full scope of our shape-shifting abilities, but often demonstrate specific abilities or adaptations inherited from our species. Their longevity is a straight average of their ancestral lifespans. Many (but not all) have inherited our aversion to iron.

• Homo-Titanus demidei ("demigods") generally denote human/titan hybrids which are at least 50% Titan, genetically, with no genetic contributions from any other species. Needless to say, these apples fall the closest to our family tree. The ability to shape-shift as we do is essentially non-present, although the lingering vestiges of that ability are still present in their accelerated healing and long lifespan. Although they generally appear entirely human, they can have an unpredictable array of abilities and aptitudes. Most, however, could be described as "human-plus" - stronger, tougher, and faster than humans. 

• Homo-Titanus demidei cyclopes are a common mutation among the demigod halfbreeds, defined by especially great size and a single large eye. The original Tartarus crew included three brothers who were noted for their size and lack of binocular vision, and it is likely that the modern cyclopes are descendants of those three particular titans. Notably, however, these traits seem to jump generations - one of Poseidon's wives has produced many cyclopes sons and daughters, with no hint of those characteristics evident in herself. The cyclopes are worth particular attention because their single eye is an outward expression of significant developmental differences; a cyclops's brain does not have distinct left and right hemispheres. As a result, cyclopes tend to think differently from the rest of us, likely contributing to their well-deserved reputation as master artisans.

[The three brothers, Steropes, Brontes, and Arges were brilliant engineers, even after relinquishing their Legacies. They were also prone to shifting allegiances. Actually, to be fair, they only ever had one allegiance - to each other - but they'd readily change sides in a conflict to stay on the winning side. They sat out most of the Titanomachies, living and working within one of Tartarus's more comfortable simulations, and were among the first of the 'first generation' Titans to ingratiate themselves with Zeus, offering him lovely little weapons and enhancements. Of course, once Hephaestus had established his workshop, they were loose ends and surplus to requirements. I don't know what happened to them, although I have Arges to thank for my *****. - M.]

• Homo-Titanus nymphi ("Nymphs") are the product of humans breeding with titans adapted to particular environments, with heavy inclusions of DNA from wildlife indigenous to those environments. Some nymphs are nearly as powerful as full blooded titans, but most are simple, mortal creatures gifted with some special talents owing to their deviant anatomy. Nymphs can be subdivided by their associated environments. 

• Oceanadi or "nereids" are sea nymphs. Most are amphibious, capable of breathing in and out of water, but many struggle to move on land for lack of the appropriate appendages. Many appear to be almost completely human, save for some slight webbing between the digits, gills around the jaws, or odd color variations. Others however may be heavily scaled, possess finned tails in lieu of legs, or have other characteristics associated with marine life (e.g., tentacles, shells). Notably, Nereids may be the most prolific and well established hybrid race in the Mediterranean, having founded several polei partially or entirely below water, which trade with other Aegean cities as independent powers.

[Compared to human cities, nereid societies tend to have more rigid castes, as ones role is often determined by obvious physical traits. If you can walk on dry land, you're likely to interact with surface dwellers as traders and merchants. If you can swim deep and see in the dark, you're likely to be a hunter. And if you have the head of a shark, you're probably going to be providing muscle for someone. - M.]    

• Naiadi or "naiads" are freshwater nymphs. They dwell in or near rivers, lakes, marshes, and other major freshwater sources, occasionally exhibiting traits of the fishes, amphibians, and mammals who live in those areas. Perhaps because Naiads generally interact easily with their human neighbors, they seldom gather in any collective larger than a village.

[Never underestimate Naiads. Every major river generally has a population of them organized around a patriarch who will occasionally throw his weight around with a flood or mudslide, and the 'patriarchs' in some of the bigger rivers are full-blooded titans themselves. - M.]    

• Dryadi or "dryads" are forest nymphs. As with their cousins, they often exhibit traits of the wildlife associated with their environment, though many dryads have traits borrowed from terrestrial plant-life rather than animal-life - bark like skin, chlorophyll in their blood, etc. Like naiads, dryads generally have positive relationships with humans, many working or even living in human settlements. Many refer to dryads who live at higher elevations as "oreanids", but the distinction between "forest nymphs" and "mountain nymphs" is more cultural than biological. Those with goat-like attributes are sometimes specifically referred to as satyrs. Some dryads possess avian characteristics, such as feathers, scales, talons, etc, and a few of these particular individuals have fully functioning wings; these individuals are referred to as boreadi, or "boreads". 

[I would have differentiated plant-like dryads from other forest nymphs as a separate category, but whatever. It's worth noting that some boreads try to pass themselves off as full-blooded titans; it seldom ends well for them. - M.]

Equus-Titanus centaurus encompasses a range of individuals that include both the progeny of four-legged, hooved titans like my older half-brother Chiron, and the products of unions between titans and horses. Among the latter, many exhibit no obvious characteristics of Titans, but like demigods possess remarkable longevity, strength, and speed. Of course, as shape-shifters Titans can breed with almost any of Earths species, but horses are (for some reason) perennial favorites for sexual partners. Horses (and other animals) with Titan heritage often additionally possess near-human intelligence, and even the ability to communicate verbally or telepathically. These traits make them excellent beasts of burden but somewhat troublesome sources of protein.


[Never done it, never going to. - M.]

The Manipulation of Flesh (1/3)

The Manipulation of Flesh: A Review of Biomantic Research

by Hera, Queen of Olympus

Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.

[Translation - If you read this you're committing treason and may end up in suspended animation, with your mind trapped in one of Tartarus's least comfortable simulations. Good luck keeping ME in one! - M]

The Legacy A.I. I inherited when I was freed from Elysium had been passed through fewer hosts than most of those trapped within Pandora's Box. Specifically, it had been born by two hosts - Tiamat, a first generation alpha-class titan who received her A.I. on our ancestral homeworld (and was, in fact, instrumental in their creation), and Echidna, a human warrior serving under Prometheus, who played a key role in defeating Tiamat when Hekate and Pandora freed her from her imprisonment. The human host, having no more than a couple of decades of life experiences, and mere months hosting the Tiamat's Legacy, left little within the Legacy's memory that I would consider useful. Tiamat, however, having been one of Kaos's most brilliant scientists before their world war (which she herself fought in, with her research partner and lover, Kasios), left behind quite a lot more of interest. It is through her fragmented memories that I have been able to gain an intimate understanding of our genome, and the artificial intelligences which manipulate our genes so efficiently.

[Tiamat truly was brilliant. The discoveries she made while working with Gaea and Kasios held great hope for our world - an end to hunger, an end to want - for anything. No more power or privilege. Just a life of ease and the pursuit of art and science. It could have been a paradise. Unfortunately, while the fruits of their labors - what my kin call the "Legacies" - could enhance the body and the mind, they could do nothing for the soul. The everyman, given god-like power, was want to use it for petty, vindictive reasons. Tiamat and Kasios themselves were among the worst examples of this, only eclipsed (possibly) by their master and teacher, A***. Freeing her from Tartarus to fight Kronos was a desperate gamble which I honestly regret. It is fortunate that most of the Legacy A.I.s offer less fidelity in their recall than mine does, or else Hera might actually be a worse (and more dangerous) person than she is. In fact, I wonder if the humanity of Echidna (which Hera dismisses so easily) might be reining in what would otherwise be a terrible combination of personalities. - M]

I would start this brief with a simple review of the limited number of individuals who currently possess Legacies. Most were redistributed after Zeus gained power, and therefore have been in their current hosts for no more than a century and a half.

The Children of Kronos

Eight of the current Legacy bearers are the direct progeny of Kronos. Zeus claimed his own Legacy from Pandora's Box after defeating our father, and then shared the power within the box with the rest of us (Hades, myself, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia, and Aphrodite). It seems clear that Zeus received the same Legacy our grandfather, Oranos, possessed. That the Legacy should pass. once again, from king to king, seems an unlikely coincidence. This suggests that the Legacies within Pandora's Box - or the box itself - have some agency in choosing their hosts. This theory is supported by other implausibly convenient coincidences. For example, Poseidon, who always loved the water, gained the power to command it, and Hades, who wished to remain in Tartarus and care for its residents, gained the necessary knowledge to manage the ship.

[Eight? I count only seven? Who is the eighth child of Kronos?? I know that he fathered the centaur Chiron by an earlier relationship, but I've confirmed that Chiron is not a Legacy bearer. - M]

The Grandchildren of Kronos

In order to secure our power, we have chosen to grant Legacies to some of our children. Granting them such power is risky, of course, but it has made for wonderful research opportunities. I have blinded the process so that our progeny remain unaware of the Legacies, and I have varied the age at which they have received their legacies.

Zeus's eldest son, Hermes (conceived in a prior marriage) was an adult when he received his Legacy. Alone among his generation, he is aware of the Legacies' true nature, but has maintained our confidence in withholding that information from his siblings. The twins, Apollo and Artemis (also the product of an earlier marriage), were gifted their Legacies as young children, and are unaware of the event having occurred (though Apollo has been asking some questions).

[Note to self: Talk to Apollo. - M]

My own sons, Hephaestus and Ares were my first foray into deliberate experimentation. In the interest of determining whether the introduction of the Legacies during critical developmental moments has any impact on the grafting process, Ares was discretely given his A.I. during the early stages of puberty, while Hephaestus was given his in utero. Ares exhibited exceptional physical gains from the process, while Hephaestus was born disfigured and physically impaired, a marked failure.

[Hera neglects to mention that Hephaestus's Legacy was never trapped within Pandora's Box, it was contained in a separate vessel after being extracted from Prometheus at the end of the Third Titanomachy. She also neglects to mention that Hephaestus is the only one among us who could probably pass a basic psychological evaluation, or that Ares is a violent mess of anger, self-loathing, and insecurity. - M] 

The two children my sister Demeter has sired by Zeus have also been granted Legacies; Persephone and Dionysus both received theirs as young children, like Apollo and Artemis. Dionysus was a participant in what has perhaps been my most interesting research endeavor. In order to determine the exact limits of our Legacy A.I.s' ability to sustain us, I subjected him to a variety of adverse stimuli, until his body finally succumbed to the effects of physical trauma. It sounds worse than it is - I migrated his Legacy over to a clone I had gestated within a human surrogate, and recreated him. No harm, no foul, as the athletes say.

[No harm no foul? Dionysus I was a great man, maybe the best among us. Creative, brilliant, empathetic, jovial, generous, and caring. Dionysus II is entirely bereft of compassion, unless his bizarre form of sadomasochistic empathy counts. He hides it all behind a facade of hedonism and foolishness, a parody of his former self, but what lies beneath is monstrous. Fortunately, it also despises Hera. - M]

The Other Legacies

At least two Legacies remain 'in the wind', their current hosts unknown. Hekate was (apparently) slain at the end of the First Titanomachy, but her body was evacuated by her ally, Pandora, and never seen again. This leaves her demise of questionable certainty, and leaves the current whereabouts of her Legacy entirely unknown. Pandora herself traded her loyalty for her freedom at the end of the Third Titanomachy. We attempted to track her down later - loose ends and all of that - but she was well known as an exceptionally clever woman. Cunning, duplicitous, and a determined survivor with an intimate knowledge of our science and technology, she was the worst possible quarry to hunt.

[Pandora has passed, actually. I saw to it that her legacy was passed to another - a human woman who could disappear into the sea of humanity without a problem. She then saw to my transferal to a new host, and then I did the same for her again. It's a smart system that keeps us independent. Unfortunately, Pandora's Legacy lacks the flawless recall I possess, the eidetic memory which gives me a continuity of consciousness. I feel that I lose a little more of my friend each time we change bodies, and there is no way to avoid it. - M]

Athena claims to have since verified Pandora's death, and the destruction of her Legacy as well, but this raises some questions in my mind. As Zeus's eldest daughter, Athena was offered a Legacy just as Hermes was, but refused the gift, presumably leaving her an ordinary Titan. I could dismiss this as a rare case of self-sabotaging humility, except that Athena has proven capable of keeping pace with her siblings, exceeding them all in mental aptitude. This tempts me to think that, having been raised by adoptive parents in a temple, Athena might have obtained a Legacy before making her existence known to us. However, she lacks the particularly extraordinary powers one would expect to see in an alpha-class Titan, and every test I have been able to run has turned up no hint of a Legacy A.I. in her body. Nevertheless, Athena's understanding of our technology is so impressive, and her gift for unorthodox thinking so remarkable, that it's possible she's found a way to cheat my tests. I would surely like to make a closer study of her, but as Zeus's favorite daughter she is essentially untouchable on Mt. Olympus. 

[So close, and yet so far, Hera. The look on your face when you finally know the truth will be priceless. - M]

On the Blood of Gods and Men (6/6)

[Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.]

Further Considerations and Indigenous Biodiversity

My account has thus far described the adaptation of an invasive, alien species (my own) to this world, but it is based only on the accounts of titans that have remained within general close proximity to the Tartarus. When the ship first arrived on earth, many of its crew members decided to seek out living spaces elsewhere. Old political ideologies and philosophical beliefs from their home world continued to divide my ancestors even after their arrival here, leading to the formation and ultimately the voluntary separation of intraspecies factions. Communication with our dispersed cousins was never given great priority, and the Earth is large, even for beings such as ourselves, so the fate of these titans in diaspora is largely unknown. They have likely encountered their own challenges and pursued their own solutions, begetting yet more divisions within our species.

Another important point is that, as shape-shifters, we titans are capable of an incredible degree of cross breeding. This has resulted in several populations of partial-titans within our realm. These hybrids typically lack our shape-shifting abilities, but often inherit other traits and abilities from the specific titans which they have descended from. Many of these populations have separated off to form semi-independent ethnic communities, carving out their own fiefdoms and poleis within our kingdom. 

Embarrassingly, I can also recount a number of nonsentient subspecies which have been created as a result of my kin engaging in base sexual relations with terrestrial wildlife and domesticated animals. Of course, while this practice may be even more socially repugnant than crossbreeding with the humans, the products of such unions are often powerful and useful; the stables of Olympus are stocked exclusively with horses that have titan bloodlines.

Furthermore, it should be considered that indigenous life may be more diverse than is readily apparent. When my ancestors first arrived on earth, there were a multitude of animal species which met or exceeded our criteria for sentience, and several of the hominid species exhibited the beginnings of cultural development - the development of agriculture, technology, and artistic communication. The field has narrowed considerably since our ancestors' arrival, such that Homo sapiens are now the dominant indigenous species, their population numbering in the millions and growing rapidly, but relict organisms almost certainly exist in the far corners and deep wildernesses of this world. 

The population of Homo sapiens also hosts variants too numerous to describe here. Most of these variations are racial differences which can, for all practical purposes, be described as purely aesthetic, and far less remarkable than the interindividual differences evident among titans. However, there are abundant examples of individuals capable of extranormal feats, or possessed of unlikely knowledge. Many of these cases can be attributed to interbreeding with titans, but some of the variant humans I've dissected in my lab have shown no indications of this.

Finally, it's worth noting that there may be more to this world than any of us have directly observed. The Tartarus's logs indicate that the Earth stood out among many candidates for its implausibly perfect conditions; its mass, its elemental makeup, its position within the solar system, etc. are all close to ideal for comfortable habitation. Some of the Tartarus's original crew speculated that the planet was not wholly the product of random cosmic chance, but rather the result of intelligent design. Although this seems far-fetched, if there is any truth to it, the makers or shapers of this world - advanced even by the standards of my species - may still exist somewhere on or within the planet Earth.

On the Blood of Gods and Men (5/6)

[Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.]

Implications of the Titanomachies for Titan Taxonomy

This review surely seems more history lesson than scientific treatise, but the significance of these events for both titans and humans cannot be overstated. When my ancestors arrived on earth they varied greatly in powers and abilities, but when they began to procreate, they cemented a caste system wherein "alpha-class" titans - those with A.I.s to enhance their powers and prolong their lives - ruled over the other classes of titans. When alpha-class titans began relinquishing their A.I.s to successors, this created a new category - titans who gave up their A.I.s were no longer as powerful as the alpha-class legacy bearers, but they were still more powerful than those titans who'd never possessed legacies. Moreover, titans who received an A.I. that passed through multiple generations were - in some respects - more powerful than their predecessors, such that the number of hosts a Legacy has been grafted to is an important consideration.

Further complicating the picture, my research points towards a technical problem with Pandora's Box - storing all of the A.I.s without a host, in one vessel, seems to do some degree of damage to them. Although I have not fully quantified the extent of this damage, this compels me to classify post-containment legacy-bearers (like myself) as distinct from those individuals (like Hephaestus) who inherited legacies that were never subjected to these conditions.

The Second Titanomachy gave rise to a final consideration. In a moment of desperation, Prometheus used Pandora's Box to imbue his two most trusted and capable human warriors with Legacy A.I.s. With the benefit of these A.I.s, Typhon and Echidna were able to immediately overpower Kronos, an otherwise powerful titan. These two augmented humans were later overpowered by Zeus, shortly after he gained his own legacy A.I. This might suggest that an augmented human is less powerful than an augmented titan (an intuitive conclusion), but the circumstances of Zeus's bonding may have allowed him to assimilate the A.I. more quickly than usual. It's possible that, given time, Typhon and Echidna's own powers would have grown to match those of any alpha-class titan. Furthermore, after being stripped of their A.I.s, Typhon and Echidna retained the significant genetic alterations which the legacies had made, and (for most practical considerations) became titans themselves. These events conceivably establish two more taxonomic categories worth considering - alpha-class humans and post alpha-class humans.

On the Blood of Gods and Men (4/6)

[Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.]

The Titanomachies

My ancestors could pass their legacies from one generation to the next, but they still could not create new ones. Having taken no measures to control their own population growth, they faced the unenviable task of choosing who would and would not inherit their forebears' legacies. Each generation increased the legacies' powers, but each generation also increased the number of have-nots.

My grandparents, Oranos and Gaea, attempted to avoid the divisive effects of the Legacies by refusing to pass on their A.I.s altogether. That decision, however, threatened to bring our dilemma full circle, returning to the problem of the first generation ruling in perpetuity over their descendants. Ultimately, Oranos and his fellow legacy bearers enlisted the help of  Hekate and Pandora, two scientists among their number who developed a vessel that could extract and contain the Legacies, holding them safely for a day when they might be needed.

Hekate and Pandora betrayed the others, though, setting off the First Titanomachy on Earth. Having come to believe that the Three Fates solution was the most viable in the long term, they collected the other titans' legacies, but then refused to give up their own. Humiliated by his error, Oranos ceded his throne to Kronos, who fought a war against the two women and their large cadre of predominantly human followers. 

Prometheus, who had detected the titanesses' ruse and refused to give up his own Legacy, led Kronos's army to many victories, but his power merely antagonized Kronos, stoking his envy. Hekate and Pandora eventually escalated the war by breaking into Tartarus and freeing two titans from the first generation, warriors who'd never been released from their forced hibernation. Kronos countered by delving into Tartarus himself for reinforcements - but rather than enlisting prisoners as allies, he murdered them and plundered their bodies for their legacies.

Of course, I missed all of this transpiring, as I slept in the idyllic dream world my father had stored me in. So too slept my siblings, Hades, Demeter, Hestia, Poseidon, and Zeus. Except, it wasn't Zeus. Unbeknownst to my father, Zeus's birth had been immediately followed by that of a twin sister. My mother's midwife hid the existence of this daughter from Kronos, and when ordered to deliver Zeus to Tartarus, she delivered the girl, instead. That girl, Aphrodite, grew up in a virtual world where she was led to believe, fully and completely, that she was Zeus. The real Zeus was delivered to allies of Pandora and Hekate, who trained him and persuaded him of the need to depose Kronos.

When Hekate was apparently slain in battle, Prometheus defected, taking a very large host of well armed human soldiers with him and starting the Second Titanomachy. During this dark period of renewed violence, Zeus introduced himself to Prometheus as an ally, and then infiltrated Kronos's inner circle as a double agent, claiming to be an errant bastard of Kronos (not a hard sell). 

Ultimately, Zeus double-crossed both men, gaining control of Pandora's Box for himself and starting the Third Titanomachy. He used the box to grant himself a Legacy A.I., and then journeyed into Tartarus and liberated his siblings, granting each of us a Legacy as well, all drawn from the Box. We eventually relocated to Mt. Olympos, and became the "Olympians". Zeus continued to control Pandora's Box, gifting the legacies to our most loyal followers and progeny. When the well ran dry, he turned to the prisoners in the Tartarus just as his father had.

On the Blood of Gods and Men (3/6)

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The Importance of the Legacy A.I.s in Titan Evolution

Although morphological diversity was still great when I was born, certain forms were clearly emerging as more common than others. The typical "Titan" is generally humanoid in appearance, but averages two to three meters tall as an adult, and sports some visible adaptation, usually to a preferred environment or activity. For the vast majority of Titans living above ground and on dry earth, this adaptation comes in the form of functional wings, usually of an avian design, anchored behind the shoulders. Most titans also exhibit some form of dermal variation which would distinguish them from a human - scaly or bark-like skin, unusual fur colors, exaggerated claws, etc. Of course, for those of us who remain skilled shape-shifters, any of these traits can be suppressed at will.

One might think that the taxonomy of men and titans should be a simple one - the biological story of an invasive species and the species it out-competes - but life is seldom so boring. There are multiple considerations which greatly complicate this discussion.

First are the Legacy A.I.s. Ages ago, when our ancestors discovered the phenomenal powers and abilities that led to their great war, they accessed and controlled those powers through the use of artificial intelligences distributed through symbiotic nanites. These nanites, when introduced to a host's body through the respiratory system, grafted themselves to the hosts nervous system, and then built up their own networks of artificial nerves, effectively granting the host an extraordinarily powerful unconscious brain. 

By nature, our brains manage to keep our bodies functioning with little conscious effort - breathing, circulation, digestion, excretion, and other basic functions require no conscious effort. Imagine, if you will, being able to read a seven digit number and identify every possible combination of prime numbers that would sum to that number, with no more mental effort than you exert digesting your lunch. The symbiotic nanites our ancestors utilized were capable of that, and much more. The nanites were capable of actively revising our ancestors' genes and facilitating rapid changes, making alterations in seconds that would once have required eons of evolution.

The Tartarus was prohibited from taking with it the means to create new A.I.s, however, with the intention being that the A.I.s should die with their hosts and spare the next generation the problems which had afflicted our ancestral home world. What no one initially realized, however, was that those possessing the A.I.s were functionally immortal - they sired children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, while showing no sign of age. Of course, their children were not so lucky. The titans born on Earth often inherited the adaptations and abilities of their parents, but without their own A.I.s, they were much less powerful, and quite mortal.

Needless to say, having one stagnant generation ruling over everyone who came after them caused some serious problems, which ultimately led to the discovery of how to migrate an A.I. from one host to another, meaning power was no longer absolutely concentrated in the hands of one generation by necessity. Moreover, as the A.I.s passed from generation to generation, my ancestors discovered that they evolved and retained attributes of the preceding hosts - skills, abilities, even some vague memories and personality traits - and passed them onto their new hosts.

Solutions create problems though. 

On the Blood of Gods and Men (2/6)

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The Early History of Titans on Earth

Our ancestors hailed from the world of Kaos - or perhaps a world of chaos, it's hard to tell, sometimes, when the storytellers are being literal or waxing poetic. For expediency's sake, we'll assume that the world was properly named "Kaos". The Kaosians were highly advanced biologically, exhibiting numerous high-tier mental abilities. They were also shape-shifters, able to alter their forms to mimic those of other living, carbon based organisms. I remain uncertain which adaptation preceded which. Developing the ability to alter their physical forms at will may have facilitated the development of their remarkable mental abilities, but the ability to shape-shift may itself be seen as an extension of those abilities.  The chicken and the egg, as the humans say.

Much like the humans we share this world with, our ancestors pursued technologies that would capitalize upon their natural strengths and abilities. These pursuits culminated in two discoveries that we now struggle to comprehend. Their longevity and brilliance sired a wide range of technological and scientific feats, to be sure, but the most remarkable of their wonders were, without a doubt, nanite-embodied artificial intelligence and active gene-editing. Through these technologies, the Kaosians unlocked abilities far beyond any that could be achieved through natural evolution. They were able to shape-shift into ever more complex forms, seemingly in defiance of physical laws. More remarkably, they could influence meteorological, geological, and biological processes through sheer force of will. Kaosians even gained the ability to manufacture objects from thin air.

For reasons that were not made clear to me as a child, this led to a very long, very ugly war. Kaos was divided between progressives who sought to continue pushing the boundaries of what was possible, and reactionaries who wished that the technology should be destroyed. Kaos was nearly destroyed, with victory ultimately seized by the Three Fates, who implemented an oligarchy in which they, and only they, would wield the power. Most of the war's survivors forfeited their power to see the war's end, regressing to a weaker and much more homogeneous state.

There were, however, those who could not or would not relinquish their power, and the Three Fates - quite reasonably - concluded that these individuals could not be allowed to remain on the planet with the largely depowered populace. The Three Fates ordered the construction of the Tartarus, a massive ship that would carry these men and women far away to an uninhabited world, where neither they, nor their descendants, would ever bother the people of Kaos again.

Functionally, the Tartarus was part refugee ship and part penal ship. Many of those serving aboard the ship as crew, or quietly slumbering in cryo-pods below decks, were good men and women eager to start a new life somewhere else. But in the most secure depths of Tartarus there were also war criminals and monsters, powerful entities responsible for some of the greatest atrocities of the final Kaos War.

Tartarus was supposed to settle on an uninhabited world but - again, for reasons not made clear to me as a child - the crew instead decided to end their one way trip here, on Earth, where several primitive species of anthropoids, cetaceans, and cephalopods had achieved varying degrees of sentience. The ship was buried beneath the sea floor, and our ancestors set about the task of establishing their dominion over this wild, untempered world. The humans they strode above called them "Titans".

Those first arrivals to this rocky little planet made little effort to hide their alien heritage. Their powers had allowed them to adopt a truly stunning diversity of default forms, combining elements from countless species on our home-world, and multiplying them and modifying them in all manner of ways. Their ancestors, however, had been characterized by the same bilateral symmetry and bipedal gate characteristic of the people of this world, and so - as generations passed - this natural predilection reasserted itself. Furthermore, perhaps due to some natural mimetic instinct, each successive generation looked more and more like the indigenous hominids of this world.

On the Blood of Gods and Men (1/6)

On the Blood of Gods and Men: A Review of Our Natural History

by Hera, Queen of Olympus

[Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.]

I have always had a keen interest in the functioning of biological systems, and how their natural processes may be artificially subverted to accomplish various ends. I started with the study of animal husbandry, moved on eventually to genetic research, and have truly found my passion in the study of my own kin. I have performed a number of experiments with titan biology [which are summarized within another document], but for anyone who might one day seek to understand the avenues of research I pursued, I also leave this as an account of the state of our species before my intervention into our bloodlines. First, however, I should explain how it is that I am privy to the information I am about to share.  

My father, Kronos, struggled to prove himself my grandfather, Oranos, and feared that, were his children allowed to mature at a natural pace, Oranos might pass the crown to one of my brothers and sisters, rather than to my father. To avoid this, Kronos had all of us interred within one of Tartarus's virtual worlds, where suspended animation in the stranded ship's cryo pods would slow our aging, delaying our adulthood.

It was not all bad - though selfish, my father bore no ill will towards his children. Tartarus's simulated worlds were intended to maintain the psychological wellbeing of its crew through even the lengthiest of travels. Since setting down upon this planet, those simulated worlds had been repurposed - some to keep prisoners docile or tormented (depending on the threat they posed), and some to provide a happy retreat for a portion of the Titan population during lean times. It was into one of these paradise worlds, Elysium, that we were sent. Elysium represented an idealized synthesis of our new home on Earth with our ancestral homeworld - the natural beauty of this world with simulated recreations of our ancestor's culture and technology. There we learned much about our people and the world they'd come from, and being of the royal bloodline, we were privileged to a depth of education denied even to many of the adults with whom we shared the virtual world.