Rianths

Just as splices are animals with some human DNA, so there have been tribal and shamanistic human societies (especially on some garden worlds under caretaker gods) who have decided to go the other way - out of respect and admiration and attraction for the animal kingdom, and incorporate animal genes. These are the Theriomorphanthropes - the "animal humans" - Rianths or Rianths for short. These in turn are grouped according to two categories, those that they have hybridised with provolves, and those hybridised with baseline animals. Old Earth is believed to host a large population of diverse species of rianths, and rianths can also be found on various Utopia Sphere and Caretaker worlds.

Each rianth clan or clade is a different species. Not only are there proud Tiger people, Wolf people, and Eagle people, and shamanic Crow people, but also Rabbit people (gentle souls who love sex and interfacing with Playbeing Virchzine and softporn erotica), Rat people (who always do well in the byways of some of the less policed outer volumes, adaptable, smart, ruthless but also affectionate survivalists), Tortoise people (incredibly long lifespans), Alligator people (said to be aggressive and threatening, although many who know them well deny this charge), as well as other species, and innumerable types of chimeras and neogen combinations.

Although rianths vary greatly, both in species and in extent of animal phenotype and genotype, all share a general memetic about the superiority of the animal form over that of the human. The basic hominid type is seen as weak and puny, physically defenseless with nails instead of claws, small blunt teeth instead of canines, slow moving, clumsy and uncoordinated, poor reflexes, no fur so they need clothing or environmental temperature controls to stay warm; poor hearing, almost no smell to speak of, ugly with their flat faces and baby-like naked pink or brown skin, and so on. Often rianth clades delight in denigrating the baseline hominid form, going to ridiculous lengths of exaggeration when stating how superior their own animal-human bodies are.

The number of authentic rianth clans and individuals in the universe is generally quite small, and rianths with genomes from non-provolve animals may be distinctly less intelligent than provolve rianths, although a lot also depends on the degree of human genome and various other factors.

Rianths tend to be most common on and around Caretaker and Utopia Sphere worlds, habitats dominated by Provolves and Splices, and anywhere where shamanic, bioanimist, and ecological clades are predominant. However, rianth communities and individuals can be found throughout the civilized galaxy. There are even a few cases of transapient and po rianths and rianth clades, the so-called "Animal Gods" of Hynera being among the best known, but by no means the only, representatives.

Rianths are not to be confused with Exotics, mostly nearbaselines who incorporate whatever genome or bodymods are at hand to fashion themselves in extreme forms, usually according to whatever is stylish at the time or in the region, or in keeping with social or peer pressure, although occasionally in this way establishing long-lived clades.

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