Herom, Heteromorph
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Herom, Heteromorph |
(from HEteROMorphic human)
A human (or by analogy other baseline species) that has radically modified emself, or descended from such modified ancestors, so as to completely unlike the original morphotype and phenotype. The modification may be for aesthetic, cultural, ideological, religio-philosophical, or other reasons. The first heroms were early interplanetary age (mid 2nd century a.t.) transhumanists. At this time, advanced DIY gengineering technology was enabling a vast diversity of morphological experimentation and freedom, but social and cultural resistance was still extreme, and heteromorphs were feared and abhorred. Often they lived alone but connected virtually, in isolated likeminded communities or libertarian, utopian, or transhumanist enclaves, or working for the big biotech and gengineering transnationals like GeneTEK, Bodymods Unlimited, and Biotopia. Over the following decades, these restrictions faded among the educated and fashion-conscious classes, and by the early 3rd century heteromorphs and heteromorphisation was the latest fad, before becoming passé.
Continuing prejudice and fear by reactionary pressure groups however meant that many heteromorphs preferred to migrate off-planet, either to libertarian, extropian, or transhumanist polities and communities, or to set up their own habitats. This was especially so among those who wished to pursue radical experimentation, augmentation, and self-evolution. By the late 3rd century heroms made up a fair proportion of the human population in space, although these were mostly milder heteromorphs. Corporations like GeneTEK and Biotopia Interplanetary (a subsidiary of Biotopia Genome Industries) were keen to support this trend, as heroms were talented at creating novel genomes and genemod hacks. Many colonies established in the Jovian system and beyond were strongly heteromorph dominated, with the corporate heroms being given laissez faire, assuming they would return a steady supply of useful and marketable genemods (and sometimes they didn't even have to do that). The rise of new and incredibly morphologically diverse clades like the Genetekkers and the Biotopics were directly related to this corporate policy, and within a few short decades these had become major powers in their own right, establishing and dominating polities like the Jovian League, the Titan Federation, and the Alliance of Uranian States, and radiating into a bewildering array of subclades, some of which would be instrumental in establishing nearby interstellar colonies
While the Jovian League, the Titan Federation, and other such states did not survive the nanoswarms, most of the herom clades did, and continued to further evolve during the so called "dark ages". With the emergence of the First Federation many heroms were glad to join the new order (some in fact had been involved in its establishment), but others were suspicious and wary of any polity that had a high proportion of baseline or nearbaseline humans. Many of these independents were to remain autonomous sovereign polities for many centuries, or even millennia, and some extreme heroms joined the Shadow Federation, or founded new colonies beyond the then frontier
For the last seven thousand years, heroms have formed an important and divergent component of the biont population in many polities, and far outnumber nearbaselines. They remain extremely diverse, although on the whole less experimental than in the old days, and there are even traditionalist and conservative herom clades who haven't alter their morphology in thousands of years. Conversely however there are still many heroms, especially in the Zoeific Biopolity and the Solar Dominion, for whom morphological experimentation and freedom remains an central part of their lifestyle, sometimes even their raison d'etre
Heroms not only seek to experiment with their own morphotype and exchange genomes with other heroms; they will also explore morphotypic lifestyles of neogenic and other exotic and radical types, such as Erotogini, Wuppistas, Xenosplices, Radical Symbiotic Bioborgs, Extremophile Tweaks, and many more.
It would be impossible to create an adequate taxonomy of Heromic bionts; they are too diverse and multifaceted in their phenotypic experiments, too creative and novel to ever be tied down in fixed categories. A few generic classifications are used, including bauplan, metabolic chemistry, higher order phylogeny, and so on One baseline-popular but very imperfect approach is in terms of divergence from the original baseline norm, the so called Weir Scale (after nearbaseline (later herom) sophontologist Gadon Weir (b.1232 Ceres City, SolSys - asc./transc. Eden Orbital Band C 2856)
