Editing Setting:Nutopia/Players (section)

===="Baseline" Cis-Human====
The world of Nutopia is a generally inhospitable place. Within the remaining U-States and some of the larger free settlements a good, safe standard of living can be had, but life in the smaller places of the world is only for the hardy. Delvers leave every day on the extreme edge of perseverance, fighting the deadliest threats this world has ever known, confronting crisis and trauma that would crush the wills of most. They live in a world that challenges the very viability of humanity as a species, in places increasingly inimical to their very existence. To that end many delvers are heavily modified, whether by cybernetic modification, biological manipulation or a combination of both. They push their forms to the extreme limit of performance in one area or another, becoming almost tangentially related to their species of origin, transhuman at least, outright posthuman in some. These extremes are what it takes to survive in the wastelands left by the fall, they provide the strength needed to drag humanity back from the brink.

And then there are those who think that these Delvers, for all their power, are taking the easy way out.

Cis-Human (as opposed to trans-humans or post-humans) is the blanket term that covers all largely unmodified humans after the fall, though a host of other names exist, ranging from honorifics to epithets depending on their context. Cis-Humans come from a huge variety of backgrounds, ranging from adults born after the fall whose parents elected to leave them unmodified to individuals hailing from low tech U-States or places passed over entirely by the technological revolutions that swept the world. Those that Delve choose a hard life.

To be a Cis-Human and delve requires titanic willpower, beyond that even of the already determined individuals who make up the majority of the professions constituents. It means pitting nothing more than your body, your equipment and your mind as best as you can prepare them against a world of nightmares. Where a cracker can use VIs and advanced implants, or even fracture their own mind to keep up with the blistering pace of modern infowar, a Cis-Human who wishes to keep up must regiment their mind to almost savant like levels of focus, and employ hordes of prepackaged defense and attack programs to level the playing field. Where a soldier might integrate himself with a number of weapon systems or radical implants, a Cis-Human takes the long, arduous route of honing his body to the apex of its capabilities. Where implants and combat drugs improve a soldier, a Cis-Human burns drills deep into his muscle memory, and practices techniques as old as warfare itself to manufacture his body's own natural combat drugs when he needs them most. Where a soldier is wired into his armor, or even assumes the form of a mighty vehicle of war, a Cis-Human makes do with what he can control with model a hands and mark one eyeballs.

The drawbacks are severe, and the journey hard, but electing to stay original baseline human does have its benefits. Without implants one is immune to all manner of malicious electronic attack, and as opposed to high maintenance bio and cybermods a Cis-Human is happy with the old staples of nutrition, sleep and shelter. As a rule they are also possessed of great personal drive, the single minded determination and slight superman complex that makes an olympic athlete, a devout martial artist, a mathematical genius or a musical prodigy more than their average contemporary is what allows a Cis-Human to persevere. 

A player who elects to play a Cis-Human must understand that he has decided on a harrowing path. He will struggle for every inch, forced to make more with less than his teammates bring to the table. The rewards however are great. Within the free states, and indeed the world over, the names of those who take humanity to its peak, then push that apex in the most dangerous places, and emerge from the rubble triumphant are held with special reverence. They are hard men and women amongst a group already defined by their endurance and daring, and those that survive despite the hellish adversity are respected for it.
[[Category:Homebrew Settings]]
[[Category:Nutopia]]