Bonus Content: Genotypals (Patreon)

Someone on one of the forums asked whether I'd be willing to spoil the Genotypal examples, and anyone who has hung around with me on the Deviant fancord knows I'm pretty much incapable of refusing to grant such wishes. So, here they are:

Genotypal Renegades

Conspiracies that produce a large number of Born tend to be old — in some cases dating their pedigree back centuries. Many are also small, low-Standing organizations like cults, ancestral clans, or the residents of small, remote mountain towns. A minority are large and well-funded cloning and genetic modification operations, but even these don’t emerge in just a year or two, much less in a matter of weeks or months. Genotypals are often the culmination of many years of experimentation, whether it involves formal scientific study, informal trial and error, or unfettered natural selection. An organization that learns to generate a steady supply of Born may not have a grand understanding of the Divergence, but that they can consistently reproduce the factors that result in a specific type of Remade places them miles ahead of many larger, higher-Standing conspiracies in some important ways.

Genotypal-heavy conspiracies require a great deal of time to expand their Devoted population, and one that suffers heavy casualties may be forced to resort to other methods, resulting in Autourgics, Epimorphs, and even Exomorphs — depending on how desperate the conspiracy becomes.

Abuse Victim: You were the victim of abusive parents or other caretakers. This might have been physical or sexual abuse, but it could also have been emotional abuse, or possibly a combination of abuse patterns. You attempted to escape this situation before, only to be caught, brought back, and subjected to disproportionate punishments. This time, however, your escape attempt succeeded. You’re sure they’re still looking for you, though. You look over your shoulder constantly, seeing them and their agents lurking everywhere. You can’t let them find you again. You know how cruel they can be with their punishments when you inconvenience them.

Adventurous: It’s not that the conspiracy that raised you from infancy treated you badly. It’s just that you always felt there was more out there beyond the boundaries of the hospital, laboratory, military base, or whatever place you called home. You were curious about the outside world. You craved the adventures those unknown places promised you. That’s why you left, and that’s why you can’t imagine going back. Sure, you were maybe a little naïve to think you could survive without the conspiracy’s protection, but that’s because you led such a sheltered childhood. Now, though, you’ve seen the best and the worst of humanity. You’ve rebuffed powerful conspiracies’ entreaties for you to join them. You didn’t leave one cage just to lock yourself in another, after all.

Banished: You committed a crime against the conspiracy. Maybe it was a real and terrible sin like murder or assault. Or maybe it was only a crime within the context of the conspiracy’s principles — failure to speak its creed or to swiftly obey one of its elders. Or maybe the transgression was objectively minor, but the punishment it carried was unreasonably heavy. It could have been a wholly mundane crime, or it might be one only possible for someone who can read minds or seize control over another person’s body. Whatever the crime, you were charged, tried, and found guilty. They banished you — perhaps forever, but possibly just until you complete some lengthy act or period of atonement. Now you survive by your wits in a cold and dangerous world where you have no friends and many enemies.

Budget Cuts: The resources that supported the conspiracy’s mission dried up. Maybe budget cuts by a parent corporation left the entire conspiracy laid off. Perhaps bad PR or negative news caused a catastrophic drop in donations to the nonprofits the conspiracy relied upon for financing. For you, it meant the facility you considered home closed its doors, the end of the structure and order that had defined your days for your whole life. Maybe you found refuge with some former conspiracy members, but they don’t have the resources to devote to you that they used to. More importantly, they can’t protect you from other conspiracies in the Web of Pain that would love to add you to their stable of Devoted.

Cultists’ Child: You grew up in a cult, soaking in a veritable bath of bizarre doctrines and rituals. You never knew anything else. To you, it was just the way the world worked. You expected to grow into a pillar of the community like your parents, cousins, and older siblings. Then came the raid by the heavily armed officers of a government agency. They took you away from your family and your community leaders and placed you in a special foster home meant to deprogram children. The couple you lived with probably meant well, looking back on it now. But your abilities frightened them and made you a pariah among your peers. Or maybe they knew you were special and tried to use your gifts to make money — selling access to your powers to anyone willing to pay. Or maybe they were a good and loving family, and you were happy living with them until you were ready to leave the nest. Where are your birth parents now? Are they in jail for conspiring to blow up a government building, or are they looking for you — eager to get back their beloved child (or their golden meal ticket)?

Forbidden Love: You fell in love with someone unacceptable to the conspiracy. Maybe the pairing would dilute the genetics that enabled the easy Divergence your heritage allows. Maybe your beloved was someone other than the one the prophecy had chosen for you. Maybe you fell in love with a Renegade outside of the conspiracy. Or perhaps you were never meant to be permitted (or capable of) love at all. Whoever it was, you ran away with them. And whether your twined destinies have since kept you together or driven you apart, or whether fate took your beloved from you, you’re not going back.

Fugitive: You committed fratricide or some other unforgivable crime against members of the conspiracy you were raised in, or perhaps you were framed, or it was an accident that looked like a crime. Whatever the specifics, you fled the conspiracy’s justice and remain a fugitive from them.

Power Vacuum: Someone important to the conspiracy died, was jailed, disappeared, or was otherwise taken out of the picture. Maybe it was the clan patriarch or matriarch. Maybe it was the founder of the cult or its most influential and charismatic leader. In their absence, the conspiracy you grew up in suffered a great crisis. Maybe competing interests or philosophies caused it to schism, splintering into independent, if not actively warring, factions. Or maybe it collapsed completely, unable to maintain its cohesion. Other conspiracies in the Web of Pain swept in to cannibalize its assets, you among them. You refused to be assimilated.

Rebel: You’ve always had a rebellious streak. From an early age, family friends described you as independent, proactive, or clever — and that was when they knew you were listening. Whenever they thought you weren’t around, they also called you stubborn, willful, or just plain naughty. It didn’t matter whether you were treated well or punished harshly. You knew what you wanted, and nothing was going to stop you from getting it. It came as no surprise to anyone who knew you that you grew into a rebellious teenager and a reckless young adult. When you came into your powers, they expected you to settle down and take your place as a servant of the conspiracy. You’re sure they were disappointed when you ran away instead, but you somehow doubt they were really surprised.

Refugee: You were too young to understand why it happened. Your parents, an uncle, a teacher, or a family friend woke you in the dead of night, took your hand, and sneaked you out of the conspiracy compound. Perhaps they wanted a better life for you, knowing how the conspiracy would exploit you for your gifts or vivisect you to better understand how they worked. Maybe they wanted to have your powers for themselves, free of the conspiracy’s constraints. Possibly they had a falling out with conspiracy leadership and decided to take you with them when they left. They raised you, always wary lest the conspiracy catch up with you. Maybe they treated you as dearly as any parent could treat a child. Or maybe they tried their best, but they weren’t cut out to be a caretaker. They may even have been abusive or exploitative far beyond anything the conspiracy would have done to you. Whoever they were, whyever they took you, and however they treated you, they are a large part of who you have become and how you use the occult gifts you have developed.