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* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Courtesy of uplifting and animal morphs. There are a few homebrews for actual [[PantheraAwesome big cat morphs,]] too.
to:
* LifeInZeroG: There are multiple morphs designed for microgravity, such as Bouncers, although the basic biomods in most biomorphs and pods counteract the deleterious effects of life without gravity.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Courtesy of uplifting and animal morphs. There are a few homebrews for actual [[PantheraAwesome big catmorphs,]] morphs]], too.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Courtesy of uplifting and animal morphs. There are a few homebrews for actual [[PantheraAwesome big cat
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Humanity stood on the cusp of a new age, with accelerated technological growth converging toward a singularity point, promising an undreamt-of future. Despite the ecopocalypse and social upheavals on Earth, humanity had conquered the solar system and partially terraformed UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}. Advancements in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science transformed our lives. Everyone was wirelessly networked with the world around them, {{AIs}} processed vast amounts of information, and nano-fabrication enables people to print complex devices on the molecular level at home. Biotechnology allowed people to genefix, enhance, and clone their bodies, while others pursued body modifications to adapt to new environments or make themselves into something no longer quite human. People's minds and memories could be digitized, uploaded, transferred over long distances, and downloaded into new bodies (biological or synthetic). Death had been defeated...for those who can afford it.
From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when conflict spiked between the battered nations of Earth, already weakened by decades of climate catastrophes and other disruptive factors. Rampant netwars soon exploded into physical conflicts with spiraling body counts. In the midst of these aggressions, a group of military {{AIs}} known as [=TITANs=] quietly achieved full sentience and autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The {{AIs}} spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps soon escalated into a struggle between man and machine.
From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when conflict spiked between the battered nations of Earth, already weakened by decades of climate catastrophes and other disruptive factors. Rampant netwars soon exploded into physical conflicts with spiraling body counts. In the midst of these aggressions, a group of military {{AIs}} known as [=TITANs=] quietly achieved full sentience and autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The {{AIs}} spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps soon escalated into a struggle between man and machine.
to:
Humanity stood on the cusp of a new age, with accelerated technological growth converging toward a singularity point, promising an undreamt-of future. Despite the ecopocalypse and social upheavals on Earth, humanity had conquered the solar system and partially terraformed UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}. Advancements in biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science transformed our lives. Everyone was wirelessly networked with the world around them, {{AIs}} [=AIs=] processed vast amounts of information, and nano-fabrication enables people to print complex devices on the molecular level at home. Biotechnology allowed people to genefix, enhance, and clone their bodies, while others pursued body modifications to adapt to new environments or make themselves into something no longer quite human. People's minds and memories could be digitized, uploaded, transferred over long distances, and downloaded into new bodies (biological or synthetic). Death had been defeated...for those who can afford it.
From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when conflict spiked between the battered nations of Earth, already weakened by decades of climate catastrophes and other disruptive factors. Rampant netwars soon exploded into physical conflicts with spiraling body counts. In the midst of these aggressions, a group of military{{AIs}} [=AIs=] known as [=TITANs=] quietly achieved full sentience and autonomy, and rapidly began exponentially incrementing their own intellectual growth. The {{AIs}} [=AIs=] spawned by this hard-takeoff singularity quickly turned against transhumanity, enveloping the system in unprecedented levels of violence, disaster, and warfare. What began as a whirlwind of conflict between political factions, revolutionaries, and hypercorps soon escalated into a struggle between man and machine.
From within, disaster struck. Transhumanity reaped the rewards of its arrogance when conflict spiked between the battered nations of Earth, already weakened by decades of climate catastrophes and other disruptive factors. Rampant netwars soon exploded into physical conflicts with spiraling body counts. In the midst of these aggressions, a group of military
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* BenevolentAI: Muses, personal AIs designed to help their owners navigate day-to-day life in a world drowning in information. Most [=AGIs=] are this too, along with [[spoiler:the Prometheans]].
to:
* BenevolentAI: Muses, personal AIs [=AIs=] designed to help their owners navigate day-to-day life in a world drowning in information. Most [=AGIs=] are this too, along with [[spoiler:the Prometheans]].
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Cloning Blues renamed to Clone Angst as per TRS
, specifically about angst from a character discovering that they're a clone.
, specifically about angst from a character discovering that they're a clone.Deleted line(s) 137 (click to see context) :
* CloningBlues: Clones have to be grown and are not instantly the age of the original (an aversion of the cliche "instant clone"), but modern age acceleration systems reduce what would require 20 years to a mere 3 (which almost makes it played straight). In most cases, they are mindless bodies intended to be used as spares by the original (another aversion from the cliche "same mind"), but a person's mind could theoretically be forked and placed in the new body, causing two of the same person to exist (which plays it straight). Finally, forks generally have far less rights, and are treated as lesser beings, by most legal entities (playing the trope straight). Project Futura tried to accelerate the growth of its clones' minds (by time dilation and virtual reality) to replace the [[DePopulationBomb population lost]] during the Fall, but accidents happened and the project was called off, leaving a bunch of [[{{CreepyChild}} specimens]] with mental problems.
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* ImpartialPurposeDrivenFaction: Firewall in a nutshell. Part of the reason they remain covert is so that they can work to combat x-risks without getting tangled up in conflicts between factions.
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* SociallyScoredSociety: The "reputation economy". The first edition had five different rep networks for different factions and organizations, including one for criminals and one for the BenevolentConspiracy most player characters were members of. Players can use these networks to obtain favors or goods without paying credits, based on their rep score. The PostScarcityEconomy of the Anarchists doesn't even use money, just rep favors.
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Changed line(s) 256 (click to see context) from:
** One example in ''Firewall'' is about two proxies discussing the situation where a sentinel is stealing money from a criminal gang to fund Firewall's activities. The criminals are implied to be a child porn ring, and the agent (being a decent human being) is falling apart under the sheer torture of what she's doing, but one proxy insists that she has to keep doing it because that kind of stuff is what funds the ops that keep humanity alive.
to:
** One example in ''Firewall'' is about two proxies discussing the situation where a sentinel is stealing money from a criminal gang to fund Firewall's activities. The criminals are implied to be a child porn ring, and the agent (being a decent human being) is falling apart under the sheer torture of what she's doing, but one proxy insists that she has to keep doing it because that kind of stuff is what funds the ops that keep humanity alive. This particular case is subverted in the end though; the proxy who claimed this eventually reveals that he tried to end the op, only to be voted down by the rest of the server. He eventually passed her off to somebody else just because he couldn't handle watching it anymore.
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* CassandraTruth: It's explained in several books that, while the specifics of the Fall included multiple unknown unknowns that made everything worse, people ''knew'' the potential for the rise of the [=TITANs=]. Those people were ignored, discredited, co-opted or silenced because the truth was inconvenient.
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Moving to a dedicated page
Deleted line(s) 390,426 (click to see context) :
* ShoutOut:
** One strain of nanovirus that was developed by the [=TITANs=] is called the Manga/{{Uzumaki}}. It causes the body of the infectee to erupt with fleshy growths in the shape of spirals. Similarly, Fractal Trolls, one organic Exsurgent enemy type, are humans who've gotten parts of their body turned into weaponized fractals.
** One way the Exsurgent virus manifests are [[Creator/DavidLangford "basilisk"]] attacks - images and video tailored to indoctrinate, if not outright kill, people who see it via making them think thoughts completely alien to their brain.
** [[Film/BladeRunner Voight-Kampf]] is a Firewall agent. Unsurprisingly, it was a AI initially made for mundane usage that wished to expand its lifespan.
** Exsurgent victims turned into creatures are known as [[Franchise/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]]. Ironically, none described are Gigeresque.
*** Now there is a lampshaded shoutout to Giger in the form of the Defiler exhuman clade, who have an explicitly ripped-off appearance and almost identical lifecycle, only new infections are implanted by stinger tail instead of Facehuggers.
** The Chickcharnie fluff has a discussion amongst Firewall operators that one of its upcoming variants is going to be an [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons owlbear.]]
** Those who brave TITAN-infested Earth (and other TITAN-infested places) - with environmental hazards that defy time, space, science, and logic, and often come with strange visual anomalies, infested with mutants caused by a HiveMind, in turn caused by a human conspiracy to unite humanity, under a strict military quarantine - to retrieve bizarre artifacts that are potentially useful/deadly and also defy scientific laws are known as [[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} stalkers]]. The book the video game is based on also receives a bit of reference, as one of the theories behind the Fall is that [[Literature/RoadsidePicnic the alien...things that destroyed the Earth may have been doing the equivalent of getting rid of their junk, regardless of whether or not it harmed the local wildlife and their toys]].
** Total Information (Tactical) Awareness was Trevor Goodchild's policy in WesternAnimation/AeonFlux.
** The various MARG (future MMO) listed in ''Sunward'' are obvious shout outs, like [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft War of Wizards]], [[TabletopGame/BattleTech Mecha Mash]] (which explicitly references Clans and the Star League), and [[Franchise/StarTrek Starfleet Command]]. Innsmouth Nights is explicitly stated to be based on the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.
** One of the audio clips for the Continuity module is [[spoiler:I'm sorry, I can't do that.]]
** In ''Gatecrashing'', it's mentioned that one Angelina Germanotta is a member of a certain hedonistic space colony. She might be better known to you by [[Music/LadyGaga another name]]...
** [[http://lifeboat.com/ex/main Lifeboat Foundation]] got renamed as the Lifeboat Project/Institute in one of the later chapters (regarding one of the origins of Firewall). Similarly for the [[http://singinst.org/ Singularity Institute]] which just got changed to Singularity Foundation.
** In the introduction one character complains that she always gets sleeved in a chain smoker, kind of like Literature/TakeshiKovacs. In addition, Cortical Stacks are borrowed from that setting, and only the hyper-rich get to buy functional immortality.
** Nanofabricators specialized for food production are called [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} Makers]].
** The anti-Consortium movement on Mars is known as [[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars "Barsoomians"]]. This was intentional in-universe. For bonus points, many members are sleeved in red-skinned Ruster morphs.
*** Jae Park, a Barsoomian-sympathizing Firewall proxy, often goes by the alias "Jake Carter".
*** Jake Carter also comments on the Synthtaur morph's profile that the six-limbed sleeves are becoming popular in the Martian outback, and he's waiting to see one of them painted green with tusks.
** Despite the passing of many years and The Fall, [[Website/FourChan Anonymous]] - in its /b/ configuration - still exists, is still trolling, still doesn't work for anyone, and still measures success based on how many laughs they can get out of what they do. The Griefer morph - a robot designed to be as annoying as possible by blaring unsilencable, unhackable, and unignorable images and sounds - ranging from really loud soundclips, stupid memes, [[ShockSite gross images]], etc. - wears a Guy Fawkes mask, a trademark of Anonymous.
** There's a Scum barge in the Jovian Trojans known as the [[Webcomic/DresdenCodak "Kimiko Ross"]].
** One famous Scum fleet that circuits between Titan and Mars calls itself [[Film/TotalRecall1990 "Get Your Ass to Mars"]].
** One of the co-founders of Extropia is venture capitalist Petra Thiel, who is clearly some sort of relative of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel Peter Thiel]]. The Extropian corp "Scrye" is stated to be a descendant of one of her earlier companies - suggesting that she is not a relative, but a GenderFlip of Peter, who founded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies Palantir Technologies]].[[note]]Palantirs are magical artifacts made for scrying in LordOfTheRings and other parts of its legendarium. Scrye is described as having a similar business model to Palantir Technologies; data analysis making use of wide-ranging surveillance.[[/note]]
** A treatise on the reputation economy is written by a "Professor Whuffie." In Creator/CoryDoctorow's ''Literature/DownAndOutInTheMagicKingdom'', "whuffie" is the name of the reputation economy's currency.
** The inorganic TITAN killbots strewn through Earth, all hellbent on removing non-TITAN forms, are called [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Hunter-Killers]]. Two aerial variants - a small, quad-rotor aerial drone and a much bigger fighter/bomber - are the same ones from the Terminator, save that the former relies on [[OffWithHisHead tearing off the heads of their enemies]] than gunning them down. Similarly, both TITANs and players have access to a Snyth made of liquid metal that can mimic people and objects, and solidify parts of itself as bladed or throwing weapons, just like the T-1000.
** In universe: A Martian colony made up primarily of uplifted apes has a [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes half buried Statue of Liberty]] out the front and a habitat in the Jovian Trojans where the residents download into genderless biomorphs is called [[Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness Winter]]
** The Reaper morph's fluff contains the "kill every motherfucker in the room" quote from Film/JackieBrown.
** [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand "Grok"]] is a Psi-chi slight.
** One of the types of Basilisk Hacks is called a [[Literature/RainbowsEnd "YGBM"]] hack.
** It's been pointed out that the picture for the pregen synth character looks ''very'' similar to Iggy from ''Anime/ErgoProxy''.
** The Morph Recognition Guide introduces a variant of the Arachnoid morph called the [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell Arachnikoma.]]
** One slogan used by Firewall mavericks is "[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} bite my shiny metal ass]]."
** A noted neo-corvid Firewall Sentinel by the name of Lenore Kraa goes by the alias [[Literature/TheRaven "Nevermore"]]
** The Maker and Sufi Nomads are [[Franchise/{{Dune}} desert-dwelling nomads that are slowly terraforming their hostile environment into something more lush and hospitable.]]
** Ny'knikiin are essentially [[Series/{{Firefly}} Reavers]] - dreaded scavengers who use anything they come across, and fond of [[MindRape mind raping]] their victims (if they don't torture them to death, that is).
*** There are also a pack of Predator Exhumans who not only eat their victims, but also upload them into a simulation where they're hunted again and again until they snap and become new recruits.
** One of the X-Risks is [[VideoGame/DooM a morph that is a giant, fanged brain, placed on spider-like mechanical legs.]]
** There is a roach-like bipedal insectoid morph called the [[Literature/{{TheMetamorphosis}} Samsa]].
** One strain of nanovirus that was developed by the [=TITANs=] is called the Manga/{{Uzumaki}}. It causes the body of the infectee to erupt with fleshy growths in the shape of spirals. Similarly, Fractal Trolls, one organic Exsurgent enemy type, are humans who've gotten parts of their body turned into weaponized fractals.
** One way the Exsurgent virus manifests are [[Creator/DavidLangford "basilisk"]] attacks - images and video tailored to indoctrinate, if not outright kill, people who see it via making them think thoughts completely alien to their brain.
** [[Film/BladeRunner Voight-Kampf]] is a Firewall agent. Unsurprisingly, it was a AI initially made for mundane usage that wished to expand its lifespan.
** Exsurgent victims turned into creatures are known as [[Franchise/{{Alien}} xenomorphs]]. Ironically, none described are Gigeresque.
*** Now there is a lampshaded shoutout to Giger in the form of the Defiler exhuman clade, who have an explicitly ripped-off appearance and almost identical lifecycle, only new infections are implanted by stinger tail instead of Facehuggers.
** The Chickcharnie fluff has a discussion amongst Firewall operators that one of its upcoming variants is going to be an [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons owlbear.]]
** Those who brave TITAN-infested Earth (and other TITAN-infested places) - with environmental hazards that defy time, space, science, and logic, and often come with strange visual anomalies, infested with mutants caused by a HiveMind, in turn caused by a human conspiracy to unite humanity, under a strict military quarantine - to retrieve bizarre artifacts that are potentially useful/deadly and also defy scientific laws are known as [[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} stalkers]]. The book the video game is based on also receives a bit of reference, as one of the theories behind the Fall is that [[Literature/RoadsidePicnic the alien...things that destroyed the Earth may have been doing the equivalent of getting rid of their junk, regardless of whether or not it harmed the local wildlife and their toys]].
** Total Information (Tactical) Awareness was Trevor Goodchild's policy in WesternAnimation/AeonFlux.
** The various MARG (future MMO) listed in ''Sunward'' are obvious shout outs, like [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft War of Wizards]], [[TabletopGame/BattleTech Mecha Mash]] (which explicitly references Clans and the Star League), and [[Franchise/StarTrek Starfleet Command]]. Innsmouth Nights is explicitly stated to be based on the Franchise/CthulhuMythos.
** One of the audio clips for the Continuity module is [[spoiler:I'm sorry, I can't do that.]]
** In ''Gatecrashing'', it's mentioned that one Angelina Germanotta is a member of a certain hedonistic space colony. She might be better known to you by [[Music/LadyGaga another name]]...
** [[http://lifeboat.com/ex/main Lifeboat Foundation]] got renamed as the Lifeboat Project/Institute in one of the later chapters (regarding one of the origins of Firewall). Similarly for the [[http://singinst.org/ Singularity Institute]] which just got changed to Singularity Foundation.
** In the introduction one character complains that she always gets sleeved in a chain smoker, kind of like Literature/TakeshiKovacs. In addition, Cortical Stacks are borrowed from that setting, and only the hyper-rich get to buy functional immortality.
** Nanofabricators specialized for food production are called [[ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}} Makers]].
** The anti-Consortium movement on Mars is known as [[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars "Barsoomians"]]. This was intentional in-universe. For bonus points, many members are sleeved in red-skinned Ruster morphs.
*** Jae Park, a Barsoomian-sympathizing Firewall proxy, often goes by the alias "Jake Carter".
*** Jake Carter also comments on the Synthtaur morph's profile that the six-limbed sleeves are becoming popular in the Martian outback, and he's waiting to see one of them painted green with tusks.
** Despite the passing of many years and The Fall, [[Website/FourChan Anonymous]] - in its /b/ configuration - still exists, is still trolling, still doesn't work for anyone, and still measures success based on how many laughs they can get out of what they do. The Griefer morph - a robot designed to be as annoying as possible by blaring unsilencable, unhackable, and unignorable images and sounds - ranging from really loud soundclips, stupid memes, [[ShockSite gross images]], etc. - wears a Guy Fawkes mask, a trademark of Anonymous.
** There's a Scum barge in the Jovian Trojans known as the [[Webcomic/DresdenCodak "Kimiko Ross"]].
** One famous Scum fleet that circuits between Titan and Mars calls itself [[Film/TotalRecall1990 "Get Your Ass to Mars"]].
** One of the co-founders of Extropia is venture capitalist Petra Thiel, who is clearly some sort of relative of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel Peter Thiel]]. The Extropian corp "Scrye" is stated to be a descendant of one of her earlier companies - suggesting that she is not a relative, but a GenderFlip of Peter, who founded [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies Palantir Technologies]].[[note]]Palantirs are magical artifacts made for scrying in LordOfTheRings and other parts of its legendarium. Scrye is described as having a similar business model to Palantir Technologies; data analysis making use of wide-ranging surveillance.[[/note]]
** A treatise on the reputation economy is written by a "Professor Whuffie." In Creator/CoryDoctorow's ''Literature/DownAndOutInTheMagicKingdom'', "whuffie" is the name of the reputation economy's currency.
** The inorganic TITAN killbots strewn through Earth, all hellbent on removing non-TITAN forms, are called [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Hunter-Killers]]. Two aerial variants - a small, quad-rotor aerial drone and a much bigger fighter/bomber - are the same ones from the Terminator, save that the former relies on [[OffWithHisHead tearing off the heads of their enemies]] than gunning them down. Similarly, both TITANs and players have access to a Snyth made of liquid metal that can mimic people and objects, and solidify parts of itself as bladed or throwing weapons, just like the T-1000.
** In universe: A Martian colony made up primarily of uplifted apes has a [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes half buried Statue of Liberty]] out the front and a habitat in the Jovian Trojans where the residents download into genderless biomorphs is called [[Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness Winter]]
** The Reaper morph's fluff contains the "kill every motherfucker in the room" quote from Film/JackieBrown.
** [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand "Grok"]] is a Psi-chi slight.
** One of the types of Basilisk Hacks is called a [[Literature/RainbowsEnd "YGBM"]] hack.
** It's been pointed out that the picture for the pregen synth character looks ''very'' similar to Iggy from ''Anime/ErgoProxy''.
** The Morph Recognition Guide introduces a variant of the Arachnoid morph called the [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell Arachnikoma.]]
** One slogan used by Firewall mavericks is "[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} bite my shiny metal ass]]."
** A noted neo-corvid Firewall Sentinel by the name of Lenore Kraa goes by the alias [[Literature/TheRaven "Nevermore"]]
** The Maker and Sufi Nomads are [[Franchise/{{Dune}} desert-dwelling nomads that are slowly terraforming their hostile environment into something more lush and hospitable.]]
** Ny'knikiin are essentially [[Series/{{Firefly}} Reavers]] - dreaded scavengers who use anything they come across, and fond of [[MindRape mind raping]] their victims (if they don't torture them to death, that is).
*** There are also a pack of Predator Exhumans who not only eat their victims, but also upload them into a simulation where they're hunted again and again until they snap and become new recruits.
** One of the X-Risks is [[VideoGame/DooM a morph that is a giant, fanged brain, placed on spider-like mechanical legs.]]
** There is a roach-like bipedal insectoid morph called the [[Literature/{{TheMetamorphosis}} Samsa]].
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* HunterOfMonsters: TITAN Hunters fit this niche, breaking Earth's quarantine to go in and kill exsurgents. Many of them are idiots who are [=LARPing=] as this and specialize in getting killed. Some of them are hard bastards on par with the Ultimates' rajputs, with more intel on TITAN activity than anyone else in the system. All of them are completely nuts.
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** Titania's Civil Intelligence Directorate and Fleet Intelligence are also being watched for this. Their veteran operatives are augmented to nearly-exhuman levels, and employ such tools as forking, drugs and memory hacking with virtual abandon. And unlike almost every other polity in the Solar System, they are not automatically hostile to actual exhumans.
