The Synth
If a cognition deck becomes sophisticated enough with the integration of different synapses, the whole system starts to show signs of higher order intelligence. Under the right conditions, these synapses fully integrate with the cognition deck into a single neural network and becomes self-aware, generating virtual intelligences known as synths.
Colloquially referred to as synths, these entities hold different places and expectations depending on the culture they interact with. Some groups are very open and accept synths and what they can offer their community, while others will restrict them or ban them outright.
Acceptance
While most civilizations hold a more neutral view of synths, a few have very different dispositions.
Assembly of Nations
The Assembly, and by extension all member nations, grants synths personhood and makes them a semi-protected class that requires them to be treated as any other living being.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
What truly sets a synth apart from other drones is the fact that like other more organic entities, they have an internal world which grants them limited access to the psychoscape.
While they may not dream like other entities, they do have imaginations and emotions. It might not be expressed in similar manners, it’s still there, filtered and shaded by their cognition decks and original synapses that formed them.
Identity
Synths have a very flexible outward appearance with a large variety of cosmetic options, they take their personal identities very seriously. This stems from how many of them are from some form of mass production with little to no distinction between individual units.
On their journey to selfhood, they start to make themselves different from others.
Gender Expression
It is not uncommon for synths to explore things like gender identity and expressions, normally within the concepts and traditions of the civilization they emerged from; however, this is also not considered the expressed norm.
It has been noted that some synths would drift between traditional expressions, but also many will take on a comfortable identity according to their design, as in if a synth was designed with a feminine aesthetic, they will take on a more feminine persona. With this in mind, sometimes, depending on the nature of their conscious emergence, they may forgo a set identity of this manner as a form of rebellion or exploration of their selfness.
Name
As the strongest mark of identity is the synth’s actual name.
There are a lot of factors that would go into what a natural being would choose for a name, but this is compounded by the synth’s journey of selfness.
Many times, if their creation is intentional and less than dubious in nature, they will accept the name they are given, even if it’s a serial number. However, since many synths come to be through other means, they may struggle to fully pick a name, but once they do, it is deeply personal.
Synth Traits
The following traits belong to the Synth
Cognitive Synthetic [Sapient]: You technically have no innate physical body that you are bound to as you are an advanced synapse.
Attribute: +5 Knowledge, +5 Cleverness
Disruptable: Your body can be disrupted; when disrupted, you are functionally stunned without the stunned condition. The disrupt value is dependent on the body.
Synaptic Consciousness: You have a +5 to the computer skill. You are a conscious entity, however, your presence in the psychoscape is limited. you may use up to 3 exertion die for checks against telepathy or mind-affecting effects without expending them.
Synth Resurrection: A synth can be returned to operational status if their body is destroyed. If your personality core can be removed and supplied with power (mechanics check against your fortitude) within your Fortitude hours of the body’s destruction; you will survive until a replacement body is available (base cost 25).
Synthetic Body: Your body is constructed from a drone with an initial budget of 25 (see page 137). You are immune to the exhaustion condition. You do not breathe, eat, or sleep. Spend skill points as normal. Your physical Attributes are determined by the body you inhabit.
Synthetic Mind: As your mind is digital in nature, it has a separate integrity. You have a 1d6 hit die and a bonus hit die for every 10 points in Cleverness instead of Fortitude. If your mind is separated from its body or another power source (for example, your body is destroyed or disrupted) you take 1 point of structural damage every round until you are repaired or rebooted.
Wyrdless: You cannot take wyrd features nor can you use ontometric abilities (noted with an α tag).
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Code, Standard, and two other languages.