GenomeRaidingYou are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. Overblown and over-romanticised, the efforts of early geneticists to make sense of a rapidly mutating humanity have become the stuff of legends. As a scientific endeavour, however, they were ill thought-out, badly executed and unnecessarily bloody. Genome raiding arose as a form of genetic sampling. Desperate researchers justified their failure to obtain the subjects' permission for this procedure by claiming that the exact status of the subject's humanity or in fact sentience would depend on the results of the sampling itself. The process need actually only involve a small amount of tissue. Unfortunately, early scientists often hired roaming Jims, who took a "more is better" approach to these expeditions, harvesting entire limbs, flayed skins, and on occasion, the whole still-breathing body of the sampled. Science advanced, but genome raids soon became a byword for merciless carnage (or "fun sport" in the opinion of the Jims). Even those who sampled responsibly caused untold damage at times. The sampled areas developed strange symptoms: tentacles, teeth, tiny spare heads and a fully functional trumpet are just some recorded examples. While this was later attributed to the Zaruda virus, it helped to feed the hysteria that characterises the raids. It also meant that most of the obtained data was voided by Zaruda-related mutations, leading to Eldorado Bravida's famous comment: "You can only know who you are or how fast you are mutating, but not both." Notably, it is thought that some races' evolution was prompted directly by a desire to avoid the Genome Raiders by emphasising speed, agility and funny smells (see Catchalittle). |