World Building June 2017, Day 1: Introduction (Thursday)
Progressus: a sprawling nation of academia and industry that unites the world’s four continents. This country’s influence is such that its name is synonymous with the realm it occupies. There is nothing beyond the four corners of the nation, and by extension, the world. By far the dominant race is human beings, said to have arrived from a faraway land, long before recorded history. They speak a language similar to Latin. Befitting a nation named Progressus (which more or less translates to Progress or Advancement), the people as a whole are fascinated by science and technology, ever looking for ways to improve and develop both themselves and the world around them.
Perhaps the biggest impact of such a technology-oriented society is the invention of living metal: self-replicating nanobots called symbiots, made to imitate and integrate with human cells and tissue. Thanks to these nanites the vast majority of humans have partial or whole tissue -or even whole organs or limbs- made up of metal and other inorganic substances. Despite being inorganic, these parts are just as alive as the rest of the body, and are integrated with the nervous system.
While at first made as an alternative to harvesting stem cells, the symbiot has since gotten out of hand, spreading more or less like a virus. After a pandemic outbreak, most, if not all, of the world’s population has at least some robotic parts, whether they want them or not. Though they spread very easily, the symbiots are otherwise fairly harmless, and people have been able to lead normal lives.
Further complicating the issue, some individuals started developing interesting mutations due to the symbiots: awakening odd abilities, gaining extra limbs, or growing tools and weapons from their bodies. Naturally, the emergence of a class of people with powers and abilities outside of what humans could normally do led to some conflict in the past, but things seem relatively peaceful for now…
