Nanohive

A CYBERPUNK SETTING

Something similar to Sanity, which can be used to enhance other skills, but suffer damage which cannot be healed. It should be something related to technology.

How it all began

During the first decades of the 21st century, nanotechnology grew strongly, allowing important improvements in different scientific fields. New materials with amazing properties were developed, and nanoparticles allowed the scientific community to tinker with the smallest bricks of reality: tissue regeneration, increase of computing capacity, self-cleanable surfaces, more efficient energy consumption, …

Being able to modify things at such a small level allowed scientists to develop small processing units with limited functionality. This nanobots were far from robots, as any science-fiction fan would imagine them, but were capable of performing small tasks very efficiently at a microscopic level. They could look for a diseased organ inside the body, or for a breach in the hull of a space shuttle, and repair them. They could alter a material to change its physical properties, or generate complex chemical reactions, impossible without their help.

Soon these nanobots were used widely around the world in almost any application you could imagine. They performed the task they were designed for, and then forgotten. The problem was solved, the fate of the nanobot was unimportant, as they were not harmful for the human body. Discarded, expected to fade, expected to become dust, or absorbed and transformed by living beings.

However, these tiny little soulless particles began to gather, and kept working beyond their initial task. Many theories have been written recently which try to explain why it happens, but consensus is far. Our economy is completely dependant on them, so every day more nanobots are released to the world, too small to count, but too many to be ignored.

The nanohives, groups of nanobots with different functions and one single purpose, proliferated all over the world. A few years ago, the effects deserved just a joke in local papers, when a pavement turned incredibly slippery, or a cow began to glow slightly in the dark.

Things are much more serious these days. The nanohives slowly modify everything, not only buildings or tools, but also living beings. Modifications began as simple protuberances in machines, or small useless mutations. By now we have seen a growing number of disturbing alterations: electronic connectors growing under human armpits, antenna arrays on washing machines, or cars which refuse to keep running when their engines turn into obscure devices. Governments try to control the public information about these changes in order to avoid panic bursts, but we live connected to multiple information networks which are almost as hard to control as the nanohives.

Rumors talk about people who can now see in the dark, cities vanished by strange explosions with no trace of radiation, and factories covered by a thick lime which renders all mechanical devices useless.

Hard times for the people

The crash of 2010 certainly left most of the countries drifting without hope. The most powerful and rich beings and organizations of the world refused to change the way they made money, and the difference between the rich and the poor increased. Most of the middle classes of the developed countries sank a few years ago.

Despite the increasing anarchy, nanotechnology received many funds, as inversors were interested in the promising military applications. Fortunately, the wide range of applications of this technology also allowed improvements in health care and safety systems, although the number of people with access to any kind of technology is shrinking fast.

Criminality is rising, and it seems unstoppable. Not only thefts or tax evasions, but murder, drug dealing and human traffic currently drive most of the governments of the world. Corruption is so wide spread that people no longer trust public justice or police forces.

Pollution has also changed people's behaviour. Cities are darker, people die younger, and in most of the cities of the world it is safer to stay at home than to breath the air in the streets. No effort has been made to truly develop electric cars, and the main reason is, as usual, money. There is still oil in the oilfields, there is still money to get from that business before moving to the next one.

Social networks, mainly based on the internet, have replaced social interaction, as people spend most of their times inside their homes. The bigger the network, the more likely it is to be taken over by commercial spammers. As soon as the communities reach a critical size, spam arrives and users disperse naturally looking for smaller groups. This is also a tool for controlling populations, as it is difficult to coordinate big numbers of people against the same target.

The purpose of the nanohives

What is the purpose of a group of microscopic particles? Most scientifics believe there is no purpose. No reasonable explanation has never been given, and people believe there is a hidden truth beyond the weak scientific reasoning. Some of them see the end of the world in the weird works of the nanohives, and many worship them as avatars of a new god, one come to put an end to this grievous period of History.

Alien technology is the last theory which is being fueled by some governments. It seems an alien threat keeps people together, and that effect is vital to reduce the anarchy which reigns everywhere. According to these rumours, the nanobots released by humans are being organized by alien versions, designed to cause chaos in our world, and prepare an invasion.

The only certain thing is that we cannot fully understand how these pieces of technology are working.

Human sanity at risk

It sounds great to see in the dark, physically connect your body to a binary data stream, or heal serious wounds in seconds, but it is not. And the mutations are usually much less impressive, including metallic protuberances on the face, an array of leds on the back, or flammable saliva. People who have been affected by the effects of a nanohive do not remain sane for a long time. Apart from the mutations, which may be more o less beneficial, the hosts feel constantly the works of the nanobots, they see small changes every morning, and have the strange feeling of losing control of their nervous system.

The possible awe caused by the new ability soon turns into fear, fear of changing, of becoming something different, something not human. The will of the nanohive seems to take over the will of the hosts, or so they say the terrified people who have been studied in detail. Fear grows also around these people, and in small comunities the solution is usually bloody.

The more you enjoy the nanohive inside, the thinner the control over your body and mind. Your sanity vanishes when fear removes your will, and the mindless nanohive replaces it. Most of the people who suffer this fate become dumb versions of themselves, and die because they don't feed, sleep nor even breath.

Fear may be overcome, embracing the change in your body, "accepting evolution" as some call it. But instead of turning into trembling empty bodies, they become dangerous amoral versions of their former pesonalities. They present a lack of empathy and remorse. These people no longer care for the consecuences of their acts, they believe they have the right to take what they want. Egocentrics, megalomaniacs, impulsive hedonists, these hosts of nanohives need to feel control and power constantly.

Some things only you know

FACTIONS

These factions represent people with a similar cause, who have grouped together. However, people can be found who share the ideas of some of these organizations, but have not joined any of them.

Purgers of the Nano (Purgers)

Many people are truly afraid of the nanohives. They watch in the television how people become completely crazy, horribly deformed or inprisioned without a trial. Nobody wants one of those structures to build weird mutations on their bodies, but instead of fleeing, some have decided to fight.

Hitting a nanobot with a bullet or a baseball bat is difficult, but you can hit their hosts, and burn them. You can also do it by yourself, or join other paranoids and attack anything suspectful on sight. Many of these individuals have joined an organization, the Purgers of the Nano, ruled by a misterious sponsor named G. Bates.

If one of the Purgers finds a nanohive in their body, they will try to burn that part of their body to clean it. Some die in the process, but they take it as a small sacrifice to avoid spreading the infestation.

Followers of the Machine God (Fomags)

NaTech Inc.

Other groups

Governments and the scientific community are not proper factions. Each of the multiple organizations which represent them in the world have a different view of the nanohives and their hosts. However, both of them are doing a great effort to understand and control the situation.

MAIN NPCs

Keeton, High Priest of the Fomags

Mr. Bates, the shadow behind the Purgers

COMMON ENEMIES

Purger

Corrupted Policeman

NaTech Security Officer

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