Summary
Any human who has been highly improved without counteracting limitations like a Homunculus would have. As the desire to eliminate flaws leaves less tolerance for side-effects, the improvements are less drastic than those added to homunculi.
The alterations almost always include both heavy eugenic selection, gene-alteration, hormonal treatment, and enhancement surgeries both cosmetic and utilitarian.
Although Pytheans tend to have nearly as many enhancements, the term is not usually applied to them.
Gameplay
Available Backgrounds
- The Fosterite Empire, a strict society built on a racial caste system
- ULISIS:
- The ruling classes of various Arcologies spread throughout the galaxy, or more rarely, the Lower classes.
- Various ULISIS Space Stations spread throughout the galaxy
- The Earth's urban Sprawls
- The Earth's inhospitable Outlands
- The ULGSCR, an Anarcho-Communist(?) collective
- The Delta Project, as a welcome but cramped Outsider.
- Various Outer Worlds (custom).
Lore
Origin
Alpha-human is a non-discrete designation, not bound to any culture. The name’s origins are in the Fosterite Empire's caste system, but the term has achieved universal parlance to refer to any engineered superhuman.
Physiology
On a genetic level, almost all disease and birth defects have been eradicated from this group. They are still vulnerable to bacterial & viral infections, of course.
Reverse-telomerase therapy is generally the first step people take in Transhumanism. Greatly extends natural lifespan and reverses effects of aging. So there is often a quick tell when someone looks 21 but is running a megacorporation.
After that: most tend to enhance their height, beauty, and musculature.
There’s also a creative element in transhumanism - not everyone’s vision of perfection is the same. So some genepools may have eccentric flourishes to set themselves apart as their own true vision of perfection.
Medical procedures, in terms of healing or altering the existing body as opposed to gene-therapy, have been perfected to the point of triviality. So plastic surgery is not only ubiquitous but pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing.
Psychology
Nearly identical to baseline humans. Enhancing cognitive performance genetically is dizzyingly complex, so not much progress has been made there. That said, they are some of the most likely to enhance their brains through headcomputers.
Culture
After the flagrant abuses of the secretive Progenitor Empire became public, Alphas have acquired a sometimes undeserved stigma as uncaring elites. And indeed, uncaring elites are almost always the only ones with the resources to try to create such a gene pool. Even those who go into it with good intentions often lose their way as well. They often find it necessary to isolate themselves from the misunderstandings & jealousy directed at them. From there it is a quick transition to losing touch and resenting the rest of humanity.
Such a high investment requires pervasive insulating propaganda to keep its expensive offspring from defecting. Alphas are often indoctrinated to be certain not only of their superiority, but of their role as avatars of humanity's future. They are often heirs of empires, and are treated as accordingly valuable assets.
The term Alpha came from the Fosterite Empire, but may be generally applied to any highly-improved gene pool. It has been adopted in common parlance in other human communities to refer to any extreme transhumanist.
Of course, the dividing line is hard to establish. Outside the strict PE caste system, there is no distinct threshold at which one crosses over from Beta to Alpha. So except when individuals have very clearly passed that threshold, the term Alpha is generally much more useful to describe groups and trends than individuals.