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The Notumi are two distinct sub-species with a tangled and complex shared history, that once existed on a single planet. Prior to their discovery and incorporation into the Ascendancy, they had spread out over about 20 star systems, developed a basic form of warp drive, and were viciously at war with each other.
Both Notumi species are notable for their metabolic need for the exotic alloy notum, and how their society has diverged around its availability or lack thereof. Of the two sub-species, the Cerebri diverged with a lack of sufficient notum, and much of their technology and society is focused around alternative methods of making up for that lack. The Corpori, on the other hand, were replete with the rare alloy and its use became the beating heart of their society.
The pre-divergence history of the Notumi has mostly been pieced together by xeno-historians of other species, and much of the detail and verifiable truth has been obscured by rampant propaganda and revisionism by both sides during their warring period.
The ancestral Notumi were a humanoid species that evolved on the once-verdant world of Cerberus V, located in the Orion Nebula Sector. By around 1000PT, the Notumi had developed a mercantile capitalist society, and were towards the end of their first industrial revolution. It was during this period that they first began to mine the rich reserves of a blue alloy that occurred in several of their homeworld’s largest continents. Initially mined as a decorative material, the alloy became very popular in wealthy Notumi society for jewellery and art objects. Within a generation or two, societal elites noticed that those associated with the mining industry began to develop traits that gave them profound advantages - on average, they showed greater aptitude for learning, science and mathematics, as well as faster reflexes and reaction time. Scientists discovered that the alloy was bio-active and could become incorporated into Notumi physiology, particularly in the nervous system. The elites, quick to maintain their status and advantage, acquired the alloy to ingest in the hopes that it would improve them and their offspring. Within a short time, the alloy, which had been named notum after the species, became ubiquitous at all levels of Notumi society, and many involved in its extraction and sale became obscenely wealthy.
The consumption of notum kicked off a second industrial revolution, and their society developed multiple scientific breakthroughs, discovering electronics and making incredible advances in genetics, medicine and physics. The notum was also causing each subsequent generation to mutate to include it more and more in their metabolic processes, and it quickly became an essential nutrient for all Notumi, while progressively altering their genetics. The alloy soon became ubiquitous in the planet’s biosphere, so almost all living creatures made use of it in some way.
By 1500PT, the Notumi had developed spaceflight and were beginning to expand out into their solar system, developing energy harvesting and mining infrastructure on some of Cerberus’ other planets and moons. They had developed rudimentary nanotechnology that incorporated notum to allow it a much greater capacity to perform tasks over longer periods, and were beginning to incorporate this nanotechnology into all aspects of their civilisation.
It was somewhere around this point that a catastrophe now known as “The Ruin” struck Cerberus V. Massive climatic and seismic upheaval struck the planet, and within the space of 100 years the lush planet transformed into a barren, frozen wasteland. Worse still, the Ruin also affected the genes of the planet’s inhabitants, and slowly caused the majority of the notum in the planet’s biosphere to become unstable and revert to its base metallic components.
Technologically advanced enough to understand some of what was happening, but not enough to stop it, the Notumi were devastated. As their civilisation began to break down, the wealthy elites among them retreated from the chaos in their wider society and poured all of their resources into a massive escape plan. They strip-mined vast quantities of the stable notum still in the ground, adapted the rudimentary orbital stations into generational ark ships, and launched themselves out of the Cerberus system to find a new home, leaving billions of less-wealthy Notumi to suffer and die on their degrading homeworld.
This marks the point at which the two sub-species of Notumi diverged. Those who would become the Corpori took to the stars in the hope of finding a new home, while the ancestors of the Cerebri were left to fall into anarchy on the frigid wastelands of their once beautiful home.
The Cerebri are the descendants of the Notumi who remained on their home world of Cerberus V, which had rapidly transformed into a barren, frozen world, haunted by the skeletal remains of the Notumi civilization.
The Notumi who were left behind on Cerberus V during the Ruin found themselves in crisis. Their planet was no longer able to support the ecosystem it once had and most of the remaining notum on the planet was unstable. The advanced Notumi civilisation collapsed, leading to riots, anarchy and starvation. Billions died, and those who remained were left to spend all of their time just trying to gather enough food and notum to stay alive. The Notumi on Cerberus V fell into a dark age, reduced to tribes and isolated enclaves clawing their sustenance from the shattered remains of their world. Some isolated locations kept their archives and technology alive, and these Preserves, as they became known, allowed the Cerebri to rebuild their decimated civilisation.
More insidiously, the processes of the Ruin further mutated their genome, made more susceptible by the changes wrought by notum on their ancestors. Over time, successive generations of Notumi would become enfeebled by their middle years - a genetic curse they called “The Bane”. Children affected by the Bane would be born strong, but as they grew they would become weaker and weaker, often being unable to walk by the time they finished adolescence. Most of the afflicted died before reaching middle age. Those afflicted by the Bane were initially rejected from society, seen as corrupted and possibly contagious. As it began to take hold more and more over successive generations, however, it became clear that eventually the Bane would affect their entire species.
The equalising force of shared suffering unified the remaining Notumi in a way nothing had previously, and they rebuilt from the ashes with a single goal in mind - finding a way to cope with the Bane. The Preserves acted as hubs around which their society re-emerged, this time as the Cerebri, centering their new incarnation as a civilisation of the mind. Once they had managed to rebuild their infrastructure enough to allow for basic survival, they poured all excess resources and workforce into research. Progress was painstakingly slow, as those who had accumulated the knowledge to lead research had to direct teams of younger, fitter Cerebri in practically every project. Cerebri research explored numerous dead-ends, from exo-suits to virtual reality solutions. Eventually, they found a solution of sorts in what was thought to be a long-lost discipline - nanotechnology.
Deprived of the Notum that made the Notumi’s nanotech experiments come easily, the Cerebri developed more conventional nanomachines out of common metals, and encountered the same issues with power distribution and computing power that hinders that discipline even in the Modern Age. Eventually, by combining nanotechnology with cybernetic implants and their Notum-altered genetics, they devised the solution called “The Elevation”. This process allowed the Cerebri to overcome the blight of their damaged genome, offering a practical solution that allowed them to rebuild their civilisation and look beyond day-to-day survival. The inhabitants of Cerberus V, in a break from the habits of their forebears, united in a highly egalitarian technocracy. The new civilisation, rooted in the highly personal process of the Elevation, led to a society that valued the personal expression of each individual, prizing the role of each member of their society within the larger structure of Cerebri life. Buoyed by a working treatment for the Bane, it was not long before they struck out to the stars again, and had rebuilt a network of mining facilities and research stations across their home system by around 2500PT. With much of their system’s resources depleted by the elite Notumi’s evacuation a millennium before, they began to develop warp drive technology in an attempt to locate more resources in other nearby systems.
It was when their first warp-capable ship arrived in a neighbouring system that they discovered that someone had been there before. Corpori derelicts, floating in space surrounded by frozen bodies rimed with a thin layer of nanites, all suffused with precious notum. When news of the survival of their former rulers reached Cerberus V, the entire civilisation was incandescent with anger. The descendants of those who had left them to die, and taken the only reserves of the life-giving metal, were at large in the galaxy, and must be made to pay for the actions of their ancestors. The Cerebri threw resources at their space programmes, and militarised their economy for a conflict that they would begin, and hopefully finish.
Abandoning the majority of the Notumi in the Cerberus system, the wealthy and elite of Notumi society left in their cryoships in search of habitable worlds. After a few hundred years of passage through the interstellar void, they located a system 10ly away from Cerberus with several planets that were just within the verge of habitability. They called the system Roturi, after its small, reddish star, and set about establishing colonies across the various planets and moons of the system. With the distances involved and the stresses of establishing themselves, each large cryo-ship established itself as an independent polity, with its own reserves of notum and other resources brought from Cerberus. Research into new nanotechnology prospered, as the settled Notumi developed innovative ways to make their new homes habitable enough to survive on. Within a few short decades, they had rebuilt their industrial base, and most city-states were approaching self-sufficiency. Meanwhile their planets were becoming more habitable every day, as specialised deployments of nanomachines mined minerals for oxygen and other chemicals to release into the atmosphere. The combined effects of the notum in their systems and the prolonged cryo-stasis led to more genetic drifting among the Notumi, adapting each generation more and more to their new environment, and to the notum-imbued nanomachines that were becoming more and more common.
Within a hundred Terran years, they had discovered a form of warp drive, but lacked the shielding to make it safe and reliable. Again, nanotechnology filled the void, allowing Notumi FTL vessels to rapidly repair damage from dust and micrometeoroids entering the warp bubble. Soon, Notumi ships capable of 5c were exploring nearby stars and establishing outposts and small colonies. As these colonies in other systems began to prosper, Notumi society began to splinter, as cooperation between city-states dwindled due to increased competition to find new resources. A new cadre of elites arose, who controlled the remaining supplies of notum, ever dwindling in response to demand from the growing population and nanotech industry.
It is around this time that personal, reprogrammable nanites were invented, along with a device called the Nanodeck - a compact personal computer and recharging station for these new nanites. The Nanodecks interfaced with neural implants and the notum in the user’s nervous system to control a swarm of generalist nanites that invisibly surrounded them. Where previously, Notumi nanomachines were programmed at their creation to perform a few simple tasks, which they would be limited to, the Nanodeck’s neural interface allowed for rapid reprogramming of personal nanites to perform a variety of tasks. The nanites were either general-use enough to perform an array of functions, or were able to quickly reconfigure themselves to each new task. Nanodecks used notum to inductively power their tiny charges, allowing them to persist almost continuously as long as they remained close to the Nanodeck user. This innovation caused the daily use of nanotechnology to explode among the Notumi, and massively increased the demand for notum to create nanites and nanodecks. Obsolete nanomachines were collected and recycled for their tiny quantity of notum, and personal nanites soon became a part of everyday life, for those who could afford them.
By 2100PT, the new Notumi civilization was highly stratified, controlled by a few wealthy leaders who controlled access to the dwindling supplies of notum brought from the Cerberus system, which was already in high demand. Wealth brought access to notum, which in turn bought more potent nanotech, which could be used for almost any task. The poorest in society, meanwhile, barely had enough notum to fulfil their nutritional needs. Meanwhile, their society pushed outwards, exploring and colonising new systems in search of other sources of the all-important alloy. Up until this point, small asteroids containing tiny quantities of notum had been found in a few systems, but nothing of the scale of the reserves they had taken with them from the Cerberus system. The great breakthrough came when a Notumi ship travelling at warp speed catastrophically collided with a rogue planet when travelling between two systems. Although the ship was obliterated on impact, its transponder was not, and was found several years later by a rescue party, which detected significant notum reserves on the rogue planet’s dark surface. Although the finder’s city-state attempted to keep the planet a secret, it was soon leaked to the others. The search for more rogue planets with notum deposits began, with each state hoarding their secret locations as best they could. A fresh supply of notum brought incredible wealth for each ruler, and improved lives for all of their citizens - such high stakes that minor skirmishes, piracy and espionage increased across the entire society as each state tried to monopolise every new notum resource discovered.
Within 100 Terran years of the discovery of the first new notum source, Nanodecks were being widely weaponized across society, and research into new nanotechnology and nanodeck programming was primarily devoted to military uses. Within another hundred years, the Notumi were, as a society, almost entirely devoted to waging brutal wars against each other. Each state was effectively on its own, engaged in a vicious conflict against all the others. The very idea of a united species broke down, and propaganda to “other” all Notumi from outside each city state was rife. Historical records were redacted, as each state sought to distance themselves from the others, and the origins of the species and their home system were lost altogether.
The trauma of the conflict went deep, and citizens were encouraged to use nanodeck programming on their own brains, to alter their own perceptions and memory, “editing out” events, people or objects that conflicted with the sensibilities of their state or caused them pain. The pressures of the war evened out some of the stratification of their society, as most were expected to serve the war effort, and the greater availability of notum improved the lot of the lowest classes. The elites remained in control, and became known as the Vertici, while lower classes were referred to as the Corpori, making up the “body” of society. While the Vertici lived in luxury, free from danger, the Corpori waged war in space and on planets, mined notum, produced food and everything else that was required to fulfil the Vertici’s desires. This situation would probably have continued for the rest of time, were it not for the arrival of a new threat in the form of the Cerebri, boiling out from the Cerberus system in a tide of vengeful wrath.
It is believed that the first assault by the Cerebri against the other former Notumi came around 2650PT. They came in comparatively primitive ships, but with a drive and fervour that took their opponents completely by surprise. Reverse engineering Corpori technology had come to naught, as so much of it relied on their integrated nanite swarms. Falling back on their own technology, cooperative society and powerful industrial base, the Cerebri had produced vast numbers of small single-seater ships that deployed from large warp-capable vessels. When assaulting Corpori assets, these agile ships with a hardened front would literally ram Corpori vessels, venting their atmospheres and much of their nanite swarms, while disgorging Cerebri soldiers in armoured spacesuits, integrated with their Elevation systems, to sweep the ships clean. The Vertici states were so splintered and mistrusting that several fell entirely before they even realised they were being attacked by an outside force.
Eventually, the Vertici leaders mustered some resistance to the Cerebri forces, and brought their militarised economies to bear on the threat. The Vertici and Corpori holdings were too extensive to overwhelm, and the war bogged down into a stalemate. The steep cost of the Elevation meant that the Cerebri were severely impacted with each loss, and the Corpori relied heavily on scarce notum to fuel their own war efforts. The conflict remained hot and brutal, if smaller in scale - sorties into opposition territory made small gains, but the grinding cost of the war on both sides crippled their economies. The Cerebri fury remained, but the Bane remained an ever-present drain on resources and personnel, and on the other side the fractiousness of the Vertici prevented them from pooling their resources enough to mount a major offensive. It barely made a difference when Corpori researchers developed a complex series of nanodeck programs and specialised nanites that could synthesise small amounts of new notum from base metals - reserves of the alloy had been so depleted by this point that it only allowed the Corpori to stay in the fight and prevent their entire civilisation collapsing. The war would continue in this way for centuries.
In 3424PT, Ascendancy explorers located a safe warp route into what was later called the Notumi Cluster, a relatively clear expanse within the dense Orion Nebula. They first encountered numerous shipwrecks, planets bearing the scars of orbital impacts, and skeletal cities abandoned and suspiciously empty. Proceeding cautiously, they learned much about the warring species by sifting over the wreckage of their conflict. Long-distance observers would enter inhabited systems, document movements in the system and flee if detected. The Ascendancy spent a year taking the mettle of the two sides, and considered them ripe for conquest. The Ascendancy naval forces, their forces swollen from the First Tulaki Invasion, but with little to do during the First Armistice, were looking for a relatively easy victory and an opportunity to justify their post-war operations. Three battle groups were sent into the Notumi Cluster with orders to conquer and subdue the warring sides.
In a nine-year campaign, the Ascendancy fleets slowly ground down the resistance of the Notumi forces. The admiral in charge of the fleets, Ananya Malhotra, prioritised precision strikes against logistical and political targets, as well as the survival and morale of her own forces. Although only somewhat more technologically advanced than their opponents, the Ascendancy had several key advantages that gave them a critical edge, and deployed them well across the entire campaign.
Ground down by the constant needling strikes of their foes, both Notumi sides eventually capitulated. The Cerebri agreed to surrender to the Ascendancy first, gaining a number of concessions in the process. The Vertici, on the other hand, refused to submit and led several revolts as their city states were brought to heel. Almost the entire Vertici population were eliminated or snuck away on cryo-ships during the latter part of the conflict. Some Vertici seemed to mysteriously disappear without trace, either hiding within the Corpori populace, being assassinated or spirited away by skilled operatives on one side of the war or another. The Vertici were no more, and only the Corpori and Cerebri remained.
With both sides conquered, the Ascendancy was quick to bring the two warring sub-species into line. Hostilities between the two groups were ended, their territories were formalised and exclusion zones were enforced between them to present any flare-ups. Before any significant resentment could fester, the Second Ascendancy-Dominion War erupted a year later in 3442PT, and significant numbers of both Cerebri and Corpori were conscripted and sent to the Coreward front. Pains were taken to ensure that neither the Cerebri or Corpori encountered each other in that conflict, and by the time it had ended both sub-species were much more thoroughly integrated into the Faction.
Both sub-species of Notumi can now be found in numerous roles across the Ascendancy - Cerebri tend to stick to small enclaves of their own species, while Corpori are more likely to be found alone or in pair groups. Despite being integrated into the Faction for several hundred years, old attitudes remain, particularly around Notum. Both sub-species are wary of each other, and trust between them in any amount is rare. The Corpori remain fiercely protective of their access to Notum, as its use and creation is a core part of their identity. The Cerebri are still deeply resentful of their hoarding its secrets, and in part for the ravages of the Bane. Although the Ascendancy did perform some research into the use of Notum as a cure for the Cerebri’s inherited condition, the Bane has taken root so deeply in their genetics that infusions of the alloy cause little improvement. The Cerebri under Ascendancy rule have been granted enough Notum to satisfy the nutritional needs of their population, but for now the Elevation is still an essential rite of passage for all Cerebri who expect to live out a full life.
The Cerebri fared reasonably well from their surrender to the Ascendancy, wringing important concessions and preserving certain aspects of their culture from the Faction’s cultural hegemony. Ultimately, much of their society is centred around the legacy of the Bane and the solutions they have devised to keep it in check.
The Elevation is an expensive and gruelling process that all Cerebri must subject themselves to to provide them with some relief from the Bane. At the age of ten, each Cerebri is fitted with a series of input jacks, and internal ‘anchors’. Once the Bane starts to take hold, cocktails of various chemicals and metals are infused through their bodies and bind to their bones, skin and muscles. They are then joined with a small computer, blood filter and nanofactory, called an Elevation Control Core. By using the computing power of the Control Core, and the internal ‘anchors’ as orientation points, they are able to adequately power a network of functional nanomachines inside their own bodies, which brings energy and support to their cells and organs. The Control Core tailors the nanomachines to its host, filters their blood of waste products, and provides the nanomachines with recharging, recycling and replacement functions, as well as monitoring them and providing new instructions. The Control Core and internal anchors overcome many of the difficulties of such long-term and diverse deployments of nanotechnology, although the price is high. The process is long and arduous, requiring many surgeries, infusions and constant monitoring. The metals and chemicals required are rare and expensive, and the nanites effectively supplant the Cerebri’s natural healing abilities.
The Elevation allowed them to regain their former strength and function as a normal humanoid would be able to in most circumstances. It is not without its downsides however, as the Control Core requires power to function, and is itself vulnerable to external attack and breakdowns. The internal nanotechnology of Elevated Cerebri, combined with their acclimatisation to it, may offer the species some advantages in interfacing with other cybernetic implants.
The necessity of the Elevation in every Cerebri’s life keeps their society together to a certain extent, even as it spreads across the Ascendancy. A critical mass of Cerebri is required to sustain specialists who can perform the Elevation and maintain its systems throughout the life of each Cerebri. As such, Cerebri in other areas tend to cluster into enclaves, which allows them to keep their culture and traditions alive to a greater degree.
Cerebri society prior to conquest was centred around the pillars of individual pride and working cooperatively towards shared goals, and these have carried through to the Cerebri of today. Cerebri like to outwardly express their individuality and the story of how they came to be themselves - often in the form of vibrant clothing and personal adornments. Although they adhere to the general styles common in the Ascendancy, Cerebri often customise their clothing to include elements that express their inner selves.
Whilst each individual Cerebri can be very different from another, they believe in working towards a shared goal and work well cooperatively with other species. They are raised in efficient group environments, and enjoy the camaraderie of a well-functioning team, but are often taken by surprise when others they work with are unwilling to compromise their egos or ideologies for practical solutions. They’re keen to see their species be valued, and are known to go to great lengths to ensure that fellow Cerebri are recognised for their actions, or are not left wanting for Energy Chits.
All Cerebri rely on technology to stay healthy and alive. As such, all Cerebri are trained in enough of the fundamentals of their internal technology to understand and maintain it. Cerebri society is organised from the ground up along technocratic principles - they defer to subject experts and relative status is often measured by one’s technical abilities and knowledge. All Cerebri are taught a solid grounding in the sciences from a young age, particularly materials and corporeal science. The Elevation is seen by many as the beginning of a process of self-improvement, and these Cerebri often seek to continually improve their bodies over their lives. Cerebri out in the wider universe often find work with the Corporeal Perfection Syndicate, or use their resources to fit themselves with an array of cybernetic enhancements. Many breakthroughs in cybernetics have involved a Cerebri on their research teams.
Cerebri share certain features with Corpori due to their shared ancestry as Notumi. They are humanoid, can have a blueish tinge to their skin and hair, and a purplish or pinkish streak of skin across the eyes and temples. There the similarities end, due to the effects of the Bane that manifest on their bodies. The Bane Gene impacts all Cerebri slightly differently, however there are a few common traits.
Cerebri skin has a diversity of colour similar to Terrans, although universally appearing sickly, pale and washed out in comparison. Their skin has a light blueish tinge, much paler than the deep blue of the Corpori. This blue colour appears especially around the face and hands, appearing like frostbite to those unfamiliar with the Cerebri. They have a linear streak of purple or pinkish colour that extends horizontally across their eye sockets and temples, and fades out gradually above and below this line. They generally appear gaunt and tired, with dark and hollow eyes, sunken cheeks and shadowed faces.
As a culture that celebrates individuality and personal freedoms, they often wear extravagant or unusual clothing, piercings or have tattoos. Having reclaimed their bodies from the ravages of The Bane is a celebration, and something they are proud of. All Cerebri who have experienced the Elevation can’t help but show it - silvery or black subdermal circuitry is often visible through their skin, particularly around the face, collarbones and hands - wherever the skin is thinner. Some Cerebri have visible components of the Elevation piercing the skin - frequently sockets for flushing with fluids, or metallic anchors that extend through the skin. Considered unsightly by some within the Ascendancy, the Cerebri take pride in these features and often highlight them with jewellery, tattoos, engraving or precious metal plating and studs, which serve to draw the eye to these protrusions.
The key identifying feature of the Cerebri is their Elevation Control Core. Any Cerebri who have undertaken the Elevation possess a small device, usually at least the size of a small pouch, that connects to their internals. Control Cores are frequently attached to a belt or strap at waist height, but some can be incorporated into backpacks, strapped to the upper arm, or built into a bulky collar device. Control Cores are extremely diverse, and each enclave will have a favoured design, with the owners personalising it further. This device powers and controls their internal nanites, filters their blood and performs numerous other functions. Invariably the Control Core emits some light and is connected to the Cerebri’s body in one way or another.
The Corpori are much more heavily integrated into wider Ascendancy culture than the Cerebri, as they are more independent and tend to find niche roles where their unique abilities can develop and thrive. Their unique symbiosis with their nanite swarms, along with their deeply traumatic history as a species, has shaped the Corpori psyche so that its effects can be felt even in the modern day.
For much of their history, the Corpori were directed by the Vertici elites who controlled access to notum and the raw materials for Nanodecks and their swarms. Corpori lives were centred around the need for more notum, to create and sustain their nanite swarms, secure more valuable work and therefore gain access to more notum. Lower-class Corpori endured dreadful conditions and privation, hardship and even the horrors of brutal war were commonplace. To keep their population compliant and functioning, the Vertici developed nanite programs that altered the brain function of the Corpori, allowing them to block out trauma or events that caused painful cognitive dissonance. Use of these programs is still rife, despite attempts by the Ascendancy to prevent or regulate their use. Although the Noble Houses have attempted to replace the role of the Vertici in Corpori society, they have had mixed results. When the Vertici were eliminated or fled, they took many of the secrets of the Nanodecks and nanite swarms with them, and the Corpori have not fully recovered from their loss.
Coming from a militarised, spacefaring society, the Corpori were able to blend in fairly quickly with the Ascendancy once the role of the Vertici was supplanted after their conquest. In general outlook they are very similar to Terrans, and integrate well in small numbers with other Ascendancy species. Due to their unique relationship with their nanotechnology, and the legacy of generations of exposure to notum, there are a few key divergences from the Ascendancy norm.
Corpori view their nanite swarms they control as an extension of their being, rather than the single-use, effectively disposable servants that the Factions and Megacorps treat their nanites as. The Nanodeck, the primary access point to their swarm, is treated almost as an organ of their body. Most Corpori will only disable or remove their Nanodeck reluctantly, and feel exposed when it has been damaged in combat. Many Corpori will use their nanites, rather than their hands, in order to interact with their environment, highlighting their particular species’ unique traits. Combined with their tendency to block out and alter audio-visual sensations, and their responses to the perceptual ghosts that only they experience can leave members of other species feeling uncomfortable in their presence.
The use of neural blockers is common among the Corpori. These are a series of nanodeck programs that affect the nanites within the Corpori’s body and brain, effectively “editing” their perceptions and memories to remove references that the Corpori finds painful, uncomfortable or cognitively dissonant. The programs for neural blockers are poorly understood, as they were developed by the Vertici and the secrets of how they interacted with the Corpori’s notum-infused neurons still elude scientists. The neural blockers are not perfect, however, and persistent trigger stimuli can cause blocked memories to surface from time to time. All nanodecks contain these programs, despite the Ascendancy’s attempts to regulate or remove them - they seem to be part of the core operating system code, which has never been fully understood by scientists in any of the Factions or even the Corpori themselves. Although their use is frowned upon, most Corpori give in to their voluntary use at some point in their lives, as a way to regulate their emotions and fit in with Ascendancy society, or to lessen the notum-derived ghosts and neural artefacts that they experience. Nanodecks may even automatically deploy neural blockers if they detect neurotransmitter chemicals above certain thresholds that indicate stress or trauma in their user's system, making even Corpori who reject their voluntary use susceptible to the Vertici’s legacy. The effect of neural blockers on Corpori behaviour can be very disconcerting for others, as the Corpori may be unable to perceive or interact with them. As the neural blockers were developed for soldiers, active threats or hazards generally cause the neural blocks to dissipate in the moment, although memories may be edited or suppressed later on.
The Ascendancy Noble Houses see the use of neural blockers to be akin to a species-specific problematic drug - a liability present in all Corpori, but one that has proven impossible to separate them from. Of particular note, the use of neural blockers tends to interact badly with the conditioning activities common in the Ascendancy for reinforcing unity and discipline. Rigorous parades, inspections and drills, are commonly either blocked in part or completely, or may cause traumatic memories to resurface. Many Corpori avoid these activities, which can raise suspicions among their fellows as to their loyalty and work ethic. Most commanders who have seen a Corpori in action give them a certain amount of leeway due to their effectiveness, but this does not always extend to rank and file colleagues.
One of the reasons for the development of neural blockers in the first place is that the notum-infused neurons of the Corpori are prone to feedback loops, synaptic overloads and other issues. These frequently manifest as “ghosts” - small sensory hallucinations that effect each Corpori differently – these can range from auditory or visual hallucinations, to full conversations. The hallucinations can make Corpori appear paranoid and often distracted, though rarely these blips can warn them of nearby dangers they would otherwise be unaware of, making subconscious cues more apparent by giving them form.
Corpori are humanoid, with a similar diversity of builds to Terrans. Like the Cerebri, they have a blueish tinge to their skin and hair, and a purple or pinkish streak of skin across the eyes and temples. Their skin is a much deeper and richer blue than the Cerebri, and this colour extends across their entire bodies. It is thought that this blue colour tendency is related to notum in some way, and the Corpori have had many generations more exposure to high amounts of the alloy than the Cerebri. Their hair can be a range of colours similar to Terrans, but is often streaked with blue, or may be entirely blue. Corpori tend to wear their hair short, but this is not universal.
The purple streak of colour across the eyes gradually blends into the blue of the rest of their skin above and below the eyeline, although in individuals more proficient with their Nanodecks, the purple band can extend wisps of solid purple colour above and below the normal line. These wisps have been described as resembling a solar flare outburst in shape.
All Corpori bear a Nanodeck about their person, and are rarely willing to be separated from it. The nanodeck controls and sustains the swarm of invisible nanites that surround each Corpori, and is usually interfaced with by hand via a touchscreen or keypad. Nanodecks are small devices that can take many forms, but are have a few common elements. When in use they are always connected to the Corpori’s body in some way, usually by a socketed tube that can be unplugged when convenient. They always emit light along a few key wavelengths - this light acts as an information carrier and a locator for the nanite swarms, issuing commands and allowing them to return to the Nanodeck for repair and recharge. Nanodecks usually have a function to disable their emitted light for stealth purposes, although the nanite swarm cannot be used while the light is disabled. In some nanodecks that light source is a separate module that is connected to the main body of the nanodeck, and is usually mounted on a belt or elsewhere on the Corpori user’s body.
