Lantus Brea ("Offspring")

The Lantus Brea are the bottom rung of their social ladder, usually reserved for children and young adults just inside puberty before their bodies have blossomed into sexual maturity – an event that happens at around age 30. A Lantus child takes decades to develop their body’s organic biome, storing Nanities and Calorics specific to their career path and developing the reserves to create their armour. “Blossoming” is sometimes taken literally, as the plants that share their skin often mirror the moods, desires, and life stages of their symbiotic partner.

Born from a giant flower anchored in the moss like carpet of a ship, Brea are all genetic siblings to one another. Their father is hand selected from the heroes of the day, his body being harvested like fruit, leaving him sterile. Their mother is the flower herself, which is literally the distended and wildly outgrown uterus of a Lantus woman called a Gene-Weaver, who had her body modified in a ceremony where her organs were reshaped into a multitude of external flowers. Her torso, head, and limbs are grown into the central stalk of the flower pod, like a tree. She will remain this way until her genetic features are no longer fashionable, at which point she will disconnect and return to bipedal life a sterile and badly scarred individual, but one who will be revered like a goddess among her kind.

Brea are nearly androgynous, the result of their faces and anatomy being created for them on the whim of the state-approved Gene-Weaver’s vision. Her mind directly controls the genes of her gestating offspring as if she were dreaming their features into being. Each individual Lantus has unique physiological adaptations that make them destined for one career or another depending on the needs of the day. Some Gene-Weavers are specialized for crafting Civilians, others Engineers and Combat oriented Brea. This has established a tyrannical and ridged caste system that has formed intractable divisions in labour and class, especially as some individuals grow to resent being stuck.

Unlike Confederates and Serin, the Lantus have no underprivileged members of their society. There are ranks however, sorted according to age and level of experience, with the top tiers being locked into hereditary lineages commingling with rising stars in trade, entertainment, or warfare, and the lowest being strapped into heavily regimented service life where they are expected to remain docile and malleable to the needs of their rulers.

The Brea are used like servants, artists, and gardeners, tending to ship functions or attending social gatherings. They are trained to remain silent, seen not heard, and obey their Jetseti exactly as stated. Those who don’t fit this life are often made soldiers. All Lantus go through this as part of their education and social upbringing. They have no parents, no freedom, but as soon as they reach sexual maturity around age 30 they are suddenly allowed to upgrade to the next Type.