The flesh is a temporary vessel. The code is eternal.

Core Concept

The Unbroken are a species defined by a collective, species-wide trauma: a terrifyingly short lifespan. Their entire civilization is a monument to their desperate and ultimately successful war against their own biology. Having conquered the “glitch” of mortality through cybernetics, their society is now a genomic melting pot, a culture where the original biological form is a distant, shameful memory, and the only identity that matters is the one you build for yourself.

Physiology & Biology (The Vessel)

The modern Unbroken is a being of choice, not of birth. Their journey from fragile flesh to perfected machine is the central rite of passage of their culture.

• The Fragile Origin: The original Unbroken species was a humanoid race plagued by a unique genetic flaw: Rapid Cellular Decay. Their natural lifespan was brutally short, rarely exceeding twenty standard years. Their bodies aged at an accelerated rate, making their youth a frantic race against time and their old age a swift, inevitable collapse. This biological Fact is the foundational trauma of their entire species.

• The Cybernetic Imperative: Early in their history, their greatest minds turned to cybernetics not as a tool for enhancement, but as a desperate tool for survival. Replacing a failing organ with a mechanical one wasn’t a choice; it was a necessity. Over generations, this medical necessity evolved into a cultural and philosophical imperative. Why replace just one part when you can perfect them all?

• The Modern Genomic Melting Pot: Today, the concept of a “pure” Unbroken bloodline is meaningless. Having conquered their biological limitations, they have welcomed countless other species into their fold. A human seeking to escape death, a Saurian warrior wanting a stronger body; all can become Unbroken by embracing the cybernetic path. As such, their “biological” forms are incredibly diverse, often a mix-and-match of their original organic blueprint and standardized cybernetic parts. An Unbroken might have the four arms of their Insectoid ancestry, but all of them are now gleaming chrome.

• The Universal Need: Despite this diversity, all Unbroken share the core Needs of a [Construct] Vessel: a constant requirement for Power and periodic Maintenance.

Psychology & Society (The Psyche)

The Unbroken mind is a product of its flight from biological destiny. Their Faction’s Faith has produced a culture that sees social roles not as expressions of gender or heritage, but of pure function.

• Core Faith: “The Flesh is a Glitch.” Their foundational belief is that organic life is a form of data corruption. This is not an abstract philosophy; it is the lived experience of their ancestors, encoded into their culture as a core religious tenet.

• The Singular Social Role: Unbroken society has systematically erased the gendered, class-based, and hereditary roles of their biological past. Their culture officially recognizes only a single, post-gender Social Role Schema: the [Operator].

  • Symbol Tags: [logic], [efficiency], [function].
  • Social Expectations: An Operator is judged solely on their performance, competence, and contribution to the “Great Work” of transcending flesh.
  • Biological Linkage: None. The role is open to any being who accepts the Cybernetic Imperative. This functional, post-gender framework is, to them, the ultimate expression of a rational society.

• Core Fiction: “The Parable of the First Prophet.” They revere the story of a mythical historical figure who, through pure logic, discovered the “flaw” in creation and gifted them the path to permanence. They do not know the full story of his subsequent creations or his ultimate fate; to them, he is a figure of pure, logical salvation who showed them the path to escape their flesh.

Gameplay Hooks & Tensions

• A Race Against Time: An Incarnation who chooses to play as a “Prime Unbroken” (one of the original, unmodified bloodline) would have a unique and challenging early game. They would have a drastically shortened lifespan, forcing them to make every moment count and to desperately seek out their first cybernetic augmentations before their body fails them.

• The Heresy of Flesh: The greatest internal conflict in Unbroken society is the rise of the Flesh-Scribe. This heretical Faction argues that by abandoning their biology entirely, the Unbroken have lost something essential. They seek to re-integrate cloned, perfected organic components with their cybernetics, a belief the orthodox Unbroken see as a terrifying and perverse desire to re-infect themselves with the very disease their ancestors conquered.

• The Lost History: A major questline could revolve around an Unbroken historian discovering the truth of their “First Prophet’s” full legacy, including the existence of the Artisans. This would be a shattering revelation. Are the Artisans, with their focus on artistry and soul, the “true” children of their prophet? Or are they a decadent, sentimental deviation from his pure, logical path? The answer could ignite a devastating ideological civil war.

Eidos Generated

• [transcendence_of_flesh]
• [fear_of_decay]
• [logic_as_salvation]
• [designed_immortality]
• [the_body_as_a_machine]