Most of these morphs appear in Eclipse Phase, but do not have stat blocks in Transhumanity’s Fate. The stats here are what we will use for these morphs in our game, and are subject to change over time as we learn the system.
Aquanauts are environmentally adapted for underwater activities. They have seen a revival on exoplanets with habitable seas and oceans. Their heart rate slows while underwater, their skin includes a layer of blubber that retains heat, they store oxygen in their muscle tissue, and they do not suffer negative health effects from pressure changes. Additionally, their eyes have nictitating membranes and their corneas adjust to counter underwater refraction. Their hands and feet are webbed and they possess a transgenic swim bladder for controlling buoyancy. They can safely descend to about 200 meters depth (roughly 6 atmospheres of pressure) without suffering narcotic effects or other diving problems.
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Despite the advances in biotechnology, the hyperelite still need caretakers for their children and infirm. The ayah pod morph is designed to fulfill all nurse and caretaker functions. Rather than trust lower-class transhumans, hyperelites prefer AGI servants sleeved into ayah morphs, especially in polities where AGIs have few, if any, legal rights. Ayahs are almost always female with pleasant but not stunningly beautiful features.
Most of the enhanced features of an ayah are built under the hood, so to speak. Their enhanced olfactory capabilities help them monitor the health and emotional state of their wards, as well as alert them to potential environmental dangers. Their ability to withstand temperature extremes and survive without air for short periods helps them protect and rescue their charges in an emergency, such as a hull breach or a fire. Ayahs are often modified with bioweave armor and implanted weapons so they can act as a last line of defense against potential attackers.
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This morph is a version of the exalt morph that has been adapted to fly in Earth normal air pressure. The standard Lunar Flier morph is available on other low-g worlds and habitats, but it was developed for and is primarily found on Luna. Cleansweep has taken considerable effort to adapt it for Earth Gravity and Venusian sensibilities as a sort of hypercorp one-upsmanship over the LLA. This morph resembles a typical exalt morph, except that it is lightly built, has larger lungs, and has feathered wings with a wingspan of 3 meters. The wings come out of the back torso and leave the morph’s hands and wrists unhindered. The wings may also be folded behind the body.
Baseline Lunar Flier removes (CS) traits and stunts, and flight is only possible in low to zero-g.
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Like the surya and hulder morphs, the cloud skate is another biomorph that pushes the edge of what is possible. It is designed to be able to live in the atmospheres of gas giants, including Jupiter. This morph is shaped roughly like a tailless stingray with a pair of slender arms. The version of the swim bladder used by this morph provides neutral buoyancy in dense atmospheres, preventing it from sinking below a safe depth. Several small outer system collectives are planning to use these morphs to colonize the atmospheres of Saturn and Neptune and are also working on creating versions of animals and plants that can also live in these exotic environments.
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Durability: Good (+3)
Stress Boxes: 4
Refresh cost: 1
Cred/Rep cost: Great (+4)
With a few modifications, the Cloud Skate can fly fairly comfortably in Venus’ caustic atmosphere. Since they are designed only for flight, they need some sort of mobility aid when inside the floating aerostats. The venusian cloud skate has a higher pressure bladder which provides some passive lift and a long-lasting internal air supply.
An enhanced version of ruster morphs, crashers are rugged and durable designs capable of weathering a range of harsh environments. They are the ideal biomorph for gatecrashing assignments and are popular among first-in teams. Though pricey compared to other biomorph options, many gatecrashers traveling to less habitable and dangerous environments have found the investment worth it.
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The dragonfly robotic morph takes the shape of a meter-long flexible shell with multiple wings and manipulator arms. Capable of near-silent turbofan-aided flight in Earth gravity, dragonfly bots fare even better in microgravity.
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Exalt morphs are genetically-enhanced humans, designed to emphasize specific traits. Their genetic code has been tweaked to make them healthier, smarter, and more attractive. Their metabolism is modified to predispose them towards staying fit and athletic for the duration of an extended lifespan.
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Given the popularity of octomorphs even among nonmercurials, morph designers have sought out a similar morph that is operable in zero g and also designed for speed. Its streamlined form resembles a stylized squid and this morph can move swiftly in both water and air. It can suck either water or air into a cavity in its mantle and then expel it out a siphon in a chosen direction for fast, jet-like propulsion. While popular with neo-octopi, its speed and overall utility has made it an increasingly favorite option with others seeking an aquatic-adapted morph.
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Durability: Average (+1)
Stress Boxes: 3
Refresh cost: 2
Cred/Rep cost: Great (+4)
A group of Lunar morph designers created this high-end synthmorph in an attempt to increase the social acceptance of synthmorphs by showcasing how attractive and versatile they can be. This elegant morph looks expensive and is designed to allow the user to master any social situation. A few media icons and socialites have already found that this morph’s mixture of utility and novelty value has helped enhance their fame and reputation.
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Gargoyles are an anthroform synthetic morph designed as a mobile sensor unit. They are used by media, freelance journalists, forensics teams, and anyone who is regularly required to document a situation thoroughly. Though humanoid in shape, gargoyles stand taller than average transhumans for better viewing. Much of their exterior surface is covered in quantum dot camera-displays.
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Everyone knows that synthmorphs are tougher and better equipped for serious combat than biomorphs. However, many people in the inner system are not comfortable with using hulking synthmorphs as body¬guards or security personnel. Instead, some choose this subtle and extremely deadly alternative. This morph’s enhanced senses allow it to more easily detect any threats to the person the user is guarding, and the built-in weaponry and moderate armor make it highly resistant to damage. The synthetic mask disguises it quite effectively as an olympian or fury morph.
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Nautiloids are a hybrid of short-range spacecraft and submersible capable of holding up to six passengers and their gear. The morph is shaped like a van-sized nautilus, with crew space in the head and shell. A cluster of tentacular limbs mounted under the observation ports in the head provide both fine and brute force manipulation. Originally created for comet and asteroid mining, the design also proved useful for oceanic exploration by gatecrashing teams and Europans.
The morph’s interior includes a desktop cornucopia machine and a maker. It can deploy a pair of retractable pontoons for stability when floating on a liquid surface. A nautiloid’s life support system can support its occupants for up to three months before replenishing—indefinitely if it has a source of hydrogen and oxygen. Nautiloids include radiation shielding, a small airlock, and a healing vat.
The nautiloid is also available as a bot with no cyberbrain for the same cost.
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Though colloquially referred to as killer whales, orcas are actually members of the dolphin family. The average neo-orca length is 7 meters for males, 6 meters for females. Males also have larger and more triangular pectoral fins.
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Observers have their minds enhanced to bolster intuitive, analytical, and investigative capabilities. They are favored by detectives and others with a mind towards details, puzzles, and thin-slicing.
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Durability: Average (+1)
Stress Boxes: 3
Refresh cost: 0
Cred/Rep cost: Good (+3)
Olympians are human upgrades with improved athletic capabilities like endurance, eye-hand coordination, and cardio-vascular functions. Olympians are common among athletes, dancers, freerunners, and soldiers.
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Durability: Good (+3)
Stress Boxes: 4
Refresh cost: 1
Cred/Rep cost: Great (+4)
This recon morph is designed to be a fast, lightweight runner, climber, and flyer. The opteryx looks like a one-meter-tall winged, synthetic dinosaur and adopts an almost horizontal body posture when running, its tail held out for balance. Its wings are fully functional arms equipped with claws. This morph is a favorite for gatecrashers and neo-avians in the dinosaur identity subculture. It usually comes equipped with cartography package software.
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Selkies look like a human-seal hybrid, and in fact their genetics are aquanaut with heavy splices of seal traits. Their arms are standard human-shaped, but their legs are fused into a pair of hind flippers for powerful swimming. On land, they can stand but have difficulty moving, as they must flop, roll, or hop like a seal. They are adapted for the lack of air, deep cold, and crushing pressure of subcrustal seas.
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Spare morphs are small, cheap, lightweight, synthetic shells designed to be used as a replacement should someone’s original morph be killed or destroyed. The morph has a special cortical stack slot which enables someone to be resleeved from a recovered stack in just a few seconds.
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Popular with AGIs and synthmorph activists, this morph is a sphere approximately one meter in diameter. It can extend up to four flexible limbs as required, and typically hovers at approximately human eye level. The first tests of this morph revealed that the chameleon surface was necessary because it allows the user to display the image of a face, which made most transhumans both more comfortable talking with this morph and less likely to assume that it is a robot.
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This morph was developed by technicians and designers who are members of the Lunar synthmorph rights movement, the Steel Liberators. Middle-class Lunars who came out of poverty and continue to actively support the Steel Liberators sometimes choose this morph, despite the fact that this choice often results in them experiencing significant prejudice from biochauvinists.
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Designed as a top-end version of the steel morph, this shell’s entire outer covering is composed of active nanomachines. A number of synthmorph performers use this shell’s shape- and color-altering capacities as part of their acts. However, the fact that this morph can disguise itself as any other humanoid synthmorph, including the ubiquitous case morph, means that a number of covert operatives and criminals also make use of this morph. This version of the steel morph cannot use a synthetic mask.
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The synthtaur resembles an elegant mechanical centaur, but is a versatile and extremely durable synthmorph. The shape adjusting enhancement allows it to switch between being a two-armed quadruped standing 1.7 meters tall or a four-armed biped standing 2.4 meters high, as well as allowing it to fit into small spaces. Its telescoping legs even allow it to reduce its height to become a 2-meter-tall bipedal humanoid. This morph is popular with gatecrashers, people exploring ruined habitats, and anyone going into dangerous and remote situations.
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The swarmanoid is not a single shell per se, but rather a swarm of hundreds of insect-sized robotic microdrones. Each individual “bug” is capable of crawling, rolling, hopping several meters, or using nanocopter fan blades for airlift. The controlling computer and sensor systems are distributed throughout the swarm. Though the swarm can “meld” together into a roughly child-sized shape, the swarm is incapable of tackling physical tasks like grabbing, lifting, or holding as a unit. Individual bugs are quite capable of interfacing with electronics.
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When a swarmanoid takes Armor as a morph stunt, it does not reflect additional plating or ablative surfaces. Instead, swarmanoid armor comes from additional redundant systems and an aggressive bot dispersal algorithm. These combine to give the swarmanoid some ability to avoid particularly damaging attacks. If Armor is used to downgrade a Devastating Attack, the swarmanoid takes full stress from that attack; it is not further reduced by the Swarm Composition trait.
Swarmanoids have a few unique traits to represent the complications of inhabiting a swarm.
Since swarmanoids are composed of many tiny bots, they react very differently than most morphs to environmental conditions and physical attacks.
Damage to a swarmanoid does not come from cuts and abrasions to solid material, but from the complete loss of multiple bots. This means that in order to begin healing physical consequences, you need to replace the missing bots. Any desktop fabber will do, since the morph comes with the necessary blueprints to make new bots.
With the appropriate tools, it’s possible to use the Hardware skill to remove a Minor physical consequence without access to a fabber.
The Medicine skill can still be used to manage the morph’s physical stress track.
The ego in a swarmanoid is distributed throughout its nodes, so extensive loss of bots directly impacts the processing power available to the ego. Once all Minor physical consequences are filled, the ghostrider module goes offline.
When the Moderate consequence is filled, the ego’s muse shuts down.
The size of the swarmanoids bots means they don’t have much battery capacity and can’t carry much fuel. Fully independent operation is only possible for a few hours before the bots need to recharge and refuel at a suitable base station. Various models of swarmanoid use different shapes for their base station, but all are the size of a briefcase or small backpack.
Swarmanoids also have some fancy tricks at their disposal.
Your small size allows you to use the Fight skill to blind a target’s sensors. When targeting something in your zone, you may use Fight at a +2 bonus to create an aspect like Fly in My Eye on your target. Simultaneously, you gain an aspect on yourself similar to Up In His Business. Both aspects have one free tag as normal. When one aspect is removed, the other is also automatically removed.
Once per session, when a target has used Invulnerable Defense against one of your Fight attacks, you can pay a fate point to slip the machine-insects of your morph underneath their armor and nullify their defense. Target’s with environmental sealing, either as a morph or gear trait, are immune to this stunt.
The first synthetic octopus design from the engineers at Feral Robot is a hardy shell custom-designed to make octopi uplifts feel more at home in a synthetic body with eight functioning appendages. Though it lacks ink sacs, the takko features vectored-thrust jets for microgravity propulsion.
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The glider is designed to survive for many hours in Venus’s unbreathable atmosphere. Tall and thin, with long, strong limbs and a lightweight build, this morph also features gliding membranes that allow it to soar through the upper Venusian atmosphere. It can even gain altitude by riding thermals (which it can see using its enhanced vision). Once Venusian terraforming efforts are complete, an upgraded version of this morph will be able to breathe normally.
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Durability: Average (+1)
Stress Boxes: 3
Refresh cost: 1
Cred/Rep cost: Great (+4)