WIP Note: This is draft 2. I will likely continue to tweak everything, but this gets the gist in. Please, comment, and tear apart!
HISTORY:
The Nanori began as a colony heavily experimenting with nanotech, attempting to, essentially, create an entire artificial ecosystem by using self-replicating and evolving nanotech, as well as a very serious and in-depth exploration of what could actually be done with the technology.
The Nanori home-planet was originally the target for a Spacer slow-boat, however, worm-hole exploration showed that the planet would be unsuitable for terraforming to a terran biosphere. The Nanori colonists then purchased both the claim and the Spacer ship that they might attempt a radical new method of terraforming: Nanophages. The colonists set their specialized home-built nanophages to work alongside altered terraforming bacteria, and over the centuries of intermittent wakefulness watched the world develop into something new and never before seen. When the "biosphere" had developed enough that a clear direction had taken place, the Nanori sent to work developing the tools to manipulate the phages and to keep terran life competitive on the planet and continued the "terraforming" process.
What resulted was a planetary ecosphere of unrivaled variety, amazingly familiar and excruciatingly alien, dangerous and new - and a people utterly transformed on the microscopic level. The Nanori world is a strange mix of cellular and nanotech biology, and the people posses an amount of nanotech inside themselves that most people would consider insane.
The government of the Nanori is a representational democracy more similar to the European Union than the US, although not all member states follow that format. The Nanori have since nanoformed numerous other planets, planetoids, gas-giants, and asteroids, and are /the/ place to go for anything involving nanotechnology. Nanori diplomacy stems from their unique abilities to deal with out-of-control nanotech, but is hampered by the inherent deadliness of their populace, who cannot enter another civilization without either a hardy "environment suit" or being classified as a /deployed/ WMD.
"Well, of course the product didn't work as advertised! It needs to permeate at least a continent before it'll stabilize."
- Nanori tech support answering customer complaint of "extinction-level distaster resulting from faulty product". (Suggested by Tau Ceti)
"Whole planet, wiped out, because someone tried to mug the wrong foreign national."
- Nanori Nanophage Task Force on the Cetanios-7 reclamation operation.
Core Values:
Potential Unexpected Diversity -
Core to the Nanori way of life is the allowance of new and unexpected things. However, to contrast with Stardwellers, the Nanori do not deliberately design nor aggressively seek out said diversity - they attain their diversity by setting up situations in which new things will come about .
Evolution -
The Nanori believe very strongly in encouraging evolution, although not the violent, aggressive evolution of the Darwinists. Where the Darwinists preach that only strongest will survive, the Nanori hold much more closely these Darwin quotes:
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
"I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection".
Tech:
Bio: 3-8
Cog: 2-6
Meta: 2-6
Nano: 6-10
String: 2-4 (9)
Benefits -
<> Nanori, being infused with nanotech to the point of nearly replacing their biology, may use Nanotech reserve and skills instead of Bio reserve and skills. Additionally, they possess three reserve points for every one point of nanotech, although they may not spend more than their score on any given roll (as usual). For age purposes, use the Nanotech score of the character rather than bio.
<> Nanori, harboring many active "nanophages", are deadly to most other civilizations, and are required to wear a String-9 environment suit when not in Nanori biospheres. String-10 is not required as not even Nanori life-forms can survive in environments requiring such technology.
<> For Nanori access to nanotech, always use the Nano score. (For instance, nanophages are String-9; a Nanori of nano-9 has access to them, but not other String-9 technology)
"People are scared of nanophages only because they don't realize that they're no more dangerous than the most virulent and deadly protein-based diseases that man has created. What's the difference between solar-conversion nanites and cyanobacteria? Materials."
