THEODORE:
Theodore was born to an Amish-style old world colony; that is, they did not reject all technology, but let some in and others not. Metatech-teaching theory, for instance, is widely used on Sturgeon's Planet, but farming is still close to the land. However, the parents of Sturgeon's Planet believed in educating their children about the technology of the outside world, and so Ted grew up knowing what was possible, but doing almost none of it.
Ted was a dreamer, and dreamed of traveling the stars, creating realities, swimming threw nebulae, knowing the satisfaction of the Union, the exhilarating lack of guidance of the Independents…
Ted was a philosopher in an age of possibilities, held in a cocoon where such things remained amazing. Ted wondered - what if I had been born a girl? What if I had been born a cripple? Poor? Rich? A Replicant? A Roamer?
But Ted was patient, so he bought a mesh and lived a long, contented and unremarkable life on Sturgeon. He died holding onto his dreams.
Then he reincarnated.
THE REBORN
You can't make a perfect copy of a person with mesh, but you can make a pretty good copy if you give it a decade or two. What about an entire lifetime? What about two entire lifetimes? That's what the Reborn do, and Ted was the first to think of it. Clone yourself as a baby, implant your old mesh. Technological Reincarnation. Sure, there are going to be some losses, some changes - but hey, nothing's perfect.
CV: "Reborn: ???" This CV acts weirdly. All Reborn had a reason to, but those reasons don't usually match up. Regardless, you don't reincarnate if you don't have a good reason.
Advantages: First, all Reborn get a mesh. Secondly, and here's the doozy - You get an entire extra lifetime for Professions. GM Options: You-relearn them extra fast. They're unique proficiency lenses - no reserve, but the only way someone could be a familiar with the "lens" is if they knew you last time around.
BACK TO TED…
But Ted didn't just reincarnate. Nope. Ted sold his idea to the Patent Office when he first thought of it, around the age of twelve, and became secretly rich. Which was the plan. After all, he wasn't just going to live an extra lifetime, he was going to live hundreds. What if he'd been born a girl after all, eh?
MANY BORN -
Ever wondered what life would have been like if….? There's a way to find out! Reincarnate twice! Thrice! Ten times! Twenty! Sure, it's expensive, but it's life, isn't it worth it? The Many born are actually very different from the many-reborn, although it's very typical to have both. The Manyborn process starts before the birth of the "new" individuals, with the "elder" setting up the situations for the clones, picking wheres, whats, ages, sexes, civilizations, etc, etc. It's a tricky process to get right and the Many-born Society goes to a lot of meta tech effort to get what it's members are after.
CV: "Manyborn: ????" - Another duet. You don't Manybirth without a reason, but, more particularly, you're just playing one of the Manyborn. What's this one doing? Doctor, serial killer? Investor? "Manyborn" also means that you're going to survive until your Convention, in some shape or another.
Advantage: Mesh. A destiny, be it good, bad, vague or specific, you wanted yourself to have a life starting here / going there / hitting that bump.
TEDCON:
But Ted wasn't done yet. Not at all, in fact. He'd reincarnated himself into hundreds of different situations with hundreds of subtle variations on himself, and set a date. Fifty years. Fifty years of life, and the strangest convention ever held. After all, what's the point of many-birthing if you never compare the different lives? All of the Teds, everywhere, left and converged on a rented chunk of a Stardweller Convention space (the particular chunk that had been designed by a Ted), and spent the next five years "catching up".
Ted himself has kept this pattern up for generations, versions that die early freezing themselves until the entire generation can merge using adapted technologies, reincarnating into one Ted, who then sets up for the next generation of Manyborn Theodore.
