Clade Gikk
By their own mythology, Clade Gikk are among the oldest of civilizations, fabulist-enthusiasts, tinkerers and technophiles, dating back to the pre-Diaspora Earth. The reaility is more confused, with the archeological evidence indicating that they were a colony of historical recreationists.
The Gikk genome exhibits a pronounced heterogeny. The males outnumber the females about ten to one. They resemble a typical Old Earth human baseline of European, Asian, or Eurasian appearance. In addition, all male Gikks can be defined by the "Five Ps"):
- Programmer - all Gikks have very highly developed natural skills and aptitude for interfacing with info- and nano-tech.
- Pwub - part of Gikk jargon - this many nuanced term can be translated as "one who is socially inept" or "unattractive to females."
- Poor eyesight - the genmods to correct vision have been removed and other alleles tweaked so myopia is common. As a result they wear heavy ungainly structures on the face called "glasses". Even those Gikks that do not suffer myopia wear these devices, as a sign that "I am a Gikk".
- Pimples -again, "negative" alleles have been favoured to give poor skin complexion. This actually has a useful purpose, not just socially (as a sign of Gikkhood) but technologically, as many Gikks keep their bionano in their pimples.
- Plump - in the sense of flabby or poor muscle tone; so that even a skinny Gikk is called "plump" as long as e does not exercise and is not taking steroid mods (both of which are against the Gikk Code in any case).
Sometimes considered a sixth "P", although it is not a part of the genome, is piz-zah (sacramental food, in the form of a large disc of gluten-based starch on which there is a messy "topping". According to legend it dates back to Old Earth).
Female Gikks are very different from the males, and are clearly the dominant gender; this explains why most Gikk societies are matriarchal. They are defined by the "five B's"
- Breasts - all female Gikks are unusually well endowed.
- Brilliant - Female Gikks have if anything even higher intelligence than the males.
- Blonde - this being the standard hair colour, regardless of skin colour.
- Brave - not only are female Gikks fearless but they have highly enhanced natural combat reflexes, and make excellent warriors. And despite their slight builds they have tremendous physical strength, thanks to their Bio and Nanotech scores.
- Brash - female Gikks are sexually aggressive and confident, and in fact are among the few beings who will have sex with male Gikks. It is thought that founders coded this characteristic to prevent outbreeding and retain clade uniqueness.
Given the role of the female Gikks, it is small wonder the society is matriarchal with women dominating the government and business.
Gikks are highly urban, clustering in cities around their replicators and power supplies. Outside of their cities, the world has reverted to wilderness. Their infosphers is highly developed and they are apparently one of the few Cargo Cults that retained the knowledge and skill to widely manufacture, implant and use neural meshes.
The Gikk Code
The sacred scriptures of the Gikks. Although the original was only about 20 kilobytes of text, it is added to by each successive Gikk generation, and innumerable versions exist. It is written in pseudo-archaic Anglish, and includes instructions like "thou shalt whenever possible Eat Piz-Zah in front of thine nano-interface screen so the chiz* consecrates (lit. "drips on") the console", "thou shalt whenever possible drink Koak* in front of thine nano-interface screen so as to getteth a sugar rush and possibly diabetes" and so on.
*chiz - a yellow organic component of the Piz-Zah topping .
*koak - an addictive drink consisting of caffeine, sugar, water, and flavouring. It is banned throughout much of the Negentropy Alliance (and ignored everywhere else) because of its poor nutritional value. Gikks claim it is a sacramental drink.
To build a male Gikk character, give them high end Cog and Nano for Cargo Cultists, but make Bio and Meta the dump stats. For a female, give them high end Bio, Cog and Nano, with slightly higher Meta.
