Gods of Terra | Who are the Wavetouched?

Even today, in our world, humans continue to evolve. How we turn out tens of thousands of years from now is anyone’s guess, as we are a species in continual transition. But humans in the Gods of Terra setting live side by side with a recently emerged daughter-species, the Wavetouched, also known as Homo mirus, the Myrad race.

But these are no supermen, or superwomen, merely divergent from H. sapiens in some interesting ways.

Wavetouched differ genetically from baseline humans by less than one percent, and these genetic differences spell out the code for a slightly different brain structure. The architecture of their brains gives them an early built-in baloney-detector, operating below the threshold of consciousness and making them, to varying degrees, natural rationalists. At the very least, these allow a particular talent for structured logical thought an easier time than baselines with mastering the mental toolkit of critical thinking, and generally quick studies in learning how to apply it in context.

Not that they are completely immune to errors, but they are more prone to catching themselves in the act of reasoning poorly, engaging in motivated reasoning, or applying critical thinking out of context. They are humans, after all.

This varies, like any human trait, along a statistical bell-curve, with more or less skilled or talented being outliers along the far ends of the curve.

This variant brain architecture also has one other effect:

It protects them from the neurological and psychiatric dangers of harboring a hypershard in one’s brain. They may use these relics and access their potent effects in ways that would burn out baseline human brains, if, of course, they have one, and some few actually do.

Wavetouched came to prominence mostly through Kai’Siri meddling in Terran affairs in search of subjects to become walking doomsday weapons using three of the four Prime shards, the first three being implanted in the Mirus, the Fractus, and the Magna, with the fourth, undiscovered by the Kai’Siri, residing within the head of the Herald of It Who Scratches at the Gates, the Tempest.

It was the public actions and deeds of these four, known across the Local Galaxy, that first brought the species to the public’s attention. The Wavetouched were at first quite indistinguishable from baseline humans to most, save for the occasions they were brain scanned due to the need to diagnose injury or the occasional neurological condition that any genetically diverse population might be subject to. You’d be surprised how easy it is to miss something as subtle as seemingly minor differences in brain structure, especially using early technology, and the errors in perception of those performing the scans even with better tech. Humans are good at pattern recognition, but limited, often failing to see what’s right in front of us even if not imposing false patterns on what we see. Early on, Myrads were  thought just quirky outliers along a bell-curve, until recognized as a species in their own right some centuries later.

Where did Wavetouched come from? From sinister but failed plans to create superhumans, to an escaped virus from a lab infecting the human genome, to a natural transition of the species over time, and other ideas, there is much speculation on their origin.

But for now, the Children of the Great Ripple, are here, ready to take their place on the galactic stage as the heirs of humanity’s legacy among the stars.

And for good or ill, they will not be denied.