Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Cybernetics Development

"The human body is overrated."

-Brotherhood prosthetist

When National Geographic published a full-color picture of a Fodlan dweller, most people took notice of his outrageous outfit, his facial piercings, and his ludicrous haircut. Almost no one noticed that what at first glance appeared to be a pair of strange sunglasses were actually optical implants.

With Kane's entrance, Fodlan is now home to countless cyborgs. Walk through one, and you will not have any trouble finding an individual who has undergone some level of cybernetic surgery. Many dwellers possess cybernetic implants of some kind, ranging from subtle modifications like optical implants and micro-soft ports to crude, obvious modifications like a robotic arm or powered joints.

In general, modifications can be categorized into two categories; high-end implants and street jobs. Many of these modifications are done by people off the street with dubious medical experience, who offer cheap, custom-made implant surgery--though such jobs are usually crude and done under decidedly non-sterile conditions.

On the other hand, higher-end modifications--factory-assembled, carefully installed in hospital environments by qualified doctors--are less obtrusive and safer, but also considerably more expensive. For the most part, such implants are far rarer than what most Sprawl dwellers have, due to the far higher price tag placed on them.

Flesh and Steel
One of the early pioneers in the field of cybernetics was the Voshkod. Under a cybernetics research program, one of the dozens of projects ordered by Emet during the GVAW, Voshkod cybernetics made great strides in progress. The best-known and most successful result of this program was Volkov, the infamous commando and the only known human cyborg to have been produced by the program, and his successor Aranea.

However, after the GVAW, the Voshkod advances in cybernetics were reversed, as the Union’s top cybernetic specialists and researchers began dying under various circumstances. For whatever reason, someone, possibly Volkov, was killing them off. Several scientists saw the writing on the wall, however, and choose to defect, hoping to find safety beyond the Union’s borders.

One of those scientists didn’t stop fearing for his life, even after he made it safely to Fodlan with his family. Seeking protection, he eventually tried to get citizenship. However, the scientist lacked the money to pay for the forged documents. However, the scientist was persistent, and so he offered to pay the Brotherhood in another coin--knowledge. The matter was referred up to the Council and Kane, and following much deliberation, an agreement was struck.

Through the machinations of the Council, a new branch, specializing in the medical sciences, would be formed. In return for heading up the research and development department of this new branch, the scientist would receive not only protection in the form of a security detail, but also a generous salary befitting his position, and a quantity of stock in the new company.

The death of the defector scientist in 1963 was a setback for the Brotherhood, but by that point, he had provided CABAL with a treasure trove of information. Research into the brain and the nervous system would continue unabated after his death, eventually leading the Brotherhood to have an unparalleled understanding of the brain and nervous system.

Linking Mind and Machine
The critical breakthrough came in the interface. Now that they had a comprehensive understanding of how the brain and nervous system worked, it became possible to engineer a mind-machine interface that could link prosthetics to the nervous system.

Finally, after years of research, CABAL unveiled its new “nerve-chip” in 1965. What the nerve-chip did was act as a translator, converting nerve signals into signals that a computer could understand, and vice-versa. The only limitation was that a powerful computer would be required, but that problem had already been taken care of by the development of the integrated circuit some years back.

Paired with an integrated circuit, this new technology could be used to construct a fully controllable prosthetic. The cortical plasticity of the brain allowed it to quickly adapt to signals from prostheses, such that a man would have much control over his robotic arm as he did over his organic one.

Human Revolution
What followed next was a revolution throughout Fodlan. As the Brotherhood began to construct prosthetics based off Chiron’s new nerve-chips and began marketing them, just as countless hack doctors began constructing their own, crude, garage-built cybernetic implants and selling them to people off the streets.

Though some were horrified by the idea of replacing one’s flesh with steel, and others were worried that people without any cybernetic modifications would end up losing out, the technology nevertheless spread rapidly throughout Fodlan, as it was seen what the new cybernetic implants could do.

The Next Step
While cybernetic implants have become fairly commonplace in the Fodlan, a far more recent--and extreme--development is that of CABAL's cybernetic soldiers. In a way, CABAL cyborgs brings cybernetic augmentation to its logical conclusion--the complete replacement of the human body, leaving only the brain and perhaps a few other organs.

CABAL's cyborgs remain extremely cutting-edge. While the other Brotherhood divisions have been given obsolete cyborgs for military purposes, none of them have gotten the chance to see action outside of Fodlan yet.

Such cyborgs must provide life support for the few organic components that remain, of course, but the advantages that provide are profound; a robotic body can be made faster, tougher, and stronger than any human body ever could; a fact that has not been lost on the Brotherhood army. Cyborgs aren’t limited to the human form either, as evidenced by the Tarantula Drone. And if one can keep the brain alive indefinitely, then a cyborg can effectively be made immortal, since worn-out or damaged parts can be easily replaced.

But on the other side, it can be argued that one is giving up one’s humanity. Most cyborgs look nothing like normal humans--though this point is debatable since a cyborg can be designed to look like a human, as demonstrated by Raphael Kirsten. Moreover, the process of battlesuit augmentation is extremely expensive, requiring that one either have a large sum of money on hand or be willing to enter into a contract with CABAL if one does not. There are many other areas that one can look at and argue over, but at the end of it all, it comes down to a single question: is a cyborg of CABAL a human, or a machine?

People of Mass Destruction
When it comes to wetware for cyborgs, the Brotherhood generally employs willing volunteers, vetted for their reliability. This is not because of morality, ethics, or other such petty concerns, but a far more pragmatic one; the technology behind CABAL's cyborgs is usually a highly guarded secret. More importantly, a cyborg under the control of the wrong person is exceedingly dangerous, given that even a civilian battlesuit is a several-tonne monster capable of powdering concrete and tanking multiple anti-armor weapons before going down. There is also the fact that a cyborg is a rather pricey investment.

In addition to the vetting processes CABAL employs in selecting volunteers, CABAL also makes it a point to install override systems for the eventuality that a cyborg might go rogue. There are systems to sever the pilot's connection to the rest of the cybernetics or systems to incapacitate them until they can be recovered, and even systems meant to flash fry any organic components within the cyborg.

Despite these precautions, there have been the rare few battlesuits who have gone rogue. Sometimes, it's because a company used an unwilling subject for the wetware, the result being an extremely enraged person in control of a powerful weapon. For other cases, maybe the failsafe was not properly installed, or simply failed to work when they were supposed to. On occasion, it's because the volunteer for the cyborg was not properly vetted, and had an agenda that was at odds with the Brotherhood. Sometimes, the cyborg just goes insane.

Most of the rogue cases tend to be with older cyborgs, since most companies have been wisening up to the risks and have been employing stricter precautions.