The Neo-Seraph “Neo-S” body is a variant of the Neo-Caelisolan species, spliced with Seraph DNA. It was designed to progress Elysian physiology forwards for those who needed it, from the human-like capabilities of past Elysians. It is a restricted form of Elysian and is reserved for those with the correct authentication.
The Neo-Seraph was developed as an experimental variation of the Neo-C species, more geared towards reintroducing the already discovered and utilised Seraph technologies. Particular efforts were made to remove the characteristic 'alien' features of the Seraph types, focusing more on the Neo-C physicality, while ensuring the positive aspects of the Seraphs was manifested in the species. Currently, the Neo-S comprises only of repackaged existing biotech, with no new additions at this time.
After the Elysian Celestial Empire was subumed into the Yamatai Star Empire, the Seraph project was all but abandoned. Military biotech in the Kikyo Sector was entirely dominated by the Nekovalkyrja.
Spurred by a personal request from Elysian Senator Antonius Castor to develop into Seraph technology, it was this and other factors that led to the research of the Neo-Seraph by Neo-Caelisolan scientist Iemochi Seinosuke. After procuring heavily restricted Seraph DNA from his contacts from the suzertainty government on Elysia Novus he had the material to try and merge the compatible parts of past projects with his own.
Neo-Seraphs take an identical role societally speaking as Neo-Caelisolians, only distinguishable as a much more militarily capable variant. They perform much the same tasks, though they are seem more as ruffians than Neo-Caelisolans. As the variation has a similar function of foreigners being able to transfer into the body, Neo-S are still seen as outsiders to much of Elysian society. That being said, the military advantages of this variation means that native Elysians are more likely to move to this form. However, much like the Neo-Cs are seen as a 'muddied bloodline' by pure Elysians, the same applies to Neo-S individuals. The children of Neo-Seraphs and other Elysians can be classed as either type at birth, based on various circumstances. Neo-Seraph females can only have offspring with Elysians due to the inhospitable nature of their physiology.
Physically, Neo-Seraphs are much stronger than even Patritians, being in some way equivalent to other pure Seraphs. Neo-Seraphs have the same wing colouration as Neo-Caelisolians but always feature some greyscale. This may be a trim of black, grey or white on the edges. It could also manifest as a smoky mix of colours, while traditional Elysian subspecies are of singular wing colouration.
Neo-Seraphs are also internally different to their original counterparts. They have the same benefits of the Neo-Caelisolian compared to the Caelisolian, but with far greater augmentations owing to the splicing with Seraph DNA. It is possible for a Neo-Seraph to be made more amenable to non-biological augmentation during their creation, but after this point they follow standard Elysian Species Augmentation.
There are a wide range of Seraph abilities from past Elysian biotechnology. As some of these are not fit for general usage, Neo-Seraphs will only be equipped with them depending on circumstance, much like how there are variations of other races for the same reason. One could imagine them as similar to the various specialty breeds that races like Nekos have.
The above are standard for all types of Neo-S. For civilians, this is often the only package that would ever be made available.
The above is geared towards members of the Star Army of Yamatai, allowing for various military and tactical advantages, including great robustness and strength above standard.
The above set of abilities is generally only augmented on a case-by-case basis from the Elysian Senate.
The augmentations listed below are from existing Seraph biotechology, which was delicately and expertly transposed into the Neo-Caelisolan base. Currently, there is no 'new' biotechnology conceived or created, just the repackaging and transferal of existing Elysian technology. Their DNA is designed to be obsfucated and morphs in response to attempts to read it, making cloning or creation of Neo-Seraphs without the base code from their creators impossible.
As per the base abilities of the Neo-Caelisolan, they are resistant to viral infection, but with Seraph abilities, they also have resistance to bacterial infection which was an issue for Neo-Cs. The Neo-C changes to bone structure from the original Caelisolians is maintained and increased, making them denser and stronger rather than focusing on torsion-resistance like the Caelisolians. The flight-worthiness of Neo-S are improved, owing to the increase of liquid mass and reduction of solid mass from the Neo-Caelisolan.
At the least, like an S18, they are capable enough to pick up one ton with either of their arms, or two if they are using both, and to carry this with a fair amount of ease. Their hands are equipped with five fingers, capable of astounding manipulating skills, and also possessing a vice-like grip. From the S11, the Neo-S has its regeneration systems and high strength.
Taken from the S20, the requirement for sleep is greatly reduced, with the Neo-S highly fatigue resistant. The S20's design to survive easily on one meal a day was transposed. Lastly, like the S19, it can enter into a form of hibernation where its metabolism is vastly reduced allowing for long term storage.
The S19's mentality of having few organs and a decentralized nervous system was used in the Neo-S. As with the S19, most of its bulk taken up by muscles, a strong skeleton, and its flesh. From the S14, the Neo-S can breathe through their skin.
As with the S19, the Neo-S has good low-light vision. It also has considerable senses: beyond eagle-like and infrared-range eyesight, a hearing ability far above human, and an advanced olfactory sense, capable of being used to track individuals. As the S19, they also have a natural form of radar and radio-communication. The S18's ability to taste, feel and hear through their skin was transposed. Their tactile sense is especially developed, capable of detecting extremely fine details about something they touch.
The Neo-S takes the S19's skin, also capable of changing color, a limited chameleon effect – not enough to create invisibility, only become transparent, but enough to greatly aid covert operations. This chameleon ability also applies to the wings. The heavily viscous, liquid nature of its body also allows for another capability drawn from (and improved from) past models - the ability to shift its physical appearance to represent that of an individual for whom a DNA sample is available. They can also assume a state of utter transparency, and lack any scent - making them useful in stealth, though this is far more commonly used for ambush.
Its flesh is damage resistant, however designed more to protect against energy attacks rather than kinetic, with great resistance to even rapid energy changes such as those produced by energy weapons. The S19's capablity of regenerating large portions of body such as limbs or even the head (thanks to the decentralised nervous system) within minutes of injury was taken and utilised in the Neo-S. As per the S19, the Neo-S is capable of achieving intense bursts of speed and seemingly impossible examples of reaction times and reflexes. From the S17, the Neo-S's flesh is mostly liquid in form, able to absorb and regenerate vast amounts of physical damage while remaining operational. They are able to shape their flesh into weapons such as spikes and blades.
Like the S18s, they are able to create tendrils out of their flesh, and use these to pick up and manipulate objects, which they do with an extraordinary degree of finesse, aided in this by exceptional hand-tendril co-ordination and their 360 degree vision. These tendrils have roughly the strength of a human arm, and like an S18 can produce up to six at any one time.
While they are actually designed in order to use weapons and indeed armour, these Seraphs also have natural weapons – their blood contains a powerful acid secretion and a highly powerful bite with its phlegm operating again as a powerful acid. From the S18, the Neo-S's mouth is filled with similar sharp teeth. As an S17, when in a mortally wounded condition, the genetic build of their bodies can be altered to become highly corrosive - this is a last resort, and causes the Neo-S to destroy itself after a period of 2 standard hours. They can secrete the same toxins as the S11.
The Neo-S can ‘bud’ additional Seraphs as the S19 and others could, which are asexual clones of itself. The memories and skills of the ‘parent’ are passed on to the ‘child’. This budding takes around half an hour, and requires the skin of the back to be unobstructed, as the buds appear between the spinal nodes. It is quite an ordeal and usually can only be undertaken once every few months.
The Neo-S, like the S19s and S20s can communicate telepathically up to the range of 10-18km. Like the S20, feelings of boredom or dissatisfaction can be escaped quite easily by the user with relatively little effort. Their mind excels in video-spatial processing and mechanics. Like the S18, the Neo-S are very adept at resisting telepathic attacks.
The Neo-S, like the S20 does debatably not have a 'soul', or as much of a 'soul', in the Elysian way of viewing the world. Equally, those with contrary views realise that the main use of this is for soldiers, sometimes foreigners fighting for Elysia, so the use of STs is viewed more functionally. This means that there are few compunctions about using ST technology to implant knowledge and skills into it, rendering training unnecessary and allowing a single Neo-S to be able to transfer between different occupations easily. Specialist knowledge can be downloaded before a mission using ST technology in this way.
Once given a task it can watch and adept to perform it. With some relevant information downloaded in to its brain, and it will be able to carry out that task with skill to rival a skilled worker. In concert with its other abilities, it can often out-do them as well.
From the S18, the Neo-S is capable of extremely complex tasks, and carry them out perfectly. It has an eidetic memory and an amazing visual-spatial perception, which makes it incredibly good at construction work.
Neo-S, like the S19, can have a huge amount of data pre-loaded regarding tactics, weapons, fighting styles, as well as information on possible enemies, their weaknesses, and effective tactics that can be used against them.
From the S19, while possessing a full ‘solo’ mentality, the Neo-S can use its telepathy to activate a ‘hive-mentality’ in which local Neo-S are linked and thus capable of perfectly co-ordinating their actions, creating a complete military team. Beyond the hive-mind use, the S19's capablity of telepathic communication at a distance of 18km with considerable telepathic defense is transferred over. The intense 'networking' of heavy coordination extends in a radius of 50 meters from each linked Neo-S.
Like the S17, the Neo-S posesses respectable capacity for sharing the thoughts and visions between all of its kind within a 10km radius. The coordination this develops can be hard to counter in battle.
Playing a Neo-Seraph is similar to playing a Neo-Caelisolan, so please refer to that page alongside this one for more focus on the societal aspects of the species. Becoming a Neo-Seraph is a huge decision that should not be taken lightly, essentially becoming a living weapon in the same way a Nekovalkyrja is. Expect to be seen with great suspicion or perhaps fear from average people. There's still memories out there from the Elysian Wars, so while you can stick up for yourself in the vast majority of fights, be wary of becoming a societal outcast by acting cocky and overbearing.
The Neo-Seraph body is not available to the public - it remains the joint property of Iemochi Seinosuke and the regional government of Elysia. Biologically, to transfer into a Neo-S, one needs to have already adapted to being in an Elysian body, or else the mind will reject the change, causing the subject to die of shock, incurable mental distress and insanity. It's recommended that a Neo-S transfer is only ever attempted by a natively born Elysian, or by someone who has adapted to being a Neo-C for a period of no less than a few years. The shock of moving from someone adapted to a digitally-minded species often takes longer to avoid. In the same vein, splicing Neo-S DNA is a perilous affair and is functionally impossible without the correct method and requirements - one of which is the absence of a digital mind and femtomachine-based technology. The method of creating a Neo-S is a closely held secret within the Elysian suzerainty government on Elysia Novus. Therefore it is subject to broadly the same protections as Nekovalkyrja.
The Neo-Seraph's body appears nearly identical to the Neo-Caelisolan form, however their wings always contain some element of monochrome colours. They are often taller than most all Neo-Caelisolians, usually closer to traditional Seraph heights of around 6 feet. Colourations and rarities for hereditary eye, hair and wing colours correspond to Caelisolan features. In addition, shades of white appearing in irises or on flesh are more likely than normal. Occasionally, the protrusions of the spine through the back are sharper and more prominent than usual, but this is rare.