Clever Girls

[This setting is designed to be friendly to both light adventure with low conflict and more high stakes conflict with serious consequences]

In the year 1988 mankind managed to clone living Dinosaurs, contrary to worry there was no grand catastrophe, though mistakes an errors did happen. Parks and Zoos opened and gladly indulged this new marvel, some sought to make them as true to nature as possible, others made them theatrical recreations of what people once thought of dinosaurs as. But ultimately all new discoveries are tested as a tool of war. Corrupt individuals tried to find ways to turn the dinosaurs into living weapons, when this inevitably bred the crisis doomsayers were worried of, small bands scattered and began working in secret for any number of reasons, money, power, revenge. Ultimately it was Doctor Brian Flint who instigated the greatest historical impression, a misanthropic scientist who eventually concluded that humankind no longer deserved life.

He eventually forged a quartet of Hybrids, Indominous Sapien (Indomitable Thinker) from a vast array of specimens, particularly human. Flint began teaching them all he knew, but what he didn't expect was that they would have what he lacked, a conscience. Like any movie monster they rebelled, unlike those however, they did so by reporting him and his followers to the authorities.

Things seems to go well for them, the 4 became strange celebrities after that and joined the scientific community. Then a comet storm brought an alien virus to the planet. The Virus seemed to have two very different effects, in Plants it caused accelerated growth, in mammals it caused micro spores to take root in the body, decaying the still living body from within to feed rapidly growing fungus. Naturally the Immune Indominous' spearheaded the research into cures, and had volunteers lining up for the hopes at averting horrific death. As they had to hurry and take short cuts, the cure had unexpected side effects, they started mutating the inoculated into dinosaur hybrids, as the stress and mutations were not predicted or accounted for this resulted in tragic death. The 4 began breeding new hybrid species both to test for immunity and to serve as more viable templates for the cure. By this point the general public began assuming that they had instigated the events some how to continue Flint's work and turned on them. Forced into hiding very few humans were ever given the stabilized antidote. The 4 continued to try and save as many as they could but also began seeding the world with fresh specimens to fill in the ever widening gaps of but people and missing animals. Some humans attempted to use nanotechnology to cure themselves instead, a process that ended poorly and affects the world to this day. Those uncured who didn't perish either went into underground bunkers or desperate space programs. With only a few left that had any recollection Civilization to teach the newborn peoples, and the overgrowth rapidly choking out cities into over lushed ruins, wisdom has declined. Nobody is quite certain how long has passed, but the 4 are worshiped as Goddesses and their story has become nearly a creation myth.

These new Saur's as they call themselves are all born female, a side effect of a no breeding contingency enforced into the original cloned genomes. Originally the Zoos did not want to risk unauthorized breeding, but ensured that breeding would still be possible under supervision. Blending the sex changing genes of African frogs with a Lysine based hormone control to ensure they could only enter a male cycle when given lysine rich foods. As the Weaponization projects that initially forged the 4 were all about control this contingency was preserved and neglected in the 4's research due to the haste of the cure research. All Saurs need to find lysine rich foods in order to utilize their male reproductive cycle and due to mutation individuals will express it differently.

True Males: The Only ones to find themselves using the His/Him/He pronouns, these are the rarest results, a permanent shift into fully masculine males, most among these posses a rugged hard edged look, though some end up rejuvenating into a male youth. A Secondary Lysine enrichment can turn them into True Male shifters, cycling between True Male and True female forms

Hermaphrodites: Second Rarest are the ones to be functionally male and female at the same time, while seen as a boon for versatility by most, some groups regard them as freaks or bad omens.

Pesudohermaphrodites: These individuals are the second most common, having permanently shifted into a state that is almost entirely feminine but functionally male.

Shifters: the most common result of cycle activation, they regularly switch between a purely female and psuedohermaphrodite form.

-----------------------------------------

The Saurs have many species among the sapient breeds alone, and often come in three sub-variants, Scaled, Plumed and Semi-Plumed, all generally favor builds within or stretching the realms of human size. A growth mutation causes them to grow up fast but have about human life span, reaching puberty at age 5

Raptors: the Most common breed, they are hybridized primarily from Human and various Dromeosaroids, One is hard pressed to not encounter one. They are ubiquitous enough to be considered the "Baseline", are noticeably more drawn to Ruins, partly as they were the first saur template mastered and most of the humans to be cured ended up as this breed.

Trudawn: smaller than Raptors, they as expected are spliced from Troodon species, have a greater inclination towards stealth than frontal attacks. They often build their homes at least partly underground.

Vaptor: Spliced primarily from Oviraptor breeds, they are large and stalky with a tendency towards surly stubbornness, known to prefer digging caves to live in and stone work

Zino: spliced from Therozinosaurus breeds they tend to be taller and surprisingly slender, some seem to have saurpod genes mixed in as well, they are known to favor tilling overgrowth trees into structures for themselves to live in, seeming to dislike using ancient tech or ruins.

Dilofs: Spliced from Dilophosaurus based genes, with other mutated strains integrated, some have a gift for spitting venom, it has been discovered that this venom is flammable and many now make use of torches or salvaged lighters in tandem with their venom.

Compy: Small, curious, numerous, these people are regarded as the worst Mistake the Goddesses made, they derive enjoyment from taking things apart and are not very keen on how to re-assemble them. they prowl ruins on the search for shinies to pilfer. In numbers or working with Guans or Rex's they can be a terrifying foe.

Guan: based on the guanlong, these people tend to be more smug than their abilities get, as if in a permanent state of needing to prove one's self, as a result they often seek combat and other risks for their own sake.

Rex: naturally splice from Tyrannosaurus Rex, they are large, powerful and have a domineering air about them, they tend to be nomadic family or pride groups, and often clash with each other for this reason or that, however some hire themselves as mercenaries or set up warbands with Guans and/Compies to fill out their numbers.

Spinox: Engineered from Spinosaurus, baryonix and Suchomimus, these breeds favor hotter climates, with rivers, if they can get a river in a dessert they are in heaven, they tend to live in fishing communities and often seek out the most ancient of human ruins, the stone ruins that resist nature's grip

Rodons: Spliced from Pterosaus of various breeds (and boy does it show, rarely are any given two similar in look) they are flight capable and endure shorter lifespans for it, they tend to live in the now as a result. When not flying they tend to walk on their forlimbs and handle things with their hind legs.

Coptrix: Spliced from proto birds like Sinornithosaurus, Microraptor, Rhanoavis, and Archeoptrix (along with some secretary bird and Harpy eagle) they are more traditional bipeds and live closer to normal lifespans, however they are more gliders than fliers.

Icthys: Icthyosaus splices with elements of dolphins as well, they live purely aquatic, though still need to breath air, thus sticking to the shallows

Mosus: spliced from Mosasaurus, Megalania and multiple crocodillians, they are amphibious, preferring the water but able to walk on land

Indominous: only 4 are known to have ever existed, and they have seemingly vanished, those who don't see them with the mythical awe assume they have died of old age.

--------------------------------------------------

Technology is regarded as a type of magical artifact, understood only by those learned in the mystical ways of science, projector rooms are often seen as chambers of vision, into the past, possible futures or other realms of reality. Often used as a means of divining from human knowledge, only a precious few can divide fact from fiction. This can result in entire communities shaped by old human media.

Scientists are seen with mixed awe and suspicion, taught by the last generation of former humans, they pass their wisdom and secrets of techno-sorcery as best they can to receptive minds, In combat a scientist may use Stunning weapons like gas and flash bombs, or electrical stunners, the most desperate or dangerous will even use gunpoweder, white robes and seeing glass are traditional garments.

On average about a third of the sapient population is literate, most on whatever language was native to the region.

Of greatest worry are those who might find and make use of the old human weapons for personal gain.

------------------------------------------------

The world is not absent of hazards, many places that needed regular maintenance broke down in hazardous ways when humans died out, Dams burst, Powerplants overload and detonate or get taken over by the legacy of the nanite "cure", leaving large areas as forbidden zones.

The Nanotech that humans attempted to use was meant to use the spore cells and other illnesses like cancers as building material to make more, while optimizing the body and granting wireless internet access, but instead of assimilating only spore matter, it spread like a cancer all its own, replacing all living cells with machine cells. In some lucky individuals the machines stop at a mid way point as their half functioning limiters take effect, for most they are overwritten into more machines, pre-programmed to gather, build and inoculate the uncured, some variants also having a "Human defense protocol" written in to attack Saurs under the assumption that they were trying to wipe out humanity.

However like all machines they need power and material, this causes them to isolate to places that generate power like plants or thermal zones or lots of metal like military bases or city ruins that haven't been choked in overgrowth. Isolated from the greater world, they robotically work and imitate life by approximation. Those that are half way converted retain their minds normally, but are granted access to the echos of the internet, now only kept in place by the computer nodes of collective nanites. Half changed can safely walk among the converted and be ignored, the most clever can even use this to exert control over them, but as those that typically do so are power mad, it has generated a stygma against it for those that are sane.

Also like any machine they are weak to EMPs which are seen by many Saurs as a divine cleansing power to bring the disturbed dead to rest, on half changed it only temporarily harms them as the mechanical parts can piggyback on the organic half.

These Machines wildly vary depending on the cluster, from walking military machine mash ups, to Chrome Skeletal monsters, and beyond.

Half Changed are at best distant Mentors, usually outcasts but at worst seen as abominations to be hunted.


beyond the machines there are fauna, tribal conflicts, superstition, and other mysteries that boggled even the civilized times