Transhumanism in Ravenloft

[High Priest Mikhal]

On the eve of XCOM: Enemy Within, which deals with transhumanism and what happens when a group who espouses such crosses the line into "religious" extremism and terrorism, I look at the trend and wonder how this works in Ravenloft. How would this sort of idea work in a Gothic horror setting?

Markovia, obviously, is an entire domain that explores the idea of what humanity is. Broken ones and mongrelmen are both creatures that embody some aspects of transhumanism. As do flesh golems and half-golems (MM II). People who are aware of such beings, of psionics (which are themselves considered transhumanist and especially the psion uncarnate PrC), biomancy (supernatural genetic engineering) and flesh grafting, and of the polymorph sub-school of Transmutation are likely those most interested. Even the most skeptical Lamordian chiurgeon may wonder at the possibilities of (pseudo-)science to improve the "frail human form." The aberrations that appear are surely evidence of these unwise pursuits.

But those can't be all. Ravenloft is home to many, many people. Some of whom harbor some sort of trauma or dark desire that drives them to become something more--or less--human(oid). Be it by flesh, machine, or magic. And as is the case with everything in Ravenloft, none of this comes without a cost. Think of the clockwork heart that grants immortality but must be wound daily or its owner dies as an example. Where, why, and how would people seek out the means to change themselves so radically? Are they in it for altruistic, or at least benignly selfish, reasons? Or are they disturbed and seek to make themselves and others into something else for reasons that range from the grossly material to the logic of insanity?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

"Transhumanism gone wrong" is essentially what the Doppelganger netbook posits as the likely origin for dread doppelgangers. At least, that's what the dopps' own "Divinity of Masters" dogma claims, and their alchemical lodges work to take it a step further, promoting transdoppelgangerism among their members.

In one of the adventures he appears in, Emil Bollenbach has some human thugs working for him, whom he's surgically enhanced/modified by replacing body parts they'd lost with those of other people or species. The modifications are treated as cosmetic in the module, with no effect on game-stats, but could easily be treated otherwise (e.g. eagle eye transplants -> big Spot bonus).

[Boris Drakov]

Here I clicked the thread thinking of transhumance.



Which surely also must be a contentious issue regarding dark lords and closing borders.