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Lysandra Background
Sep. 9th, 2020 12:42 pmIn 2037, a scientist by the name of Edwin Smith invented a device capable of transmitting human thought from one person using the device to another. This device, the use of which was deemed “Thoughtcasting”, became a modest success and eventually led to a plan to set up a wireless network that would allow people Thoughtcasting to access each other without being near one another, much like wireless Internet does today. Unfortunately, upon putting this plan into action, many using the device experienced a powerful mental backlash that caused them to black out for about 10 seconds. While those in normal circumstances recovered fine from the incident, at least one person Thoughtcasting while driving actually died. This led to legal trouble and ended with Thoughtcasting being banned from wireless use and the network it ran on dismantled.
Why the mental backlash happened in the first place is how all this connects to Lysandra. The frequency range Thoughtcasting transmitted data at is known as the Schumann Resonance, a real thing some people believe operates on the same wavelength as human thought, hence its use in Thoughtcasting. In-universe the Schumann Resonance is connected to a sort of Akashic Record-styled date based that contains information on every living thing that has ever lived on Earth. This data can only normally be accessed creatures in a fetal or larvel state, which use the data transmitted as a blue print to follow that allows them to grow into whatever their child state is. The data received is then transmitted back to the record and allows for it to be updated if any major changes to the basic structure of the species had occurred. The Psychic feedback that occurred during Thoughtcasting’s wireless roll out was actually a sort of overload from people accidentally accessing the records and accidentally downloading its contents into their brain.
While the people who blacked out were fine afterwords, with the data they had accidentally downloaded data eventually simply filtered from their brain, the records itself were broken to an unfixable degree. Because of this damage, the data transmitted from the human portion of the records began to become mixed with that of various animals. This incident made itself known in the fall of 2037 when a girl with feathers and wings was born in New York. What resulted was a massive revolution in the world, as more and more children were born with similar features and forced a society that had begun to pride itself on unity after the disasters of the early 21st century to reexamine itself and what it means to be human.
Harpy culture in the mid 21st century was one of grass roots movements and community outreach. Because subspecies humans, the official designation agreed upon for animal-like humans in the 2040-50s, appeared suddenly, there was very little infrastructure to integrate their existence into existing laws and legal frameworks, a problem that would only fully be solved in the 2050s or so when subspecies was added to various non discrimination acts and laws across the globe. Because of this lack of help from governments and communities, harpies began banding together in small groups to teach the young about their place in the world, how to properly deal with their unique bodies, and, most important of all, set the ground work for learning to fly, an ability that all harpies share and that would go on to become what defined harpy culture in general over the decades.
At once such community meeting in the 2070s Lysandra’s parent’s Carol and Adam Weiss met. Carol, a harpy, and Adam, a normal human, hit it off quickly and were married soon. Their first and only daughter, Lysandra K. Weiss ,but called Lisa for short, was born in December of 2081. Lysandra grew up in a happy household, learning harpy related matters from her mother and a great deal about history and art from her father, who had majored in both in college.
As a child Lysandra was obsessed with flight, as most harpy children are, and read about it over and over in text and online as much as she could. A bright child, she understood the science behind flight and how harpy physiology allowed for it at all. However, in grade school, during the time set aside for subspecies humans to learn about their history and any unique anatomical issues they might have, Lysandra was finally allowed to practice flight, only to discover upon her first test flight that she would black out while trying to do so. Many tests later, it was found a unique brain condition was causing the black outs but also that there was nothing modern medicine could to fix the problem.
This caused endless depression for the young Lysandra, who was isolated from her harpy friends and earned the unfortunate nickname of “Clippedwings” in school. Lysandra would eventually accept that she would likely never fly, and threw herself into her studies to find something else to define her existence. As it turned out the same fervor she used to study flight was equally useful to study other subjects. This earned her good marks in school, led her to getting a scholarship to a state college. This leads us to the present, where Lysandra is studying subspecies history and culture, while applying her earthbound self to running track, becoming the first harpy to achieve success in the sport in her school’s history.
Why the mental backlash happened in the first place is how all this connects to Lysandra. The frequency range Thoughtcasting transmitted data at is known as the Schumann Resonance, a real thing some people believe operates on the same wavelength as human thought, hence its use in Thoughtcasting. In-universe the Schumann Resonance is connected to a sort of Akashic Record-styled date based that contains information on every living thing that has ever lived on Earth. This data can only normally be accessed creatures in a fetal or larvel state, which use the data transmitted as a blue print to follow that allows them to grow into whatever their child state is. The data received is then transmitted back to the record and allows for it to be updated if any major changes to the basic structure of the species had occurred. The Psychic feedback that occurred during Thoughtcasting’s wireless roll out was actually a sort of overload from people accidentally accessing the records and accidentally downloading its contents into their brain.
While the people who blacked out were fine afterwords, with the data they had accidentally downloaded data eventually simply filtered from their brain, the records itself were broken to an unfixable degree. Because of this damage, the data transmitted from the human portion of the records began to become mixed with that of various animals. This incident made itself known in the fall of 2037 when a girl with feathers and wings was born in New York. What resulted was a massive revolution in the world, as more and more children were born with similar features and forced a society that had begun to pride itself on unity after the disasters of the early 21st century to reexamine itself and what it means to be human.
Harpy culture in the mid 21st century was one of grass roots movements and community outreach. Because subspecies humans, the official designation agreed upon for animal-like humans in the 2040-50s, appeared suddenly, there was very little infrastructure to integrate their existence into existing laws and legal frameworks, a problem that would only fully be solved in the 2050s or so when subspecies was added to various non discrimination acts and laws across the globe. Because of this lack of help from governments and communities, harpies began banding together in small groups to teach the young about their place in the world, how to properly deal with their unique bodies, and, most important of all, set the ground work for learning to fly, an ability that all harpies share and that would go on to become what defined harpy culture in general over the decades.
At once such community meeting in the 2070s Lysandra’s parent’s Carol and Adam Weiss met. Carol, a harpy, and Adam, a normal human, hit it off quickly and were married soon. Their first and only daughter, Lysandra K. Weiss ,but called Lisa for short, was born in December of 2081. Lysandra grew up in a happy household, learning harpy related matters from her mother and a great deal about history and art from her father, who had majored in both in college.
As a child Lysandra was obsessed with flight, as most harpy children are, and read about it over and over in text and online as much as she could. A bright child, she understood the science behind flight and how harpy physiology allowed for it at all. However, in grade school, during the time set aside for subspecies humans to learn about their history and any unique anatomical issues they might have, Lysandra was finally allowed to practice flight, only to discover upon her first test flight that she would black out while trying to do so. Many tests later, it was found a unique brain condition was causing the black outs but also that there was nothing modern medicine could to fix the problem.
This caused endless depression for the young Lysandra, who was isolated from her harpy friends and earned the unfortunate nickname of “Clippedwings” in school. Lysandra would eventually accept that she would likely never fly, and threw herself into her studies to find something else to define her existence. As it turned out the same fervor she used to study flight was equally useful to study other subjects. This earned her good marks in school, led her to getting a scholarship to a state college. This leads us to the present, where Lysandra is studying subspecies history and culture, while applying her earthbound self to running track, becoming the first harpy to achieve success in the sport in her school’s history.
