AC: Sex and Eugenics

By Dr. Kim Li, special to Sexthulhu Magazine

Being an examination of the Old World and Omegas, with specific reference to the Guild

The history of Omegas in Europe is the history of a vast eugenics experiment. An omega may be defined as two things: an ability and a mutation, and the history of omega eugenics is often attempts to acquire abilities without mutations, but The Guild is unique in sometimes seeking to go the other way.

The history of it is murky at best, often being that of isolated and/or wealthy families who end up with an Omega among them who has a useful talent. The omega then bears of or produces as many offspring as possible, all of whom are kept close to their parent, shown the power and essentially told they will develop it as well. In a family of fliers, this leads to kids being tossed off of rooftops until they fly and so forth. Given the factor of proximity in creating omegas, this would prove a fascinating experiment in the willed nature of omega abilities if data existed about said families. However, propaganda and lies among Guild members makes this difficult to determine.

Despite this, general evidence seems to indicate that at least four generations of such breeding are necessary to achieve adequate result, which is an Omega ability inherited by the family and often weaker than that of other omegas. Curiously, the they breed for mutation rather than ability (for example, strength or toughness) the resulting mutation tends to be stronger but with more physical effects in the long run, which can lead to infertility of one kind or another.

Omega Fertility

Omega fertility is a complicated issue. Some omegas have so little control over their ability as to be virtually unable to engage in sexual acts (for example, a pyro on point of orgasm would burn a room). Or, for example, an Omega whose body produces acid could be unable to bear or produce a child. As well and some mutations render omegas unable to reproduce, such as phasing or invulnerability. Performance anxiety is an obvious problem if you sweat muccus or have a body even your own mother would not love, which further complicates matters. On the whole, however, omegas remain human enough to be able to reproduce with humans and also each other.

Assuming they are compilable, the children of two omegas do tend to end up being born with physical mutations, and conservatively over half the pregnancies do not make it to term. On the flip side, having both parents as omegas means the child is almost 100% likely to become one though not necessarily more powerful than any other.