REFERENCES: BUREAU 13 FIELD TEAMS, MI 13 AGENTS, SUNLIGHT, FANTOMATIQUE, MIFIISH BIIRA HINA AGENTS

1. Subject
"Nonborn" is a term used by the Bureau to describe any entity that is created fully formed and invested with true life (i.e. possessing a soul) in an unnatural way. Most of the known nonborn are created in the likeness of humans and in many cases are constructed using dead human flesh. Most agents are familiar with Dr. Frankenstein, who's experiments, though crude, were very effetive.

2. Nonborn Appearances
More and more often in the last 50 years nonborns have been made with synthetic bodies but the most common type are still built from reanimated or cloned human tissue. In some cases the Nonborn are actually artifacts themselves, the unliving artifact having been transformed into a living vessel by magical means. Nonborn come in all shapes and sizes although nonhumanoid nonborn are rare, the few nonhumanoid nonborns that exist seem to have great difficulty adapting to their environment and as a result suffer emotionally and mentally.
Of the large variety of nonborn forms certain attributes are common and as such are listed here, in most (but not all) cases the nonborn possess:

  • 2 Legs
  • 2 Arms
  • A Torso
  • A Head
  • Eyes (usually 2)
  • Ears (usually 2)
  • A mouth (although actual speech ability is less common)

    Some of the observed modifications include :
  • Extra Limbs (4 arms seem to be popluar in guardian and servant Nonborns)
  • Extra Eyes (usually 1 or 2 located in the back of the head)
  • Tails (often created with venomous stingers)
  • Extra Heads (these rarely survive long as 2 distinct personalities tend to develop and fight over the body)


    In the case of flesh and blood nonborns (aka FBNs) the general height and skin tone can vary considerably. In some cases mismatched parts can lead to different skin tones on the same body (although as time passes the parts achieve a mixed tone based on the original shades). Flesh and blood nonborns are usually constructed using parts from at least 3 different bodies plus a head (which is added last and is almost never from any of the other donor bodies). The creator of the nonborn will usually spend months collecting the parts desired and freezing them until the time of animation is nigh. The parts normally have to be of exceptional quality to work well after animation and need to be harvested as soon as possible after the death (hopefully the donor parts come from the dead, in the case less ethical creators donors may be alive and unwilling) this is due to the degradation of nerves and muscle tissue after death. Legs from an athlete are preferred and arms and hands of persons who were highly deterous in life such as doctors or pianists are most sought after. The torso often takes the most time to aquire since all the internal organs need to be in prime condition, in a pinch organs can be replaced but this means more searching for healthy organs to transplant and the parts must be thawed to transplant, thus causing more degradation.
    The head is at once the easiest and most difficult part to obtain. It is easy in that any head of appropriate size will work once grafted onto the torso but difficult in that the head must be harvested from the donor within 10 minutes of death or the brain becomes irrevocably damaged and useless for successful reanimation.

    The second and increasingly more common kind of nonborn is the synthetic nonborns, often mechanical in nature these nonborns often possess exceptional physical and mental attribues but rarely have well developed emotions, often requiring years of social interaction to learn proper emotional responses. This is not to say synthetics do not possess emotions upon creation, but instead they have no knowledge of what the emotions are or how to control them. This situtation often leads to irrational behavior early in the lives of synthetic nonborns unless they recive coaching on how to experience and control thier emotional responses. Synthetics whos have no emotions at all are usually not classified as nonborns, but are simply artificially intelligent machines (emotions are a part of a soul and with no soul the creature cannot be classiifed as alive). Synthetic nonborns may or may not look human, but take heed, a human looking android may seem alive and free thinking but if it does not posses a soul it is still a machine, where as a wire and steel nonborn make look completely inhuman but still be alive and have a soul.
    Distinguishing between artificial life and artificialy created life (i.e. nonborns) is a tricky thing and often requires much testing. Synthetic Nonborn creatures that poossess some organic parts are usually immune to a mage's anti-technology aura.

    3. Powers of the Nonborn
    Each flesh and blood nonborn possess skills inherent to the donor parts used in its creation. In these cases the nonborn possesses part of the skills associated with parts (except in the case of knowledge skills). For example if the nonborn had the hands of pianist with a piano skill of 15 and head from a performer with Singing 13 skill, the nonborn would have approximately half the skills or a Piano of 7 and a Singing of 6. The nonborn would not possess the knowledge of songs or musical pieces but could imitate any it heard after reanimation.
    Attributes of the flesh and blood nonborns are based on the attributes of the bodies used in its creation, the length of time the body was dead before the parts were harvested plays a major role. Parts other than the brain lose 10% of their base attributes per hour (minimum 10% loss) from the time of death until freezing or animation occurs.
    In the case of the brain every minute past the 10th that the brain is deprived of life, reduces the mamimum Intelligence of the animated nonborn by 10% (maximum is the original intelligence of the donor). Freezing a brain (in or out of the head) seems to incur an additional 20% intellignece loss.
    Most nonborns have no social skills or knowledge skills upon creation, they must be taught by their creator and as such thier personalities tend to have odd quirks and are often quite bland since they lack the growing and learning experiences of normal humans.
    In the case of parts from enchanced (i.e. magical, psionic, or other superhumanly empowered) bodies the nonborn may have use of these powers albeit at a reduced capacity. If the part was not used in the actual ability (for example the arm of a psionic) the base rating is a mere 10% of the original. If the part was essential (such as the brain of a psionic or the torso and head of a fire breather) the rating is typically 75% of the original.

    Synthetic nonborns are possessed of skills implanted by thier creators. Special powers are varied and can include superhuman strength and dexterity or any other technologically modified ability. In most cases the synthetic nonborns are immune to age, disease, poisons and often able to be restored to life even after massive damage to their bodies (so long as the brain survives intact).

    4. Known Nonborns
    The following is a partial list of known Nonborns:

  • The Frankenstein Creature (deceased). Although deceased for many years, "Hank" as he came to call himself was an incredible source of information on nonborns and was employed for many years by the Bureau to help aclimatize other nonborns to life outside the lab.
  • "Johnny Five" aka Number 5 (deceased) was believed to be an artificial life form, but was discovered to be a nonborn posthumusly when he could not be restored to "life" by bureau scientists.
  • The Shadowman is believed to be a magically created nonborn.
  • The mass murdering "Flesh Golem of Burbank" (deceased) was a horrifyingly insane nonborn created in the late 1800's to guard it's master's laboratory.
  • "Zandar the 50 foot Robot" may be an nonborn but has yet to sit still long enough for proper tests to be performed.
  • The original Gargoyles were nonborns who have since produced a line of offspring.
  • The infamous "Black Car" is hypothesized to be a synthetic nonborn but as of this time this remains pure speculation.
  • Cheslav the 'Bot is a semi-synthetic nonborn (robot body with a reanimated human brain) created by Professor Maksim Filinov in 1982, after Filinov's death in 1987 Cheslav smuggled himself out of the USSR and has since joined the Bureau and works on a program of 200$ per week + upgrades and maitainence.


    5. Creating Nonborns
    The exact methods used in the creation of nonborns varies widely but certain processes are considered standard:
  • The vessel must be assembled and intact before animation occurs, an incomplete body is far more difficult to animate than a complete one.
  • The vessel must have a brain, or synthetic substitute, capable of containing the mind of the nonborn (animal brains are inferior to the needs of a nonborn).
  • The vessel must be absent of life force prior to animation, the infusion of life force must happen at the same time as the creation of the conciousness to bond the soul to the body.
  • At the time of animation the vessel is flooded with life force and the brain stimulated back to life to form a conciousness, although it is still unknown if the nonborn's soul is summoned from somewhere by this process or created outright at the momnet of animation.


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    Source Material: William Travis


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