Godbound: The Oasis States and their God-Kings, Part 1

Transhumanism via magical means plays an important role in the backstory of Godbound's default realm, Arcem and there are two locales where this is most obvious: Ancalia and the Oasis States. Both share a common origin in the Polyarchy of Kham. In the Oasis States this legacy is incredibly obvious due to their entire society being shaped by intensive amount of genetic modification and eugenics...and inbreeding.

Ra by Jurgen Schwarz.

Transhuman Nobility

The nobility of the Oasis States are, in many ways, little different from the Ancalian Cousins or 'Fae': both are impossibly distorted and augmented lineages of post humanity which have become biologically, mentally and metaphysically different from the original human stock. However where the Ancalian cousins retreated into their barrows and away from civilization when their modifications became unable to fully sustain them the Oasian nobles retreated to their pyramid-arcologies which could house whole communities. From inside these pyramids they maintained their existence and ruled as god-kings, free to pursue their eugenic modifications.

The idea that the Oasian nobles require inbreeding to properly manifest their gifts isn't actually that much of a stretch of the imagination, even if it is likely that it has partially manifested out of cultural reasons. What likely is the cause is simple: the early theo-eugenic experiments of the Polyarchy were extremely complex and likely depended on technology and sorcery which can no longer simply impart an unborn child with the desired modification, which manifest as Recessive Genes. As such producing children with unmodified humans would very much dilute the bloodline. Do keep in mind these would not be genes which would exist in ordinary humans and goes far beyond something as simple as, say, blue eyes: these would be extremely complex modifications born of reality-bending sorceries which would impart clearly superior abilities. Thus the Oasian eugenics go far beyond mere aesthetics or even racial theory but rather a desire to preserve masterworks of genetic engineering which cannot be replicated. To lose these traits would mean to lose actual divine power.

Nature of the Augmentations

It is likely that the core basis of the Polyarchy's modifications were rooted in what we'd still recognize as legitimate science and not the divine theurgy of the Godbound setting: simple genetic modification with no 'magic' involved. These likely began as relatively simple augmentations and repairs to the human body, which still exist in the genepool of the likes of Ancalia and even other regions of Arcem. It is quite likely even lowly laborers in the Oasis States posses such genetic augmentations and they are (generally) not what the God-Kings seek to preserve.

Rather the abilities the divine nobility of the Oasian are much more intense than mere corrections and slight augmentations of the human body. These likely began as extensions of the corrections: the ability to see more colors, quicker healing, enhanced organ regeneration and increased cranial capacity. From there, more complex modifications which required advanced Theurgy would be crafted, birthing beings of enhanced physical and mental capacity, who age very slowly, have senses no humans have and posses an innate ability to tap into complex reality-controlling process and learning said process, making them innately gifted at Theurgy.

Posthuman Castes

It stand to reason that, just as a ruling caste of augmented, posthuman rulers would emerge then so too would other castes would. This also make sense as it allows the eugenicist to focus on certain traits and abilities and focus on maintaining and refining them to the best of their abilities.

• The God-King/God-Queens were and are the pinnacle of Oasian eugenics and were even in the days of the Polyarchy. They were the elite oligarch of certain ideotribes who had already augmented themselves above their brethren. Presumably their bloodline is the most direct line of descent from the greatest founders of the Polyarchy. They were and still are divine beings which are meant to be immensely powerful, impossibly beautiful and innately magically gifted. Their closest counterpart would be the Prince of Dawn but presumably the current God King and Queen are way more mentally unstable, demented beings who live in a haze of madness and who can barely grasp human existence.
• Presumably there exist a Lesser Nobles caste of some kind, although it may not originally have been intended to exist. These would presumably be the most advanced and augmented bloodlines which survived the collapse of the Polyarchy without dying and degenerating beyond repair. These beings would, presumably, be the most varied in nature, appearance and focus of their augmentations, with some being more focused on mental tasks while others are impossibly beautiful messenger and courtesan and others are warrior-generals of equal physical and mental might.
• There presumably has to be an Elite Warrior caste of some kind. These would presumably be distant relatives of the nobles and God-Kings whose sole purpose is to be bodyguards and elite enforces...as well as potentially being those who execute their relatives when their degeneration become too much of a problem.
• Different from the other lineages would be a proper caste of Lesser Warriors who are nothing short of genetically engineered brutes and foot soldiers, more elite than ordinary soldiers but still very much below the Elite Warriors. These are presumably bred for maximum efficiency and loyalty at the cost of anything resemblance true intelligence. Some of these creatures are animalistic in design, sporting heads more like beasts than humans.

Below all these would be all other variations of the human form: some merely byproducts of natural selection and population while others are produced as specialized servants by eugenicist. The lot of these people likely is a rather terrible one and some might even be crippled with horrible deformities with no positive transhuman modifications to compensate.