Scriven

The Scriven were a race of mutant humans who came from the Northern Ice Wastes. Due to unspecified genetic anomalies, many of them had died off before the events of Fever Crumb and the subsequent Traction Era.

Description

While roughly baseline human in appearance, the Scriven were distinguished by spots on their skin. These spots are freckled, while others were dark like inkblots. Their eyes are also a shady color of blue like that of a newborn babies. They lived longer than regular humans do. Scriven were said to be unable to breed with regular humans. However, this was proved to be false since Fever Crumb was discovered to be the daughter of both a human and a Scriven.

The Scriven have enhanced resistance to radiation and genetically engineered to live longer, to allow for quicker repopulation of the Earth. They can also survive in low light, and sub-zero temperatures due to their genetic alteration. Fever Crumb also had a nanotechnology implant, small like a teardrop, that released square nanobots to swim in her blood, repairing and readying her body until she removed it.

Culture

The Scriven worship the Scrivener and believe that dark markings are messages from him. Their artwork include dark-spotted nude Scriven in an attempt to decipher them.

History

The Scriven originate from The Scrivener Institute, where they were developed as "Humanity 2.0" by the Scriviner group of companies, designed to withstand the Sixty Minute War, as the original human strain was at first expected to die out. They were initially, also forbidden to breed with regular humans (if any were thought to have survived), to prevent the new breed of Scriven from dying out/being hybridized too quickly (as was seen from one of the Remembering Machines' words, in one of the pyramids constructed by the Pyramid Builders). Some Scriven went to live underground in the north, later becoming known as Nightwights, featured in the book Scrivener's Moon.

The Scriven were one of the Nomad Empires which were driven south when the climate began cooling down as a result of the frequent Ice Ages between 10,000 to 3,000 BT. They were originally based in Siberia but were forced to migrate south and east by climatic changes. Their Traction Fortress was called The Barbican. Gradually, the Scriven found their way to the site of London which they swiftly conquered.

Over the next two-hundred years, the Scriven ruled with an iron grip over London. They looked down on the non-Scriven since they saw themselves as a superior species. Despite their cruelty and excesses, London began to thrive again under their rule since the Scriven respected scientific knowledge. They even established an Order of Engineers, the forerunner of the latter Guild of Engineers which studied the workings of the Ancients' technology.

However, as the Scriven could not interbreed with regular humans, their numbers gradually dwindled over the years. By then the Scriven had fallen to a few hundred individuals as opposed to thousands of humans. Resentment against the Scriven grew; culminating in the bloody and violent Scriven Uprising. In the subsequent uprising, the Skinners Guild murdered and skinned many Scriven while collaborators were slaughtered. Some Scriven such as Wavey Godshawk managed to escape. Her daughter Fever Crumb escaped as a baby and eventually found The Scrivener Institute's pyramid buildings, writing about the Sixty Minute War's true nuclear origins, then only known as the Downsizing.

Sources

• A Brief History of Municipal Darwinism