Please Select a method for sentient creation:
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Alter an existing life form: Origin price is determined by the effort required to achieve sentience and changes made.
Often cheaper, but less customized.
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Create a new Sentient: Origin price is determined by the number of attributes or abilities given to the new race.
More expensive, but design is not limited by any existing features.
Looking down the world Nick searched around for a suitable creature to elevate into sentience. How many points do I have? Which species can I afford to make sentient?
There are currently 11 species capable of achieving sentience.
Current balance: 110 OP.
Looking over the list of potential candidates Nick immediately ruled out any that would cost all his points to simply achieve cognizance. That left him with five options.
The first appeared to be a race of large reptiles that were capable of walking on two legs at times. They were also the most expensive. The next seemed to be some sort of large bird resembling a hawk or other bird of prey. Their lack of hands, however, seemed like a somewhat limiting factor, making them cheaper as a base, but more expensive to modify for the same reasons. The middle range here was an ape like figure with long arms ending in six fingered hands. They had an opposable thumb on each hand and an above average intelligence, making them easier to achieve sentience but harder to modify their abilities.
The last two were especially interesting. One was a small cat like creature that was extremely fast and cunning though it lacked a lot of strength. The last was an unassuming mushroom. Observing one closely, he noticed a boar like creature with giant tusks approach one of the mushrooms. With a snort the pig's beady eyes locked onto the shroom's location.
Rushing forward, with a squeal, just as the pig opened its mouth, I was shocked to watch the mushroom shoot forward a small spike from under its cap. The spike rooted itself in the roof of the boar's open mouth, causing it to squeal again in pain. In its agony the boar stamped around on the ground, trampling the mushroom that had hurt it. After a few moments the boar fell to the forest floor convulsing and writhing about, all while constantly making sounds of pain.
Shortly after the boar ceased shaking its noises became muffled, almost as if something was covering its mouth. Soon small white tendrils formed and writhed beneath the pig's muscular frame, pushing out of any opening it could find until all the remained was a large pile of mushrooms and spores surrounding the bloated corpse.
A while after the mushrooms finished growing, they popped off the now nearly unrecognizable body and fell to the ground around it. Upon touching the ground, the mushrooms would sprout multiple small tentacle like legs and slide away from the body, eventually taking root in the ground at a distant location near the base of tall trees.
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While the mushroom species were interesting, they had an extremely high cost to make sentient. Their intelligence little more than strong survival instinct. However, they really were quite capable when it came to their abilities.
Nick looked over his options again. The most likely candidates, currently, were the lizard race and the ape creatures, due to their ability to use their hands. After some consideration, however, he decided to go with the ape. While the lizards were stronger, they were expensive and lacked an opposable thumb currently. Not to mention they lacked community in that they were mostly solitary or family oriented, rarely did they decide to form large social groups. The cost of that change alone would leave him unable to change most anything else.
Selecting the ape from the creatures listed before him, Nick noted that none of the creatures shown were named. It seems they wouldn't receive a name until they decided on one for themselves. Understanding this he began to make some modifications to the way they looked. Noting their jungle like home environment, he elected to leave their long arms untouched. Deciding instead to focus his attention on their intelligence and such.
Giving them the ability to become cognizant of their reality would cost 30 OP. Further enhancing their intelligence to functioning critical thinking would take another 15. That left him with 65 points remaining. After some consideration, he spent another 15 points to enhance their mana sensitivity, increasing the chance of them developing an awareness of the mana in their bodies.
Holding onto his remaining 50 origin points Nick confirmed his selection. Watching closely, he noticed the graphic for the ape man shifting in his menu. The figure began to unslouch and some of its hair receded away from its body. The ears on the creature extended upward to a more pointed shape. As the changes for the graphic came to a halt, he noticed they now more resembled something more akin to an elf with more hair. Their long limbs lead to a tall and lithe figure with a sort of majestic air to their form.
Soon after the change finished on the display in front of him the world began to spin rapidly again. The apes remained the same at first, before slowly they began to gather in larger groups. Walking taller and swinging from trees less as they developed group tactics for fighting with rocks and sticks. Eventually their fur began to recede and they began communicating through a series of grunts and gestures.
As the spinning planet slowed so too did the rapid changes the elf like creatures were going through.
Achievement received:
Self Thinker
"And so I thought to myself. What am I?"
(Create your first sentient race.)
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+15 Origin Points
Shortly after receiving the notification he noticed a change in his menu. The race now had a name. It seems with the development of their intelligence and rudimentary language they had elected to call themselves the Dumala. It was strange listening to them speak. Despite not knowing any of the words they used, I could understand the meaning of what they said. It was mostly just talk to determine who got what food from their foraging and who would be going out next.
They didn't seem to refer to each other by name currently. Mostly just pointing and saying things like 'me' and 'you'. The Dumala at this point seemed to be little more than scattered nomadic tribes and extended families. Looking at their population count they amounted to a couple thousand scattered about.
It seems I'll need to speed up the world for a bit until they manage to grow their population and develop a society. Or perhaps I could do something to help them along?
Would you like to begin creating an AI?
[Yes] [No]