BY LETTER
Reling, Rel
A virtual sophont entity given a real-life body of some sort. |
 Image from Steve Bowers |
A reling can take the form of almost any clade, or assume a form never imagined before. The new entity may have close ties to the virtual sophonts who designed it, or be completely independent. Sometimes relings act as ambassadors from the virtual world to the real world, but often they just want to explore reality for themselves.
Relings are often quite unusual in appearance compared to most modosophonts, since they can take a wide range of forms. The most extreme relings are known as relmonsters, which are strange and sometimes dangerous creatures that are deliberately designed to appear intimidating.
Not all relings are sophont; many are virtual animals of various kinds, which may be fantastic creatures or seemingly mundane, but which have never before existed in the real world. Non-sophont relings are known as relife, and are usually neogenic in nature. A small but increasing number of worlds have entire ecologies consisting mainly, or solely, of relife organisms; although early forms of refile were often marginally viable or entirely unsuited to living in reality, the technologies required to create viable organisms using a virtual template are reliable and sophisticated in the Current Era.
Some relings (and other incarnates), dissatisfied with rl, return again to virtual reality.
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A fraction of virtual worlds are run by bizarre, breakaway virtual beings, which often have only a limited understanding of the rl. For the real persons entering or interacting with them via virtual reality, they appear as nothing less than nightmares brought to life, or deadly traps. Reltrapworlds are illegal and punished by erasing the virtual existence(s) who created them. Nevertheless, some still sneak through. - Relvec - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
A relifed vec. - Relworld - Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
[1] A symbolic term for all relifed things, sophonts, places etc.
[2]Place in real life controlled by virtuals.
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Development Notes
Text by Jorge Ditchkenberg
Initially published on 24 September 2004.
Initially published on 24 September 2004.
