#cultures elsewhere are more morphologically conservative

[ymnes-odde]

The Order of the Eft

One of the many esoteric organizations dedicated to thoughtcraft operating in the Eos-Tithon system, efts are masters of somatics, specifically to the ends of bodily modification and enhancement. Their presence is strongest on Memnon, away from the prying eyes of Hesper's corporate law and Emathion's independent government alike, but encounters with efts on Eurus and Emathion suggest they have some presence on other planets as well.

The organization is a ruthlessly competitive environment, with standing in the order determined solely by the perceived value of those techniques possessed by a given member which are not generally reproducible by other members. That is to say--standing in the organization may be improved by the development of a new technique whose mechanisms are opaque enough to be difficult to replicate, but lowering the standing of other members by replicating their techniques (diluting the associated prestige) is also a means of advancement.

At the same time, this secrecy is in tension with individual members' desire to expand their influence, and many prominent members of the order take apprentices; policies on teaching techniques vary.

Generally reckoned as the most powerful of the efts, Anaxyrus Themis* is the sole known bearer of the technique for producing the toadstone, a potent synthetic organ that hinders aging, renders the user totally immune to most poisons, and grants powerful and reflexive regeneration. Anaxyrus disciples ("toadlets") often bear toadstones hidden in any one of a number of locations in the body, as the destruction of the toadstone immediately renders its user susceptible to normal forms of bodily harm. To avoid diluting the technique's prestige, Themis only permits it to be learned through the use of a membrick**, which is returned to her upon completion of the organ (a process taking about one Earthly year). Attempts by disciples to abscond with the knowledge or copy it to personal storage have invariably resulted in immediate assassination by their teacher or her agents, who seem to have no difficulty locating the organ in the body of the renegade disciples. Attempts to dissect the corpses of Anaxyrus disciples has met only with the dissolved fluids of the toadstone, which appears to be designed to destroy itself on the death of its user. Vivisection--a practice unnervingly common among efts--has proven difficult given the regenerative abilities the organ provides.

Among other notable techniques developed by efts include several methods for breathing underwater, cures for a number of diseases (proprietary secrets in the normal functioning of the order, applied only for exorbitant fees, with few exceptions), and of course the martial techniques of the hellbenders, an informal group of low-prestige but very prolific efts who tend to publicly release their techniques in the hope that others will refine them further.

*confirmed to be a pseudonym--Themis and her disciples prefix their names with Anaxyrus, an Earthly genus of toad--and their specific names are names of art taken upon membership in their suborder.

**i.e. "memory brick", an exocortex providing supplemental storage for memories through the use of logics and normal electronic components.