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History
Specialists are a race of gentically engineered clones created in the 23rd century and used for a wide range of work, mainly in service and labor-intensive fields. Their use was widespread on Sivad in the late 2nd and early 3rd millennium. During the height of their popularity, with perhaps 60% of families included at least one specialist, and 25% included two or more, while large family estates could have specialist staffs in the hundreds.
The specialist industry fell into decline beginning in the 34th century, at which point widespread automation had made the need for a manual labor force largely unnecessary. Meanwhile, advancing technology rendered the specialist process increasingly obsolete, leading to a public backlash as the creation of short-lived clones became viewed as primitive and barbaric. As elective genetic engineering became increasingly pervasive, the line between 'Sivadian' and 'Specialist blurred and ultimately disappeared. By the turn of the 40th century, most children on Sivad were born via Cloning, and a majority of the population would more closely identify with Specialists than with their putative Sivadian ancestors.
Creation
The Specialist Process was costly and complex. Generally specialists ranged in price from a few thousand yojj-sterling for a base model designed and trained for simple domestic tasks to several million yojj-sterling for an elaborately trained, one of a kind specialist manufactured by a specialty firm such as A New Dawn. The largest maker of "stock" specialists was the Embryonix Corporation, with smaller firms such as Above Nature and A New Dawn competing for elements of the market, especially for smaller, custom orders.
Physical Appearance
Specialists vary in physical appearance, and this is mainly dependant on their role. For example, specialists designed for heavy labor will be muscular and brawny, and of plain, if not ugly appearance, while those specialists designed for duties such as receptionists, masseuses, and pleasure specialists will have exceptionally beautiful features, generally as desired by their owner.
All specialists will have a barcode added by their manufacturer at birth which will include a lot and model number. This serves to identify the genetic material and training given to the specialists, and is also a sort of "expiration date." A silicon Killswitch is installed in the body of each specialist, allowing for easy deactivation in case of malfunctioning. Due to their rapid growth to full maturity in cloning tanks, specialists have a rapid metabolism which will cause their body to break down in a period of time, generally five years. This can be prevented through the use of expensive metabolic stiflers such as Metazone which cost as much as 25,000 yojj-sterling a year. Daily use of a metabolic stifler will slow the aging process of a specialist and effectively double their normal lifespan.
Personality
Specialists are generally trained for a small number of specific roles to which they are, through genetic tinkering, made well suited. The genetic predisposition to a certain task is reinforced through a training regimin taking from a week to several months depending on the complexity of the tasks to be mastered. As a general matter, specialists are excellent at their area of "expertise", if somewhat lacking in originality. It is very difficult to "break the mold" and train a specialist for a new task, and generally considered far more cost effective to simply purchase a new, specially trained specialist.
Legal Status
Sivad had a wide variety of laws dealing with specialists. Chief among these were those statutes which made it a criminal offense to abuse a specialist, as well as those which made owners responsible for all acts of their specialists. Additionally, the law on Sivad prohibited the manumission (freeing) of specialists by their owners, though in some cases this law was been circumvented by selling a specialist to himself or herself.