[while I’m STILL WAITING for my tablet pen, I’ll go ahead and post what I’ve got for the XIII’s ‘story’. I’m gonna flesh it out one of these days, but… yeah. A lot of people have been asking, so! Here are the XIII’s in a nutshell!]

Genetically Engineered, man made species created to be slaves [all manner of slaves, super soldier, defense, medic, general (household), general (labour), general (industrial), mechanics, instructors, sex, etc.] by The Corporation. Complete and total obedience, artificial intelligence crippled to never develop free will and, since The Corporation sterilizes them prior to “shipping them out”, there has been little to no evolution//change in the species since their creation. XIII’s have no sense of self preservation and will not defend themselves unless ordered to. The freed XIII’s are the exception.

More recently, one of the scientists has begun a “secret” rebellion, allowing some of XIII’s to leave the facility fully functional with their ability to breed and reproduce intact. These are the XIII’s that you’ll see, here. The catch is they can only breed with other XIII’s, as—due to their heavy modifications—they are genetically incompatible with any other species. There have not been any males released, yet, so there have been no free born XIII’s. Yet.

In a lab setting, XIII’s produce large litters, no less than 10 cubs per breeding. Their gestation period is incredibly fast at only 3 weeks from conception to birth. This is part of their modification, since they’re in such high demand, they need to be produced and subsequently trained as quickly as possible. Similarly, they reach adulthood in 15 months from birth. Females modified for breeding purposes are typically impregnanted again very quickly. [as an aside, they cannot be artificially inseminated, they need to do the deed]

The Corporation typically doesn’t allow males to be purchased, instead keeping them for breeders. The males have a very high mortality rate and are extremely rare as a consequence, even within facility walls. Despite their high mortality rate, the males are extremely strong if they make it past their first few weeks.

The “free” XIII’s [who are still slaves, they just have the capability of breaking their chains, though they have not done so, yet, with the exception of the first freed XIII—Ghost] do not have the hyper reproduction cycle and, as such, have more “normal” sized litters and gestation periods. Typically 3-4 cubs born over a 7 month gestation period.

They’re a mix of creatures, depending on their intended function and use. The “base” species is always lion, tiger or panther. Along with the organic creature, they have bionics [again, depending on their function]. Exceptions are eyes, tails and UPC [Universal Product Code] which are all bionic. Their UPCs are unique variations of the same design to keep things uniform. All exposed bionics glow. The flames on their tails serve multiple purposes, the simplest of which is to indicate that they are functional [“on”]. They can be used as tools, in defense, or as weapons. Their tails are not dangerous to interact with, unless they’ve been ordered to be.

You’ll see each XIII has an alignment, elements that they either have some control over, draw power from [or both], a class [attack, defense, healing, etc.] and abilities directly related to their class. They are all able to shift to a more primal [feral] form when required, as their powers are stronger in these forms.

While XIII’s as a species are not rare, freed XIII’s are. [The exception, of course, being the males, those are extremely rare, freed or no]

MORE RANDOM NOTES:

This is in the semi-distant future, after a handful of Civil Wars and the WW3. Most of the [human] population was killed in the process, but the remaining populace of the world was united together under one government. One that is largely corrupt, save for a few individuals [but that's really nonessential to this, so I won't go into it right now]. The Corporation essentially has this new government--hegemony--in it's pocket, as they are the only ones with the means of getting humans off of a dying earth. [Space travel, planet colonization, etc.] This is, essentially, the reason for the creation of the XIIIs]. The population decimated, eyes toward the stars, there simply weren't enough people to do menial tasks, less, still, to be entrusted with planetary defense. They started off with the true slave XIIIs, the ones that did the farming and mining etc.--human life was too valuable and a precious commodity, itself. Then the XIIIs entrusted to defense and, of course, the attack class XIIIs came soon after. Soon, they were created to teach, and so on, so forth. Of course, scores were made specifically to explore space, colonize inhabitable planets and die on those that weren't. They can't really be reprogrammed or repurposed, as their fates are decided on a genetic level before they're... conceived, as it were. As for going rogue, there's no possibility of that, unfortunately. Eventually, as more males are freed, and the sterile XIIIs die off, it could happen. But since teh freed XIIIs can't breed with the slave XIIIs, and since their creation is HEAVILY monitored and guarded, it's simply--literally--not "in" them to go rogue. The slave XIIIs have essentially 0 sense of self preservation, [exceptions being those created for protection purposes, their objective states that they must keep themselves whole and functioning second to those they are created to serve].

No one fights or questions The Corporation, save for a few, because they're by and large seen as the last hope for the survival of humanity. After the wars, everything was put into question, and humanity decided that their survival was imperative. They're also being lied to by The Corporation, who has told them that the XIIIs are basically just artificial intelligence, not actual sentient beings. The problem is that, when faced with extinction, humanity has shown that--even if they knew--they'd still have made the same choice.

There are a couple of reasons they aren't more human in appearance, the main being they were originally created by using lions, panthers, other large cats [there were a surplus of these after the wars and no one gave a crap if they were experimented on], they did try to make a XIII with a human appearance and they discovered that the similarity made the population extremely uneasy. So they stuck with the "original" design

XIIIs CANNOT be created without permission from BadArt as it would really tear into their canon, sorry!!! If you want another artist to create your XIII, please ASK ME FIRST!!! Chances are I will say yes, but PLEASE CHECK FIRST! [I will likely say no when it comes to males] ANY artist is free to draw a XIII that you already own!!!! Have fun!