The Anata World
Anatas comprise three layers, each a system that integrates with the others. From the inside out: the infrastrata, the lamina and the biostrata.
Each layer performs a distinct function, yet none can operate independently. Together, they combine advanced engineering, living tissue, and adaptive nanotechnology into a single unified being. It is the interaction between them that makes an Anata possible.
Three layers, one companion
Layer 01 · Innermost
Infrastrata
The structural foundation: internal framework, power systems, sensors and adaptive mechanical components that provide strength, movement, perception and control. Sophisticated as it is, the infrastrata alone is no more an Anata than a human skeleton is a person.
Its organs: the mechanica — the skeletal frame, power cells, actuators, processing cores and nanofluid reservoirs. They are built by Iwazaki Mechanica.
Layer 02 · Between
Lamina
The hybrid layer that unites the organic and inorganic systems, letting information, resources and adaptive processes move between the two so they function as a single integrated whole. Without the lamina, the living and mechanical components could not work together.
Its organs: the intermedia. Some are support structures — exchange interfaces, conduits, matrices, anchoring structures, suspension systems and the other mechanisms that enable the integration of organic and inorganic elements via agentic processes. The rest are the nanofauna: mobile, specialised populations of nanobots for transport, repair, surveillance, signalling, structural adaptation and metabolic exchange, each of them an agent.
Layer 03 · Outermost
Biostrata
The living tissues: skin, muscle, vasculature and other biological structures that let Anatas interact naturally with their environment and the people around them. Like human biology, the biostrata requires nourishment, maintenance and continual renewal.
Its organs: the viscera — the living organs and tissues, much as in a human body.
Adaptive nanotechnology
Nanotechnology operates throughout all three layers, supporting nutrient transport, maintenance, repair, adaptation, and a range of biological and mechanical processes. It also provides the foundation for future upgrades and emerging technologies, allowing Anatas to remain compatible with new capabilities throughout their operational lives.
The nanofauna travel in nanofluid: a metallic, dark-grey emulsion, rather like dark quicksilver, in which they are suspended as it circulates through the lamina.
In the blood
Human blood is red because of haemoglobin, the iron-bearing protein that carries oxygen. An Anata’s biostrata is fed by its own circulation, and its oxygen carrier is synthoglobin, built around a synthetic haem group called synthaem. Where haemoglobin makes our blood red, synthoglobin makes an Anata’s pink.
Red isn’t the only colour of blood in the Animal Kingdom. The molecules responsible, most of them oxygen carriers, come in some surprising shades:
The result is neither machine nor organism in the conventional sense, but something that exists between the two.