The Ryubizes are a race from the centre of the galaxy, thought to have been bred artificially from humans. The purpose of that breeding was work in the Net: their brains were reworked to make implantation simpler, and their eyes specially improved to function in complete darkness.
It is not quite clear who bred the race — most believe it was the Dofaraki. One way or another, they left the laboratories and managed to become a race in their own right.
The race is held to have been incapable of bearing young at first. But the work of professional hackers pays very well, and members of the race can afford the deep genetic modifications that restore fertility.
Most Ryubizes are female, and the reason is that eighteen females were created at the outset — the Ancient Mothers of the race's folklore. Profound reverence for the “mothers” makes the female sex the preferable choice: being female is simply more prestigious.
One might expect the tool to rebel against its purpose, yet most Ryubizes work in precisely that Net, holding a substantial advantage over other races.
Many of them live in the territories of the Infinite Alliance, working for the authorities and the criminal world alike. They are also among the principal races of the SGK — a wealthy corporate state with its capital at Karif, which draws immigrants from every neighbouring sector.
One legend of the hacker community is the operation against the Novotabary. Several of the most renowned Ryubiz neuromancers took part, using a black-market icebreaker of the Zherkyet civilisation: they broke through all the Novotabar ICE and stole the information. It was on that data that Arianna's Net was built.
Ayatya is another name that is known — a Ryubiz who came to her sector hiding from the corporations of sector N-3, which she had robbed in the course of a hacker run. In her new home she founded a group of her own, specialising in network fraud and runs.
The Ryubizes are blue-skinned and blue-haired, and close to human in build — their origin tells.
In the order of the illustrations: a Ryubiz hacker in the special suit that boosts her reflexes and lets her tire far less quickly — its surface run through with lines like circuit traces, a screen in one hand and a spherical device in the other; a Ryubiz on a glider among mountains; a portrait.