Biotes

Biotes are artificial microbes; their DNA is written in a way that allows them to be programmed for a variety of tasks. In short, they are organic nanomachines.

They are used in the manufacture of vivatin, which give the metal its variable properties. They are also used to weave nanosilk, as this task requires microscopic precision.

Unfortunately, as they are living organisms, mutation suppressing genes can themselves be mutated. If too many of these fail at once, the biote will not kill itself when a potentially harmful mutation occurs. This is the origin of rogue biotes.