Aescetic Cyborg

This is just a quick conceptual doodle, playing with some interesting design ideas.

This is a member of one of the various mechanical ascension/enlightenment monasteries dotted throughout the galaxy. They are not a single organized religion, but rather a bunch of unrelated enclaves that all hold similar views. Each monastery has its own religious practices, but they all share a reverence for cybernetics and see the precise, logical, mechanical nature of computers and machinery as divine.

For this particular sect, initiates begin at the lowest levels of the organization, learning the basics of cybernetic and mechanical engineering, and how it applies to their beliefs about religion and philosophy. As they rise in the ranks they begin to replace parts of their body with cybernetic prosthetics. However the journey to enlightenment is a spiritual journey, so they make their transformation slowly, with an initiate gaining new prosthetics only after they have been deemed worthy by elder acolytes. Simply replacing limbs and organs with cybernetics before they have reached the proper level of enlightenment is seen as foolish and contradictory to the principles of the "transformation". Every time they undergo new augmentation is referred to as "step" in the transformative journey.

The "woman" in this picture is a full fledged acolyte, well into her transformation. When she achieved the rank of acolyte, she gave up her old name, and accepted her true name: AL-2311412687388178632011. As per the teachings of the enclave, she has designed each and every one of her prosthetics, to reflect her own unique inner spirit. Her first 'step' was to replace her feet, a symbol of her first steps on her journey to enlightenment. Although she still has many years to go before her transformation is complete, she has taken to the teachings very swiftly, and is considered one of the best students in many years.

So far she has replaced everything above her ribcage with cybernetics, and portions of her lower limbs. 68% of her brain has been digitized, and during her next 'step' she hopes to fully digitize her brain and replace her abdomen/midriff with cybernetics as well. She is waiting to replace her knees until the final 'step' in her transformation, because symbolically a stride or step may not be taken without the critical joint of the knees.