Scion

In the novel, genetic markers are a motif representing the commodification and fragility of identity in a hyper-capitalist world. Where the real world sees personal identity anchored to the body, Islington disentangles that notion from physical identity by creating a world where people can alter their physical identity at will, whether through the installation of genetic revisions (or revs) or through the wholesale disguise of one’s gene sequence, a painful illegal process known within the world of Scion as a DNA wash. The DNA wash in particular is a violent act of self-erasure, a temporary shield against a system that reduces personhood to a scannable, trackable set of data points, suggesting that true anonymity is an impossible luxury.

The commodification of physical identity is predicated on a system where people are constantly surveilled and monitored to evaluate their place in the social hierarchy of the world. The novel demonstrates this with the section of the narrative where Azure and Jasa are forced to adopt new disguises to blend into Themis. Meeting with Azure’s underworld contact, Manuel, they undergo DNA washes to adopt the identities of people who died without their deaths being registered by the DeGov system.