Altered One 1487A-792

With Szass Tam's desire to spread his reach beyond the kingdom of Thay, the Red Wizards were charged with creating armies to ease the burden of the draft.  In the early 1400s, they learned to birth creatures such as the Chosen Ones and Blooded Ones through unholy means, but these monstrosities were void of intellect.  Chosen Ones were little more than mutated thralls, and they became difficult to control in large numbers. The Blooded Ones, mostly orcs, were enhanced to be "perfect" warriors but lacked intelligent decision-making in combat. It wasn't until 1478 that the Red Wizards concocted a way to create the ideal weapons of destruction: the Altered Ones.

Altered Ones resemble their original races better than their predecessors, but their flesh has hardened into a natural armor superior to a druid's barkskin. Like Blooded Ones, the Altered Ones are also stronger and hardier than their original bodies, but they are sentient, spec ops agents who have been brainwashed and subjected to Geas spells. Memories and personalities have been deleted, leaving intelligent golem-like soldiers capable of carrying out conversations, split-second decisions in combat, and even espionage without emotional hangups.

Full production of the Altered Project began in 1480 when the Red Wizards began buying "undesirables" such as slave children—or kidnapping urchins who would not be missed—and taking them to bunkers beneath Thaymount for testing. Approximately 1000 subjects were taken to each bunker (A or B) every year.  They were stripped of their names and tattooed by Year-Number-Bunker on the backs of their necks, with the number resetting to 01 at the new year.  These tattoos would also serve as magical tracking devices should a subject somehow escape.

Much like the Chosen and Blooded, the Altered Ones were created via numerous rituals and torture. The Red Wizards discovered that by exposing malleable subjects, i.e children, to effects of magic, elixirs, and harsh environments after inoculating them with the blood of a true-born sorcerer, 1 out of 37 would transcend. As of 1492, over 1000 subjects survived to become Altered, but only a little over 200 remain living.  The Red Wizards are still identifying ways to prevent the strenuous psychic damage from reducing their lifespans. 

When a child is abducted for the Altered Project, all hope is lost, even for the relief of death.  The experiments have claimed over 40,000 lives, and many of their corpses, Altered or otherwise, are being recycled by the Red Wizards who practice necromancy.