Coordinators

In the Gosmic Era Coordinators are genetically enhanced human beings, which can have a number of enhanced traits including faster learning, and stronger and faster bodies that are virtually immune to diseases. They closely resemble the Augments from Star Trek as they are physically and mentally superior to normal humans. Another similarity to the Augments that Coordinators share is the fact that they are feared and hated by Naturals, as the Augments were to humans.

It should be noted that in Star Trek, dislike for Augments was due to the fact that they were extremely aggressive and dangerous. In Gundam SEED, Coordinators were disliked because they were envied, as well as dislike of Genetic Engineering.

The First Coordinator
In Cosmic Era 15, the highly respected man named George Glenn announced the shocking news that he was the first Coordinator, being born following a genetic manipulation procedure, resulting in a human "engineered" to be better. He disclosed the entire process to create a Coordinator to the public.

The genetic modifications that create a Coordinator had to be performed in the earliest stages of embryonic development. The Coordinator embryo was then reinserted back into its mother for gestation. These genetic enhancements are then passed on to the Coordinator's children without the need for more enhancements. When Natural parents have their children turned into Coordinators, the children are described as first-generation Coordinators, whose own children will then be second-generation Coordinators, and so forth.

Those who were born naturally - that is, without this procedure - became known as "Naturals".

Coordinators and Naturals
For many years, after George Glenn's revelation, Coordinators remained illegal. When the ban was repealed, in the CE 30's, the Coordinator boom started and lasted until the CE 50's. Following the rapid and widespread diffusion of Coordinators, major social unrest followed, throwing the world into chaos. Many Naturals started to oppose the Coordinators out of jealousy for their abilities, stating that they were created unnaturally. Anti-Coordinator pressure groups, such as Blue Cosmos, began labeling Coordinators as unhuman and declaring they had to be wiped out "for a blue and pure world".

As the major political blocs began building the space colonies, known as PLANTs, these gradually became a new home for Coordinators. The Naturals intended to make the Earth their exclusive domain, although it was not uncommon to find Coordinators and Naturals living peacefully together in nations such as the Orb Union.

By the mid-50's, the situation had deteriorated to the point that Blue Cosmos people were in positions of power across the Atlantic Federation, and Coordinators had largely retreated to either neutral nations like the Orb Union or into space in PLANT, where they were more than welcome.

A derogative term among Naturals for Coordinators is "Patchworker", a reference to their "patchwork" DNA.

Issues
As of CE 71, Coordinators are becoming increasingly sterile because they don't have the genetic input which Naturals possess. Additionally, the sterile situation only happens on the 3rd-generation Coordinators. Though ZAFT scientists are busy working on a solution, there is no known cure as of the present date.

Another potential flaw to Coordinators is that there is a discrepancy between how a Coordinator fetus is intended to develop and how the child really turns out. In many cases unwanted genetic traits would appear in the baby, arguably due to the inability of the mother's womb to pose as an adequate environment to support the genetic modifications.

In the early 50's, a renowned scientist, Professor Ulen Hibiki, proposed the usage of an artificial womb to circumvent the natural womb's shortcomings. Many "prototypes" failed, including Canard Pars, the only known to have survived, before the last and successful Ultimate Coordinator, Hibiki's son Kira Yamato, was born in May 18, CE 55. Kira has grown up completely unaware of his origins until later in the Bloody Valentine War.

True purpose
According to the "GG Unit", an artificial intelligence said to be derived from the memory engrams of George Glenn's brain, Coordinators have strayed from their intended purpose: to "coordinate" the next step of humanity's evolution, as the name indicates. George Glenn never intended for Coordinators to view themselves as a superior race, but in Glenn's eyes, anyone who works for the betterment of mankind is a true Coordinator, regardless of whether his genes have been enhanced or not. Unfortunately, this enlightened view is not shared by many on either side of the Earth/PLANT conflict. While some fans have suggested that the next stage of human evolution that Glenn refers to are Newtypes, he neither uses that term nor gives any details of how this next stage differs from current humans.