Mavuzo

Mavuzo
Non-canon fan design
Base Information
Classification	Carnivore chaser
Status	Minor Race
Locomotion
Terrain
Body Form
Confluence
Bio-Identenoid
Size	100 liters
Weight	100 kg
Culture
Languages
Social Structure
Technological Epoch
Psionic potential	Standard
Origin World
Homeworld location	Mavuzo
UWP	X000000-0 Starport X No Starport Size 0 Asteroid/Planetoid Belt Atmosphere 0 Vacuum Hydrographics 0 Desert World 0% Population 0 Barren (0) Government 0 No Government structure Law 0 No Law Tech Level 0 Pre-Industrial (primitive)
Primary Star
Atmosphere
Off-world presence	Yes
Zoetic individuals
Source
Reference	TBD
Canon	No
Also see
TBD

The Mavuzo are a powerful, expanding sophont species.

• They are a Minor Non-Human Race.

Description:

The Mavuzo are a belligerent, aggressive minor sophont species. They are the namesakes of Mavuzog Sector.

Homeworld:

Mavuzo, a dense atmosphere temperate garden world located in Mavuzo Subsector of Mavuzog Sector.

Physiology

Mavuzo are an enigmatic species, or group of species depending on how you look at it. The precursor stock was selected from species found on planets closer to the galactic core by Primordials. Near the end the Primordials had developed vast capabilities for modifying living things to serve their needs. Some of this was accomplished by selective breeding, some was genetic manipulation, and some was psionic conditioning to change behavior and customs. Some scholarship and investigations support the theory that the species was developed to go study and observe the area of the galaxy where the Droyne were predicted to emerge. The Primodials became aware through their new perception of time, that the ancients would follow them. The Mavuzo may have been an effort to leave a living ambassador species behind to greet them as they journeyed to the galactic core.

The root species seems to be a versatile branch of bilaterally symmetrical, poikilothermic heterotrophic consumers. They originally had a cephalothorax and abdominal body segmentation. This was derived as a residual from a smaller body mass exoskeletal origin. They have been undergoing a form eusocial casting system for 145 million years at least. They are oviparous. Gender types, and relative quantities, roles and functions have shifted over the course of their development before and after the acquisition of sentience.

The higher brain functions and nervous system coordination is centralized in a specialized sub-organism. The brain was possibly a separate species which has been diminished in its ability to function independently. An endosymbiotic organ system derived from a colonial parasite species. They have merged to become one organism, yet the brain and the host have distinct and separate genetic information and express different traits and phenotypic appearance. The brain and stem can be transplanted between bodies surgically. Bodies have limited independent function after the removal or destruction of the cranial pod. The pod enervates the “host” body and controls its functions. The cranial pod is wholly dependent on the metabolism of the body and has lost its ability to self-replicate. The head structure is a loose, bean bag with a neural matrix just below the epidermal layers. Four circular compound eyes are equidistant around the equator of this hemispherical cranial dome. Eight addition simple eyes are divided around four random axis of symmetry. This entire mushroom like structure is afforded a very rich vascular supply and the flexible pod and stem tuck into what was an anterior and superior buccal cavity. The mouth parts had three plated mandibles with a Y pattern 120 degree separation. The dorsal, hinged plate dominates and is larger than two smaller lateral/anterior plates which work in opposition with the other mandibles. On the back of each hinged plate is a long whip antennae. A muscular ring in the ancestral “throat” can evert or withdraw the cranial sensor bundle as needed. Afforded reflexive protection when pulled under armor when a threat is perceived. When the brain “winks” or blinks, the antennae are erect and sweeping for sensory input. When the eyes are deployed the antennae fold back and lay flat along the plates pointing to the posterior and inferior body axis. A long single central eyelash on each of the three lids is the arrangement. The function of the cranial pod plays a role in the castes. For much of their history a queen caste was dominant. They evolved into huge bloated egg laying machines. All life in the society revolved around protecting, feeding and caring for every aspect, whim and need of the queens. Queens were jealous rulers and didn’t suffer rivals well. This persisted through most of their recorded history. The endless warfare consumed resources and threatened the survival of the species as weapons of mass destruction entered the mix. A revolution was mounted, species wide. Part of the queens’ ability to dominate and control all aspects of their subject’s lives were their unmatched psionic powers. They were the only egg layers functioning in the civilization. Some of the more autonomous worker castes began to discover that all members were female and that the queens had been psionically suppressing knowledge of a male caste. It was discovered that all adults of the culture were fertile egg layers. Their eggs were sterile and the egg laying was being prevented by chemical signals the queens emitted and were having incorporated into all food supplies. Once alternative foods were produced by coordinated rebel enclaves, and psionic shielding was developed, freedom loving rebels began to subvert the path of their civilization and tailor their own evolution.

Queens and colonies had dominated countless worlds in their endless search for resources for ever growing populations. The freedom wars lasted at least two hundred thousand years. During that time radical change flourished. Nearly all Mavuzo are female. For a long time egg laying was distributed among all females who wished to reproduce, following the regicide. A few thousand years later there was a Counter Reformation which involved the rise of the thinker castes. These are the descendants of the renegade females who had usurped the queen caste. Thinkers rekindled the psionic powers. Their intelligence rose (4d6). Their redesigned themselves to be sterile. They fashioned themselves into a collective of mentally networked minds working together. The revolutionaries started breeding queens who were kept acephalous. Huge, blind unthinking egg laying machines. Their cranial pods are devoured when they hatch. They are built into birthing harnesses which combine bio-mechanical and organic components. This is where they spend the rest of their lives connected to life support machinery. Mavuzo medical technology can kept egg laying slave queens alive for hundreds of years producing millions of eggs as needed. Modern queens are kept at 1,000kg body mass and produce eggs on demand in quantities required. There are kept in a hibernation stasis when their services are not required. They have no rights and play no role in the modern culture and civilizations.

Throughout their lengthy evolution many castes have come and gone based on the needs and the environmental conditions. The Mavuzo in the Mavuzog Sector are the last holdout survivors of vast hordes of a far older series of civilizations that have risen and fallen. They predate all sentient life in the sectors around them. This last pocket of refugees believe that they are the last of their kind. They avoid aggressive expansion as a result. They have become more conservative as a result of the countless lessons learned from the millennia of their species. Castes can be developed and adapted to a myriad of conditions, atmospheres, hydrospheres and biospheres. They have designed adaptability into their genome. Variable respiratory regimes, filtration, compression and combinations to cope with different gases and atmospheric tints are commonplace among them.

Modern males have limited intelligence (1d6). They are breed as a nurse maid/guard dog role. They defend and attend to queens. They can fly and perform are protective maintenance to ensure the survival of the slave queens and the eggs until they hatch. Hatchlings are turned over for development and cultural programming. Caste individuals learn very little (1d6 education). They are typically grown to fulfill their chosen role. As they pupate and undergo their selected metamorphism the can dramatically increase in size depending on the selected caste. The largest castes can take several years to reach their hatching size. They take one month to add 13kg of body mass and each 24kg size increase is accompanied by a pupational molting. Full developed hatchlings can report for duty about a month after hatching. In modern hatcheries, pupating young are connected to vast networks of life support equipment and are completely automated organic machines. A brief period of orientation and testing to ensure quality is required. Hatchlings arrive on assignment at about half their final body size as designated for the selected caste role. Males have a six meter wing span and mass 25kg. They are 2m long, and half of that is the stinger-tail. They have the modified appendage homologous to the females’ ovipositor which embryonically develops from a pair of backward folded and merged leg analogues. It has three articulations, each with a 300 degree range of motion. This is now a triple bladed stinger. The poisons are a potpourri of evolutionary left overs. A hypotonic solvent base promotes lycing cell membranes, it carries depolymerizing proteinase enzymes which disassemble cell membranes and a neurotransmitter stimulant that overloads nerve synaptic gaps. Creatures with circulating body fluids and nervous systems do not fare well when injected with this cocktail. The same stinger has the ability to deliver male reproductive cells. They are non-motile and are absorbed within the bodies of receptive females. All Mavuzo have three vestibules at the posterior end of their gastro-digestive system which shares a common chamber with the reproductive system. The terminus of the system has a three part valve which mirrors the structure at the anterior end. The three plated doors keep a water tight, sterile barrier. Processed metabolic waste products are routed to three vestibules where micro-organisms facilitate the reabsorption of water and recover nutrients. Typically once per week, once all three chambers are filled all the waste is spray-released simultaneously, as a grey powdery dust which one observer described as confetti. Once hormonally triggered for breeding which only occurs once for each egg laying female, these three vestibules are filled with male reproductive cells. They are transported via the circulatory system to the egg producing “ovaries” and remain adjacent for the rest of her life. The millions of male cells far exceed her requirements. Normal females will run out of eggs long before she runs out of male cells. Mature eggs are 68g and have a thick sticky coating which prevents dissection and provides thermal regulation. Egg slave queens can be artificially reloaded if the need should ever arise. The basic body plan was bilaterally symmetrical. There are six primary appendages and three secondary ones. Among the refugees studied in the Mavuzo sector, most of these castes have a pair of dorsal muscle knobs which are the vestigial remnants of wing roots. Dorsal casing is evident embryonically. In the modern era usually only males have wings. Slave queens have diminished limbs which can no longer support their bloated egg laying bodies. Thinkers and workers have short triple jointed tails which have a small spade left from what was the ovipositor. Thinkers have several psionic powers and mass 50kg and are 2m long. Workers are very strong (3d6), mass up to 200kg and are up to 4m long. Workers have two triple jointed power arms with two fingers and a grasping thumb, which are all that evolutionarily remain of claws. This forward pair of long arms retain extremely effective and efficient brachiation which was useful where they came from. The power arms have good grip strength and the entire body mass can be suspended easily from one hand hold. They are great climbers as a result, if what they are climbing can support their mass. The second set of limbs can be used as legs or arms as needed and the rear pair of legs are the primary locomotion. Workers walk or use a pattern described as skipping by a science team observer shortly before he was eaten.

Thinkers have four fine detail manipulator arms, each with delicate three fingered hands, their rear legs and tails form a stable tripod platform for them to stand. They jump and leap in hopping bounds when they move. Their telekinesis helps them land and manipulate objects as well. There are two openings to the digestive tract. Adjacent to each arm root for the middle appendages are the oral seams. The left arm feds the right opening and the right arm feeds the left mouth. The pair of throats are narrow. Food is torn by hand into small pieces or processed in modern times into small bite size pieces. Mastication is perfunctory at best. Three plates create the portal doorways to these oral groves. Food moves to a trio of internal chambers for a succession of digestive treatments. The current version of the warrior caste is more asymmetrical than the other castes. These are typically sterile or sterilized females. They grow massive, up to 400kg and are 3m long from the tip of the cranial pod rostrum to the tip of the tail. They have the two forward power arms and freakish strength (4d6, fine motor skills are lacking (1d6 dexterity), and endurance is epic (3d6). Feeding for all castes moved to the ventral surface, held anteriorly. The left middle arm of the warriors is a huge sweeping claw. This dense calcified blade is equal to a broadsword in combat. They wield this blades with lightning fast triple jointed efficiently. They make broad slicing curved attacks while circling to either side around their opponents. The right middle arm is diminished and grasps and holds the weapon arm. The sword fits into a lateral groove across the lower thorax above the segmentation of the abdomen. The thick integumentary layers are equal to mesh armor in the full grown adult warriors. Because of the arrangement of their combat arm and is tiny ally, they have trouble feeding themselves. Modern military formations fit them with a feeding device with tubes and pumps that port with the opening under a sterile seal.

Mavuzo breathe through six ports in their abdominal walls. There are three nostrils on each side of the body. At a certain stage in their development they had an ancestor which would use the bellowing roar of these respiratory breathing ports to intimidate other competitive consumers away from food sources. There is some disagreement over their dietary classification as they have manifested great versatility of the centuries. Older smaller castes where omnivorous eaters. These in turn were derived from a scavenger reducer. Through much of their evolutionary history they were detritivorous decomposers. They have filled intimidator and hijacker roles as well. First and foremost they are adaptable to conditions, and since achieving and/or being given sentience they have continued to adapt. Their vision varies, most opt for a filtering UV bias visible light spectrum pattern. The three whip antennae perceive sound, vibrations over a wide range of frequencies. They have tactile powers and are chemically receptive. The antennae process biologically active compounds differently than the respiratory system in the body. The six respiratory bellows in the abdomen move large volumes of air but are not very sensitive to olfactory concentrations. Thinkers direct other castes and read their minds. Individuals seldom communicate between themselves. If two members of a caste meet their cranial pods protrude and once in contact and they stroke each other with their antennae to convey meaning. All castes can bellow and yell with loud roaring breath sounds. These signals are not very articulate. Most castes have lost their pheromone abilities.

Characteristics

A baseline Mavuzo has the following characteristic ranges:

• Strength 3D
• Dexterity 2D
• Stamina 3D (long-distance runners)
• Intelligence 2D
• Education 1D (poor learners)
• Social 2D

Typical Size: approximately 100 kg.

Psychology & Philosophy

Poor students, revel in the physical and the thrill of the chase. Easily distracted. Many Mavuzo can become caught in a "blood-lust", temporarily "abandoning" their intelligence and becoming feral and savage.

Wisdom and intelligence are the signs of leadership.

Elders – and their perceived wisdom – are particularly respected and, typically, a powerful Mavuzo will yield to a physically inferior but intellectually superior individual.

• Mavuzo react positively to humans, who they instinctively perceive as "natural leaders".

Mavuzo have a reputation for reckless courage.

Primal Drives

Mavuzo psychology is driven by factors common to many sophonts:

• Acquisition (stemming from the need to gather adequate nutrition),
• Preservation (derived from the need to continue their personal existence), and
• Perpetuation (the urge to continue the species).

Major Drives

• Community: For Mavuzo, their immediate social group comes first. Occasionally Mavuzo will seek out a new group, forming bonds of friendship and eventually joining a community of their choosing. Mavuzo seek the best for their community. They uphold moral and ethical principles of their chosen community.
  • Xenophobia. A deep-seated distrust of outsiders.
• Dedication. Mavuzo are purposeful, adamant, and outspoken. They are generally unwavering in their loyalty, either to a cause, to a group or to an individual, and are resolute in their intent.
  • Obsessive. Excessive focus on a single topic or subject, often to an unreasonable degree.

Minor Drives

• Hierarchical. A hierarchical society involves two or more organisms working together to ensure their survival within a clearly defined stratified structure. In a hierarchical society, certain social positions and statuses have more prestige and importance than others. Extremely conscious of status.
  • Inflexiblity. Unwillingness to change or compromise.
• Pragmatism. Mavuzo tend to evaluate theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.
  • Introspection. Mavuzo can be brooding, introverted, and pensive. If their opinions or actions are called into question they can become inward-looking and given to doubt and self-analysis.

History & Background

Mavuzo are an enigmatic species, or group of species depending on how you look at it. The precursor stock was selected from species found on planets closer to the galactic core by Primordials. Near the end the Primordials had developed vast capabilities for modifying living things to serve their needs. Some of this was accomplished by selective breeding, some was genetic manipulation, and some was psionic conditioning to change behavior and customs. Some scholarship and investigations support the theory that the species was developed to go study and observe the area of the galaxy where the Droyne were predicted to emerge. The Primodials became aware through their new perception of time, that the ancients would follow them. The Mavuzo may have been an effort to leave a living ambassador species behind to greet them as they journeyed to the galactic core.

• Primal ancestors
• Human contact

Society & Culture

The Mavuzo control the Principality of Mavuzo, an interstellar polity.

Their sphere of influence includes the Yarrith system, the homeworld of the Yarah-Dak.

Mavuzo Culture

• Homogeneity C (Fragmented)
• Acceptance D (Very xenophilic)
• Strangeness 9 (Extremely confusing)
• Symbols F (Extremely abstract)

Technology & Trade

No information yet available.

Calendar:

No information yet available.

Timeline of Historical Events

No information yet available.

Worlds & Sectors (Astrography)

This race (sophont species) is primarily located in the following areas:

• Mavuzog Sector
  • Coldedge Subsector
  • Mavuzo Subsector
  • Riftspin Subsector
  • Siridor Subsector

Homeworld: 1105

The homeworld of this race (sophontic species) is:

• Mavuzo, a dense atmosphere temperate garden world lying within Mavuzo Subsector.

World Listing: 1105

Significant communities of this race (sophont species) are known to exist within the following systems and worlds:

29 of 29 World articles in Mavuzo

Alto Sem  •  Arride  •  Brige  •  Contolid  •  Dagu  •  Darksea  •  Fastine  •  Garvil  •  Gomorda  •  Ingo  •  Ive  •  Jy Magadis  •  Khesti  •  Krohn  •  Lust  •  Mavuzo  •  Ninion  •  Ositt  •  Ostren  •  Pebble  •  Pelda  •  Pimiti  •  Pul  •  Sardo  •  Syak  •  Tamardin  •  Xerin  •  Yarrith  •  Yesto  •  

startbacknext(29 listed)

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Classic Traveller Group One Theta Borealis Sector
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis), Captain, and Lead Naval Architect Ronald B. Kline, Jr. of the Imperial Navy
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science