Virushi

Virushi
Base Information
Classification	Herbivore/grazer
Status	Minor Race
Locomotion	Walker
Terrain	Plains
Body Form
Confluence	Non-humanoid
Bio-Identenoid	Centauroid
Size	3.0 meters
Weight	1,000 kg
Culture
Languages	Virsashi, Anglic
Social Structure	Technocracy
Technological Epoch	TL:7-9
Psionic potential	Standard
Origin World
Homeworld location	Virshash (Reaver's Deep 2724)
UWP	DA86954-6 Starport D Poor: No Construction, Minor Repair, Unrefined fuel Size A Large (16,000 km, 1.14g - 1.48g) Atmosphere 8 Dense Hydrographics 6 Wet World 60% Population 9 High (4 billion) Government 5 Feudal Technocracy Law 4 Moderate Law (no light assault weapons) Tech Level 6 Pre-Stellar (nuclear)
Primary Star	F9 V M4 V
Atmosphere	Dense
Off-world presence	Yes
Zoetic individuals	Yes
Source
Reference	"Contact: The Virushi." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 12 10-11.
Canon	Yes
Also see

The Virushi of Virshash (Reaver's Deep Urlaqqash) are a technologically competent Minor Non-Human Race with a Non-humanoid appearance.

Description (Specifications)

The Virushi are among the largest intelligent races encountered by Humaniti. With quasi-centauroid bodies nearly 3.0 meters long, standing around 1.8 meters at the shoulder, and weighing around a ton, they are a formidable sight; however this effect is balanced by their well-justified reputation for pacifism.

Biology (Physical Sophontology)

To Terran eyes, a Virushi looks like a cross between a centaur and a rhinoceros. They are squat, massively built creatures covered with thick, leathery armor on their backs and side. The body is a solid barrel, with a rather long and very muscular tail. They have two pairs of tree-thick legs and two pairs of arms. The lower arms are heavily muscled and powerful; the upper pair seem almost withered by comparison but are actually about the same size as Human arms. The hands have three fingers and an opposable thumb; those on the lower arms are thick and stumpy, while those on the upper arms are long and delicate, rather like human fingers, including small fingernails.

Virushi have a broad mouth with two short, rounded tusks protruding downward. Their teeth are designed for a herbivorous diet; a large number of short, peg like molars with a few incisors in the front. Atop the head is a huge horn which, like the tusks and foot-claws, evolved for digging roots rather than for fighting.

Senses

Their eyes, nearly buried beneath massive brow ridges, work well enough in very bright sunlight but much less well in poor light, let alone near darkness; they are nearsighted but their close vision is excellent. They have no external ears; they find most "normal" sounds in standard atmospheres almost too high to hear.

Evolution & Environment (Epigenetics)

This species originated and developed intelligence on Virshash/Urlaqqash (Reaver's Deep 2724).

Native Environment

Virshash (Reaver's Deep 2724), the Virushi homeworld, lies just within the Imperial border, in the Reaver's Deep Sector. It has a notably dense core and a diameter of somewhat over 10,000 miles, giving it a gravity of 1.75G, and is part of a relatively close double-star system; the second star of the pair produces high levels of radiation, which Virshash's dense atmosphere only partly blocks.

The high gravity, dense atmosphere, and high but variable radiation levels produce a significantly unstable environment and a prolific ecology with some physically formidable large life-forms, including the Virushi. Virushi originated as grazer-gatherers, adopting a highly varied (though purely herbivorous) diet, searching through scrub lands, river valleys, and the edges of the world's great forests for a range of foodstuffs.

Sophonce (Evolution)

This species developed intelligence in response to inter- and intraspecies cooperation. They found considerable advantages in working together and forming social networks. Language, shelter, and tool-building developed from the need to exchange information about food sources. The cooperative organization was never overtly coercive or hierarchical, since the race lacked aggressive instincts, but their considerable bulk and strength guaranteed that the individuals with the most physical heft also had most of the political heft.

In time, major grassland ecosystems had wide but loose social networks of clans, villages, and towns. The most successful of these typically ran like civil service bureaucracies.

Even though the Virushi are cooperative and nonviolent, their governments follow the natural courses of all governments, and end up being coercive. Due to their high level of networking, and the need to gently encourage cooperation at all levels of interaction, the amount of red tape in Virushi government rivals that of the most byzantine Ziru Sirka bureaux. As a result, their world is a vast network of feudal obligations built on technological services. There is no central government; rather, the descendants of the ancient plains occupy feudal seats in these overlapping social networks.

Climate & Ecotope (Environment)

This species holds the following environmental preferences:

• Terrestrial planet
• Temperate climate
• Plains and grasslands ecotopes
• High gravity
• Dense atmosphere

Anatomy & Physiology (Phenotype)

Sophontologists studying this species have discovered the following data.

Body Plan (Morphology)

Centauroid

• Non-humanoid
• bilateral symmetry (2-ial)
• Octopod (8-ped)
  • 4 limbs used for manipulation "arms"
  • 4 limbs used for locomotion "legs"
  • 1 tail
• Body consists of four segments
  • Head
  • Upper torso with both sets of "arms"
  • Forward torso with a set of "legs"
  • Rear torso with a set of "legs" and the tail

Biochemistry (Function)

This species has a conventional biochemistry.

• As a pseudo-ruminant, it has multiple stomachs maximized to extract nutrients from vegetable and plant matter.

Respiration (Reaction)

This species uses a conventional respiration cycle consisting of:

• Oxygen-nitrogen inhalant
• Carbon dioxide exhalant
  • As a dense atmosphere native, this species is able to dwell in high-pressure environments and may require technological assistance in thinner atmospheres.

Diet & Trophics (Consumption)

This species survives using the following methods of consumption:

• Herbivore/grazer
• This species favors plant and vegetable foodstuffs.
• This species has difficulty processing animal proteins and related foodstuffs.
  • Some animal products may even be toxic for this species.

Trophics: Virushi, predictably, eat more than humans; ideally they like to eat a lot more, but much of it high-bulk, low-protein content vegetable matter, and they can survive for some time on smaller quantities of higher-value food thanks to their adaptable digestions. The sheer quantity and variety of food that a proto-Virushi needed forced the species into a solitary, wide-ranging pattern of foraging.

Gender & Sexuality (Reproduction)

This species has the following reproductive characteristics:

• 2 gender/s (male & female)
  • Mild sexual dimorphism
• Viviparous birth
  • (Iteroparous): Uses K-selection and have few offspring that require considerable amounts of time to raise to maturity.

Linguistics

Imperial fact-sheets claim the Virushi have one unified language. This has a kernel of truth.

In fact, Virshash is home to many languages and dialects; being primarily peaceful, and not being able to coerce well on a regional or planetary scale, means that the Virushi could never merge languages, nor forsake one language for another. However, many auxiliary languages were created out of an obligation (code-word for Virushi-style coercion) to communicate with one another, and one language is marked for use with non-Virushi Imperials.

This main interface languages, Virsashi, originated from a creole between several powerful city-states as a compromise language for the purposes of cooperation and trade. Its structure reflects a typical Virushi attitude toward life. Humans may learn it, just as Virushi may learn Human languages. The only problem is that Virushi have very deep voices, to the point that their speech sometimes slips into a subsonic range, inaudible to Human hearers. Likewise, Human conversations are often too shrill for Virushi.

History & Background (Dossier)

Virshash lay some distance beyond the borders of the First Imperium, and so the Virushi were never contacted until Solomani explorers ventured into the Reavers' Deep sector during a lull in the Interstellar Wars. They remained in at least intermittent contact with various Human states throughout this period and into the Long Night. The Virushi were eventually absorbed into the Third Imperium.

Culture & Society (Ethnology)

Humans typically think of Virushi as "gentle giants", whose sheer size and strength means that they have little need for aggression, and this is indeed a workable simplification. Virushi are not only huge and powerful compared to other sentient races, but also by comparison to other species on their homeworld. The Virushi seem unrelentingly cooperative and mild, and bizarrely immune to all concepts of authority. In reality, their bulk and strength allowed them to develop their coercive skills to an acme. To a human, this looks like obligation on the surface.

Whereas other species compare alien races to themselves and classify them accordingly, a Virushi, adapted by evolution to be the biggest and gentlest thing in an environment full of smaller and more excitable creatures, takes those other species as it finds them.

It can intellectually grasp the idea that those other beings may be aggressive, hostile, and domineering - Virushi are a very long way from being stupid - but that is simply how those beings are; it does not drive Virushi to anger or violent defensiveness, because the Virushi lacks the capacity for those responses. Instead, their first instinct is to apply just enough strength -- from a great depth of resources -- to get things done in the correct way. Cooperation encouraged from Virushi is simultaneously a masterwork to appreciate and a force to hold in awe.

Social Organization

The other well known feature of Virushi psychology is that they do not take orders. They can take suggestions, but see no reason why they should not discuss them and ask for explanation and clarification. A Virushi's first tactic is to question, to ask for reasons. Their instinct is to bend the situation to their preference. Of course, a trusted figure may emphasize that a situation needs immediate action, and explanation will have to wait, or a Virushi may obey an order to humor another being for one reason or another, but this cannot continue forever.

Civilization (Societal Sophontology)

The civilization and society of this species is known to the Imperium as the Virushi Pacifistocracy. The notion of rule by the peaceful epitomises the odd nature of Virushi social influence and obligation.

Government & Politics (Leadership)

As the species formed social bonds yet retained the ability to forage alone, they developed adaptable social orders with loose, wide-ranging networks through their "servant leaders", who had the most intelligent use of gentle coercion to encourage progress. For whatever reason, they reached a low technological plateau and stayed there. Eventually, the Imperium discovered them and introduced them to high tech and Human social systems, which they happily assimilated into. The Virushi are valued citizens of the Third Imperium.

Virushi demand government transparency, and practically all Virushi political activity is posted publicly with comprehensive session tracking. Their political processes tend to be very slow, with red tape to rival the most byzantine of Ziru Sirka bureaux. After all, at every stage people must be gently convinced to cooperate.

Nonetheless, Virushi nature also makes for relatively simple governance: put simply, the greater the heft, the greater the influence. The Virushi government is a feudal technocracy dominated by the descendants of those old, loose, quasi-feudal networks, typically managed by cooperative councils.

• Please see polity entry at Virushi Pacifistocracy for more information.

Military & Intelligence (Force Projection)

The Virushi have a well-justified reputation for pacifism. Other than maintaining local constabularies to ensure law and order, the Virushi are not known for military proclivities. Imperial garrisons protect most Virushi worlds from armed aggression. While pacifistic, Virushi are perfectly capable of self-defense.

• Please see polity entry at Virushi Pacifistocracy for more information.

Business & Trade (Economy)

Technology on Virshash is TL6. The Virushi often hire out foreign technicians to maintain higher technology items. Virushi engage in trade across the Third Imperium and beyond.

Astrography

This race is primarily located in the following areas:

• Reaver's Deep Sector
  • Urlaqqash Subsector

A small community of Virushi live on the Human-dominated St. Katherine (Luretiir!girr 0810), a world with a dense atmosphere favourable to their species. This is one of the furthest trailing communities known.

Significant Populations

• Khagish: Around 700,000,000, representing 10% of the population.
• Khakhan: Around 4,500,000,000, representing about 5% of the population.
• Marianne: Around 35,000,000, representing about 70% of the population.
• Sharrik: Around 480,000,000, representing 60% of the population
• Urlaqqash: Around 12,000,000, representing 30% of the population.
• Virshash: Around 4,000,000,000, representing almost 100% of the population.

Homeworld

The homeworld of this race is:

• Virshash (Reaver's Deep Urlaqqash)

System Details

 Primary: Thintle (F9 V)
 Orbit 1:  Y730000-0  Yirila (RadWorld)
 Orbit 2:  Y230000-0  Urulu (StormWorld)
 Orbit 3:  F6C5479-7  Qush (Inner World)
 Orbit 4:  Y899000-0  Shashqar (RadWorld)
 Orbit 5:  FA89555-5  Qurwish (Hospitable, high albedo)
 Orbit 6:             Virshash (Mainworld)
 Orbit 7:  YDCA000-0  Dnalir (BigWorld)
 Orbit 8:  YQGG000-0  Vurdn (LGG)
 Orbit 9:  YRGG000-0  Rashvi (LGG)
 Orbit 10: YMGG000-0  Shinqal (IGG)

World Listing: 1105

Significant communities of this race are known to dwell within the following systems and worlds:

6 of 6 World articles in Virushi

Khagish  •  Khakhan  •  Marianne  •  Sharrik  •  Urlaqqash  •  Virshash  •  

startbacknext(6 listed)

References & Contributors (Sources)

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 Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Loren Wiseman. "Contact: The Virushi." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 12 (1982): 10-11.
• Gary L. Thomas. "Reavers' Deep library data." The Travellers' Digest 16 (1989): 28,29.
• Steve Jackson, Loren Wiseman. Alien Races 4 (Steve Jackson Games, 2001), 132-144.
• Paul Sanders, J. Andrew Keith. Reaver's Deep Sector Sourcebook (Cargonaut Press, 1998), 34,63.
• Martin Dougherty, Hunter Gordon. The Traveller's Handbook (QuikLink Interactive, 2002), 29-30.
• Martin Dougherty, Hunter Gordon. Gateway to Destiny (QuikLink Interactive, 2004), 37.
• Matthew Sprange. "The Virushi." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society volume 5 (2020): 54-58.