Denaar

Denaar
Side view of a typical Denaar.
Base Information
Classification	Herbivore
Status	Minor Race
Locomotion	Walker
Terrain
Body Form
Confluence	Non-humanoid
Bio-Identenoid	Alien
Size	1.5 meters
Weight	70 kg
Culture
Languages	Denaari
Social Structure	Oligarchy
Technological Epoch	TL:7-9
Psionic potential	Standard
Origin World
Homeworld location	Matinger (Fornast 1126)
UWP	B588630-A Starport B Good: Spacecraft Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel Size 5 Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g) Atmosphere 8 Dense Hydrographics 8 Wet World 80% Population 6 Moderate (5 million) Government 3 Self-Perpetuating Oligarchy Law 0 No Law Tech Level A Early Stellar (jump drive)
Primary Star	G9 V M8 V
Atmosphere	Dense
Off-world presence	No
Zoetic individuals	Yes
Source
Reference	Marc Miller's Traveller 147.
Canon	Yes
Also see	Metempsychosis

The Denaar of Matinger (Fornast 1126) are a Minor Non-Human Race with a non-humanoid appearance and technologically sophisticated sophonts.

In their primary native language they refer to themselves as ahn-twar, which roughly translates to “being”, or else more formally, as chi-nes-twar-kohn, meaning “children of the endless generations.” Common parlance among other Imperials labels them “intellect downloaders.”

Physical Sophontology

The Denaar brain and vital organs are protected beneath a chitin-like, layered carapace, which is tough but flexible. In physical and mental capacity they are much like Humaniti, though they can carry more and require about double the living and work space. Their two brain lobes can, to some extent, compensate for damage, protecting their valuable immortal personality (see below).

Denaar eyesight is roughly equivalent to human, extending only slightly farther into the infrared, but their wider eye separation does allow peripheral vision beyond the human norm. They hear as well as humans in their dense home atmosphere, and their technology can usually compensate in lesser pressures. They have no sense of smell, but extremely sensitive taste perception.

Sexual glands are located in the mouth. Each Denaar has both male and female glands.

Personality Download

The Denaar are best known for their "intellect downloading" or, more crudely, "body hopping" ability. When the Third Imperium contacted them, no new Denaar personalities had been created for hundreds of millennia: offspring are born without self-awareness or useful intelligence. But when a Denaar's body is damaged or elderly (roughly a fifty year life span), a mere ten minutes' touching of cerebral stems (normally concealed beneath a flap of the carapace) moves the existing Denaar intellect and personality to the new body from the old (which quickly fades and dies, no matter its age or condition). The process can be interrupted without hazard, and a Denaar intellect can survive up to five years in an intact brain lobe. Barring malice or catastrophe, then, an individual Denaar personality is immortal and un-aging.

Denaar virtual immortality causes a lack of concern about disease and serious injury.

• Metempsychosis

Archaeological sophontology

Despite their quasi-immortality, Denaar memories are no more lasting than human ones: regardless of their ancient existence (some recall visits by Second Imperium scouts!), the Denaar, like Humaniti, dwell mainly on the recent past.

Cultural Sophontology

Denaar virtual immortality fosters the cultural values of risk-taking, lack of forethought, and even a devil-may-care attitude.

They have a minor cultural bias against mechanisms that replace the power of the mind, such as computers, and that as well as their zero population growth and individualism have probably conspired to keep them at TL–7.

Since their offspring are non-sentient, Denaar have no sense of family, and remain highly individualistic, making friends but highly valuing their independence.

Linguistic Sophontology

Humans and Denaar find each others' languages physically unpronounceable, and thus must rely on writing or language translators for interspecies communication.

• The name for the Denaar Language is Denaari.

Societal Sophontology

The Denaar have an average TL–7 and show no signs of technological progress. Denaar also cannot use human low berths, and have never had appropriate models designed.

Business and governmental relations between Denaar and other species can be difficult, due to the devil-may-care attitude of most Denaar. Humans, for instance, have a hard time understanding Denaar counterparts who are willing to make deals quickly, then change them if things aren't working out. Denaar, conversely, can't fathom Human insistence on research and forethought, or why things need to be approached carefully. Interaction with races like the redundancy-obsessed Gl'lu or the protocol-obsessed Bwap is even harder.

Update to 1105

During the Imperial Civil War, Matinger suffered an accidental nuclear bombardment after two pretenders to the Iridium Throne conducted a brutal space battle in the system. This resulted in many of the ancient memories of the Denaar being wiped out, forcing the Denaar to revert to, or re-discover, the long-forgotten art of raising new intelligences from childhood, a capability they had forgotten existed. The modern Denaar still have many of their ancient memories intact, but those lines of memory transfer are no longer the majority. The new Denaar are split on the practice of memory transfer, with some having abandoned the practice entirely.

Image Repository

A Denaar driving a Wheeled ATV. Don't worry, they can just download into a replacement body if this one is mangled. Humans can do that too, right?

Astrography

This race is primarily located in the following areas:
Charted Space:

• Fornast Sector
  • Irinkuka Subsector

Homeworld

The homeworld of this race is:

• Matinger (Fornast 1126)

World Listing: 1105

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

1 of 1 World articles in Denaar

Matinger  •  

startbacknext(1 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 Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Marc Miller. Marc Miller's Traveller (Imperium Games, 1996), 147.
• Timothy B. Brown. Aliens Archive (Imperium Games, 1996), 28-36.
• Author: Jim Kundert for the update to 1105