Difference between revisions of "Virushi"
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==Psychology== | ==Psychology== | ||
| − | 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. Virushi seem unrelentingly cooperative and mild, and bizarrely immune to all concepts of authority. 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 | + | 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. Virushi seem unrelentingly cooperative and mild, and bizarrely immune to all concepts of authority. 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 find them. It can intellectually grasp the idea that those other beings may be aggressive, hostile, and domineering - Virushi are very long way from being stupid - but that is simply how those being are; it does not drive Virushi to anger or violent defensiveness, because the Virushi lacks the capacity for those responses. |
=== Hierarchy and Orders === | === Hierarchy and Orders === | ||
Revision as of 09:25, 4 October 2007
| Virushi | |
|---|---|
| Status | Minor Race |
| Classification | grazer |
| Size | 3 meters |
| Weight | 1 ton |
| Homeworld | Virshash (Reaver's Deep 2724) |
| Multi-world | yes |
| Canon | yes |
| Extinct | {{{extinct}}} |
| Reference | GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 4 |
The Virushi are among the largest intelligent races encountered by Humaniti. With quasi-centauroid bodies nearly 3 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.
Origin
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.
The sheer quantity and variety of food that a proto-Virushi needed forced the species into a solitary, wide-ranging pattern of foraging. They found considerable advantages in cooperation and the formation of social groups. Language developed from the need to exchange information about food sources. The learned to build shelters, and eventually mastered tool-making. The cooperative organization was never coercive or hierarchical; the race lacked aggressive instincts, and individual Virushi had to be able to wander off alone on foraging expeditions.
Contact
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 absorbed into Third Imperium.
Physiology
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. The have two pair of tree-thick legs and two pairs of arms. The lower pair 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 the ones on the upper arms are long and delicate, rather like human fingers, including small fingernails.
They 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.
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 up vision is excellent. They have no external ears; they find most "normal" sounds in standard atmospheres almost too high to hear.
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.
Language
The Virushi currently have a single language, which formed by the merger of several dialects when human first contacted the world. Its structure reflects their attitude toward life. Human may learn Virushi, 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 too shrill for Virushi.
Psychology
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. Virushi seem unrelentingly cooperative and mild, and bizarrely immune to all concepts of authority. 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 find them. It can intellectually grasp the idea that those other beings may be aggressive, hostile, and domineering - Virushi are very long way from being stupid - but that is simply how those being are; it does not drive Virushi to anger or violent defensiveness, because the Virushi lacks the capacity for those responses.
Hierarchy and Orders
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 instinct is to question, to ask for reasons. 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 can not continue forever.
Of course, this made it virtually impossible for the Virushi to develop a large, complex society with specialized roles, at least until the Imperium gave them advanced computer systems and the idea of advanced market economics.