Vriis

Written by dweam

An incorapitive, but curious, race from the muddy swamps of Kazotin VI. Currently forced to stay to stay on their homeworld by the Doma through fear of an uprising, Vriis are the poster species for the awful things done in the Colonization Period. Though there have been rising populations across the galaxy, Vriis still only make up approximately about .05% of the galaxy population.

Basic Information

Anatomy

A Vriis is astonishingly mantis like, with 2 main arms almost the length of their elongated torso folded up, and 2 more pairs of much smaller, alternate arms tucked underneath. Their tendency to be over 7 ft tall on average and the 4 unblinking, glossy black eyes has a habit to make other species, but especially Mikulags, uneasy. Vriis exoskeletons are naturally colored/patterned, with browns, pinks, purples, and occasionally dark greens being the most common. More colorful variations do exist, but half of those are just regular colored Vriis with water proof paint. Large extensions of the exoskeleton attached to the limbs and back gives the appearance of a flower or a cliff side. These patterns and bodily extensions also extend to those in the species that have wings, but they only make up about a quarter of the current population. Vriis in general are also just,,, really fit. Like they are 100% ready to deck anyone at anytime. Even the larva know at the very least one way to escape a dangerous situation. Combine this with natural defensive and offensive capabilities and this is a being you seriously do NOT want to pick a fight with.

Civilization and Culture

Common Dress Code

Vriis “clothing” is less like actual clothing and more like just extensions of their natural armor. Plates made from petrified trees from their homeland is the most popular material of choice, and is highly personalized, filled to the brim with paintings etched with patterns, and occasionally scenes from mythology or important life events. The amount and ornateness of the armor itself is directly tied with age and experience. Older equals more armor, more experienced means more ornate, pretty simple. You can have young Vriis with really ornate armor and vice versa but those kids would have had to go through a got damn war zone to earn those patterns. As sad as it is though, in earlier Vriis history that would’ve been much more common.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

The Vriis harbor are unique combination of an artistic society and a militeristic one. Long before the Ecksosherans stepped foot on Kazotin VI, they were fighting with beautifully ornate weapons in meticulously designed arenas. Vriis also have a unique form of pottery due to their many and strange different kinds of forelimbs, the works often compared to flowing water or, strangely enough, unmelted metal ore. Speaking of Vriis artistry, the way in which their buildings are made is fascinating, and now I am going to write an entire paragraph about how they’re made, because no one is stopping me. The Vriis, much like regular old earth ants, use dirt, saliva, and other materials to build their nests. However, unlike ants, the small pellets used are mixed into an almost concrete concoction as the minerals are stirred in the mouth and stomach. The results are towering spires with the earth excavation sites making up caverns and tunnels underground. These lofty spires are often a god save should anyone get lost in the unforgiving jungle on Kazotin VI’s surface. The byproduct of the tunnels makes them very useful for espionage against any Doma that happen to be on the planet, and for just hiding from the Doma in general. The military aspect of Vriis society is not exactly what you might expect, as Vriis have no concept of your typical army. Should the need arise to fight, everyone fights, and I mean everyone. Even though there no presence of a hivemind in their species, or even a queen, insect senses and origins are hard to ignore. Communication through clicks, pheromones, and body signals communicate exactly what needs to be done. Any of those with wings take to the skys, while their brethren swarm the ground below. Larva famously are used as a moral bargaining chip, knowing just the right time to start crying for their brood mother.

History

The Vriis were a simple non-space faring race whenever the Colonization Age started. I mean, they have sent themselves to space before and had god knows how many probes, but mastering space flight the common bug had not. Whenever the ecksosherans came along for colonization, they didn’t really know what to do with the natives. The fact that the Vriis were clearly intelligent and also has access to nuclear weapons was concerning to say the least. The doma decided to go with a good old fashioned treaty to occupy the planet alongside the inhabitants. Because we all know how well that goes. After only 30 months of occupation, they decided to try and take the planet by force. The Vriis caught wind of this, and anticipated the invasion by bombarding the colony ships above the planet’s surface. What followed after was a long and bloody war where both sides really gained nothing. The ecksosherans eventually convinced the doma to give up after failing to coax the Vriis from underground. The species was rediscovered after another space faring race was doing a scientific expedition in ecksosheran territory. When the expedition confronted the doma leaders about the planet, their sorry excuses of “It wasn’t habitable to us” (it was) and “We don’t know why there are a bunch battlefields with eckshosheran corpses there” (they did) prompted the expedition to take a closer look. When they found the Vriis hiding out in caves underneath the war-torn surface, the scientists decided to make a public announcement abiding to the injustice that was so neatly swept under the rug. The media was all over this story, and it soon prompted other races to call out their own governments. Basically, everyone was pointing fingers at each other and it was an utter mess for the politicians. Even today Kazotin VI is still under Doma surveillance, and while there are technically no laws forbidding the landing of ships on the surface, hired Regulators keep the planet on lockdown. Should a Vriis ever escape their homeworld, they can never go back in risk of being arrested for a 50 year prison sentence or more, and the hunting down of their families. Despite the obstacles, the species has slowly spread to other planets outside of Ecksosheran control. As a given, Vriis are extremely cautious when it comes to Ecksosheran and are downright hostile toward any Doma or even the mention toward them. Those Vriis on homeworld because they’re tired of the siege of ships and supplies depriving the planet of modern technology, and those offworld because Vriis know that the Doma have no legal right to do anything so as long as they stay within the law.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

When the Vriis realized just how good they were at war, they turned to each other. Great stalemates riddle Vriis history, and that coupled with their small population size to begin with led to an earlier that usual unification of the race. To quelch the urge to fight, the Vriis turned to spectated brawls. These coliseum battles are on par with the gladiator fights or chariot races of Roman and the Byzantine Empires, i.e serious business. Over the years they have gotten extremely more complicated and elaborate, a fighter must be at the peak of their mental and physical prowess in order to win the Vriis gauntlets.