Species File: Gruth

[Jubal]

The Gruth: Species File

The Gruth (pronounced gutturally; the "Gr" is most correctly done as a throat growl, with a short "uh" for the u) are one of the commonest starfaring races. They are the main species in the Verwynn Empire, ruled over by Verwynn knights, but many also serve as mercenaries and in other roles.

Biology

Spoiler

Basic factfile

Average Height	6'0"
Average Mass	100kg
Average Lifespan (In Earth terms)	60 years
Native habitat	Savannah and grassland
Skin colour	Dark, chocolate brown with short, coarse, pale coloured hairs all over (hair colours & patterns varying depending on the individual)

Reproductive Cycle
Gruth have effectively two genders - repros and drones. As the names imply, repros can take an active role in reproduction, whereas drones have no capacity to do so. In traditional Gruth society the drones essentially took on "protector" roles (fighting, guarding young, caring for young, gathering food, building shelters), whilst repros occupied "creative" ones (pot making, weaving, cooking, herb gathering, metalworking, leadership roles). These roles varied between different Gruth societies, and in general tended to break down as Gruth culture became more global in the century or so preceding their development of space technology. Drones, being longer lived in general, increasingly started to take on more important tasks where practical knowledge was useful, engineering work in particular (though theoretical physics, for example was dominated by repros for much longer).

Gruth spawn in a symbiotic relationship with a species called the hrach. The hrach are slow moving, fat, eight-legged creatures around four feet long and three feet high; they grow glands on their lower back that eventually swell to form a tripartite bulbous growth - the necessary "egg" of food matter that the baby Gruth will grow in. Two repros then implant the bulbs with genetic material; two of the three will become drones, the third a repro, though oddities where multiple repros are born is not unknown. The hrach, in exchange for their services, are protected and pampered by each tribe/extended family's drones.

Culture

Spoiler

Gruth traditionally lived in tribes of 60-100 (on average, though large and well-resourced tribes could reach 4-500), all quite closely related (and with the biological 2:1 ratio in favour of drones). Tribes generally had about 1/3 of their numbers in hrach.

In modern Verwynn society, a "klut" of Gruth under a Verwynn knight is the basic social unit, slightly larger than a traditional tribe (150-200 being common, 800 or so being the maximum). A klut is in some ways equivalent to a medieval manor, in that it usually comprises ownership of a group of Gruth bonded to a land-holding, spaceship fleet, or military command. Kluts that are essentially mobile or military will sometimes be formed out of other tribes and "topped up" when losses happen, to avoid the cumbersome need for hrach in the group; colonies of any sort nevertheless do need a significant number of hrach.

[TTG4]

These sound interesting!

It sounds like there may be a bit of internal conflict around the drone/repro balance, could that perhaps be represented somehow?

[Jubal]

It's unlikely to have much effect in game terms, but will come in when I write stories. But yes, certainly the drone/repro thing has no fewer issues than human gender relations - it's a different initial conception of the roles and their balance, but breaking out of that mould caused quite some friction in gruth society.

In general, if there's a Verwynn around (and I hope their species file will come fairly soon) Gruth are far too busy taking orders from the big scary bug samurai thing to worry about internal conflict. I guess the Verwynn have also upset/changed the balance for the Gruth as well though; it's not purely a master/slave relationship by any means, the Verwynn often (though not always) care very deeply about their Gruth retinues, and so in some ways dominate the traditional "protector" role, so I guess their dominance but also militaristic nature might well shift the balance towards the drone archetype societally.

[TTG4]

It's unlikely to have much effect in game terms, but will come in when I write stories. But yes, certainly the drone/repro thing has no fewer issues than human gender relations - it's a different initial conception of the roles and their balance, but breaking out of that mould caused quite some friction in gruth society.

In general, if there's a Verwynn around (and I hope their species file will come fairly soon) Gruth are far too busy taking orders from the big scary bug samurai thing to worry about internal conflict. I guess the Verwynn have also upset/changed the balance for the Gruth as well though; it's not purely a master/slave relationship by any means, the Verwynn often (though not always) care very deeply about their Gruth retinues, and so in some ways dominate the traditional "protector" role, so I guess their dominance but also militaristic nature might well shift the balance towards the drone archetype societally.

Fair point, though perhaps with the right jabs from a foreign power...

[Jubal]

I'm now just imagining this back-translated into humans with the USA trying to instigate feminist riots in Russia or something.