Swine

The Sus, also known as Swine, are an advanced anthropomorphic species that evolved from domestic pigs and hogs on Earth. Their society is characterized by a nomadic lifestyle, subsistence foraging economy, and secretive culture with technology equivalent to 19th century humanity. Swine are renowned for their keen sense of smell, adaptability to diverse environments, and skill in locating and harvesting wild foods.

Etymology and Definition

The scientific name "Porcina sapiens" combines the Latin "porcus" meaning "pig" with "sapiens" meaning "wise". This reflects their porcine evolutionary lineage and the sapient intelligence they have attained. The common name "Swine" and species name "Sus" both derive from Old English and Latin terms for pigs, boars and hogs, their non-sapient ancestors.

Evolutionary History

Swine gained sapience during the Emergence, the period of rapid biotechnological progress and uplift of animal species in the late 4th millennium. Sus evolutionary trajectory was influenced by genetic engineering, memetic hybridization, and back-breeding with wild boar strains to enhance physical and cognitive traits. However, the full history of their speciation remains shrouded in mystery due to the secrecy of Swine tribes and their nomadic lifestyle leaving few permanent records.

Subspecies

Swine have retained and augmented the subrace diversity of their porcine forebears, with distinct populations adapted to different habitats and foraging strategies:

Trufflers: Descended from truffle hogs, they specialize in foraging for underground fungi using their acute sense of smell. Known for their dark fur and stocky builds.

Barrowers: Larger subspecies adapted to rooting for tubers and burrowing small mammals on plains and tundra. Thick pale fur and layers of subcutaneous fat allow them to withstand extreme cold.

Rooters: Generalists of the temperate forests, skilled in locating fallen nuts and digging up roots and shoots. Mottled brown and ginger fur provides camouflage.

Drifters: Uniquely adapted to marshlands and estuaries, able to hold their breath for extended periods to dig for aquatic tubers and mollusks. Oily water-resistant fur and webbed hooves.

All subspecies are sapient and can interbreed. The diversity of the Swine reflects their opportunistic resilience in exploiting marginal environments through specialized adaptations.

Biology

Swine have stout muscular bodies well-suited for their rooting and digging lifestyle. Females are somewhat smaller than males. All Sus have:

Snouts: Elongated snouts with an acute sense of smell, able to detect food sources up to a meter underground. Constantly moist to enhance olfaction.

Tusks: Protruding canine teeth that continue to grow throughout life. Used for digging, foraging, and as tools. Ornamentally carved or inlaid.

Hooves: Cloven hooves evolved into more primate-like feet with separated digits. Increases traction for bipedal movement but retains digging ability.

Fur: Dense bristly fur that varies in color and thickness by subspecies and environment. Molts seasonally. Often mud-caked from wallowing.

Tails: Vestigial tails that are short and curly or long and straight depending on lineage. Covered in longer fur, possibly for social signaling.

Ears: Medium sized ears that stand erect or partially flop over. Good directional hearing and able to swivel independently to locate sounds.

Reproduction follows porcine patterns, with a gestation of 4 months producing litters of 2-6 piglets. Sows are protective and nurse their offspring for an extended period while teaching them to forage. Lifespans have increased to 60-70 years thanks to genetic engineering and primitive medicine.
Sus intelligence was enhanced through transgenic neural growth factors and inherited epigenetic changes from cognitive tasks like puzzle-solving for food rewards across generations of captive breeding. Swine brains are now comparable to Humans in relative size and cortical neuron density, enabling abstract reasoning and symbolic communication.

Language

Swine communicate through a language systems that combines elements of their ancestral vocalizations with influences from human speech and original innovations. Sometimes called "Swinish", it features:

Grunts, squeals, snuffles and snorts that convey emotive and instinctual information like excitement, fear, aggression, etc.

Consonant-heavy barks, clicks and chomps generated mainly in the throat and snout, forming the phonemic structure of words.

A few drawn-out vowels to indicate grammatical elements like tense and relationships between words.

Extensive use of volume, pitch and tone shifts to signal social context like questions, commands, deference, etc.

No formal written script, but an extensive sign language of facial expressions, ear positions and hoof/foreleg gestures.

To human ears it sounds like a rapid-fire series of noisy grunts, oinks and gnashing teeth. But to Sus cognition it is a subtle layered system capable of conveying sophisticated concepts. Young Swine spend years mastering its intricacies.

Society

Sus society revolves around nomadic herds that follow seasonal foraging patterns across vast territories. Herds consist of several extended family groups called Sounders, each led by a matriarch sow. Sounders in turn defer to a Herd Council of elder sows and boars who make decisions by consensus. There is little hierarchy beyond respect for wisdom and seniority.
Swine are fiercely egalitarian and communal. All food is shared equally and tasks rotate between individuals. Their saying "From each snout, to each mouth" embodies their ethic of mutual support. However, adolescents must prove themselves through ritualized foraging challenges to be considered full adults.
Technology and tools belong to the group, not individuals. Most Swine material culture consists of plant and animal-derived products: Sturdy woven baskets, digging sticks, hide tents, reed mats, gourd containers, etc. Metal is rare and precious, traded for but not forged. Herds migrate on hoof, carrying their disassembled campsites on travois pulled by the burliest boars.
Herds gather annually at traditional Rootgrounds for festivals of storytelling, matchmaking, barter and friendly competitions. These strengthen political and cultural bonds between far-flung communities. Tribal law is mainly an oral code of conduct emphasizing cooperation, humility, and respect for nature. Violators may be symbolically "de-tusked" by exile or shunning.

Technology

Swine technology is simple but well-crafted and efficient, optimized for portability and using local renewable resources. Some key areas:

Food preservation: Smoking, drying, salting and pickling techniques that can keep foraged foods edible for months. Clay-lined pits for cool storage.

Textiles: Woven grass and bark-cloth garments, blankets and baskets. Felted fur and hair for winter wear. Dyes from plants and minerals.

Shelter: Yurt-like round tents of hide and felt over curved sapling poles. Collapsible and light for frequent movement. Central hearth.

Farmacy: Poultices, infusions, and poultices from medicinal herbs and fungi. Tinctures in alcohol distilled from fermented tubers. Bone-setting and wound care.

Digging: Fire-hardened spades of heartwood. Flint and obsidian adzes and trowels. Narrow snout-mounted scythes to uproot tubers. Hollow log "pushers" to check for gases and cave-ins.

Tracking: Extensive ethological knowledge of wildlife and forageables. Reading weather, soil, scat, tracks and feeding sign to locate resources.

Their most advanced skills are in underground construction. Some Swine dig multi-chambered burrows up to 10 meters deep for winter dens, larders, and even secretive Rootrounds. These feature air shafts, water channels, and roots encouraged to grow into supportive lattices.

Beliefs

Sus spiritual beliefs center on animism and ancestor reverence. Every plant, creature, and landform is imbued with a living essence that must be honored. Swine see themselves not as owners of the land, but "co-rooters" with its other inhabitants.
This respect takes the form of taboos against over-harvesting, wastage of any part of a resource, and disturbance of sacred groves and springs. Foragers thank the spirit of each tuber as they uproot it. Hunters use every scrap of a carcass and bury the bones with seeds.
Ancestors watch from the Endless Meadow, an afterlife of perpetual feasting and rooting. They offer guidance through dreams and omens. Swine may pray to their forebears for protection and plenty. The ghosts of those who violated taboos in life are doomed to root in barren soil, forever hungry.
Most spiritual practices are done in hidden Rootrounds, ceremonial burrows where Herds gather to feast, make offerings, and share stories and songs. These are dug in auspicious sites with unique plantlife or geological features. Rootround locations are closely guarded secrets.

Relations with Other Species

Sus are generally insular and distrustful of outsiders, preferring to keep to their own enclaves. After some early conflicts with Humans during the Emergence, they have maintained cautious trade relationships from a distance.
Swine will barter foraged delicacies and natural materials for metal tools, salt, and glass. But they reveal little of their culture or ways. Deals are done between individual merchants at neutral sites, never in villages or Rootrounds.
Attitudes towards other uplifted species range from indifferent to suspicious. Swine have a particular aversion to Felines, perhaps due to ancient predator-prey instincts. They have somewhat more cordial relations with Underground Primate mole clans, sometimes sharing tunnels and foraging grounds by accord.
As the Swine expand their numbers and ranges, they are carefully observing neighboring human and uplift activity from camouflaged lookouts. Occasional Swine scouts have been spotted hundreds of kilometers beyond their heartlands, often near ancient ruins or crashed Lumen sprondles.
Some human scholars worry the Swine are quietly preparing for some great change - a shift from foraging to raiding, or a sudden unveiling of hidden technologies. Others believe they are merely exploring and gathering knowledge before contact with an enticing but uncertain world.
Only the sus know their own minds, and they do not share their secrets with outsiders. As they say: "The sweetest truffle is oft deepest buried."

Conclusion

The Swine are a unique synthesis of porcine instinct and resourceful intelligence. Their hidden culture and subsistence skills allowed them to flourish unnoticed in the margins of an Earth transformed by the Emergence. Now they face an inevitable reckoning with the wider world.
Will Sus society adapt and integrate with their neighbors, or retreat further into isolation? Can their communitarian ethos and spiritual reverence for nature provide a template for more sustainable modes of sapient civilization? The answers may depend on the wisdom of the Herd Councils and the curiosity of the young boars.
One thing is certain: underestimate the Swine at your peril. Porcina sapiens grows clever indeed when there are truffles to be rooted out. The next chapter in their story will be one to watch with cautious interest and respect. One never knows what the snout might turn up next.

Scientific Name

Porcina sapiens

Geographic Distribution

• Earth
• Milky Way Galaxy
• Sol System