Vilani

The Vilani of Vland (Vland 1717) are a technologically advanced Major Human Race with a humanoid appearance.

Description

Biology: Human Major Race (Homo sapiens vlandensis) that developed on Vland (Vland 1717) from human stock placed there by the Ancients.

The Vilani gene pool is much less variegated than that of Terrans although thanks to the size of the Ziru Sirka, and the intermixing of human gene pools, considerable variation exists in physical appearance.

The Vilani have blood types C, D, M, N, and O, with C and N dominant.

General Appearance: Vilani Humans, on average, stand 1.75 meters in height and weigh about 75 kilograms. Descended from omnivore/gatherers, Vilani humans developed intelligence in response to shifting climatological factors and the inhospitable environment of Vland.

Vilani have a strong tendency to have a tanned skin tone as Vland has a bright type-F Star, brownish shades of hair, hazel eyes, and an uncommonly high prevalence of golden eyes.

Evolution and environment

Inhospitable Vland: The homeworld of the Vilani, Vland, while possessed of a environment, for the most part, amenable to Human life, boasted an alien ecology based on its own independently evolved biology, a biology that produced amino acids, proteins, and sugars that were difficult for humans to digest and metabolize. The humans just could not use local plant and animal life for food. Vland was inhospitable in its own way.

Shugilii: One of the oldest occupations in Vilani society is that of Shugilii (Anglic: Shugilii) (which translates roughly as miller). The Shugilii was a person who could transform raw food into edible food through special aging and chemical treatments. The Shugilii position was more akin to that of shaman or witch doctor than that of a cook. Since virtually no food on Vland was edible without some treatment, Shugilii were powerful members of society.

Beginning in prehistoric times, the Shugilii caste developed (and hoarded) safe methods for food preparation. With advanced technology and interstellar trade the need for these secret techniques declined, but the Shugilii retained a role as guardians of tradition, the closest thing Vilani society has to a priestly caste.

Vilani Medicine: The intense alien nature of the land was reciprocal: humans were unsuitable as food for predators, parasites died because humans provided no nutrition, bacteria could not infect the human system, and even viruses were unable to invade and take over human cells.

Consequently, the primitive human society found no need for medically-oriented shaman. Vilani medical understanding was very slow to develop because of this.

Overview:

• Hyper-acclimitization: Known to quickly adapt to many different climates and environments.
• Requires shelter and clothing.
• Prefer to shelter in defensible dens protected from the elements.

Vilani Trophics: The Vilani are evolved from omnivore/gatherers as are other Humans, and will eat a wide variety of foodstuffs, whether of animal, plant, or other origin. Due to the cultural legacies of the Shugilii and the inhospitable environment of Vland , the Vilani prefer processed foods, including those made through fermentation, pickling, salting, chemical treatment, etc.

This same legacy leads most Vilani avoid raw, organic foods of any type including fruits, nuts, vegetables, and unprocessed meat. To most Vilani, the Vilani folk saying holds: "If it isn't cooked, it isn't food!"

Some favorite Vilani foods and dishes include:

• Adwuj, (alcoholic beverage).
• Altmac, (alcoholic beverage).
• Astroburgers, (bread, vegetable & meat dish).
• Atrake, (alcoholic beverage).
• Terran Beef, (meat).
• Terran Chicken, (meat).
• Chicklizard, (meat).
• Terran Coffee, (beverage).
• Terran Meatloaf, (grain & meat dish).
• Terran Tea, (beverage).
• Vilnaf, (alcoholic beverage).
• Vilnafku, (Vilani native dish, a meat, vegetable & grain porridge-like dish)
• Yakka Juice, (fruit juice).

History & Background

History: General Overview
Vilani Legend: Vilani legends are full of accounts of the wars of the gods, terrible destruction, and occasional intervention in human affairs by the gods. Legends exist of early explorers who found lands with great living stone-metal gods possessed of immense magical powers. Modern archaeologists now believe these "gods" were actually great robot warriors and juggernauts used by the ancients in the Final War. Apparently, the last of these machines finally ran down around −20,000.

Vilani Imperial Expansion

The Vilani discovered intelligent lifeforms on other worlds within 60 parsecs of Vland. None of the races had progressed enough to have begun interstellar travel. The Vilani found it easy to dominate these less technically advanced races. The Vilani were able to impose Vilani culture and law on these other races among the stars. However, the Vilani conquering was not of a militaristic nature, but was economic subjugation.

As their sphere of influence was expanding, the Vilani found it difficult to maintain control across such great distances with jump-1 their maximum rate of travel and communication. At the same time, each of the three power classes of the Vilani society found themselves threatened by the forces around it.

Three bureaux were established, Sharurshid, Makhidkarun, and Naasirka, each independent of the other two, and each assigned a territory among the stars for which it was responsible. Each of the three bureaux was effectively identical, but they initially espoused different philosophies, which were based on their origins. The bureaux maintained their own governments within their territories.

Beginning in −5400, a series of wars to subjugate the resisting fringe cultures was waged. This period of consolidation lasted until −4045.

• Starjumpers

Grand Empire of Stars

In −4045, the ruling Vilani council, the Igsiirdi, declared the Grand Empire of Stars, or in the Vilani tongue the Ziru Sirka. The Vilani calendar starts on this date.
At first, the Empire had no emperor. Within 10 years, the chairman of the Isgiirdi (elected for life by the council) was declared the Ishimkarun (Anglic: Ishimkarun), the Shadow Emperor, who ruled by published proclamation, but never appeared in public.

In −3610, the Shadow Emperor became Emperor of the Stars, who was absolute monarch of the Empire. Successors were elected from the Igsiirdi upon the death of the old emperor.

For nearly 1,200 years the Grand Empire of Stars kept peace among its star spanning population. However, the empire insisted on cultural rigidity.

Exploration was brought to a halt by −4000. Scientific research was controlled and then stopped altogether by −3000.

Terran Relations

The beginning of the end of Vilani domination, however, was emphasized when the Terrans contacted the empire in −2422.

• By −2400 the Terrans and the Vilani were at war.
• By −2219 the Terrans had surpassed the Vilani technology and were marching through the cities of Vland as conquerors, and the Grand Empire of Stars was at an end.

Species

Humaniti