The Videshi world – Videshi society

The Videshi are large six-legged vertebrates, having some common ground with Earthly biochemistry in general terms (fats, sugars, proteins) but largely incompatible in finer detail. Videshi have a eusocial structure with some similarities to insects and termites.

Known castes

• Leader: Female past breeding age
• Breeder: Younger female egg-layer
• Nurse: Neuter egg-carrier
• Itinerant: Male breeder
• Knowledge keeper: Itinerant past breeding age
• Pilot
• Soldier
• Worker: Includes specialities such as building, large scale engineering, and technology
• Gardener: Specialist worker skilled in guiding plant growth to produce structures

The itinerants are highly sensitive to the needs of the hive, and selectively nurture eggs to produce the right kinds of young according to current needs. Today’s Videshi species and ecosystem were engineered in the past to optimize the shared use of resources in their known world. This has had the downside of trapping them in their current setting, as the males can’t adapt to off-world conditions.

The nursery chamber is carefully protected. When an itinerant is in residence, a mix of pheromones helps guide the development of the new brood, so guarding against unwanted chemical traces is an instinctive imperative for all Videshi.

Pilots are another highly specialized caste. They have an intuitive feel for the topology of nearby space, an advance on the general “sense of place” that all Videshi possess.

Videshi have little to no sense of themselves as individuals. They don’t use personal names (and struggle with the concept) but refer to themselves by current role or function. The good of the colony takes precedence over any individual. They have no understanding of the human obsession with personal wealth, success, or freedom.

Technology

Videshi technology centers around bioengineering and food production, textiles and materials. They have no mass manufacturing. Everything is individually purpose-made, usually through guided growth of plants with suitable properties.

They do have sophisticated bio-electro-chemical technology grown into craft and buildings, which provides things like lighting and ventilation as well as incredibly compact wormhole drives. They have no long range electronic communications.

Customs and taboos

Videshi culture has a powerful taboo against feeding in front of strangers. Even though it’s necessary, taking nourishment is intensely personal and self-centered, which goes against the overriding need to sacrifice for the collective. Over millennia this has grown into a strong taboo. Videshi wear veils to cover their snouts and mostly feed in private. Despite this, collective ceremonial feeding is a powerful bonding action when newcomers are introduced to a hive.

The morning song readies the hive for the day ahead. The song assesses the state of the hive, and collectively agrees work and other actions for the day.

Speech and other communications

Videshi communications in general are multi-channel and multi-layered. They exist in a state of continuous connection to others nearby.

Communication is partly through pheromones in close quarters, and low frequency sound over long distances.

General mood is conveyed through pheromones, which add nuance to audible communications. Moods convey things like calm, stress, hunger, anxiety, anger, urgency. Internally generated moods (an individual is anxious or senses a threat) combine to give an overall context for the group. Conflicting moods generally result in either the individual coming into line with the rest of the group (the anxious individual is reassured that all is well) or a flip in the overall group mood (more individuals see the threat).

Pheromones evolved from the natural scents of primeval ecosystems, mimicking the smells of healthy systems, food, predators, sickness, and other natural threats. Major scents recognizable to humans include: ammonia – danger, need to respond to a threat; citrus – alarm; pear drops – contentment, all is well; heavy musk – general state of stability.

In addition, Videshi constantly “sing” their current state, including harmonics that broadcast their “name” (more properly, their current role in the hive) to their neighbors. The combined song represents the membership and state of readiness of the group, and all members can sense its fitness and adjust their own contribution as needed.

Videshi speech is structurally different from human language, which makes translation a challenge. The language has no pronouns. Although Videshi have a sense of self, individuality is of no significance so the distinction between “I” or “you” is unimportant. Things are referred to through their functional role in the world or impact on the group. This also means that the language has no proper names and little in the way of nouns. It is rich in adjectives.

Videshi don’t talk about time in the same way humans do. They have no specific terms for present or future, though they do distinguish between things that have happened, and things not yet come to pass. Their speech focuses instead on causal relationships and conditions. Typical Videshi expressions take the form of states of being, cause and effect, and actions taken along a causal chain.