The Zuzhuroses are a humanoid race. They are herbivores with superb hearing, which in ancient times let them escape predators.
Today the Zuzhuroses live in huge farming villages surrounded by flooded fields, where they grow their favourite cereal — zuzhur groats.
They live in strong families; each couple usually has many children — from 7 to 10. Women in Zuzhuros society generally hold a subordinate position.
The Zuzhuroses are divided into clans, each of which usually controls a large territory where the cereals are grown. A clan is headed by an elder.
The average Zuzhuros lifespan is 60 years, and they become elders at 50. For every 25 years of life a Zuzhuros receives a ring in the ear, so elders usually wear two.
Territorial wars between clans are fairly common, and only a very strong supreme leader can unite them into a single state.
The antagonism within Zuzhuros society is so strong that even the peasants sowing the fields have to arm themselves against attacks by other clans.
The most troublesome group is the notorious Zuzhuros pirates. Nearly all of them eat meat: meat makes Zuzhuroses more aggressive. Another mark of theirs is the ritual wearing of two rings regardless of age. This is how pirates sever all ties with traditional society.
Most often the pirates operate on planetary surfaces, at sea, raiding the villages of other clans from the water. But some, having grown rich, take to space, where they become a threat to peaceful ships.
In the south of sector O-14 lay the Zuzhuros territories, divided among pirate clans. They survived only because navigation in their space is extremely difficult: the many punitive expeditions lost more starships to anomalies and unstable hyper-routes than to battle.
At the end of 2023 Zuzhuros clans began terrorising sector O-12 as well.
A Zuzhuros is a bald humanoid with blue skin; adults wear rings in their ears.
In order of the illustrations: on the left a pirate, in the centre an elder in a fez, on the right a young woman. Then a sheet from the book of races: a Zuzhuros in the centre, a Ftekh on the left and a Zhuaru on the right.
Below, with captions: a fighter of the Eastern Zuzhuros Union, a travelling merchant, a fighter of one of the clans that terrorised sector O-12, and an armed sower.
