A Modest Proposal Concerning the K'kree.

[gridlore]

Traveller was my first TTRPG experience and remained one of my great loves—the Third Imperium setting, at first remote and undefined, ground into a complex, vibrant place. I am proud to contribute to that growth by writing for Marc Miller's Traveller (AKA Traveller 4th Edition) and GURPS Traveller - Ground Forces, among other contributions.

But one thing always bugged me. The aliens in Traveller weren't very alien. Two of them, the Aslan and Vargr, were uplifted Terran animals (lions and wolves). One was just a variant human race that was only notable for their whole-hearted embrace of psionic abilities, something proscribed in the Imperium. The Hivers, starfish-like aliens with a penchant for manipulating other species through subtle methods, were nice, but my main problem came with the K'kree.
 

The K'kree are moose-sized hexapods, with the front two limbs evolving into arms. We know they are a herd species, extremely gregarious, and prone to panic if isolated from other K'kree for any time. They also tend to be claustrophobic, leading to their ships being massively oversized, even accounting for the size of an adult K'kree.
 

Note that these two conditions are also common in humans. We need social contact; numerous studies have shown that isolation, like extended solitary confinement, is mentally and physically damaging. Early hominids competed on the African veldt, wide open spaces brimming with predators. It's why walking upright was such an advantage. Humans, too, have an innate fear of tightly enclosed places. 
 

My point is as an intelligent species, we can get over these fears to advance. So can the K'kree. Portraying them as animals who freak out if alone for five minutes does them a disservice. A K'kree spacer will train to endure time in a vacuum suit doing a spacewalk where he can't smell his fellow crew members because they are smart enough to understand their fear and get over it. Every year, hundreds of U.S. Army Airborne School students train to overcome their natural fear of heights and falling to earn their jump wings. The same would go for a K'kree assigned to an artillery bunker or something similar.
 

The other substantial defining characteristic of the K'kree is their endless war against g'naak (carnivore/predator). This dates back to a war fought when the K'kree reached space, and a slower-than-light starship containing an aggressive carnivorous species came to Kirur (the K'kree homeworld). The ensuing war lasted decades and ended with the G'naak (nothing is known about the invaders, the K'kree destroyed all traces of their existence after the war) exterminated and Kirur devastated.
 

Once the K'kree developed the jump drive, they encountered other sentient species, many omnivores or carnivores. The K'kree solution was simple. Stop eating meat, or be exterminated. Saving The Noble Herd from a universe filled with g'naak took on every aspect of a holy crusade. Along with ancestor worship, shrines to the heroes of this Purifications are found on every K'kree world.
 

Many species did bow to the K'kree and had their cultures remolded to suit their new masters. Some contacted early in the development still see the K'kree as gods. Others accept survival over death. These servant races can be found on most critical K'kree worlds and serve on starships where their generally smaller size allows them to handle tasks the K'kree would find difficult.
 

Purification fleets still sweep out, as they have for thousands of years. The K'kree's government, the 2,000 Worlds, prefers a dead zone around their territory and claims the right to kill and g'naak found in their exclusion zone. Mostly, the Third Imperium respects this, though Vargr raiders constantly test K'kree defenses and resolve.
 

Now, here's my question. Does this paranoid, genocidal, reactionary species sound like they would trade with humans? We are g'naak! We are the K'krees' worst nightmare, a vast, advanced civilization made up of meat-eating species! The K'kree opinion of the Vargr is even lower. As for the Hivers, who not only are omnivores but will eat their own young while they are in the larval stage, there was a war that ended badly for the K'kree, and the 2,000 Worlds tend to ignore the Hive Federation.
 

The K'kree are cosmic hermits, staying inside their borders and trying to ignore the outside universe until a wave of quasi-religious mania sweeps a border region and a Purification Fleet is organized.
 

Next, I rip K'kree society to pieces using elephants.