Species Profile: Longswine

Natural Physical Appearance
Height and Build

Despite the name, longswine are one of the more diminutive species of humanity. Longswine males are taller than the females, but will never reach more than four feet in height. However, longswine are wide for their height, even when they are not obese, a design feature intended to make escape through drainage tunnels impossible.

Longswine are voracious eaters, and become obese quickly if they are placed in an environment of little work and abundant food. However, longswine physiology has been designed to cope with obesity - a longpig's cardiovascular system is much stronger than that of a baseline human's, and generates natural chemicals that break down cholesterol buildup. Longswine are also psychologically "programmed" to seek out sweet, fatty and flavorful foods, and their body fat has been modified to retain the flavors of the food they eat.

Longswine have less musculature in general than baseline humans, a design feature to make them far less capable of resistance. This does not harm a longpig's chances of survival in the wild, because they have a strong herd instinct that allows longswine to work in large groups far better than baseline humans. This also makes longswine easier to detect during the harvesting phase of colonization.

Hair Color and Texture

Longswine have curly hair of varying shades of brown and black. Longswine males traditionally wear their hair much shorter than longswine females, as long hair gets in the way during a hunt. This may also be a cultural practice the longswine have inadvertently adopted from baseline humans.  Notably, longswine have no body hair, as that would complicate processing.

Skin Tone

As with baseline humans of the Galactic ethnicity, longswine have tan to brown skin. Some longswine on barbarian worlds have lighter or darker skin, indicating a greater degree of genetic deviation from the stocks of longswine present in most terraforming farms.

Specific Features

Longswine have notably pointed ears, similar to those of augments, which serve to distinguish them from baseline humans. Longswine eyes are set further apart than those of baseline humans, and are small and beady. Longswine famously have a pseudo-snout, which is really a nose fused with the upper jaw. The musculature in longswine faces is less developed. Lastly, longswine are incapable of screaming in fear, and will instead face death in silence. This is all intended to make longswine emotional expressions unreadable to baseline humans, thus helping with possible guilt issues arising among colonial butchers.

Clothes

Longswine will wear appropriate clothing for the environment, but will often go with no clothing at all. As longswine are often seeded in tropical or temperate environments, they will often go their whole lives naked. Jewelry, in the form of bone and stone necklaces, are found among almost all longswine cultures.

Language

Longswine only have the intellectual capacity to communicate in very simple terms, and so their languages are very simple, almost childlike. Longswine languages sound like chirps, barks, and babbling to those who do not understand them, and those that do would realize that the longswine are not constructing sentences. Instead, they are barking out single words, often while pointing to something to indicate that the word they just said applies to that object. Longswine have no form of writing, but will sometimes draw simple pictograms in the soil, or even on cave walls.

The most notable handicap in longswine language is the inability to communicate abstract concepts with it. This is a reflection of longswine psychology, which is generally incapable of abstract thought. This is a feature intended to prevent longswine from colluding to oppose baseline humans, and from reaching a stage of cultural and technological development that allows them to mount an effective resistance.

Sex, Romance and Family Structure

Longswine are polyamorous creatures, and will mate with multiple partners throughout their lives. Longswine reach sexual maturity after ten years, and longswine females often give birth to twins or triplets, allowing longswine populations to grow quickly. Longswine live in large herds, led by a matriarch or patriarch, where all children are raised as children of the herd. Indeed, longswine seldom know who their fathers are, and only know who their mothers are by virtue of the mother having primary responsibility for the child's rearing and safety. Those children found to be defective are killed as soon as their defects are known.

Food

Longswine  are omnivorous creatures, and will eat anything that seems edible. While they prefer sweet and fatty foods, and will go through considerable trouble to acquire foods such as fruits or large animals, they will eat whatever they can readily find. This can include things that would be disgusting, or even poisonous, to baseline humans, such as poisonous mushrooms, earthworms, maggots, flies, termites, and poisonous berries. The longswine's immune system can expunge the poisons and other unpalatable chemicals from their bloodstream quickly; a notable side effect of this is that longswine cannot get drunk as quickly as a baseline human. Notably, the longswine do not participate in cannibalism.

Longswine are surprisingly good cooks, capable of making what they consider delicious food out of the most sparse of ingredients. Longswine food culture is extensive, and a longswine herd will eat six meals every day (or rough equivalent). During times of plenty, this practice can make an entire longswine herd obese, and easy targets for colonial hunters.

Settlements

In their natural habitats, longswine tend to live in basic shelters, such as mud, stone or wooden huts. Longswine instinctively look for dark, cold places, such as caves - a side effect of their acclimation to the cavernous habitats on seeder ships. It is common for entire herds to take over a cave system.

While longswine are capable of a nomadic lifestyle, the longswine ultimately favor agriculture. Longswine farms are massive and efficiently, with the entire herd working as one unit, relying on instinct as opposed to conscious social organization. Longswine will tend to grow crops such as corn, wheat and potatoes, crops that are essential to an early human colony. This instinct is crucial to the longswine's purpose - preparing a terraformed world for proper colonization.

Culture

Longswine are a deeply superstitious and religious species, and are typically taken in by flashy shows of technological superiority. The longswine also venerate height, and they will often worship baseline humans as gods. The longswine also have an instinctive reverence for processed metals and plastics, and as such will not even attempt escape when they have weapons brandished against them.

Longswine have a strong herd mentality. If high-ranking herd members agree to something, it is obeyed without question. This has led to some absolute disasters, and absolute successes, among longswine herds throughout the galaxy. It also makes controlling a longswine herd easy, as one merely needs to convince the herd elders that a specific course of action should be taken.

Longswine herds are typically content to leave others alone, and warfare between longside herds is rare. While longswine are typically docile, longswine will defend their farms to the death. They make exceptions for baseline humans, whom they will treat with respect and reverence, and longswine are invariably honored whenever their "gods" visit their communities.