Vree

Name: Vree
Dice: 13D
Dexterity: 2D / 4D
Knowledge: 2D+1 / 4D+1
Mechanical: 2D+1 / 4D+1
Perception: 2D / 4D
Strength: 1D+2 / 3D+2
Technical: 2D+1 / 4D+1

Move: 10 / 12
Size: 1.5 - 2.0 meters

Special Abilities:

• The Vree place great import on education and begin the game with 2 bonus skill dice. These must be spent on Knowledge or Technical skills.
• All Vree possess a limited form of telepathy. They may use the Receptive Telepathy ability at Line of Sight range automatically with other members of their race. This ability may not be used on members of any other race.
• Languages: The Vree language is impossible for other races to mimic, just as other languages are impossible for the Vree to master. No other race may learn Vree and no Vree may learn any other language. Communication must therefore take place through the use of translators. Vree can not have the Languages Skill.

Description: Coldly rational and eerily silent, the Vree are not a common sight anywhere in the galaxy. Even in those few places where they do appear with any great frequency (League Council Halls, Babylon 5, certain trading colonies), they keep to themselves and rarely seek out the company of others. This does not suggest a race well suited for group interaction, but there are conditions under which the Vree might choose to associate with other races (which they collectively call ‘The Illogicals’).

The Vree might wish to study some aspect of alien culture to better understand it. They might also wish to open trade negotiations with members of a given race and decide they first need an appreciation for how random elements of that race behave. The Vree are eternally curious and while they are rarely social, they do have a habit of observing other species and cultures.

Personality: All Vree have roughly the same personality, although there are differences because of exposure to other races, personal experiences and even chemical imbalances brought on by space travel. It is a truism among the Vree that space going members of their race tend to become slightly eccentric over time. This is usually an indication that the Vree are beginning to have emotional responses, something they do not understand as a species.

Physical Description: The Vree are a very distinctive race with grey skin, thin and lithe bodies, almost featureless faces and large, completely black and faceted eyes. The Vree have no vocal chords, making it impossible for them to make more than a clicking sound with their tongues. This muteness is another trademark feature of their race. Encumbered by their careful movements and tight fitting garments, the Vree seem almost incapable of making noise at all.

Relations: The Vree treat all races equally and have no apparent preferences other than a leaning toward the Gaim because of their own logical behavior. The Vree have only limited contact with other species, restricting their relations for the most part to business or politics. Few beings in the galaxy would ever call a Vree a friend, and it would be an irrational act of great magnitude for a Vree to call any other creature (including another Vree) a friend and mean it.

Vree Beliefs: The Vree have a simple view of the universe and while they have no religion to speak of, their adherence to the ideas of law and chaos crossed by the axioms of positive and negative behavior borders on the fanatical. While the Vree have no concept or appreciation for divine figures, they have nearly anthropomorphized these four concepts into conscious entities capable of influencing the universe through sentient beings. While many Vree do not adhere to this latter extreme, others do.

Languages: The Vree have no spoken language, but do have a complex written one consisting of more than a million symbols and their variations. The Vree, being telepathic, have no need for a verbal form of communication and only use their written language when they need to leave information where it can be later retrieved. As long as a Vree can use telepathy to communicate, it will always do so in preference to its written language.

Starfarers: When the Vree take to space, it is for two purposes: exploration and trade. The Vree are the oldest space faring race in the League of Non-Aligned worlds and have explored a great deal of the galaxy. Their astrogation capabilities are second to none; even Minbari navigators would have something to learn from the Vree. Vree ships are always armed because their methodical creators are practical enough to know that hostility often comes from unexpected places and rarely provides enough reaction time to call in reinforcements.

Names: The Vree do no use names when referring to each other directly, as their mental ‘feel’ is more than enough of an identifier. When they must record their names, they do so with simply symbols that express the most basic facets of their mental outlook. This meaning is completely lost on non-Vree, but their symbols have been translated into Interlac characters for trade purposes. A Vree name is binary, with the first half expressing his philosophy regarding positive energies in regard to law and chaos. The second half refers to his view on negative forces in the same regard.

Vree Names: The system of Vree naming given above makes not distinction between male and female. The prefixes and suffixes are also all the same; only their placement first or second changes their meaning and then only with regards to philosophical concepts.

Example Vree Prefixes and Suffixes: An, Ai, Be, Di, Gi, Hu, Ka, Ne, Oa, Pi, Te, Ua, Vo, Xi, Xa, Yi.

Source:

• Babylon 5: Heroes and Aliens (pages 94-95)
• The Babylon 5 Project: Vree
• thedemonapostle