Who are the Goru

Depending on your vantage point, 2025 is already, as one mentor of mine put it, festive. The connotations attached to the last word of my prior sentence are many and, depending on where your mind is at currently, could go in any direction. You know yourself best, so allow this to be a sort of fill in the blanks exercise. No, seriously, I’ll wait. Done? Okay, let’s get cracking as they say.

When deciding on content for my January 2025 post, I noticed my mind was falling victim to duplicating prior musings. I suddenly found myself getting tangled into a pretzel by trying to find a way to put new twists on what had already been discussed almost to the point of ad nauseam. Understanding my mind and approach to writing, I realized it was time to break my monthly cycle of blog posts to allow the creative energies a chance to realign albeit just for one month.

What follows ties directly into my last post of 2024 where I highlighted the Esidrins, a new race developed specifically for book two of the Sy’Arrian Legacy Series, Destiny’s Shroud. In this writing, I focus on another race whose concept may be new for the Sy’Arrian universe but has been dancing around in my head for quite some time. Finally, fleshing them out for incorporation into book two was very satisfying.

Whenever I develop a new concept, especially one focusing on a new race, I like to pull from what our world has provided then theorize what this race could realistically look like several centuries or millennia in the future. I suspect this is a well-known practice many other content creators employ as well. I do my best not to make assumptions, so I feel mentioning it here may provide others a place to start when creating their own world in a galaxy far, far, away.

Diversity of content elements are critical to say the least. Choices related to naming conventions, race composition, governmental structures, and cultural nuance require a significant amount of time to cultivate properly. This is why I stress, whenever someone asks me how or where to start, to read the stories of other content creators. When I realized just how prominent the concept of using the known elements to do wonderous things were incorporated in fictional settings, I stopped fixating on whether or not people would think my concept was original enough and began to observe how others had already done it. This allowed me to conceptualize it on my own terms and create a vision on how the elemental forces are used by the Sy’Arrians. Let us get to a race I thoroughly enjoyed creating by basing them off the Black-tailed jackrabbit, known officially as Lepus californicus.

Another of Hyprus' indigenous races, the Goru can be found living in one of the many expansive tunnels systems in Lower Tryner, directly south of the Sy'Arrian city of Angira. Bordered by the Cliffs of Taren to the west and the Janus Lake to the east, Lower Tryner is an expansive grassland area with a diverse population of wildlife making it ideally suited for the below ground dwelling Goru.

A small race averaging 125 centimeters (4 feet) in height, with rounded noses, and six digits on their hands and feet. Typically, they have slim but very robust and muscular bodies with noticeably broad heads, large eyes, long legs, medium sized arms, a small bushy tapered tail, and a soft roll back style of fur ranging from slate blue to blue tortoiseshell. Their oversized floppy ears drape loosely over each shoulder during non-heightened states of awareness but can quickly stand straight up when attempting to assess any known threats or detect sounds most other species do not notice.

Goru have a specialized thermoregulation system, which helps them to survive harsh weather conditions should an exceptionally cold winter or stifling hot summer present itself. As an endotherm they increase metabolic heat production to keep their body temperature constant, making it more or less independent of the temperature associated with their environment. Sy'Arrian scientists hypothesized it could be one of the reasons why Goru can thrive either above or below ground, making their predominately below ground living a personal preference rather than a necessity as they originally surmised.

Goru use hand gestures, reminiscent of a type of sign language as their primary means of communication. They are capable of producing audible sounds and can speak many languages, but prefer to communicate with their hands, viewing it as a superior form of communication. When the Sy'Arrians began building trust with the Goru and learned of Hyprus' tumultuous past, they speculated the Goru cultivated both types of communication in order to increase their survivability.

Originally mistaken to have a dominance hierarchical structure when the Sy'Arrians first encountered them, further interactions pointed to more of an egalitarian social structure. Goru view their entire race as one large family unit, where the young are raised and receive tutelage by several adults.

In their early evolution, procreation was largely determined by location, typically peaking during warm periods and continuing through the remaining seasons of Hyprus' yearly rotation. This has shifted over the millennia to be more situational, no matter the location or climatic conditions. Producing an average of two but no more than four offspring, Goru younglings are born fully furred, eyes open, and capable of walking in mere minutes once after birth.

They are highly intelligent and can perform complex tasks in a fraction of the time of most other humanoids with little to no rest. Goru are highly adept at creating and implementing complex technological systems. Shortly after landing on Hyprus and befriending the Goru, the Sy'Arrians were able to establish critical infrastructure in record time thanks to the highly efficient nature of their new friends.

In rare circumstances, younger Goru can imprint with someone outside of their race, typically due to an extraordinary act of selflessness. There is no sexual motivation or component involved, given Goru are sexless at birth until they decide to form a gender or remain genderless. Rather, the imprint serves to strengthen a deep emotional connection, one to nourish the soul, thus creating an inseparable bond, which is only severed when one or both members of the pairing passes on. 

Until next time, your moment of Zen is to talk less, do more and be humble. This will allow wisdom to take hold and give you the ability to help yourself, while being effective in helping guide others to take their journey towards living in the moment.

Be safe, be well and let us get back to honing the fine art of creative writing.