Vespoid

Vespoid is a grouping of humans from the continent of Zhakar belonging to the same biological. Individuals from this group share the same traits which make them stand apart from the wider population of human beings as a whole. The term is applied using experts in the field of and, to refer to individuals and populations sharing the same traits belonging to the Vespoid racial group. The physical and genealogical traits within this grouping of humans were considered unique enough to warrant the creation of a completely separate category of race for those individuals expressing said traits. Introduced around the TBDs by - from TBD, Vespoid denotes the fourth major race of humankind in anthropological texts, along with TBD, TBD, and TBD. Notably, whereas there remains considerable criticism for the latter three taxon of human beings, Vespoid is widely accepted and utilized within, and an acceptable term for biological classification.

Etymology
Vespoid has Vespian and TBD roots, with the noun itself divided between the two languages. The first half, "Vesp-" come from the anglicized(?) name for Vespia, descended from the term Veskoya, the native name for Vespia within the country's official language. The root for Veskoya in the language is the Vespian word for "shadow" or "darkness". Likewise, "-oid" comes from the TBD term for "form". Thus, the complete meaning of the term would literally translate as "shadow (or darkness) resemblance". The earliest use of the term "Vespoid" can be traced to the mid-TBDs, when TBD explorers first visited Vespia. In modern usage, it is associated with the populations that bear the typical Vespoid physical characteristics.

Subraces
Over the course of decades following the discovery and interaction with the Vespoids in the TBDs, attempts to find variations in the taxon of the population have been mounted. However, little success has been managed over that period of time, with only the a single group currently known to exist. As of the current day, only the Vespians exist as the sole population of Vespoids on the planet, with the TBD, all of which house majority Vespian populations, sharing the same physical and mental traits. Searching for variations among the Vespian diaspora has likewise been lacking in a major breakthroughs for ethno-phrenologists around the world. It is commonly believed that due to the genetic bottleneck the Vespians forced themselves through tens of thousands of years ago, and the unique inbreeding strategies of the population to avoid, the gene pool for the Vespians and consequently the genetic diversity within the Vespoid population, is astonishingly microscopic, preventing the growth of subraces within the Vespoid taxon as a whole.

Physical features
While the majority of human races developed via isolation over a period of twenty thousand years, the Vespoids came to be after more than fifty thousand years of isolation and environmental pressures, as well as being forced through three genetic bottlenecks in their history, leading to the formation of their unique racial identity. The accumulation of genetic mutations and genealogical variation from what is considered the human "norm", was entirely possible over this period of time, allowing for what is now known as the fourth race of humanity, the Vespoids. Geneticists determined that the Vespians are the descendants of no more than half a dozen individuals who migrated to TBD more than fifty thousand years ago, though from where has remained an - mystery. For the majority of experts in the field, the Vespoids had might as well been aliens given the complete lack of knowledge linking them to a specific location on the continent of TBD, or anywhere on the other continents in the TBD Hemisphere.

Given the extraordinarily harsh and violent circumstances the Vespoid race experienced through its history, it was no doubt very easy to write the Vespoids off as another species entirely, as was originally the case when contact between the Vespians and the TBD took place in the TBDth century. The widespread Vespoid acceptance and adaptation to cannibalism, incest, bestiality, and necrophilia, among various other acts and fetishes, deeply shocked, disgusted, and horrified the TBD explorers, who surmised that the Vespoids may have not originated from the same human ancestors, but some lower, feral tribe of cave-dwelling primates. There were those on the otherhand, who believed the Vespoids not to be human at all, and aggressively campaigned to have the Vespians marked as a distinct and separate species, which would have made legislating discriminatory practices against them easier to justify. Despite these traits and handicaps, these should not detract from the basic truth that the Vespoids are and always have been human, and that they remain apart of the wider human family.

Physiology
The Vespoids stand on average about ten centimeters taller than the TBD norm of 1.88 m, due to a historically better diet, actively athletic population which stimulated the production of growth hormones, and the  "survival of the fittest" strategy of the population throughout history, allowing only the most fit of the population to survive long enough to produce healthy offspring. Vespoids tend to be lithe and well-built thanks to the aggressive physical training and conditioning within Vespian culture and society, and encouraged and reinforced by incessant warfare driven by TBDist ideology. The Vespians historically balanced diet of meat and produce allowed for the eventual physical conditioning they possess today. Seafood makes up a considerable portion of the Vespian diet, along with pork and poultry, and rice is the single largest contributor the Vespian diet, making up at least two-thirds of the average meal in the Vespian diet. The water supply in Vespia tends to be mineral-rich due to the rich sediments washed into Vespia's vast alluvial plains by floodwaters, also adding the nutrient supply accessible to Vespians throughout history.

Vespoid eyes are a silvery grey color, and the pupils a deep black, accentuating the grey in their eyes. The population is highly tolerant to warm temperatures, not unlike most TBD ethnicities, though there remains considerable superstition of the cold in Vespoid culture and society. Consequently, Vespoids find the cold distressing and intolerable at times, and typically seek to avoid arctic environments whenever possible. Because of constant droughts in the region and loss of freshwater supplies in the process, Vespoids developed a higher tolerance to water loss than TBDs and TBDs. On average, Vespoids are able to go without water for about twice as long as their TBD and TBD counterparts before succumbing to acute dehydration. Vespoids cannot process lactose following infancy, though they seem to be more tolerant of more difficult to consume foods and sources of nutrition. Indeed, Vespoids tend to be more effective at digesting foods or items typically regarded as intolerable to TBD races, such as bark, leather, and so-called "hard-fat", such as and.

The Vespoid race has the earliest reproducing age and highest reproductive rate of any race in the world, with the average age for first pregnancy typically around 10 or 11. Likewise, the average Vespoid woman has about 6.72 offspring in her lifetime, though this is tempered by the Vespoids having the highest infant mortality rate in the world. The highly aggressive sexual advancements of both men and women of the population is considered a primary factor in this statistic, though the added fact that Vespoids enter into puberty a full year before TBDs or TBDs is deemed another contributing factor as well. The average life expectancy of a Vespoid is about 73 years for men and 66 years for women, the latter due to a greater dependence on women to fill the dangerous roles typically filled by men, due to a low supply of males in the general population. The lower life expectancy among women can also be linked to the violent competition between Vespoid women for the physical and emotional attention of the few men in the population.

Another trait that helps to define the Vespoids as a distinct racial taxon is the physicality of the female population. Vespoid females do not possess the same physical handicap as females in other human taxon, notably being on average, weaker than their male counterparts. Rather, Vespoid females possess between 85-90% of the upper body strength and 90-95% of the lower body strength found in Vespoid males. Additionally, while females still possess more body fat that males, they possess about the same muscle building potential as men, and are consequently only 3-4% weaker than Vespoid males. The hypothesis of many biologists studying the Vespoid population, is that when the malfunctioning  gene in the population vastly reduced the number of males to about a fourth of the overall population, the Vespoids compensated for the loss of physical capacity — and thus the ability to hunt and forage for food and protect the population — by increasing the physical traits of Vespoid females on par with males.

Hair
Vespoid hair is unique for its pure black pigmentation, which is linked to the high levels of black eumelanin in the hair follicles, and the universal lack of other hair colors among the population. The hair retains this black colorization throughout the life of the Vespian, as the decay period for the eumelanin, though constant as with all other races, is not fast enough to break down the pigmentation within the lifespan of the Vespoid individual. As a direct result, Vespoids do not experience the process of developing grey hair. The hair itself retains a glossy, malleable texture, allowing the individual to wear any number of hairstyles due to this trait. Vespoid hair can come in many forms be it natural afros, straight, or curly. It is believed that the combined factors of genetics and diet play a role in the texture of the hair, which tends to be healthier on average compared to other groups of people, mainly due to the Vespoids healthier balanced diet. Vespoids display a general lack of body hair compared to other races, on par with TBD in terms of the level of non-facial and non-pubic hair.