sentients
vin'ZINI

"They are terrible at cards. Something to do with compound eyes, I think." - Ambassador Londo Mollari, 2260

PHYSIOLOGY
Insectoid species with eight legs and compound eyes. There are four genders: alpha male, alpha female, beta male and beta female.

PSYCHOLOGY
Most vin'Zini have, as the Centauri call it, "an overwhelming sense of naiveté." This is not to say that the vin'Zini are stupid, just that the Centauri find it irresistably easy to manipulate them.

CULTURE
The vin'Zini have lost most of their cultural identity due to contact with the Centauri.

HISTORY
Contact with the Centauri has been a loosing proposition for the vin'Zini. They have lost land, culture, and credits to them; and to many outsiders it seems that the vin'Zini don't care. For the last fifty years a small faction within the population (called "Blackmark") has been steadily increasing in number. Blackmark's aim is to reassert vin'Zini culture and moral values and destroy the heavy Centauri influence on their homeworld. Once a peacful organization, Blackmark began to express itself violently when a new leader was elected to head the organization in 2254. h'Azzi felt that the time had come to shake the chains off his people. Random attacks on anything Centauri, including a few Centauri tourists, soon followed. The height of the anti-Centauri campaign came in 2256 when the Centauri-sponsored tachyon relay station was destroyed in a suicide shuttle crash. The vin'Zini government responded immediately, arresting and executing any and all Blackmark members they could find. Blackmark is now aunderground movement led by alpha female, i'Kalee. Realizing that their own government has declared war on them, Blackmark is gaining steady ground in building an army - hoping to win back their people even if it means civil war.

GOVERNMENT
Elected Quadumvirate. The vin'Zini government is allied with the Centauri.

HOMEWORLD
vin'Zin 5; Located near Centauri Space.