I don't want to put everything on the same page, because it'll become to long. So, here are some topics described on separate pages

Senses Proteins Communication Locomotion D614G Mutant

SARS-CoV-2

VIRUS CLASSIFICATION

(Unranked): Virus
REALM: Riboviria
KINGDOM: Orthornavirae
PHYLUM: Pisuviricota
CLASS: Pisoniviricetes
ORDER: Nidovirales
FAMILY: Coronaviridae
SUBFAMILY: Orthocoronavirinae
GENUS: Betacoronavirus
SUBGENUS: Sarbecovirus
SPECIES: Betacoronavirus pandemicum
VIRUS: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2

SARS-CoV-2 has two forms; wild-type (wolf) and D614G Mutant (smaller dog).

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (shortened to SARS-CoV-2), is a strain of SARS-related coronavirus (Betacoronavirus pandemicum). It is responsible for the major worldwide pandemic from 2020 to 2023, in both the real world and Virus Attack.

It was first discovered in China, during late 2019. From there, it quickly spread to the rest of the world and -as of 2025- has killed approx 7.1 million people worldwide.

SARS-CoV-2 causes Coronavirus disease 2019 (shortened to COVID-19) in humans. Most infected people show symptoms more typical for the common cold or the flu, such as (high)fever, dry cough, fatigue, muscle aches etc. Though, it may also cause more severe symptoms, such as deadly pneumonia, blood clots and hypoxia (low oxygen levels in the body). Typical for COVID-19 is anosmia (loss of smell) and/or ageusia (loss of taste), but not every patient develops this.

COVID-19 is officially classified as a respiratory disease, given it mainly affects the respiratory tract. However, because it may cause some completely different type of symptoms, as well as damage to other organs and seriously large blood clots in some people if given the chance to, it rather seems like a multi-systemic disease in some patients.

The virus is officially known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2, though, this is quite the mouth full or too long to write, so it's almost always shortened to SARS-CoV-2 (heck, even my characters of this species use SARS-CoV-2 over the full name XD). The shortened name may read a bit weird, but it's simply pronounced as 'sars coronavirus two'.

It has multiple other (nick)names too, such as Human coronavirus 2019 (HCoV-19) or COVID-19 virus. Most people refer to it as simply 'coronavirus' and 'Corona' for the disease it causes. It was formerly known as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

SARS-CoV-2 is the main antagonist in Virus Attack and both prequel comics, because all three comics are in fact specifically based on the COVID-19 pandemic. One virion, King Matthias , is the main character and he serves as a representive mascot for this species.

This virus is real, but the version that is described here is not. All the lore I created for this species is obviously fiction and most only applies to this fictional version! Yet part of it is based on true facts! I added links to websites which describe this virus's real world's counterpart. You can find them in the right sidebar.

Appearance

It is a positive-sense single-stranded (+ssRNA) virus. The virus has six legs, three tails and the highest ranking virions have a crown of peplomers on their heads. Like any member of the Sarbecovirus (SARS-related coronavirus) subgenus, SARS-CoV-2 resembles a type of canid.

The original generation of Wuhan-Hu-1 (2019 Wild-type) looks like a huge wolf, while other generations of Wuhan-Hu-1 and D614G mutant variants are smaller and look more like domesticated dog breeds. Virions are often quite muscular or slender, and they are often between 100-120 nanometer at the withers. 2019 Wuhan-Hu-1 is between 120-140 nanometer at the withers, the others are around 100-120 nanometer. Due to being nocturnal and using the darkness to hide, they're adaptive melanistic, so most virions have entirely black coats which helps them blend in with the darkness. Though many melanistic virions do have some white or other colored markings, and some virions come in a completely different color all together. Many color mutations seen in animals do occur in many viruses too, and SARS-CoV-2 is one of these viruses; virions can be born with albinism (entirely white and with red eyes due to lack of melanin) or piebaldism (white patches) for example.

It has a dog nose, almond-shaped eyes with slit pupils, and either upright standing ears or floppy ears. They appear to have rat tails when covered in shorter proteins, and most virions have really long tails too, though some have shorter tails, and some virions may have longer proteins which make their tails appear rather bushy.

Virions have four toes and a dewclaw (small thumb-like digit) on each front paw, and four toes on both hind-legs. Some virions may have one or two dewclaws on their hind-legs too. Virions have webbed paws, and their pads are covered in billions of tiny hair-like structures which help them stick onto their host's tissue.

Virions have sweat glands. These are found everywhere on their body. Virions mainly start to sweat when their host has a fever, and it only happens when panting only won't help much keeping the body cool when it's getting too hot. Virions may also sweat when they're scared to death, in pain or sick.

Virions have many trimeric protein spikes on their body. These are specifically called peplomers. Peplomers are located on the head, neck and shoulders, and they come in six different shapes; pinhead, needle, pyramid, flower bud, dragon horn and Shrek's ear. Pinhead and needle are most common, while dragon horn and Shrek's ear are extremely rare. The pinhead shape is also the most classic one, as many real world virions are also depicted with this peplomer shape.

Peplomers are handy to determine to which caste a virion belongs! Virions of the Royal Caste have their head peplomers arranged in either a circle, a gem or a hexagon shape to form a 'crown'. For this reason, the head peplomers of these virions are more specifically referred to as coronae (like the word corona, this also means 'crown'). Neck and shoulder peplomers are scattered, which resembles the decorations on a monarch's suit/uniform or the royal capes with white and black speckled parts.

Virions of the Middle Caste have their peplomers form a straight, vertical line from head to somewhere between the second pair of shoulders. Neck and shoulder peplomers also form straight lines. The peplomers on the head are suposed to resemble the ridge or brush on a human knight's helmet, while those on the neck and shoulders resemble the armored suit. Virions of the Lower Caste lack head peplomers entirely. Their head and shoulder peplomers can either be scattered or form straight lines, which depends from which type of litter they originate.

Host

SARS-CoV-2 is native to a bat belonging to the Rhinolophus genus. However, humans are now its new main host. It first emerged in China, but has spread all over the world.

Territory and Habitat

SARS-CoV-2 especially loves damp and oxygen rich atmospheres, so the organs which meet these demands are most likely to be selected. Lungs are most popular and most young Kings will nest somewhere deep inside the lower part of the lung. The right lung seems to be the most popular place to nest in general.

Territory

This virus is extremely territorial and will attack every microbe that it sees as its enemy. The territory starts off quite small but will expand as more virions will be born. The Nest is the the home-base and the initial starting point from where the infection spreads to more parts of the host's body.

The area around an alveolus is the virus's Nest at first, but once there's a certain number of virions, the entire alveolus itself will be invaded and claimed. Parts where immune cells can normally enter will be blocked with blood clots, and Guards will often patrol within the surrounding claimed territory and fiercely fight every immune cell that tries to break in. Once the territory has been expanded, virions will start to mark by rubbing their peplomers on the walls, by leaving claw marks and howl. Howling is more meant as a message to potential other packs that are located further away, so they know not to come too close by.

Behavior

SARS-CoV-2 is a group virus, and even though only the D614G mutant can truly be called a 'social group virus', the wild-type form does opperate as a team at the very least. D614G is described on a separate page.

A pack is a family which mainly exist of virions who are all related to the one virion who originally founded it. In rare cases, a lost or orphaned pup of a different pack may be adopted.

• King - The leader and founder of the pack. Usually the oldest, strongest smelling, largest, strongest and most aggressive virion. A new king takes over once the original one dies, new king is often a son of the deceased king, but kan also be an another family member (depending on who his lead-heir was at the moment). There's only one king.
• Leading Heir - Often shortened to 'lead-heir', in rare occassions also referred to as the main heir. Second-in-command and successor to the throne. There's only one lead-heir.
• Heir - Also known as 'lower heirs', as they rank lower than the lead-heir. Potential replacements in case the lead-heir dies. There are multiple heirs.
• Prince - Lowest ranking crowned virions. Potential replacements in case too many heirs have dies in a fight with immune cells. There are multiple princes.
• Knight - Bulky and aggressive virions. They are most used in combat, but they also act bodyguards whenever the crowned virions like to leave the nest and/or territory. They need their king's permission to infect. Most abundant type of virion.
• Guard - Slender and agile virions, yet quite strong still. Guards are basically the ninja's of the pack, as they have great hiding skills and can act really fast. They protect the nest and territory from intruders, and they silently follow a crowned virion who has decided to go on a stroll alone. If said virion gets attacked by cells, the guards will quickly surround and jump the cells. They need their king's permission to infect. Most abundant type of virion.
• Jester - The lowest ranking virions. They're born with mutations that cause most of them to develop severe intellectual disabilities. In wild-type lineages, jesters are killed at birth, because they're believed to be useless and spreaders of disease (their mutations inheritable). D614G mutants have discovered that jesters, despite their disabilities, are actually highly talented in singing, stand-up comedy and acting, so mutant kings decided not to kill them at birth, but rather to keep them and giving them purpose. Jesters are never allowed to leave the nest or to infect. This type of virion is rare, as there are only 3-6 in a nest.

Life Cycle

SARS-CoV-2 mostly hunts in groups, but sometimes alone. Lone virions and young Kings who don't have created a pack yet, are examples of virions who hunt alone. The virus mainly infect cells that express angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) on their surface, which are the cells of the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and intestines respectively. Other cells that can be infected are fat cells, interstitial macrophages, dendritic cells and neurons. Cells that lack certain proteins that the virus needs to bind to aren't infectable, and thus will be killed instantly.

When infecting a cell, a virion holds on to them and bite. When biting, the virion's teeth will lock and press onto the cell's ACE-2. This causes the area between the pressed down ACE-2 particles to soften and allow the virion to push the cell's skin into their body with his tongue. The virion will secrete some RNA from pores on the sides of the tongue into the pressed down skin. The cell will finish the infection process by forming a vesicle around the RNA and transporting it to a ribosome inside their body (endocytosis). Ribosomes, rough endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus then will start the transcribing process and forming of the virion's pups. 24 hours after infection, a litter of thousands to millions of pups will bud from the infected cell. This process is called exocytosis and appears like the pups grow on the outside of the cell's membrane, until they fall off. It doesn't kill the infected cell right away, though the cell eventually dies of exhaustion due to using up all the sources to produce the virion's young. When budding, pups take a part of the cell's internal system (vesicles) in order to create their own lipid bilayer (envelope), which is basically an extra layer of skin.

Wild-type virions usually don't take care of their pups for long. They ditch them in the nursery as soon as their eyes open, and they will never come back for them. D614G mutant virions will intensively care for their pups, even when the latter have grown into adults.

SARS-CoV-2's D614G mutant form is one of some viruses known to cause syncytia. When a cell has been infected, filopodia start to grow from their body. Filopodia are tentacle-like organs which are made from a mutant gene in the virus's genome and, while not being alive, they seem to have a mind of their own. They constantly move around as they're 'scanning' the area. When they sense a cell, but not the same type as the one they're growing from, they will ignore the cell and continue moving around. When they sense a cell of the same type as the one they're growing from, they will stop moving and point to the cell's direction in a magnetized-like manner. Even following the cell around like an object would do when you hold a magnet near and move it around it. Once the cell comes too close, the filopodia will grab on to the cell and drag them closer to the infected cell, until they start to fuse together.

Filopodia will infect the grabbed cell while dragging them closer to the already infected cell. Once fused into one larger cell, not only the nucleus has been duplicated, the organs that SARS-CoV-2 uses for replication also has been duplicated. This means that the virus's litter size doubles too. For this reason, syncytia are more specifically known as 'viral factories'. A viral factory is a stealthy way to infect multiple cells at once, often without any intervention by immune cells.

Filopodia have the same 'pole' as the virus itself, and thus a virion will have a rather repellent effect on them. It doesn't matter if the virion is the one who infected the cell or not.

Health and Mutations

Being a RNA virus, SARS-CoV-2 is quite unstable genetically-wise. It constantly developes new mutations and at a much faster rate than most other viruses. This is a reason why new variants emerge so shortly after the other for example. Mutations can be in the virus's advantage, as is the case with the infamous D614G mutation, but it can be bad too.

Mutations are mainly changes or deletions in a virus's proteins, but may also be (re)combinations between different variants of the same species or even other species. Combinations between different species cause hybrids and new species. SARS-CoV-2 itself might have been the result of a combination between two other coronavirus species, which co-infected the same host at the time of its emergence.

In Virus Attack's world, bad mutations are the cause of both physical and mental conditions seen in some characters, and most are inherited by new generations. Due to the virus's proofreading ability, some mutations may be deleted from the genetic makeup of new generations. It isn't entirely gone, but rather 'skipped' by most litters of a carrier of the mutation, and re-occur so now and then. Sometimes, a mutation may occur only once. Prince Scratcher's ERS (Epileptic Rage Syndrome) is an extremely rarily inherited mutated gene, as no other of his featured descendants express it, until a pup born somewhere in summer 2021 (long after the events of Virus Attack, and basically around a thousand years since Prince Scratcher's death, if you look at it from the virus's perspective). Jesters are fully prohibited from replicating, because their mutations cause the most severe issues, which would be catastrophic for the species if not deleted from the genome by proofreading.

SARS-CoV-2 in general is a quite healthy virus, but individual virions can become sick due to exposure to something or a badly healing injury. It can get Acid Disease from exposure to the host's stomach acid. Acid Disease is strongly similar to stomach torsion (or 'bloat') in animals, but in microbes this bloating is rather caused by gases and smoke building up from burning insides of the affected individual. Stomach acid causes severe burn wounds on microbes, when they get exposed to it on the outside. Acid Disease, both the outside and bloating form, can be cured with an almond milk-based antidote, which Bifidobacteria may have this antidote in their inventorium sometimes. The bloat form of this disease will end in the lysis (fatal rupture) of the affected virion if help doesn't come in time!

A disease similar to cancer is rare, but does occur. Cancerous growths may be seen on virions whose proteins have spontaneously become corrupted and started to infect other protein chains and stick together. Just like animals, virions seem very sick and may lose weight when they have cancer. Growths can be removed, but because microbes can't use chemo's, so affected virions are doomed to die.

Age-related diseases or conditions may occur too, such as dementia, cataracts, arthritis/arthrosis, decrease in hearing and/or vision etc.

D614G mutants perform 'mercy killing' on terminally ill pack-mates or those are in too much pain and/or slowly dying a painful death.

Related Species

All coronaviruses are related to SARS-CoV-2, but species of the Sarbecovirus (also known as Lineage B or SARS-like coronaviruses) are genetically the most strongly related. All these species resemble canids and, given SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are both the only members known to infect humans, and both causing a lethal disease, it may be so that most Sarbecoviruses would be dangerous to humans.