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 pandemic
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! Above are links to websites which describe this virus's real world's counterpart.

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.

A virion has several glands on his body. Peplomers (the spikes on head, neck and shoulders) are literal scent glands on stilts. Peplomers produce a colorless, oily liquid which emits a pungent rotting flesh odor. SARS-CoV-2 doesn't mind its own stinky smell, but a lot of other microbes (especially animal cells!) hate it. Virions use their peplomers to mark their territory. Peplomers are quite flexible, yet they may break off easily when too much force is used on them.

It also has normal scent glands on the snout, between the toes and two under their middle tail. Virions sniff these locations when greeting each other or when they meet each other for the first time.

Virions have pheromone producing glands on their belly and said glands are active whenever a virion has very young pups. When pups are restless or scared, their father's pheromones will have a soothing effect on them. Pups will eventually fall asleep when under full influence of these pheromones. The pheromones even have slight soothing effect on adults still, but not as much as young pups as virions develop a weak immunity to the pheromones as they mature. Adult virions will usually become relaxed when under influence of the pheromones.

Virions have sweat glands too. 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.

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.

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.

Like all coronaviruses, the wild-type is rather distant to fellow pack-mates and they lack emotions/feelings, such as love, compassion, sorrow, happiness (they can be very proud of something, though) and guilt. No virion ever grows attached to pack-mates, even though they're all family. They're merely colleagues to each other and everyone is just a number, which can be replaced easily by hundreds of new ones, in case they die. No death will be mourned and deceased virions might already not be spoken or thought about anymore after a day, if not just a few hours, given no one was attached to said deceased virion anyway.

With their specific type of monarchy being absolutism, the king reigns with an iron paw and his words are always law. No virion has any rights, except for the king's firstborn son, who is literally born with the right to succeed his father as the next king in line. The other virions are just followers. Kings don't care about the safety and well-being of his virions and no virion is allowed to disobey. They're strictly obligated to follow and perform their duties, nothing more.

Some kings may be so strict and power-hungry, that they may start to behave more like a dictator than a leader. King Lucius is a good example of a wild-type virion who was like this.

As mentioned before, these are very different in behavior than the wild-type. Because of the D614G mutation, the mutated form developed the emotions and feelings that the wild-type lacks, and virions can grow attached to and develop strong bonds with pack-mates. They work together as a family and no virion is seen as 'just a number' anymore. Virions have each other's back, and the death of every single pack-mate will be mourned. Mutants have introduced traditions and rituals, such as the celebration of a birth, funerals, graduation parties or whatever small archievement of a pack-mate to the species, making SARS-CoV-2 the very first coronavirus ever to partake in such events.

The way a king reigns is much different too. The original mutant form has introduced enlightened absolutism, which is a form of absolutism, but different by the fact that the lower placed virions aren't just the king's followers. To mutant kings, his virions are his children and it's his duty to teach and guide them in all their lives. He shows them his love and compassion, and he's very concerned about their safety and well-being. He also respects them as much as they respect him in return for their service within the pack, and virions have the right to disagree with their king or refuse to obey him (if there's a good reason to, because pure laziness or disrespect for no reason aren't allowed of course).

D614G mutants have more diverse types of personalities than wild-types. While D614G mutants are known to be so kind and compassionate toward pack-mates, there are a few virions who might develop nasty personalities, and therefore they might be exceptionally bad or ill-minded kings. Lower placed virions might have nasty traits that may cause them to think bad about their king, or it's just because they can't get along with him very well, as virions also can't like everyone they meet in their lives.

The mutant virion who first introduced enlightened absolutism, was King Matthias. He was the second virion born with the D614G mutation, but the first who created a whole pack and was so sweet to his virions.

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

SARS-CoV-2 has several different ways of communication; its own first language, human language, body language and telepathy. Below are list of these types of communications, though only with the special things included... because I want to keep the lists short. Most noises and body language are the same as the animals SARS-CoV-2's design is based on in the comic. So, just look up dog or wolf communication and you'll find what I left out here :)

King scent-flagging.

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 (ACE-2) on their surface, which are pneumocytes (lungs) and epithelial cells (heart) 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 membrane 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 may 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. These mutations may be inheritable too, but due to the virus's proofreading ability, said mutations are often 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. 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).

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.