Name: Mauraug
Appearance:
The Mauraug carbon based, DNA based, simian primates. The ideal Mauraug has bandy legs, long arms,
a strong torso and shoulders, and a round head with a high cranial ridge. Their eyes have heavy lids, their nose flat
and their mouth an apelike muzzle filled with a mixture of grinding and rending
teeth. Their skin is matte black and the
fur across their bodies and on their heads is a snow white.
However, the Mauraug have suffered greatly from a genetic plague
(partially) of their own devising. As a
result, the majority of Mauraug don't adhere to all of these
characteristics. Most Mauraug are born
with some kind of genetic dysfunction, usually involving missing or malformed
organs or limbs. Most Mauraug have
cybernetics replacing the missing or malfunctioning organs or appendages. In addition, skin color, fur color, and
facial shape can vary greatly. No
Mauraug could pass as a human, no matter how deformed, but there are those born
among them whose lineage might be hard to infer by simple observation.
History:
The Mauraug developed from a tree-dwelling simian like
race on their home world. Mauraug Prime
is a hot world, and from early records seems to be a former Venus-style
hothouse world whose atmosphere was “cleaned” by the development of
oxygen-using single-celled life. Their
world had lush photosynthetic vegetation, a high amount of free water and
oxygen in the atmosphere, and abundant solar radiation, contributing to a high degree
of mutation in the life forms that developed there.
Much of the pre-spaceflight history of the Mauraug race
is shrouded in mystery, and the texts that keep what they know of their early
history are held tightly by the Prophets of Dominion. Before the planet developed space faring
capabilities it can be assumed that their society followed patterns not
dissimilar to those of human development in the realms of culture and
science.
Although the Prophets claim that faith in Dominion was a
constant from the days that the Mauraug developed sentience, this claim is
considered unlikely by outsider researchers.
The most commonly-held outside belief is that this faith was merely the
most successful social meme to establish itself among their race, and the only
one that spread with their expansion into space.
In any case, when the Mauraug began to colonize other
worlds, Tkal Shabahn or Dominionism
was a very useful social tool to establish social and political stability among
their worlds. All terraformed planets
and colony worlds were and still are considered autocratic, with the
commandments of the prophets serving as precedent and constitution for their
worlds. This allowed a very efficient
combination between individuality and group dynamic in the spread of their
empire. Although each world had
different ideas about the implementation of Words of Dominion, they were
unified against heretics and alien races in their acknowledgement of their
importance.
The Mauraug Dominion was originally established close to
fivr thousands terran years ago. When it
began it was a collection of four terraformed worlds and a half-dozen
colonies. In time it grew to close to
its present size; at its largest the Dominion encompassed closed to fifty
terraformed worlds and thousands of small colonies.
As the Dominion expanded it inevitably came into contact
with alien races. Early interaction with
those races usually resulted in genocide and occupation. The firm belief in the importance of Mauraug
domination of the galaxy brooked no argument for diversity. Some races were given the offer to convert to
Dominionism and become subjects of the Mauraug, essentially becoming slaves.
The Mauraug Dominion grew to great size and
prosperity. It was not until their
boundaries pushed against Zig space that they encountered another established
interstellar hierarchy that could stand against and even threaten them. The isolationist Zig took umbrage at attempts
at conversion and assimilation, and a bitter war was fought that lasted over
two millennia. Eventually the Prophets
gave word that the Zig were to be given accorded the same respect that the
Mauraug had for claiming dominion over their space, although their lack of
faith meant that one day the Mauraug would need to eradicate or assimilate
their empire. The twenty thousand years
between the Mauraug-Zig Wars and the formation of the Collective were filled
with constant border disputes, acts of piracy and terrorism, mostly but not
always on the part of the Mauraug. The Dominion
focused on expanding their space in other directions in the hopes that they
would eventually encapsulate the heathen Zig.
As the empire expanded and encountered more alien races
and life forms their policies towards outsiders began to change and become more
inclusive. The Tesetsi home world and
their colonies were annexed almost without the Tesetsi noticing. Their race was fascinated by the biological
diversity of the life forms of Mauraug Prime, not to mention the host of other
worlds that had been brought into the Covenant.
They paid lip service to the concept of Dominion and aided the Mauraug
in their constant search to overcome the hideous genetic maladies of their
ancestors.
This alliance eventually led in many ways to the downfall
of the Mauraug Dominion as it was. The
Mauraug, working with their highly advanced artificial intelligences and
Tesetsi subjects devised a genetic cure to most of the worst of the problems
with their unstable DNA, which likewise was to confer upon individual Mauraug
the nigh-immortality that the Tesetsi possess.
The cure was spread throughout their space and seemed successful for a
handful of generations. It was not until
a full century after its deployment that hidden code within the altered genetic
structure came to the fore. Although
many of the cancers and other inborn weaknesses displayed by the Mauraug no
longer manifested, hideous deformities and atrophied organs became common. There were few parts of the Dominion that had
not been touched by the gene plague and as a result, their species as a whole
were afflicted with it. Their newly
extended life spans seemed almost a mockery in the face of the horrific
deformities that they were now being born with.
The reactions of the Prophets were extreme and often
violent. The most commonly-held beliefs
included the idea that the plague was a punishment from Dominion for
incorporating rather than exterminating other forms of life, and genocidal
purges of slave races began. It was at
this point, nearly two thousand years ago, that the Tesetsi Diaspora occurred.
Genetic purity was seen as an impossible ideal at this
point. A series of revelations granted to
the Great Prophets on Mauraug Prime clarified their errors: attempting to alter
the basic flesh that they had been granted was a foolish act. The gene plague was not a punishment from
Dominion but a malady that the Mauraug had brought upon themselves by
attempting to overreach the boundaries of organic flesh, as they had been lead
astray by the devious Tesetsi. Imperfect
flesh could be replaced by perfect machine, with the goal being to eventually
have the consciousness and souls of once-organic beings housed completely in
synthetic material. This would show the
mastery of the Mauraug over the baser materials of the universe and represent
true dominion over life itself.
Artificial Intelligences were also to blame. Creating a mind that has never been housed in
organic flesh became a blasphemy, and many parts of the Dominion struggled to
adapt without their beloved AIs. In
addition, claims that demonic entities from the levels of space traversed in
hyperspace travel could alter or possess AIs began to flourish. The Prophets claimed that a mind created by
the Mauraug could only try to supersede their dominance when the time came,
which is also a sin against the will of Dominion. Some of the Prophets actually feared that
Dominion would come to favor the artificial intelligences over the Mauraug
should the Mauraug no longer be able to control or dominate them, and
eradicating them has become a struggle to prove the worthiness of their race. Other feared outside control and manipulation
of the AIs through the aforementioned hyperspatial entities, or “demons”.
The Mauraug Dominion began to go through waves of
collapse of infrastructure and communication, leading to isolated worlds and
colonies developing and adopting heresies that were as dust in the mouths of
the Prophets of Dominion. The Mauraug
Apostasy formed out of this mess; a good third of the worlds held by the
Mauraug banded together to declare their independence and freedom from the Dominion
and its dogmatic rule.
This period of collapse has shaped the Mauraug mindset
and current relationships with other races.
Waves of nationalist fervor spread through the declining Dominion,
making their worlds and colonies far more aggressive to their non-Mauraug
neighbors. Desperation has forced
Mauraug into careers of piracy, a crime that they have become well known
for. A second, weak attempt at
extermination of the Zig lead to a massive and crushing defeat wherein the Zig
unleashed terrible weapons of their material technology on Mauraug worlds,
using seed crystals that would crystallize the atmospheres or force oxygen to
bond rapidly with other molecules. After
the populations of these worlds had perished the Zig and their vindicated
Tesetsi allies re-terraformed and claimed them for their own, causing Dominion
space to shrink even further.
It was not until the Collective formed and an ultimatum
was pressed against the Dominion that the Prophets declared that a new age was
upon the Mauraug. In this age they
claimed that Sha’bahn declared that all sentient life may hear the call and
ways of the Dominion, and the time for rulership by extermination had come to
an end. It was a time for the Mauraug to
become involved in the galaxy and the other races that Dominion had created,
and perhaps by learning their ways and sharing the ways of Sha’bahn with them,
the Mauraug might again rise to dominate the galaxy. As part of a condition of their joining, the
Collective agreed to stop making overtures to the Apostasy and allow the
Mauraug to police heresy within their own race.
The confederated Mauraug systems that have joined the Collective
rebranded themselves as the Mauraug Covenant although some, especially
outsiders, will still refer to them as the Dominion.
Since joining the Collective, the Covenant has enjoyed a
slowing of their decline and even economic improvement in some areas. Although they have maintained a strained
peace with other races, their desperation and sense of loss has still propelled
them to engage in acts of piracy and enslavement, which only bring sanction
against their race in the most grievous of examples. The Mauraug have a code of law that is far
more ancient than many of the sapient races that they now interact with, and as
a result have quite a culture of lawyers, which has been encouraged by the
Prophets as those who know the law can use it to the benefit of the Mauraug and
the Covenant.
The worst mark on their record is the action taken
against humanity, which raised quite a bit of popular sentiment against
them. When the Covenant discovered human
space, many of their Prophets claimed that they had discovered a forgotten
branch of their family; not descendants but cousins from lost terraformed
colonies. Citing the Hrotata and the
Great Family as precedent, they attempted to claim mankind as a client
race. Their terror of the common use of
AIs by mankind only helped to fuel their desire to take mankind under their
wing and eliminate their dangerous demonic allies.
It was mankind’s AIs that allowed their race to hold off
the assimilation of the Covenant long enough for the Collective to
intervene. As AI tech is rare in the
galaxy, seen as dangerous and troublesome, few countermeasures were currently
in use among Mauraug fleets and the sentient electronic minds wreaked havoc
upon Mauraug defense and weapons systems, and even targeting and communication
systems, turning the Mauraug against one another in some of the more
spectacular examples.
Mauraug, being monosexual, trace their family lines through dominant
genes. When a Mauraug is born it is
examined to determine which of its parents’ genetic traits are stronger, and
are given a last name that is a combination of their dominant parent’s name and
the name of their family line; all Mauraug names follow the same pattern of
<first name> “Bash” (meaning a combination of ‘dominated by’ and ‘created
through domination by’) <combination last name>. There are exceptions in those rare Mauraug
whose parents are unknown (orphans that survive past infancy are rare among
their kind) and those who change their last name to disassociate from their
past (only usually sanctioned in the case of those who join the religious
castes or whose ancestors have committed some grave heresy or dishonor).
Technology:
Cybernetics. With their race so
terribly damaged by the plague, the Mauraug turned to using mechanical devices
to compensate for their genetic weaknesses. Mauraug have had at least a
millennium of desperate exploration, goaded on by the commandments of their
Prophets. As a result, they have great
facility with adapting and calibrating implants and have techniques of
miniaturization and nanotechnology that make their cybernetics, as opposed to
that of other races that most often use them for prosthesis, into an advantage.
Biology:
The Mauraug are descended from rainforest-dwelling omnivorous primates,
of great physical strength and agility.
Due to the conditions of their homeworld they have a preference for
bright light, high humidity, and levels of heat that are considered
uncomfortable to many other sapient species.
Indeed, visitors on Mauraug ships and in their dwellings often need to
use polarized lenses or risk retinal damage, and Mauraug often carry light
sources with them (or implant light-adaptive cybernetics into their eyes) when
dealing with other species.
Mauraug only have one sex, and are capable of both inseminating and
being inseminated. Their semen is
corrosive and damaging to developed fetuses and placental sacs, thus a Mauraug
that is already pregnant will lose their current offspring if it engages in
receptive intercourse with another Mauraug.
They tend to bear one to two children at a time.
The gene plague that afflicted the Mauraug has left most of their
population with nigh-indefinite life spans.
Their cells reproduce without error and most of the weaknesses inherent
to their physiology that would cause long-term breakdown have been
eliminated. They are almost all born
with missing, atrophied or malformed organs or limbs, which often need to be
replaced by cybernetic implants close to birth for survival, and many are
stillborn as a result. The frequency of
birth of a genetically “pure” Mauraug, one born with standard coloration and no
deformities, is extremely low, generally one in a billion.
Culture:
The Mauraug have always been dominated by their Prophets, although the
messages of the Prophets change over time.
Their faith revolves around Dominion, also known as Sha’bahn, the
universal and all-powerful being that has created a universe full of danger as
a challenge to his creation. Survive
this, improve upon yourself, and you can make yourself like unto him. The modern interpretation of this extends
into an almost Transhumanist (or transMauraugist) philosophy involving
cybernetic replacement and eventual transformation from an organic intelligence
in an organic shell to one in a synthetic body.
This has never been successfully accomplished, but the ideal has kept
many Mauraug scientists busy for centuries.
The Mauraug Prophets undergo intense training in history,
rhetoric, law, logic, and some basic knowledge of computer science and “demons”
or AIs. They are chosen for their
personal insight and wisdom and often groomed for the position from an early
age, and once they become Prophets rarely, if ever, interact with non-Mauraug,
as they are seen as a potential corrupting influence and thus unclean. They are attended by a clerical structure of
priests of lesser authority and various ranks, which often very vastly based on
their system of origin.
The one religious institution among the Mauraug that is
universal and unchanging is the Inquisition.
The Inquisition, overseen by the Prophets, is a caste of Mauraug clerics
that have been trained in “sorcery” (psi and telepathy) and “demonology” (AI
technology as well as hyperdimensional theory).
They are the only Mauraug that are allowed to pursue or train in such
skills and knowledge; anyone outside of their order who is found spreading or
using AIs or telepathy has only the Inquisition to answer to, and even the
Prophets will step aside if an Inquisitor has made an accusation. Unlike Prophets, Inquisitors frequently
interact with members of other species and are not uncommon in shared
Collective spaces, due to the increased potential for heresy in such regions.
They do not always announce their identity as such, as while most Mauraug find
their presence a comfort, other sapients tend to be leery of them.
Before the Gene Plague, the Mauraug Dominion was oriented in a more
expansive direction, a mission that was by turns evangelic and imperial. At this point the Covenant expands in a more
careful fashion, generally legitimately annexing worlds and colonies through
bargaining within the Collective.
Poetry is of great cultural value to the Mauraug, and is one of the only
acceptable artistic outlets for their race.
All poetry, claims Dominion, comes from me, though your mouth is ill
suited to speak the words, and only my Prophets' ears are suited to hear. In other words, the Mauraug faith holds that
all poetry is divinely inspired, though filtered through an imperfect tool. If a poem seems to speak out against the
Dominion or the Prophets it is merely a misinterpretation. A Prophet will meditate upon the offending
verse for a time and reveal the true meaning, inevitable aligned with the mores
of their society and the will of Dominion.
Cybernetic enhancements are sources of vast pride in Mauraug
culture. They proudly display them, and
even those enhancements that are meant to be kept secret (such as hidden
weaponry) are often known among close friends and allies. Indeed, the rare “pureblood” Mauraug, as a
display of cultural solidarity with the rest of their kind, will deliberately
maim themselves when coming of age, removing a limb or organ and having it
replaced to show that they too bear the memory of what is considered the
greatest mistake that they as a species have made.
Psychology:
The Mauraug of today are in many ways defined by their race's great
tragedy. Far too many allow their
desperation to lead them on paths of semi-legal pirating and banditry. There is a great bitterness and sorrow in the
Mauraug psyche that can be measured quite visibly by changes in their poetic
style and rising crime rates on their worlds and in the spaces around them.
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