Makkuth
Mallef
The Makkuth homeworld is a cold, rocky, dark place near the
far edge of the star’s habitable zone. Plants grow tall and
wide, competing for water and nutrition and struggling to get
enough light to photosynthesize. The food chain is highly
competitive and most species have evolved to be intelligent,
aggressive, and highly specialized. Climate ranges from cold
and snowy toward the poles to moderate at the equator. Cites
have developed everywhere but because of limited resources,
they tend to be smallish and spill out of rocky mountainside
cave complexes and other natural shelters. The Makkuth still
maintain a strong sense of using the natural environment and
bending it to their will, rather than clearing it flat and
building new.
Description
The Makkuth tend to be thin and lithe, standing from
5’6 to 6’6, with bulky, loose-skinned heads. They are
hairless with skin from gray to purple-red to black. Their
eyes are large and tend to be shades of orange-brown, having
large black-slitted pupils.
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They
see well in the dark and can see the conventional colour
spectrum and heat. The Makkuth are pseudo-bipeds, having two
front legs and a powerful “spring foot”. They evolved from
pack hunters with four legs and a tail. Their ancestors
evolved their tail into a “spring foot”, which they would
use in tandem with their rear legs to perform huge
chase-ending jumps. Their front legs developed into dextrous,
multiboned appendages suited for grasping prey and eventually
into the Makkuths’ double-jointed, multi-boned,
pseudo-tentacles tipped with 4 cartilaginous fingers.
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Their front two feet have 4 semi-opposable
digits that can be used as un-dexterous hands if they rear
onto their spring-foot.
Personality
The
Makkuth are scientific and intelligent in nature and have
succeeded as a race by learning to manipulate and control the
forces and creatures around them. The Makkuth are darkly
aristocratic and noble, seeming pompous and mistrustful to
other races. They tend keep to their own and only travel on
business, which is rare. Their trade, external dealings, and
diplomacy is generally handled by the
Celendriennes.
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social structure is based on the strong dominating the weak,
the wise exploiting the abilities of lessers. Historically,
they have succeeded by dominating other local species and
exploiting their strengths. That trend continues as they
dominate and exploit each other and other intelligent species.
A complex social hierarchy of slaves and social underlings do
the work of those above them. Possession of physical items is
not considered in personal wealth, the focus is on the control
of territory and underlings. Many of their everyday goods are
fashioned by slaves and often tend to crudity. Those Makkuth
who have a knack and passion for construction are rare but
often brilliant in their artistry and dark creativity. Their
work is highly sought after by their fellow Makkuth and
collectors around the galaxy.
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Have
an almost obsessive fear of growing old and dying. They have
no concept of gods or afterlife, believing that the end is
just the end. The dead are ritually desiccated and mummified, entombed, and
maintained in vast burial vaults traditionally carved into the
mountains. It is considered horrific to mutilate or disrespect
the dead. In their quest to put off death and aging , they
participate in self-modification, augmentation, gene
manipulation.
The Cessates, or Wither
Guard, is the organization in charge of the dead.
They are a secretive, powerful, mysterious brotherhood that
carves and maintains the passages and crypts (called Wizens)
where the Makkuth dead are entombed. The Cessates also receive
and prepare the dead for final storage. Their ancient order
has in-depth ritual knowledge of quarrying and tunneling,
anatomy, and preservation of the dead. The Makkuth don’t like
death or the dead and the Wither Guard is held in something
between reverence and horror.
Government
Predominantly bearing strong dislike for races other than
their own, the average Makkuth spends their life among their
own race in the
Makkuth
Dynasty in the Farrago.
The Makkuth Dynasty is partly composed of the Makkuth, the
Celendriennes, the captive
Pandarans, and other races.
While the majority of Makkuth live under the auspices of the
Makkuth Dynasty, some choose to live and travel independently.
The world of Letith separated from the Dynasty with the help
of the independent Celendrienne world of Amravas and maintains
its own government.
Species
Spreading Program
The
Makkuth have noticed that they don’t spread as fast as
other, more sociable species like Humans and Iliene. They have
developed an official government program to attempt to
propogate Makkuth throughout the inhabited galaxy. Makkuth may
choose (for big rewards, like a small Sul for their family) or
are chosen (exiled) to leave the empire in breeding pairs in
order to emulate the spread of races like humans. It’s very
rare and uncomfortable for the Makkuth leaving the Dynasty.
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