Mravans

Summary
The mravans are a collectivist, eusocial species found in various systems in the Sagittarius Arm. Similar in appearance to Earth insects, Mravans are born into “colonies” and are exceptionally gifted at cooperation. Indeed, the service to the whole is not just an ideal in mravan society, but an expectation of its members. This sense of duty, combined with a sharp intellect and physical prowess, lead the mravans to conquer the entirety of their planet, creating inhabited settlements across the globe.

Easily as strong as a chantar roq, mravans are covered in a thick exoskeleton which makes them resilient to many types of injury. While extremely difficult to injure, mravans suffer from a below-average ability to recover from bodily damage. Due to their biology, mravans are also extremely susceptible to concussive force.

With their cultural emphasis on the collective, it has not been difficult for mravan leadership to propel the species into action against the denazra. With Mrava set as the next destination for the fleets, the mravan people are fervently preparing themselves for the greatest group hardship in their history.

Biology
Mravans most closely resemble Earth insects, specifically calling to mind the various types of ant. They have sleek, hard, chitinous exoskeletons that cover their fragile interiors. These can range from a dark brown to a clay-red. They stand on four hind legs that make near right-angles out of the sides of their body to support their bulbous frames. The front third of their body arcs into an upright position, making them resemble an insect version of a centaur.

This front third of the Mravan body holds four to six more appendages (depending on how you count them). Most prominent are their forelegs, which have developed intricate tri-pincers that are capable of delicate manipulation of objects and tools. Each pincer is able to rotate in a ball-and-socket style joint, with further lever joints on the pincer. In effect, it looks like three exoskeleton-covered fingers that have no hand attaching them; the foreleg is connected directly to the flexible pincers.

Slightly lower down the thorax, mravans have two smaller legs that hang idle near the bottom of the raised portion of the body, ending in sharp points. These vestigial limbs once gave mravans an extra natural weapon, but they have since atrophied.

Mravans also have a pronounced pair of mandibles on either side of the mouth. While not flexible enough to use most tools, they are notoriously strong. Mravans are known to carry heavy loads using their mandibles and, in a pinch, they can serve as a natural weapon.

Mravans stand about 4’2” tall at the antennae, but laid down from back to front are around the size of the average human. When traveling long distances, or when needing extra stability, they will often get down on all six limbs, reducing their height to approximately half that of a human.

Mravans have compound eyes, giving them a distinctly unsettling appearance to most humans. Their eyes remain motionless and protrude slightly from their cranium. Because their compound eyes give them an exceptional all-around view of their surroundings, they almost never turn their heads. This gives many species the common impression that mravans are constantly staring. These eyes are also incapable of focusing, instead giving mravans a mosaic image of everything going on around them. They are extremely near-sighted, but their eyes are incredibly good at detecting motion.

Instead of sight being their dominant sensory perception, mravans have developed acute pheromone-sensing antennae on the top of their head. The antennae have a 360 degree sense, and the closest the human can come to imagining it would be a sense of smell. Mravans can detect and interpret the pheromones given off by organic life-forms, as well as “smell” other objects and their surroundings, giving them a layout of their environment. The mravan receptors are said to be about as impressive as an Earth dog’s.

While they are more adept at identifying the presence of organic life, these olfactory receptors have also been able to identify denazra ambushes that would have gone unseen by other Coalition species.

Mravans have a tough exterior, and are fitted for certain tasks above others. Their thick and tough exoskeleton makes them resistant to many types of damage, including piercing weapons such as knives. Blunt force trauma, however, is a frighteningly efficient way to incapacitate a mravan. Similar to how a human brain will experience a concussion, mravan internal organs can be damaged by blunt-force trauma even when their exoskeleton is not cracked.

Mravan grip strength and carrying capacity is widely acknowledged as remarkable. Their powerful legs are equipped with micro-grip cilia that allow them to traverse walls and ceilings as they would floors. As such, much mravan architecture is designed to use every available surface for movement. As a result, other species (with the notable exception of pentites) often have difficulty navigating through mravan buildings. Mravan mandibles and fore-legs are capable of lifting and carrying objects far heavier than their own weight. An average mravan can lift a fully grown human with little difficulty, and could probably carry two or three around with him if pressed. Mravans struggle to use this strength in hand to hand combat, however. A mravan punch is nothing exceptional, and their ability to throw objects is sub-par at best (when compared to other species). In a test of strength involving pushing, pulling, or lifting, however, few can match a mravan’s raw power. To put it another way, no one expects a mravan to be a world-champion boxer, but they can become mobile campsites.

Mravans, on average, move fairly slow, but they are remarkably stable. Their four to six points of contact with a surface at all times means they have wonderful balance, even if they can’t keep pace with a human in a sprint. That being said, they have incredible stamina. A mravan might lose a sprint but can march without pause for days.

History
Mravans evolved on their homeworld many millions of years ago. They spread rapidly across the planet, using their innate strength, ability to cooperate, and capacity to use tools to tame every environment on their planet. While they are excellent hunters, the mravans adopted agriculture comparatively early in their history and began building cities (actually colonies that often stretch far below and above ground) much sooner than other species. That being said, the mravans experienced a significant lull in technological development due to their late adoption of written languages. While oral and scent based communication came easily to the mravans, they found reading and writing to be more difficult due to their biology and cultural norms.

Mravan colonies rarely warred against one another, particularly with close neighbors depending on one another for the exchange of genetic materials, but they proved exceptionally vicious when facing off against a distant enemy with whom they had little interaction. As a result, mravan conflicts were rare but mammoth undertakings. Actual continent-spanning wars were comparatively contained, however, as there was usually a substantial number of neutral colonies in between any two combatants who had dealings with both and were incredibly invested in producing a negotiated compromise. The bloodiest and worst wars in mravan history, as a result, have always occurred between colonies separated by large bodies of water.

The largest war in mravan history, generally referred to as “the Great Mistake,” lasted almost twenty years and killed almost 250 million individuals. Remarkably, the most active combatant colonies assumed collective responsibility for the devastation at the war’s conclusion and voluntarily worked together to repair the damage they had caused. The war’s scale and intensity was notable, but the peace was unique amongst Coalition species. Perhaps most importantly, the former belligerents agreed on a world wide system subsidizing immigration over great distances and encouraging cultural and educational exchanges between adolescents from one continent to another. The decision by the tlecians to send an uplift fleet to Mrava after they received word of the war’s conclusion was immediate and unanimously supported by all member species.

While culturally fairly inclusive, the mravan colony structure lends itself more to development and improvement rather than innovation. Mravan technology typically relies on perfecting past designs than revolutionary change. Similarly, compared to almost every other species in the Coaliton, mravan history is remarkably stable. Large alliances of different colonies have formed, expanded, and contracted countless times across the planet. While competition is common, hostility is not. Every colony relies on its neighbors to breed and the densely populated nature of most colonies has actually served to contain the typical urban sprawl experienced by other cultures and left Mrava’s environment relatively intact. This reduced the need to compete for natural resources and even encouraged cooperation between neighboring colonies in larger scale projects.

Political and culture change on Mrava has usually taken the form of mass movements rather than individual protest. Waiting on the majority of members in a community to take action on a subject has frequently resulted in sharp limits on the rights of individuals, but the tendency of mravans to exchange ideas and communicate with neighboring cultures as well as the biological need for immigration in any colony has produced slow and steady change towards some democratic norms. As mravans hold duty to the group to be paramount, individual concerns are discussed en masse and the concerns of other group members are held to be as important as those of the individual hearing about them. This has enabled mravan colonies to approach individual from the reverse direction as most other species that have adopted the practice, bringing about protections for different individuals through group dialogue and consensus (even amongst the minority). They have a somewhat disconcerting tendency to justify actions based on their results but, in typical mravan fashion, usually discuss the issue and agree to retroactively repair any damage they may have caused in the execution of their ideas. With all that being said, the mravans enshrine far fewer protections for individuals against the power of the government and are far more willing to consider morally ambiguous methods that accomplish their goals than many other species. An individual protester would be given an opportunity to speak and then, most likely, would be voted down. On Mrava, there is no appeal from the will of the majority.

In the modern day, Mrava is a highly developed and peaceful place. The mravans are indisputably the master of their planet and had found a peaceful equilibrium between the colonies well before the Coalition’s first representatives arrived. Having innately accepted the idea that individuals owe a duty to the colony and that the colony owes a duty to the planet (an idea enshrined since the end of the Great Mistake), it was not culturally challenging for the mravans to accept the idea that they had a duty to other intelligent life in the galaxy. Mravans volunteer for public service at an extremely high per capita rate, and they have seen service in every operation against the denazra since the Mrava Gate was first completed. It remains to be seen, however, if the other members of the Coalition take their duty to Mrava as seriously now that the denazra are on their way.

Culture
Because their societies were originally matriarchal, mravan governments usually have a higher number of females in positions of power. While males and females live in relative equality today, many leadership positions in financial, governmental and cultural institutions tend to be female. As is typical of gender-divided species, there are some lingering remnants of sex based discrimination in mravan society, although this rarely occurs openly in the modern era.

While variation occurs throughout mravan colonies, the mravan people tend toward collectivism over individualism. While a mravan is an individual person, they typically place the value of whatever group they most identify with well above their own well being and strive towards collective goals over personal desires. In fact, a mravan might struggle to even draw a distinction between group and individual goals, although they can intellectually understand the distinction.

Mravan colony governments, while varying widely from place to place, are typically a surprisingly effective blend of communism and mob democracy. Elections are held frequently and cover a wide range of issues. Citizens can usually vote on a wide variety of issues that many other cultures would never consider putting up to a direct vote. A mravan election might decide the controlling party in a colony as well as setting scientific priorities, resolving ethical issues, and even deciding critical defense issues. The political organization that wins the popular vote then appoints representatives to enact policy and oversee the running of the state, being duty-bound to enact policies that promote the ideas that were voted on in the election. Minority parties each appoint representatives to review governmental activities. Should the ruling party enact a law that is against the will of the people as expressed in the vote, the minority parties are within their rights to impeach the elected government and form a temporary coalition to oversee a new election. This happens very rarely, as it is very difficult to prove that a specific policy goes against the general will of the people.

Election week is a sort of national holiday for most mravans, and the week is spent going over information and formulating opinions until the election is actually held. Compared to most other democratic governments encountered by the Coalition, the mravans take their responsibility of voting very seriously and put a remarkable amount of work into participating in the process. Still, the task can seem bloated to outsiders, and mravan colonies are typically bureaucratic and slow to act. When they do take on a project, however, the mravans themselves are typically devoted and work hard towards securing the will of the colony as a whole.

The recent news that Mrava is the next in line for a denazra invasion has galvanized the colonies like nothing else in the species’ history. The mravan people have begun a truly mammoth undertaking often referred to as “Fortification.”  An ever increasing proportion of the budget and planetary resources have been devoted to planetary defense, at the expense of infrastructure, social programs, and living conditions. The great cities of Mrava are transforming from beautiful works of art into utilitarian fortresses.

Mravans work and live in colonies, a mix of town and family. While inter-colony transport and external jobs are available, most mravans work within their colony, and each colony is supposed to be a self-supporting structure. Colonies are often banded together into something between a nation-state and an international alliance. These larger boundaries are, in modern times, considered to be increasingly important. The distinction between different colonies still exists, however, and friendly rivalries between colonies that are part of the same “nation” are not uncommon.

Colonies are generally self-supporting, with certain necessary industries – food production, construction, and power generation to name a few – kept under strict internal control in case they are cut off from outside allies. In practice, however, the colonies increasingly rely on trade and interconnectivity. Many colonies lack the space or resources to sustain themselves and engage in trade with neighboring colonies to fill the gap. With the imminent arrival of the denazra, this old practice has seen a resurgence as colonies are fortified and emergency services strengthened.

Colonies, in addition to being a centralized place of work for a community, are also the way in which mravans arrange to breed. A viable colony will always have at least one “queen” who is responsible for producing young. In ancient times, the queens were also politically powerful autocrats who organized the colonies and stood as personal manifestations of group decisions. This system has largely vanished as collective decision making has become more and more sophisticated. The queen is selected from a small number of fertile individuals with strong genetic traits. Her job henceforth is to reproduce. At the mating period during each year, she lays a large clutch of eggs which are then fertilized by exceptional males from among the small number of non-sterile individuals in each colony. The queen organizes and takes charge of the care of these eggs. By the time the colony’s next generation reaches the pupa stage, the young are moved in with new caretakers- males and females whose responsibility is to educate the young as they become mature adults. In practice, the queen has little political power but is exceptionally influential due to her importance in the raising and educating of the colony’s young.

A mravan attains physical maturity around four mravan years. These young mravans are then typically considered adolescent for at least another full year before becoming a full fledged adult. At this juncture, most mravans (especially non-sterile males) are strongly encouraged to move to a different colony. Many mravans, however, remain in their home colony their entire lives. Few mravans live past thirty-two years old, but they remain productive and able for the vast majority of that time.

Because of the imminent threat of invasion, the mravan colonies have begun mandating the appointment of duplicate queens. Some colonies have even gone into the double digits to explode populations, although resistance to the change of cultural norms and traditions have left the people somewhat divided on the issue. In addition, the simple problem of expanding infrastructure to accommodate so many new youth has proven daunting.

Because there is no pair-bonding during mating, monogamous relationships and even courtship is a foreign idea to mravans. Close friendship or familial ties are the best approximation they can equate, and breeding is typically determined by genetic traits and personal accomplishments.

Family ties are very important in Mravan culture. Due to the close relationship between colonies and closer kin groups, networks of alliances generally form between colonies after sufficiently large numbers of individuals have immigrated. Mravans tend to feel familial bonds most strongly with their own colony and the colonies surrounding theirs. This makes for an interesting web of politics, as outsiders are closely guarded against until they reach a certain critical mass.

This attitude generally permeates mravan attitudes toward other species as well, although foreigners are more likely to see that type of behavior on Mrava than offworld. Mravans who serve off-world quickly become accustomed to the idea that the Coalition is now part of their familial unit and treat other members of the military with the same trust usually reserved for actual blood ties.

Mravan art is generally of the audio or olfactory variety. Given their limited sight, mravan “paintings” are all but unheard of, though some attempts have been made since contact with other species began. Since mravans can detect motion better than still images, performance pieces are highly regarded in mravan culture.

The art form most praised by other species is mravan theater and dance. The elegance of movement is traditionally of exceptional importance, making even non-musical performances more akin to scripted ballet.

Also, since emotions are mainly portrayed through pheromones, mravan plays are generally difficult to understand by aliens. This has been partially remedied by accessory devices that interface with the tlecian translator device that can partially mimic the pheromone sensations experienced by mravans. The process is not perfect, but the mravans have devoted an impressive amount of resources into perfecting it. The exchange of cultural ideas has a long and storied history on Mrava.

These pheromones play an important role in the rest of society, too. As humans will apply makeup and style hair, mravans will perfume themselves in intricate ways to be pleasing to others. Mravans can generally detect layers of scent, meaning that coordination between a wide variety of different odors is necessary in order to achieve the full effect. It is recommended that visitors make some effort to apply perfume-like agents before meeting mravan dignitaries.

Religion
In ancient times, colony queens were revered as direct descendants of the gods. As such Queens were considered a direct line to the divine. Besides that, however, the colonies typically experienced a wide variety of religious beliefs. Most of these faith systems involved the worship of nature spirits that were said to inhabit all creatures and even objects or tools. Only a few hundred years ago, a monotheistic religion professing the existence of a great, unified soul of all living and dead mravans emerged on the Tuskraja Plains. Less than one hundred years later it had split into four culturally similar faith groups. As mravan culture moves fairly quickly, perhaps due to the short lived nature of each generation, these religions rose to dominance over the older spiritual groups with remarkable speed but has since declined significantly in favor of ethical philosophies and atheism.

Economy
The mravan economy is very decentralized but is incredibly productive. Second only to the chantar, the mravan colonies’ industrial capacity dwarfs that of most other members of the Coalition. Mrava itself sports over a dozen space elevators, countless planet-based manufactories, and a host of orbital factories. The multiple mravan colony worlds are similarly well developed. Mravans excel at industrial projects and large, team-based commercial endeavors. Most mravan companies are public-private partnerships, with a blurry line between official government activity and the business itself. This, however, cuts both ways, as the group of mravans engaged in an enterprise have immediate and direct access to the government and can easily influence policy even as the government oversees their project.

Lately, the mravan economy has been undergoing an almost total conversion to war time work. Weapons, fortifications, and even alien food production have seen massive increases. Rather than nationalize industries engaging in top-down quota setting, the mravans have simply crowd sourced their planet’s defense. Tracking all of these projects, organizing them, and then providing sensible subsidies to encourage activity in weak areas still requires a lot of resources, but the mravans have adapted to their new circumstances with significantly more ease than most other species faced with similar circumstances have managed.

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Language
While there are four or five central languages spoken in mravan culture, there exist a large multitude of dead and written-only languages that are still unilaterally taught in multiple education systems. As early and historic mravan empires subsumed smaller colonies, the new shared culture and values of the dominant colony overtook old customs and values, and older languages fell into disuse. The most commonly spoken mravan languages are: Teliol, Erem-han, Brundur, Assamani, and Shiek.

Military
Mravan tactics are generally of the “swarm” variety, as one could guess from their history and nature. There are only a handful of truly large ships in the mravan fleet. Despite the widely recognized advantage of the denazra in small-vehicle combat, the mravans are simply too well adapted to this sort of strategy to change their ways now. Mravans generally have a preference for more, and smaller, vessels that join up in centralized hubs. As such they have less true capital ships than other species, but their fighters, frigates and small-class civilian transports are some of the finest, and most maneuverable, the galaxy has to offer.

On the ground, mravan doctrine is a little different. When put in composite-species teams, mravan soldiers’ hard exoskeletons made them excellent front-line defenders. They also can serve well as a semi-mobile light “vehicle”, carrying heavy weapon payloads, or other, less maneuverable soldiers to places they could not normally reach. Individual mravans have been celebrated for their bravery and persistence in holding a line well after other species might have fallen, and the presence of a stalwart mravan in any infantry deployment is a significant morale boost.

Unfortunately, the denazra have figured out several better alternatives for dispatching mravan soldiers. While typical piercing weapons have less effect, concussive weapons tend to be extremely effective against mravan targets. The mravan armed forces have adopted several techniques to counteract these strategies, but the overall effectiveness of mravan units when facing the denazra has notably declined since their first few engagements with the machines.

Perhaps the mravans’ greatest weapon is their ability to work together. The mravan military is undergoing a massive expansion and fortification is ongoing across their planet and throughout the star system. The old truisms about the mravan military are undergoing a period of reform and drastic change. It is hoped that these reforms, in addition to the build up, will enhance the ability of the mravans to resist the denazra when they arrive.

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Notable Planets
Mrava – The mravan homeworld is a larger planet with somewhat higher than average gravity. With a wide range of temperatures and climates, the planet still hosts mravan settlements on almost every part of the globe (save for the inhospitable “ice isles” that form during the northern hemisphere’s cool season and melt away again in the spring). Mrava has been cultivated to great extent, showcasing large, intertwining cityscapes that are remarkable to behold. Impossible or dizzingly complex architecture is seen as mundane to the Mravans, who are better equipped to think in three-dimensional pathways due to their ability to cling to surfaces regardless of their orientation. Mrava is industrially developed, boasting over a dozen active space elevators, but surprisingly environmentally preserved thanks to the tendency of mravans to concentrate in partially subterranean cities rather than sprawl across the surface.

Dahren – The mravan’s oldest extra-solar colony world, Dahren has undergone a massive and sustained terraforming effort for approximately 200 years. The mravans have done a remarkable job transforming Dahren into a life sustaining world. The atmosphere is now breathable, although certain dietary supplements are required for long term residents, and imported flora and fauna are flourishing. With three functional space elevators and a thriving economy, Dahren used to be famous for its resources-based export industry, but the colonists have now started to transition towards producing more finished products on planet. Especially with the demands of the war effort, Dahren is experiencing an economic boom.

Siron – Siron is a settled system but lacks a garden world (or an approximate) capable of supporting life. As a result, the mravans of Siron live in a series of orbital habitats spread throughout the system. While automated or remotely controlled mining operations are much logistically feasible than manned operations, the fear of denazra interference or even co-opting of the existing infrastructure has forced the mravan colonies to settle the system on an ad hoc basis. While many of the station crews and employs rotate in and out of the system, there is a substantial population of permanent residents. In addition to resource recovery efforts, there are also numerous scientific and military projects ongoing in the system.

Pennor – While Pennor does not have a mravan-appropriate atmosphere, it is a mineral rich planet with substantial ice deposits otherwise fairly conducive to mravan settlement. There are several easily accessible planets and asteroids in-system with similarly valuable resources, as well. Colonists on the surface must wear atmospheric masks, and most mravan settlements on the planet are pressure sealed underground, but it is otherwise a safe and mundane place. Mining enterprises spearheaded the move to colonize the planet, but there are now a number of largely self-sustaining colonies situated on the planet. A space elevator and a large number of orbital factories feed the ever increasing demands of Mrava, and the population of Pennor is steadily increasing despite the hazards.

Unco – This planet is an ecological marvel or, at least, a remarkable coincidence. Unco is incredibly similar to Mrava itself, with a similar atmosphere and gravitational pull. Mravans could, and did, begin colonization without any significant terraforming efforts. Imported species struggled to survive outside of pressure sealed environments, however, due to another factor entirely: Unco’s native life. Similar to Kral, Unco has a hyper-active ecosystem with a large number of extremely hostile and dangerous organisms living there. The tendency of local organisms to adapt swiftly to new stimuli and eat pretty much any nutrient source available has created a unique situation on the planet. Generally, species from one planet struggle to even digest alien life. On Unco, the life will generally consume anything, even if that source is inefficient or, sometimes, poisonous. Still, a garden world that similar to Mrava is simply too tempting a piece of real estate to pass up. The mravans have slowly carved settlements out from the landscape, pushing the frontier further and further away from their heavily fortified colonies. As a gesture of good faith, and as an elite training program, many other species rotate soldiers through Unco to assist in defending the colonists.