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The Muuh A Muuh adult individual, with carved outer shell.
The Muuh race have no preferred up-down orientation, and will often flip over during locomotion |
The Muuh (name given to them by an impatient Cygexpa communications officer) evolved on a cold low-gravity Titan-like moon somewhere in the Cygnus direction of the Orion Arm. Their biochemistry is based on liquid hydrocarbons, fullerenes, ammonia and nitrogen.
Life on their homeworld was based on the production of energy rich polymers in the upper atmosphere, driven by the radiation and magnetic fields of the central planet - unlike on most lifebearing planets plants never became a significant factor in the local biology. Gatherer animals collected the nutrients, in turn becoming prey for other animals. Some gatherers were immobile, not unlike terrestrial corals or anemones, while others were mobile. Various scavengers and saprophytes broke down the remains, releasing methane into the atmosphere. The whole pace of life was extremely slow compared to terrestrial life.
The Muuh evolved from "rapid" predators/omnivores filling an ecological niche not unlike terrestrial raccoons. They are two-meter spider or crab-like creatures with a bark-like spiky exoskeleton that constantly grows (armour-carving is an important part of Muuh appearance and health). There is no difference between the upper and lower side, Muuhs can simply flip between them with little trouble. Locomotion is through six legs where the front pair branches off a number of manipulator limbs. Sensory organs, mainly echolocation and a heat sense were located around the rim of the shell. Muuh are hermaphrodites. As a rule they form lifelong pairs which repeatedly bear paired children. These marriage-pairs and sibling-pairs form the central social units of society.
Muuh are very resistant to extremes of cold, and can withstand being frozen solid for long periods of time. However, temperatures above -150 degrees C are lethal. In fact, they consider ice to be a useful solid building material which is often used as part of their spaceships. An ordinary Muuh moves at most one meter per second in a hurry, and most prefer to move much more slowly.
Intellectually the Muuh are slow but not stupid thinkers, with excellent long-term memories. Had they moved and thought at human speed they would likely have been viewed as nearly hyperactive romantics. They are highly imaginative and often prefer fiction and ingenious stories to real life, creating art, virtual worlds, roleplaying scenarios or fantasies with great detail. This has somewhat hampered their technological development as the strict procedures necessary for science do not appeal to their mindset, and they instead tend to prefer inspired experimentation. The reliance on inspiration has made them dependent on their occasional geniuses or correct madmen, giving them further respect and support even if 99% of all the ideas doesn't work out.
Muuh society is variable between different worlds, but tend to be based on inherited status augmented by an elaborate system of advisers/challengers forcing the leaders to clarify their decisions. There is a great deal of leeway in how decisions are implemented or obeyed, making their society hard for outsiders to get into. Mutual obligations, gifts and persuasion are important factors in getting anything done.
Muuh civilisation is extremely old and slow. It is uncertain how long it took to achieve spaceflight, but over the span of many millions of years they expanded across a sizable volume, colonising other Titan-like planets or building vast orbital habitats. They made contact with a number of xenosophont races, as well as creating and uplifting a number of indigenous species, at least one of which, the Soft Ones, became a major empire in their own right. Contact was usually peaceful as their own interests seldom collided with others, and they have provided humanity with invaluable second-hand information on a number of undiscovered or extinct species.
The main exception to the peaceful encounters was the discovery of a destructive species (now believed to be an artificial remnant of some other species, some have suggested an autonomous weapon system such as the Dawn Hunters but this remains debatable) that began to systematically attack the Muuh 14.8 million years ago. The Muuh were too slow in reacting to the fast and advanced enemy. They mobilised a desperate and powerful defence of the homeworlds that they knew was doomed, but at the same time they sent out long-range colony ships to remote systems in order to save their race. It is unknown what happened to the original Muuh empire, but it is generally assumed to have been destroyed. Muuh historians are generally vague on this point, and generally include myths and fables in their version of historical events, making it difficult to discover the true facts.
The Muuh initially encountered by humanity occupy an enclave within a volume between Cygnus OB4 and the Cygnus Dark Nebula, descended from one of the colony ships. They have formed a local empire around a hundred light years across. It was discovered by a Cygexpa probe in 7154, and after 400 years of slow (to humans) initial contact a wormhole link was set up in 7566 to the closest Muuh system (CEA-346746 / Muuhhome). It is not known if other terragens had previously encountered the Muuh, but the possibility of contact by a relativist isolationist ai clade cannot be excluded.
The Muuh Enclave in Cygnus can be seen (top right), and the large, but sparsely settled, Muuh Empire to rimward is also shown .
The
yellow region is predominantly occupied by the Soft Ones, a specied
provolved by the Muuh; also shown is the former Limner empire, who seem
to have been provolved in turn by the Soft Ones
Since the initial discovery many more Muuh colonies have been encountered in a large and sparsely settled volume of space to rimward of the Terragen Sphere; this is presumably the remnant of the old Muuh Empire. A border zone has been established in this region, centred on the Pluton Volume; many cold-loving clades have migrated there, as well as representatives of the race of Soft Ones known as the Epp. As is well known, the region was devastated during the so-called Epp War, which was the first time that the Muuh revealed their ancient System of Response defences.
The System of Respose is an immensely powerful and ancient, artificially intelligent, autonomous military system, capable of defending the slow moving Muuh society using powerful coherent beams and other technology. However the System does not seem to have self awareness or any concern for its own advancement. All attempts by Terragen transapients and archai to communicate meanifully with the System have been ignored as irrelevant, although the System has cooperated with the Archai during military actions during the Epp war period and on other occasions. It seems the Muuh evolved this almost perfect, selfless, intelligent, defence system many millions of years ago, and it probably has not changed since.
The Muuh do not consider sub-relativistic journeys to be slow, especially since they tend to freeze themselves during the trip and things do not change much between departure and arrival anyway. Their technology is largely cryobiological, based on low-temperature life feeding on Titan-like or Kuiper-belt environments and growing the necessary structures out of polymers, ice and frozen gas.
A Muuh Ice Ship, formed from a comet; the thrusters are at the rear of the ice reservoir, and the habitat pod is tethered behind, shadowed by a radiation shield
Muuh and To'ul'hs have some similarities despite their tremendously different biochemistries. Both come from dark worlds where nutrients descend from above, both employ echolocation and other non-visual senses. This has given them somewhat similar basic view of reality, making it easier for them to understand each other than humans. Humans are yet another hotheaded inner system species with more energy than style, although the Muuh have to hand it to them that they have some useful technology and original perspectives. Trade exchange has been profitable for both groups, although it is clear that the Muuh are not interested in becoming part of any human political organisation, despite having worked closely with the Archailects during the Epp War.
In some ways, the old and sparsely populated Muuh volume is a barrier to further Terragen expansion in the Rimward direction; the Muuh only use a fraction of the resources of the stars in that volume, and negotiations are proceeding to allow Terragen colonists access to some of the unused planets and stars. This initiative has met with limited success to date (10405 a.t.).
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