Muratti

The Muratti are a species of living stone found all over the Rift. While they aren't super populace, they are extremely widespread and influential, found in every corner of most diverse civilizations. They have the distinction fo being one of the few alien species which Laran considers second class citizens rather than slave fodder. They are renowned for the species Inkallu abilities, their natural toughness, being made of stone after all, and the inventions created by a Muratti.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Muratti are living stone which constantly grows. As such, they can form themselves to appear as whatever they wish to, through carving themselves down. Most independent Muratti communities tend to favor practical but abstract forms, while most Muratti within Achronis and Laran favor forms which seem a humanoid version of an animal such as a wolf or bear.

Biological Traits

A Muratti generally lives a but over a hundred and fifty years, this time being extended somewhat if the Muratti is an Inkallu. Their Koh is determined by the intensity fo their Internal FIre within stream space, and the nature of it allows Muratti to practice any sort of Inkallu, as their biology never hampers their abilities. Aside from the Internal Fire and their stone body, every physical trait is variable. Even the stone they ar made of changes, as the Muratti is created by other Muratti's body mass, stretching back to the lightning strike.

Genetics and Reproduction

Muratti reproduce through two to five Muratti carving off pieces of themselves to sacrifice enough body mass to create a new form, then each Muratti involved takes a piece of their internal fire, separates it from the rest, and places it inside the newly created form. The fire has to come from every Muratti who contributed body mass, otherwise, the new Muratti turns into a brainless monstrosity.

The separation of their fire isn't a physical act, more when the parents are ready to create the new Muratti, they will make contact with it and transfer some of their essences into it, giving it life and a "Soul".

Growth Rate & Stages

Muratti grow by constantly expanding, but their forms are not fully adapted to their existence, as such there are often weird experiences and sensations. A Muratti is not considered fully developed until they can fully control their own forms, usually around twenty years of age.

Ecology and Habitats

Muratti originated from the planet Kibokolov, which is sat in the Armaggedon Branch of the Tzaran Streams. The surface is made up nearly entirely of stone with no organic life. Due to a peculiarity in the Wormhole, where the stream opening seems to be less a wormhole and more a giant piece of the tunnel cut out, the planet is constantly ravaged by stream storms. This caused some of the stone to be hit with Tzaran Lightning, imbuing everything it touched with an "internal fire". All the life on their homeworld has some version of this, with the Muratti being the only to gain sentience.

Dietary Needs and Habits

A Muratti needs only to survive on Kali Energy, requiring much more than most creatures, and being able to go for shorter periods of time without it. Otherwise, they have no need for sleep, food, or water, though most do nap on occasion as a way to mentally refresh.

Biological Cycle

A Muratti's stone never stops growing throughout their lifetime, so they have to get it carved down by a specialist. After a century and a half or so, most Muratti's internal fire will start to diminish and die, taking about five orbits of their home planet around its sun to do so. Once their fire has died out, the Muratti is considered dead, and the stone stops growing.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Muratti civilization separate from the rest of the Rift works in a tribal system. Different tribes can trace common ancestry from the first Muratti to walk Kibokolov, based on the stone struck by Tzaran Lightning and what colour was produced. Tribes such as the Granite Orange Flames or Cyan Limestone are well known in Muratti circles, legends as the heads of early Muratti civilization. Due to the relative scarcity of Muratti outside of their colonies and civilizations, most Muratti in Laran and Achronis trace their legacy through the parental lineages which contributed the most to their making.

Average Intelligence

Muratti are sentient beings, and while they were unable to reach spaceflight by themselves, Muratti are renowned as inventors and it is speculated that a Muratti Lati created the Crysalis technology.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Muratti have no "sight" in the traditional sense, instead, their bodies send out small waves in a manner similar to echolocation, waves that can detect shape and sound, transmitting back to the Muratti's internal fire.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

While independant Muratti states exist, they ussualy exist as Achronis federative states or unimportant backwaters. Irrelevant to most Rift politics.

Gender Ideals

Most Muratti don't associate with any gender, even those assimilated into other states, largely due to stone being genderless. So0me do associate with one gender or another, but it is incredibly rare within homogenous Muratti communities, basically only found in Laran or Achronis.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

The Muratti language has largely been forgotten, as even the homogenous communities have started using Cartel common.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

One of the most tangible examples of Muratti cultural heritage are the carvers. The carvers are a form of Muratti specialist who specializes in trimming Muratti. Similar to barbers for other species, Muratti carvers (they aren't always Muratti, but it's a role that is extremely culturally important, so most carvers are Muratti). They carve them to the exact specifications given by the Muratti being carved. It is an extremely important role, as that form will be how the Muratti looks for the next decade or so of the Muratti's life, due to their stone growing at the same rate around their body, and fairly slowly.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

It is expected that when a Muratti sacrifices a piece of themselves to create another Muratti, that they stay about and raise them. They are to guide the new Muratti through the first twenty years of their life, acting as a support network along with the other parents.

Common Taboos

For some yet unknown reason, Muratti who have children with other Muratti who share the same stone as them, having a similar major parent or being a child and parent, create monstrous effigies of Muratti. Rampaging beasts whose only thoughts are to kill and destroy. As such, all Muratti forbid incest. Murder is obviously looked down upon, as is creating another Muratti with one who isn't yet mature. All the usual taboos.

History

The Muratti can track their species birth to about -2225 MTE, when a series of harsh Tzaran Storms struck the planet, mutating the stone and granting it all life. They survived and thrived on Kibokolov for the next thousand or so years when they were discovered by early Spirit Cartel explorers, who introduced them to space flight and the rest of the known Rift. From there they spread to most of the other civilization, namely Laran and Achronis, through conquest, colonization, and trade. After a catastrophe involving Muratti mutants, they became so widespread on the homeworld that the Muratti were forced to abandon it. Now, it's a center point in the Long War, an easy place for conflict to rage around.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Biological interspecies relations are as of yet impossible. Muratti are biologically incapable of "having children" with non-Muratti.

Internal Fire

The internal fire is something native to all the life forms of Kibokolov, something which is definitely "there" but also isn't. It is a segway into the many discussions over whether life forms have souls or some sort of metaphysical existence, as the Muratti certainly have this, but whether or not it is a soul or just another manifestation of their being, is unknown. What is known is that the Muratti seem to exist both in Streams Space and realspace, and their physical abilities, powered by their internal fire, are amplified when they are near junction points between the two dimensions. 
The fire itself only manifests physically when a Muratti is in Stream Space, where they seem surrounded and engulfed in their Internal Fire. When in real space, they can choose to manifest their internal fire as an aesthetic choice on their person, but it cant do any damage. Often, Muratti in Achronis and Laran will manifest their fire in the place of eyes, and use it's intensity as a way to communicate blinking and concentration. The fire itself comes in many different variations, usually differing by colour. The colour of the new Muratti's fire will be based on what the colours of their parents were, somewhat like a human or Makassi's eye colour. The original colours were likely determined by the lightning which struck Kibokolov.

Scientific Name

Kamqalkele

Lifespan

150~

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

The main thing that varies, one of the ways to trace ancestry among the Muratti, is the type of stone they are made of, and the colour of their internal fire. Both are determined by the Muratti in question's parents or "makers" as they gave parts of their fire and parts of their body to create the Muratti's "infant" form. Muratti cultures which have been saved form being assimilated by the rest of Rift culture tend to trace tribe lineages by seeing what stone they are composed of and what colour their fire is.

Related Ethnicities

• Lati {Placeholder}
• Lerin