Muxteran

Civilization and Culture

Common Etiquette Rules

The most common Muxteran greeting is some form of insult. This is always a reciprocal affair and fosters a fraternal environment amongst the individuals greeting each other, thus opening the door for frank conversation.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

By and large, Muxterans are polytheistic, but unlike the Stenza, their polytheism is expressed in the construction of grand stone temples in important cities, the most famous of which is the Pantheon of Mundeen. Each region on the planet holds its own gods, so when the original Pantheon was built in the metropolitan Mundeen, many compromises had to be made as to which gods were included and how, so that the religious beliefs of the citizens could be adequately honored.
Most forms of religion on Muxter follow several trends, however: dovetailing with the grand temples in each major city are an elaborate network of priests of various ranks in order to maintain the temples, keep the pools usually attached to them clean and pure, and maintain the icons of various gods (including mundane tasks like accounting for offerings and distributing them appropriately among the townsfolk, and maintaining any outbuildings attached to the temple, such as libraries or storehouses).
Lay devotion is expressed in a variety of ways: some families maintain household shrines to their gods, spirits, or ancestors. Others visit the local temple and pray at the gate, or in one of the lay shrines along a temple's outer wall. Wealthier individuals donate to the local temple (which may be leveraged later if one needs social legitimacy for anything, such as a political campaign).
The recent Purge of Muxter has led to an increase in religious devotion of various kinds. Hymns and contemporary religious-themed music are especially booming genres (alongside Mundeenian Crunch, adding an underground, war-weary vibe to the sonic landscape of Muxteran life). Donations to temples have increased over two hundred percent since the start of the war. More young people have been praying and meeting at the gates. Household shrines have increased in number, even in sprawling cities where temples govern downtown life. And surveys and census data show more people identifying as religious, either generally so or adhering to the gods of their hometown or region.
Old march songs, such as Cheeks, have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, as well.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Muxterans bear the burden of a lot of stereotypes in the wider galaxy, within The Nine Systems and beyond. The prevalence of their work on Orbital Communication Outposts, which they had originally owned independently and utilized for a wide range of purposes, has been coupled with their "rude" customs (i.e. insulting each other as greeting) to paint them as lower-class individuals especially by Althusians (famously, Cheeks is a response to this). However, they are also perceived as animalistic and dangerous; Epzo successfully threatened Ilin thusly

I promise you that whatever happens, I will get off this planet, and if we don't get what we both fought for, I will hunt you down and ensure that whatever time you have left is both short-lived and agonising.

— Epzo, The Ghost Monument

in order to ensure joint victory for himself and Angstrom, despite his very notable lack of a spaceworthy vessel.
On the flipside, Muxterans consider most other races (save, ironically, the Stenza) hoity-toity and with a high opinion of themselves. Most of their ire they reserve for the Althusians, whom the Muxterans believe are unwilling to get their hands dirty for any reason whatsoever. Their opinion of the Albarians has softened considerably over the years, especially factoring in the Albarians' recent plight, to the point that their aforementioned satellites are often used to scramble signals in order to help cloak Albarian ships (alongside more direct efforts to aid and abet the Albarians).