Mollugs

Mollugs are a space-faring sophont species native to Chigon IV. They are newcomers to the interstellar community. While they have had the capability of interstellar flight for more than a century, the remoteness of the Chigon system meant they didn't encounter any other species until twenty-three years ago.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Mollugs have a diamond shaped body that is narrower than it is long. It bulges slightly when viewed from the side.
Mollugs have six limbs. One each side of the "diamond" there is a thick, muscular leg that ends with webbed feet. At the vertex of the flanks, mollugs have a much more articulated limb. These arms have ball-jointed shoulders. They are slender and weaker than the legs, but they are much more dextrous. The hands are also webbed, and have four digits each. Both outside digits on each hand is opposable.
The head of a mollug has six eyes, arranged in a forward facing semicircle. There is no nose or visible ears.

Ecology and Habitats

Mollugs are most comfortable in warm, moist, humid areas. Swamps are ideal, although rain forests also readily support them. Mollugs have adapted technology to allow them to survive in other climates, but they are generally uncomfortable, and rely heavily on creating artificial bogs, often in doors.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Mollugs eat primary the slimes, mollusks, and crustaceans that are abundant on Chigon. They have effective digestive systems, however, and when swamp fare is unavailable, they will eat grains, fruit, and birds. Reptiles are a cultural taboo.
Primitive mollugs ate by bringing great quantities of water into their mouths and straining the food from it with specialized organs in their throats. Water is then ejected through an opening behind the forelegs. Non edible contents or disliked food is returned ot the mouth, where they spit or vomit it out. Modern mollugs are pickier, and typically farm pools and ponds that contain only the food they want to eat. These living soups are seasoned by carefully cultivated water plants and slimes.
Mollugs do not typically cook their food.
The monster crab is an especial delicacy, not necessarily for its flavor, but because its giant size and shell make it difficult to kill without an air strike, which destroys any chance of eating it.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Family

As mollugs reach maturity within 5-7 local years, family groups are typically three specimens. A male and female bond and have one offspring. When the offspring is mature, the family group typically dissolves. It is not uncommon for the same male and female to rebond for multiple offspring.
Care for young is shared equally. Parent mollugs with careers will typically either take sabbaticals to raise children, or bond with a mate with whom they can arrange to work at separate times.

Society

Mollugs live in shifting communities of a few hundred specimens of family groups and individuals. In modern times these communities shift less often than when they lived more nomadic lives. Current communities tend to form around research centers. Large centers will have 3 to 5 communities in its orbit.
Mollugs are heavily focused on scientific research. There is little art outside of crafting tools. Visual art is inaccessible to most mollugs because of their eyesight. The exception to lack of art is storytelling, which has a rich tradition. Mollug storytelling is rigidly structured. Plots typically revolve around discovery and advancement of knowledge.
There is no central mollug government. Most communities govern themselves, but subject themselves to research station norms and rules when near such stations. Most research locations will not employ mollugs from communities that do not so capitulate.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Mollug senses have several features worthy of note in comparison to humans.
Firstly, their sight is not very good. Mollugs rely on infrared and heat signatures more than the visible light spectrum.
Mollugs have an excellent sense of smell, but the receptors are within their mouths. For this reason, it is common to see mollugs wander with their mouths wide open.
Their hearing is poor, relying on detecting vibrations in a drum like stretch of tissue behind their heads. They posses a tremor sense. Vibrations, particularly in the ground, but also in the water, tell mollugs where, what size, and how many of objects are located.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Mollugs have entered a socially symbiotic relationship with the sophont slime fumuda

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Mollug names involve patterns of tapping and using tremor sense. They are therefore difficult to transcribe to forms that are human readable.
However, since first contact, most mollugs have adapted human words or names to be used as their identifiers. These names do not follow human norms, very least gender norms. Mollugs like human sounds that are easy for them to replicate and hear. Plosive consonants are especially prominent. Common syllables (which seem to be haphardly selected include pop, tip, pick, crick, kit, git, tig, and, embarassingly, cark.
Some human words have become used as names in tact. Example names include Potato, Cat, Cricket, Chunk, Nugget, Peg, Craig, and Pockmarked.

Common Dress Code

Mollugs are deeply fascinated with humans and humanity. Before first contact clothing was only ever worn as protection especially in harsh environments or dangerous jobs. However, they have an obsession now with human clothing. Imported earth fabrics are very popular, and attempts to replicate human clothing for mollug anatomy have been as numerous as they are amusing. Pants, especially, have several competing models for ideal adaptation.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Mollugs have two major holidays. One is the New Year (falling on the Autumnal Equinox), which they celebrate with a hunt (often for a monster crab) and storytelling competitions that last all night.
The other is Flood Tide, which is usually in the early days of Spring, when the swamps flood and bring refreshed minerals and often exotic migratory food. Flood Tide is a feasting holiday.
Mollugs celebrate births and observe deaths, generally with story telling, though not competitive as in New Year.
Many communities also have local holidays.

History

Mollugs made first contact with another interstellar species 23 earth years ago. They have still not fully integrated, largely due to the remoteness of their homeworld. Along with fumuda, they became capable of practical interstellar travel 114 earth years ago, but have not colonized other worlds.

It is recommend, for the Forging Worlds with Tale Foundry challenge, to start with the summary article, and then read the articles in the navigation order at the bottom.

Lifespan

50 - 60 local years.

Average Height

2.5-4 meters at the shoulder.

Average Weight

4500-6000 kg

Average Length

3.5-5 meters

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Gray from a distance, with a variety of subtle green and blue patterns that are unique to each specimen.