Moraxian

Culture

Shared customary codes and values

They have a culture which values grace and humility and accepting defeat honourably, since they have an innate competitive drive to assert their dominance over their peers, which is kept in check by generally being a good sport no matter what happens to you. Contrarily, compassion is encouraged, and once one suffers a defeat they are encouraged to think of how their victor felt while doing so, and how by failing they have provided another individual happiness - whether it is at the expense of them is up to the loser himself. As long as no death has occurred, any mutilations will soon be mitigated.
Should a Moraxian tear off another Moraxian's arm after he has said something boastful it will usually be followed by a joke concerning the loss of a limb and both of them will laugh - or produce the closest Ghurazoid equivalent to human laughter - it off. It'll grow back a few days after, as will their friendship. Serious grudges are extremely uncommon and are only considered acceptable when one commits treason or betrays their clan or their empire, or cheats somebody out of something - grievous bodily harm is small fry compared to scamming.

Common Etiquette rules

Remarkably sophisticated by Rhobascawli standards, but the upper class is held to higher standards. Disputes, which are usually resolved via competition, are relegated to the arenas and nowhere else. Moraxians are expected to take everything lightly and never hold grudges against other people, with a few exception.

Common Dress code

Clothes are optional as there is no need for them when one is clad in a robust layer of carapace. However, people scarify and carve their own shells, and wear talismans and amulets for protection. For decorative purposes the Moraxians wear necklaces strung with beads made from crushed shells, and the preserved remains of animals and their exoskeletons, cut into interesting and peculiar shapes.

Art & Architecture

Their architecture involves plenty of squat and round structures, and city-plans are laid out around a geometrical pattern of cascading, low terraces made from limestone cement. One can only appreciate them when one stands from a suitably vertiginous vantage point, which are rare in their cities. Contrasting the haphazard clusters of slate-roofed conical huts of the fishing and farming villages of the frontier the inland cities are devilishly planned out, meticulously sketched on a clay tablet before they laid a single brick, and hence they are notoriously easy to navigate, with their broad, open thoroughfares and enormous edifices arranged in neat little grids according to their importance.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

Longer eyestalks and antenna are favoured by the mastermind caste, as well as dark eyes on the end of them. So are bloated heads and long legs, which bend very much to suggest a spiderlike build.
Members of the brute caste admire large pincer claws and broad telsons and a huge, squat posture. Size is key, and tightly-packed, compact carapaces signify strength, stoicism, and a good composure.
The runt caste is built far more slender, or, as some would say, shrimpish, and thus they like narrower torsos and more slight pincers that are thin and sharp and thus suited for precise tasks. Narrower limbs and straighter eyestalks indicate among them intelligence and forward-mindedness.

Related Locations

• Pahmaru Archipelago