Malovid

See: Ovid They are essentially the same species.
Created by: Garry Stahl and Jay P Hailey
Appearance: Starbase 600 game. The also appear on Jay's Star Wars game in a slightly different form.
Number of Members: Some billions, a home world and a handful of colonies.
Nature of Members: Malovids are Ovids, Mammalian humanoids with decidedly sheep like features. They have a muzzle with a sheep like appearance down to the ears and the odd looking eyes. They average 1.8 meters in height with males and females showing no dimorphism. The usual primary and secondary biped mammal sexual characteristics are seen. Ovids walk digitigrade on cloven hooves. They have hands with four digits. Male Ovids have horns which grow out of the temples above the eyes. Horn shapes vary from a gentle curl, to a corkscrew and even the classic sheep complete circle curl. They do not have a tail. Ovids are covered in a fine curly hair that completely covers their bodies except for the face and crotch. This hair grows constantly and must be groomed and trimmed to prevent it from becoming a stringy, matted mass. Hair color varies from a light tan to black. It is usually a single color over the entire body. Their skin is the same color as their hair. Current Malovid fashion calls for the individual to completely shave the body or trim the hair very short and wear clothing for protection and display. Ovids are omnivorous.
Organization: Malovids have a Mercantilistic oligarchy. He that has the gold, makes the rules. There is a vision of upward mobility that keeps the majority of people in place. However the ruling class makes sure it is very hard to get a place with a say. The novu-rich are rare.
The addition of galactic technology means that bread and circuses are pretty much assured for the masses. Those too dissatisfied can find outlets in the military, the irregulars (pirates), or as a colonist. All are usually quick ways to becomes no longer a problem.
Those that stay home and wallow in poverty are kept in place by free sports. The other pacifier of the masses is Scooch, an alcohol-opiate blend that leaves its users in a dreamy euphoric state and over time leaves them brain addled as well. Scooch has a detrimental effect on Ovid intelligence. It is still widely used by the bored masses.
Technology: Malovidia has a basic level of galactic technology. They teeter between Tech 10 and Tech 11. The native technology being Tech 10. Their ships resemble a mix of Orion and Klingon design schools with a goodly dose of Malovid sensibilities.
Culture: Malovids follow the cult of the body beautiful. The popular sport of competitive sex is largely responsible for this. The athletes are popular and their shaved and oiled bodies have become the default fashion. A plethora of clubs, both amateur and professional exist to practice the sport.
The other spectator sport that is most popular is Bloodbowl. A full contact field team sport...or combat, it is hard to say which. The sport is openly violent with injuries being common, but death surprisingly not common. Most participants are male, but an all female league has an avid following. There is enough official tisking to keep it popular.
They have a vast entertainment industry that panders to the popular tastes for violent pro Malovid action films that feature lots of aliens blowing up and lots of bare Malovid flesh. The sex scene is as de rigueur as the Bollywoood dance number.
News as an industry to disseminate information does not exist. It is 100% propaganda that panders to the desires of the leadership.
Drug use, outside of a few approved substances, is discouraged. Not so much by official action as pubic perception that the drugs destroy the body beautiful. Drugs that are seen as having an impact on production levels are accused of this sin, whether true of not. Scooch, which is detrimental to all of the above is encouraged because it creates a vast profit stream for the government and keeps the people somnolent
Game Role: Low level bothers
World Role: Dissatisfied sheep people.
Relative Influence: Slight - any of the big Galactic powers could defeat the Malovids - taking them out of the "Great Game" would be more difficult.
Public or Secret?: Public, although they have secret operations.
Publicly Stated Goal: To conquer their far share of the galactic pie.
Real Goal if different: To conquer and/or steal everything the other races do not have nailed down, and pry loose what is.
Relative Wealth: Compared to other galactic players, on the small side. This annoys them.
Group advantages: Malovids can be mean and sometimes inventively so. The Malovids are prone to actions which are not entirely suited to individual survival - when properly manipulated this can lead to Malovids counter attacking against superior odds and making suicide attacks.
Special Abilities: The Malovids are generally willing to go to the maximum extent to win their battles.
Group disadvantages: The Malovids as a whole are slightly below average in terms of intelligence.
Special disadvantages: The Malovid pop culture reeks with resentment and anger. The Malovids know, they just know that everyone is out to get them, they are, in turn out to get everyone and to prove to everyone that they are just as good as any empire.
Malovid popular speakers and entertainment hosts use the most drooling idiocy and illogic to pander to and maintain this ugly resentment. The Malovids eat it up.
Many Malovids are willing to fight and suffer for this. Dying usually comes as an ugly surprise.
Those who favor them: Malovids. People who can manipulate the Malovids for their own uses.
Those opposed to them: People who don't like getting shot. People who think peace is a good idea.
Area of Operation: The Far Sector rimward the Interstellar Alliance, and coreward the Klingons.
Headquarters Location: The Superior Pastures of Malovidia 0.9/-11.3. Mostly paved over with their cities, factories and herds of oppressed sheep.
Public Face: Sneaky Sheep people
Notable Members: 
*Heruld -- The first Oligarch of the Malovids. He is remembered as the most violent, underhanded and ruthless of the Malovids so far. The Evil Empire motif of the Malovid government is pretty much Heruld's invention.
*Treemac -- The current Oligarch. He gives Heruld a run for his money in the smart and mean department. Surrounded by mean sycophants.
*Admiral Engraal -- The ideal military type. Handsome, carved and dashing. Women drool over his body. He isn't even a professional athlete. He is politically ambitious. He is also smart and mean enough to pull it off if Treemac doesn't get wind of it first.He has been playing the Federation as Treemac's fault. Given the audience, it is working too.
*Slow Hardbranch -- The most popular of a veritable herd of rabble-rousers. His melodious voice gives his insanity a surface appearance of credibility, and that's enough for most Malovids. He set the tone for idiotic rationalizations about the evil of "The Firsties" the so-called first rate galactic powers. He is known for rampant drug addiction, occasional bouts of debauchery with young women (The Meddilerex Sex club canceled his membership, more for the drug use really) and being cringingly subservient and worshipful of Oligarch Treemac. While he has let himself go to fat he still shaves and wears skin-tight clothing, yuck. A face and body made for radio.
History of the Organization: Some 2000 years ago Fulsima had a brief time as a small interstellar power. that time passed and the majority of their colonies failed. Malovidia did not. While the colony did fall into barbarism (some argue they are still there) and forget their origins as a transplanted race, the people as a group prospered and the colony spread over the whole world. In time they managed to crawl back to technology. Contact with Orions and Klingons, mostly either slave taking or outright robbery set a mean streak deep in the culture. Some warlords sold their people for a chance at the wealth that galactic technology could bring.
Greedy Orions sold them the technology, trying to undercut each other. In time they built sufficient defenses that petty Klingons and Orions came to trade, not raid. The profit had gone out of the later.
Today the government of Malovidia makes peace noises to everyone while funding the pirates under the table. A trick they learned from their Orion "friends". It remains to see if the Malovid government can maintain the fiction as well as the Orions do.
The unofficial drive and a good deal of official policy is to "get back" at the greater powers for the time they suffered under the heel of various petty Houses of both Klingon and Orion origin. But the Malovid are not discriminatory, they dislike everyone with better toys than they have.
The Convivial Colonies: This system with two class M planets, Concordia and Pacem are part of the Malovid orbit, but barely. They have a total population of several millions.
The Convivial Colonies were founded by a religious breakaway group that holds with none of the typical Malovid political or socialistic goals. Rule is by a hard theocracy and the Chosen Elders condone no variation.
The religion is a hard moralizing "thou shall not have fun" bunch that make Calvinists look fun loving. It is noted to have wide support among the colonists. At least enough support that efforts to smuggle contraband (Nearly everything from LSD to coffee, scooch gains a particular hatred.) have met with failure.
The planets have proven to not be rich in terms of things they can sell. As a result they have gained a reputation for selling mercenary services, filled by conscription. They have a tidy fleet of assault ships and escort frigates, most being older Balmoran designs. They are noted for being scrupulously honest and obedient to orders.
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