The Mewts

Mewts are an imp-like race with high intelligence but small bodies that make them vulnerable. They have developed an ability to "grow" exoskeleton bio-suits in labs for combat purposes. While Mewts live in a collectivist culture, they are highly territorial and often challenge one another in duels to the death in order to assert dominance within their immediate social groups.

### **Locations / Geography**

#### **Homeworld**

The home world of the Mewts is called Nastonn. It is a large, humid, wet planet covered mostly in swamplands and features a secondary level of cave networks under the surface which Mewts use as shelter from the often extreme weather conditions of their planet. The forests on the surface are used mostly for hunting and resource gathering, while inside the cave structures are where most Mewts live in localized clusters.

#### **Other Locations**

Mewts are fairly new to space travel, and so far have mostly been interested in finding new sources of precious metals in order to upgrade their ships and work on larger, more complex designs. Thus they are mostly motivated by material concerns, having no large-scale civilization goals other than progress and development.

### **History**

Mewts evolved slowly, from primitive jungle and cave-dwelling creatures into the spacefaring race that they've become today. Metals are rare on Nastonn which led to a divergent path of technology based on the fast-growing biomatter in the cave systems under the planet's surface. Mewts eventually learned how to control the growth of this bio-matter into specific shapes and patterns, eventually learning how to mold it into complex machines and parts for biosuits and other weaponry. While hard on the outside, the material is soft and fleshy on the inside, with a high structural integrity and an "intelligent" awareness that makes it almost sentient. This allowed Mewts to create exoskeletons that respond to the micro-movements of their muscles while inside the biosuits.

Eventually, through their experimentations with metals and engines, they invented propulsion systems that enabled them to become a space-faring civilization. This resulted in some level of cooperation between the various "kingdoms" under the surface, into what is an (of-sorts) global government, based loosely on a fragile treaty of non-aggression between the various monarchs and their subjects that has occasionally boiled over into full-scale wars between the kingdoms.

### **Culture**

#### **Society**

Mewt culture is based on the divisions between the cave structures inside of Nastonn. Several of these large cave networks are entirely sealed off from one another except for access points on the surface. This creates sub-divisions of "continents" under the planet's surface, each of them a sovereign kingdom ruled by a tribal monarch. The monarch of each "continent" is not hereditary but rather determined by trial-by-combat. Challenges are annual, with a tournament determining a single victorious champion who may then challenge the monarch in combat for the throne.

#### **Religion**

Mewts believe that a colossal being made of fire and light lives in the core of Nastonn which radiates life-giving heat to the rest of the planet from within. This Being they call the "Giver" and it is treated as the source of all life on Nastonn. Beyond that, Mewts do not have a very complex religious philosophy, instead preferring to obsess over their social status determined by acts of strength and bravery, such as hunting large creatures on the planet's surface to bring back as bountiful trophies of food for their local village.

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### **Technology**

#### **Ships**

Mewt spaceships are also largely 'grown' from the bio-materials that they use to create their biosuits. This gives them an organic, fleshy, bony appearance on the exterior which they then insert interior structures, engines, etc into. Metals are a rarer element on Nastonn which is what led to this more organic approach to building spaceships, as there are not enough metals to create large exterior hulls for ships when the metals are more urgently needed for internal parts.