Mu'kay

The **Mu’kay** are a race of squid like beings native to the world of Mu’kayaan. They are the founding members of the Federation of Allied Species and for a long time, its only members. The Mu’kay are a naturally co-operative species, with a strange hatred of fish, which is their main diet.

**Biology**

Mu’kay are squids with around ten tentacles, with six being larger that the remaining four. These four are presumably the adolescent tentacles, which drop from within the body of the Mu’kay upon reaching breeding age. The rest of the Mu’kay’s body is long and thin, topped by a pair of eyestalks and a beaked mouse. They possess a pair of light purple frills along both sides of their bodies. The Mu’kay stomach is a pouche, presumably used to contain fish for later consumption. They have some trouble navigating on land, given their aquatic nature.

**Culture**

Mu’kay are an inherently co-operative species, having grown and evolved alongside the other species on their planet in perfect harmony. They prefer scientific exploration to conflict and seek to approach all other species with the same non-aggression policy as they have others in their culture. This hasn’t ended up well for them in the past, as they were immediately enslaved by the Scryve Empire, who they view as “peacefully suppressing” them.

This careful, polite nature doesn’t extend to fish. Fish are hated for reasons currently unknown to most other species and the Mu’kay have even taken steps to cause the extinction of fish on a multitude of occasions, forming Fish Exploitation Colonies for the express purpose of devouring as many fish as possible to reduce their numbers. They even have sayings related to their hatred of fish, including “Screw the Fish” and “if you give a fish a gun, don’t be surprised by what happens.”

The Mu’kay’s Principle Dictate is the core belief of their Federation of Allied Species, formed during a period of boredom as a hobby for the species at large. This Directive states that allied species may not interfere with other races. This is something the Mu’kay have done frequently in the past, often by introducing fish to developing cultures for consumption. This more often than not kills the pre-industrial cultures and indeed the fish.

The Mu’kay are extremely gifted genetic engineers, able to create extremely sophisticated biological automata for use in deep ocean exploration. These automatons are even used in choreographed dances for the amusement and entertainment of the Mu’kay people. They even take commissions from other species to create these remote controlled creatures, but have been disturbed by the Tywom’s request for an artificial human.

**History**

The Mu’kay developed on their homeworld of Mu’kayaan in concert with the other species that lived there. Over time, the Mu’kay developed sentience and discovered the sky and then beyond that, the stars. Setting off into space, the Mu’kay were initially quite naïve, believing that their methods of peaceful non-aggression were a universal constant. This turned out not to be the case as they encountered the Scryve Empire and were subsequently enslaved.]

The Mu’kay were given the role of Aquaculture Representatives by the Scryve and largely left to their own devices, exploring worlds and settling a series of colonies with the intention of wiping out as many fish as possible.

Over time, the Mu’kay watched as different species were enslaved and could only stand by, unable to intervene for fear of retribution by the Scryve. This and a healthy dose of bordom, led to the creation of the Federation of Allied Species, of which they would remain the sole member for a number of years, despite requests to join from the Tywom.

Soon, the Mu’kay would encounter humanity and allow them into the Federation once a colony of Mu’kay have been saved from a Drenkend attack. Upon the discovery that the Tywom gifted humanity the HyperDrive, the Mu’kay hold both to trial, accusing the former of interfering with humanitys development. This trial eventually results in the proven innocence of humanity and the Tywom becoming the third member of the Federation.

As the Federation grew, the Mu’kay took a leadership role, providing assistance to their new allies and taking the fight to the Scryve. This culminated in their triumphant rallying call at the Xraki system and the destruction of the Origin that allowed the Xraki to continue invading truespace.