Beemosh

The **Beemosh** were a race of small, boneless, colourfully and physically variable people native to the planet Moosham. They were first visited by the Thumlopian adventurer Captain Axa, who was forced to crash-land on the planet’s watery surface after a sudden outage of fuel during his crossing of the Axa Chasm from the Opian side. The Beemosh became famous throughout the galaxy for their extraordinarily colourful festivals, to which foreigners were generously welcomed. Moosham, as a result, rapidly became one of the top tourist destinations of any traveller during the late-Middle Era, with the Beemosh becoming increasingly exploited. Many Beemosh leaders have attended committees regarding the growing exploitation of their people, but little was ever done to regulate the tourism planet Moosham attracted. The Beemosh were among the many nations lost to the cataclysmic event known as the Great Silence.

## Biology and appearance

The Beemosh were repto-amphibians, although unlike other vertebrates they lacked a developed skeletal structure. Archaeological evidence, along with study records from the Middle Era, appear to suggest that the Beemosh were not totally boneless, however, and that they possessed vestigial, shrunken bones that had lost their functions. Beemosh skulls were almost entirely non-existent, with only thin, bony eye sockets remaining. A vestigial spine, shoulder blades, and pelvic bone were present in Beemosh, but most other bones were lost. This suggests that Beemosh once had developed skeletons akin to other amphibians, but lost them over time, possibly as a result of Moosham's low gravity.

Due to their lacking bone structures, Beemosh were incredibly variable in both shape and size. Most Beemosh had plump, rotund bodies consisting mostly of soft fatty tissue, although some were thinner and taller than others. They had four limbs - two arms and two legs - which were extremely flexible due to their lack of bones. Vestigial fingers can be seen on Beemosh hands, allowing the Beemosh to carry objects but with little dexterity. Almost all Beemosh sported a large, fleshy, crest-like protuberance that either drooped or rose erectly from the head. This protuberance was very varied from Beemosh to Beemosh, and was commonly bobbed up and down during religious ceremonies and celebratory events. The cause for the physiological variation among the Beemosh is still not fully understood. It was previously believed to be genetic, with certain characteristics passed down hereditarily, but this has been debunked given that Beemosh families can be just as varied as unrelated Beemosh.

Another characteristic of the Beemosh which was previously thought to be genetic is their variation in colour. A Beemosh could exhibit any combination of colours regardless of whether their family exhibited similar colourations. This was most strikingly noticeable during Beemosh gatherings, such as that of the Festival of the Rainbow Song, in which millions of Beemosh would congregate in a vivid display of colour.

## History

### Pre-Axa period

Little is known of the Beemosh before the arrival of the Thumlopian explorer, Captain Axa. This is due to the Beemosh never using a writing system for recording events, but what little is known can be derived from archaeological and anecdotal evidence from the Middle Era.

Prior to Axa's landing on Moosham, the Beemosh remained undetected by the wider galaxy, populating the numerous islands of their ocean dwarf homeworld. They lived in predominantly peaceful communities with little hostility from village to village. When conflict occurred it was generally resolved in a matter of days through negotiation and collaboration. There is little evidence of prolonged fighting in Beemosh history, and no evidence of territorial attitudes or colonial expansion.

The Beemosh typically lived in basic huts fashioned out of either mud, wood or other plant materials. Some carved out the interiors of the soft-stemmed boolbool shrub and lived inside those, though this was limited to equatorial communities where the shrubs proliferated. These simple structures were arranged in large settlements, often housing at least a million individuals. Beemosh maritime technology was notably advanced, with most individuals having some level of naval experience. They constructed enormous seafaring vessels, typically made of wood, able to transport several thousands of Beemosh at any one time. This allowed the Beemosh to trade with one another and travel extensively, resulting in prospering cosmopolitan communities.

### Axa's arrival on Moosham

The first written account of the Beemosh came from the travel log of Captain Tarill Axa, who crash-landed on the Beemosh homeworld in 168, 2nd Age, Golden Epoch, ME, after a sudden outage of fuel during his crossing of the Axa Chasm from its Opian side to the Antisulian. Axa wrote of the Beemosh as being *“describable only as velvety pillowcases,”* and *“coming in every shape, colour and manner one can think of.”* He also noted that the Beemosh had a *“sweet scent like that of sugar-pastries and flowercakes.”*

Axa remarked in his travel log the peaceful nature and prosperity of the Beemosh, who welcomed and accommodated Axa and his crew generously, lavishing them in gifts from all over Moosham. *"It was not that I had been greeted a god so much as an old friend."* he wrote. He noted that they appeared to have no real concept of foreigners, given that the Beemosh had never encountered another sentient race before and had always lived in cosmopolitan settlements with one another. He admired the generosity of the Beemosh, not just the generosity he and his crew received from them but that which the Beemosh extended towards one another. Axa and his crew became the first foreigners to witness the many annual festivals of the Beemosh, most notably the Festival of the Rainbow Song - the most important celebration of the year for all Beemosh, who celebrated it in enormous gatherings with the throwing of confetti, the painting of buildings, and the playing of non-stop music. The festivities would last for several weeks and occur across the entirety of Moosham.

### Post-Axa period & the Moosham Rush

In 190, 2nd Age, Axa died. What remained of his crew survived him for only a few years, all of whom, Axa included, were given extremely opulent funerals. Despite the presence of the Thumlops on Moosham, the Beemosh way of life remained predominantly unchanged until in 246, 2nd Age, 80 years after Captain Axa's voyage into the Axa Chasm, when Thumlopian explorers achieved the crossing of the Chasm from the Opian Arm by following the star route that would become known as Axa's Passage. The explorers landed on planet Moosham, discovered the crash site of Axa's ship, uncovered his body and his travel log, and returned to the imperial Thumlopian capital of Therox with news of the Beemosh. Word spread rapidly around the Thumlopian Empire before eventually reaching the Goroogong Contingent and the Jurrikian Empire, echoing stories of exceedingly hospitable Beemosh and the spectacle of their extraordinarily colourful festivals.

Eager for the potential riches to be unquestioningly bestowed on them, many of the Galaxy's most powerful nations sent envoys to Moosham to visit the Beemosh and to receive the gifts Axa had received decades earlier. The Moosham Rush, as it was called, saw the mass colonisation of the dwarf planet, with each of the colonising nations competing with one another for the Beemoshs' favour. Every island on the planet was quickly occupied by at least one non-native settlement, establishing Moosham as a luxurious tourist destination for the wealthier aliens of the Galaxy. Despite the sudden occupation of their homeworld, the Beemosh continued to practice their many yearly festivals, although many of the occupied islands restricted the Beemosh from celebrating on their property. Most of the hotels and resorts that were set up on these islands also employed the local Beemosh to work for them, disallowing them to take part in festivals that interfered with their duties.

### Jurro-Thumlopian War

In the 3rd Age of the Golden Epoch, Moosham was heavily affected by the Jurro-Thumlopian War. The planet endured its first large-scale, long-lasting series of conflicts, which caused the displacement of local Beemosh communities, many of which now depended heavily on an income from tourism, and halted the participation in their traditional festivals for the first time in Moosham's history. Many Beemosh fell into poverty, and with so many communities forced out of their homes and disallowed to engage in their cultural practices, efforts were put in place initially by the Iolopian Peace Triangle (I.P.T.) and later by the Galactic Courts of Justice (G.C.J.) to provide Beemosh refugees with aid, evacuating them from the planet and housing them in nearby systems.

Among these evacuated Beemosh refugees was activist Oosh-Bim Ub-Oob-Mim, popularly known as Oob. Oob gained traction in his politically outspoken activism against the Jurro-Thumlopian War and the displacement of the Beemosh, calling for the removal of all non-native inhabitants of Moosham and appealing to the G.C.J. to officially declare it an independent state protected by galactic law. Oob outlined that if the non-native inhabitants were to be removed, Moosham's tourism sector will be maintained under the management of indigenous Beemosh and that no foreign parties will profit from Moosham's assets. In 88, 3rd Age, Golden Epoch, Oob made his declaration to the G.C.J., bringing the Galaxy's attention to the exploitation of the Beemosh and the events taking place on planet Moosham. For the next 4 years, Oob fought tirelessly to be heard by the courts, but given that the G.C.J. and many of the other intergovernmental bodies were headed by members of the imperial Jurrikian elite, who were some of the primary profiteers of the ongoing war, little was done to address the situation. In 92, 3rd Age, Oob died, and despite many of his supporters taking up his position to continue his cause, Moosham was not awarded the independence or protection it required.

### Bleak Epoch

At the start of the 4th Age, the Jurro-Thumlopian War came to a conclusion, ending in negotiations and a decisive ceasefire. The planet Moosham was declared a territory of the Thumlopian Empire, and with the consequent end of the Jurrikian and Goroogong occupation there, conflicts subsided. Many of the displaced communities of Beemosh returned to the planet, but as a territory under imperial Thumlopian control, numerous infrastructural projects were initiated, drastically changing the ecological and cultural landscape of Moosham. By the early-Bleak Epoch, the Beemosh of Moosham had become a minority, outnumbered by proliferating Mooshan Thumlop communities. Moosham remained one of the most popular tourist spots in the Galaxy, but with the planet legally belonging to the Thumlopian Empire, entry to Moosham was much harder to achieve for nations outside of the imperial territories. It also became harder for the local Beemosh of Moosham to leave the planet and continue their appeal to the Galactic courts. Non-Mooshan Beemosh were limited to the confines of the Thumlopian Empire. New laws were put in place on Moosham, however, that no employer may legally force Beemosh employees to work during major traditional festivals. This helped Beemosh customs to continue, which in turn helped to boost Moosham's tourism.

In the early 5th Age of the Bleak Epoch, the Galactic cataclysmic event that became known as the Great Silence occurred. This cataclysm caused widespread destruction on Moosham, as it did much of the Galaxy, affecting weather patterns, causing global mass extinctions, and destabilising the economy. The Beemosh were disproportionately affected by this compared to Mooshan Thumlops, many of whom were wealthy enough to evacuate the planet and reestablish in other areas of the Empire. For the Beemosh, though, leaving Moosham was neither straightforward nor desirable, given that they had fought so hard to maintain their hold of their homeworld. With tourism grinding to an absolute halt, the Beemosh of Moosham struggled to sustain their economies and were unable to shake off the irreparable effects that colonialism had brought to the planet; and in the midst of worldwide ecological disasters, the Beemosh population shrank to critically low numbers. By 30, 5th Age, Moosham accommodated fewer Beemosh than other planets in the Thumlopian Empire, although all Beemosh communities experienced dramatic population decline, in part a result of their comparatively short lifespans. By 67, 5th Age, the last Beemosh died on planet Cordella, the birthplace of the Thumlopian explorer who first visited Moosham and the Beemosh almost a thousand years earlier, Captain Tarill Axa.

## Society and culture

#### Beliefs

Beemosh religion, often referred to universally as the Rainbow Song, was a nontheistic religion that emphasised community, togetherness, oneness, and interdependence. As a nontheistic religion, practitioners of the Rainbow Song did not believe in a god or gods, nor did they believe in a definitive afterlife, although scholars disagree on this. A core aspect of the religion is a focus on ancestors, who are believed to inhabit the songs sung during festivals. Ancestors were never mentioned by name, for this was considered to tether their spirit to their bodies and thus incapacitate them from inhabiting the songs of the festivals. While these songs effectively act as an abstract form of an "afterlife", many scholars argue that this notion is inaccurate, suggesting that the festival songs exist more as a space which all life may inhabit, either in death or in singing.

According the the Rainbow Song, death was believed to be a celebratory occasion and an opportunity for the deceased individual to become one with the festival songs. The deceased were buried in graves marked by colourfully painted stones draped in garlands, and were given opulent funerals filled with colourful flowers, food, and joyous singing. Graves were often communal, and no epitaph was written on the stones since the Beemosh had no form of written language and did not believe in naming the dead.

#### Festivals

Because the spirits of the ancestors were believed to inhabit the festival songs, communal singing was considered to be both a commemoration of the dead and a means of communicating with them, since both the living and the dead could occupy the songs. These celebrations were the most integral part of worship, with the participation in major festivals marking the most religious activity of the practitioner. Among these major festivals was the most famous, the eponymous Festival of the Rainbow Song, which typically included lots of colour in the form of confetti, floral arrangements, and painting of the body and buildings. Festivals would also include indulgent feasting, with each different festival having its own specific array of delicacies. Music would accompany the festival songs, with musicians taking turns on instruments in order to keep the music continuous throughout the duration of the festival. Dancing played an important role too, with some festivals prioritising the act of religious dance over singing.

Many of these festivals would last for several weeks, with the shortest festivals lasting about 3 - 4 days. The longest, meanwhile, the Festival of the Wave, lasted for 59 days, but this was shortened to 35 days during the later occupation of planet Moosham, when the lengthy festivals interfered with the heavy workload of those employed by non-native employers.