Malabari Culture Notes

Abridged Notes from Dr. Baptiste

	Since our marooning upon this isolated world far from Commonwealth space, we’ve found ourselves among a strange pair of host races. I’ve compiled the collective notes from my companions and myself into this document to form a basis of future archeological and xenopologic research.  I hope that our records are found by Commonwealth personnel, so that even if we are lost to this world, the lessons of Malabari are not.

Malabar:
	Malabar is a rocky planet in the orbit of a main sequence _-class star __ lightyears from the Sol system. The planet has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere over a mostly mountainous terrain interspersed with deep valleys, high plateaus, and wide steppes. Additionally, the deeper valleys form into larger lakes and seas with steep shelves with a more detailed map to be enclosed in the appendix below. The planet’s position towards the outer radius of the habitable zone and the cooler red sun leaves Malabari with a colder climate than earth, so while varying biomes are present, all occur at lower temperatures. Furthermore, this also results in significantly expanded polar ice into the subarctic regions of the planet. To the benefit of the locals, geothermal energy is exceedingly present due to the tectonic activity of the world, and this is reflected in the Malabari peoples’ heavy usage of geothermal and hydroelectric power where their infrastructure hasn’t decayed given their current state. During periods of reduced planetary cooling, the polar ice caps expand south and the higher mountain ranges become nigh-impossible to cross from snow and ice build up while the sea levels drop, expanding coastal regions.

The Malabari Races

Common Ancestor:
	The Malabari races are hexapodal mammalian analogs that diverged from a common ancestor during a period of ecological upheaval in relatively recent history from a geological timescale. Based on initial investigation into the physiological details of this ancestor, this proto-Malabari, it can be drawn that the animal was a mid-level omnivore that filled a similar niche to a larger Terran wolf or Jarilian knifejaw, but a comparison to a grizzly bear would have been more accurate for their apparent size. Based on physiological trends, the proto-Malabari likely relied on ambush to engage prey while having enough endurance to pursue and overtake it. Based on Malabari records, the ancestral creature would form small family units and hunt as a group.
	While studying the skeletal structure of the ancestor, several key details stood out. The most noticeable structure on the skull is the strange pair of secondary mandibles that flank the jawbone and allow fine motor control over their cheeks. Additionally, small defensive horns lined the brow and top of the skull while modified teeth along the outer line of the jawbone formed tusks that could have served a dual purpose for defense against predators higher on the food chain and as tools to root for buried plant matter. Due to the cooler, darker sun and deep valleys and caves present across Malabar, the Malabari have four eyes arranged in a single line wrapping around the front of the skull. Based on positioning and arrangement, the center two eyes provide binocular vision while the supplemental eyes can add fidelity to forward vision or widen the field of vision to watch for threats in the rough terrain. Additionally, smaller pseudo-eyes dot the brow and frontal horns of the Malabari. This wide arrangement of eyes have been tested to cover from UV through infrared light on the EM spectrum.
Due to the terrain and need to avoid larger predators, the four forelimbs of the developed into rudimentary grasping appendages, and it appears that around this point that the ancestral organism developed a level of intelligence as the population spread throughout and across a region known natively as the Godspur Mountains. The population that crossed over the mountains came to reside on a lower plateau covered in rolling steppe and isolated forests and streams while the original population remained in the jagged foothills and forests closer to the coast of the large, deep sea they knew as home. During this period of expansion of the proto-Malabari, there was also evidence of initial tool constructions and
Following this exploratory push over the Godspur, Malabar went into a cyclical cooling state, which in turn froze the high passes of the Godspur, severing the connection between the two disparate populations of Malabari. This isolation would last for around one hundred thousand Sol years and would drive the speciation of the proto-Malabari into two distinct body forms, the Thikali and the Uruli.

Thikali
	Out on the wild, cold steppe that dominated the lands beyond the Godspur, the isolated population of proto-Malabari were forced to adapt from the slow, methodical hunt and short pursuits through the steep valleys and glades of their ancestral homeland. The prey creatures of the steppe moved faster with greater endurance during the hunt, which forced the local proto-Malabari down an evolutionary path to be able to sustain themselves. This pressure resulted in what can only be described as a more tauric body plan. The foremost limbs became hands in the proper sense while the remaining four limbs served as the primary means of locomotion, growing in size and strength to maintain power. The structure of these four feet fused similar to hooves on certain terrestrial species while the new manipulating limbs became symmetric with two fingers and two opposable thumbs, one to the left and one to the right of the fingers. The tail grew to provide balance while moving at speed. However, it should be noted that this early tauric form was not what we are currently seeing, and indicated artificial selection by the Uruli. Our working theory is included in the current historical brief below.

Uruli
	While the Thikali broke out into a more unique body plan, their evolutionary kin that remained behind, across the Godspur, followed a more conventional path. The Uruli remained among the dense forests and steep mountains of their ancestral homeland and grew upright, becoming a bipedal race over generations. The rudimentary grasping paws of their four forelimbs became proper hands that converged with the Thikali hand structure, a symmetrical design of two fingers and two thumbs. Since this transition to a bipedal plan, the rearmost limbs retained their digitigrade shape, but the four digits transitioned to a cloves hoof with dew claws at the rear in order to navigate the hard, rough surfaces of the rocky cliffs and rugged forest floors of the region. During this time, the Uruli also underwent vestigial changes. First, the tail shortened to a small length at the base of the spine and pelvis. Second, the lower set of arms were reduced to be approximately 20% smaller than the main arms. Third, the horns have become more ornate, growing in style and substance and maintained by the Uruli as a show of status and wealth.

History As Currently Dissected

From our short time among the Malabari, we’ve only been able to gain a rudimentary history of the Malabari peoples. It began with the split in their evolutionary tree following the freezing of the Godspur, and the speciation of each group to their newly isolated homeland. Within the original forests and valleys of their homeland, the Uruli achieved measurable intelligence first, and began tool construction before moving into the foundations of proto-civilizations similar to hunter/gather groups of ancient earth.
Following this formation of early civilizations, the Uruli spread north and south along the coastal band, establishing early cities across the territory. However, they were still hemmed in by the frozen Godspur mountains and the deep seas. In this isolation, they refined their tools and methods and eventually learned to navigate the frigid seas, spreading across the one open route available to them. This allowed the Uruli populace to establish several colonies across the close sea, but each was hemmed in by the frozen mountain passes as well.
During this period, the Thikali had shifted towards their present state, but primarily remained a loose hunter/gatherer society during this period, forming only rudimentary nomadic villages that moved in pursuit of migratory prey. At this time, the steppes of the plateau were vast, but the lower temperatures restricted plant life in the region.
This early development formed a status quo of sorts until the next warming cycle began, leading to a thaw of the Godspur passes and rising sea levels flooded the coastal towns of the Uruli, causing a period of civil unrest that came with increased crop yields from a warmer, wetter environment. During this period, the Uruli cities grew in advancement, and sent explorers into the Godspur, following the mountain passes down into the wide plateau beyond. This led to a first contact with the disorganized nomads of the Thikali, and inevitably to conflict.
These initial wars pitted are poorly documented in all known records so far, but we don’t have a full picture about this period, but these campaigns led to the Uruli subjugating the Thikali. The Thikali were brought back over the Godspur as slaves, being used as labor and treated like domesticated animals, toiling in terraced farms throughout the Uruli city-states. This lasted for generations, but the Uruli were not animals; while the Thikali were hunter-gatherers, they were intelligent. During their long subjugation, the Uruli artificially selected them, applying pressure to form the Thikali into beasts of burden, molding their physiology to their present form. Despite their physical manipulation, the Thikalis’ intellect only grew, as the less intelligent were weeded out by the cruel labors of their masters.
The Uruli grew complacent in their power, expanding their cities and colonies until internal friction between the city-states led to unrest and war between them. During this unrest, the Thikali rose up in rebellion, far greater in size than the Uruli, and driven by anger over their long enslavement. This insurrection spiraled across the city-states, forcing the Uruli to concede terms. The Thikali crossed back over the Godspur and returned to the steppe of the great plateau, hardened by their imprisonment, wiser, and stronger than before.
From this point of escalation, both the Uruli and Thikali appeared to have accepted a general stance of coexistence as the Malabari spread across the planet. Despite the seeming golden age they found themselves in, there was a constant thread of ethnic distrust or conflict between the groups, which would occasionally flare up into localized conflicts. And yet, the Malabari seemed to have progressed, up through technological ages, but this is where some records break down.
While the Malabari reached a technological level on par or surpassing that of the Holy Commonwealth, they fell back into conflict. Some event we have yet to re-document or recover record of occurred, and brought with it a deluge of atomic fire across Malabar. It burned away their golden age, laid great ziggurats low, and left them a crippled people. Now, relics of a past age, pinnacles of a people who had a thousand year headstart to humanity, sit buried in ash or wielded by titanium clad barbarians who couldn’t comprehend the majesty of what they hold in their clawed hands. I weep for Malabar’s past, I weep for the horror seen by myself and the survivors of The Good Christain.

Current Political State


	To put it bluntly, the current geopolitical state of Malabar is non-existent. Based on our collection of fragmented records, there was a unified global power or handful of powers, but that changed with their apocalyptic past. Since then, the land has descended into fledgling city-state, warlordism, and rampant techno-barbarism that has left this world in a constant state of low intensity conflicts.

Evolutionary Social Organization


Among both groups of Malabari, a common cultural thread seems to tie back to how their progenitor organism functioned in a social structure. Similar to every reasonably intelligent species we’ve met so far, there is an evolved social mechanism. In this case, the Malabari subsets both operate around a clan or herd structure across generations.
To begin, the Malabari of both sets pair bond for life, and if one should pass, the other will continue as a widow/widower for the remainder of their life. These bound pairs form the smallest portion of the observed social structure, with both members of the pair usually paralleling each other’s trade or employment.
This process of pairing appears to be the result of a courting process that begins at their respective coming of age points, where the young adults are sent off from the clan on a long journey to develop skills or experience to benefit the clan upon their return. It is during this journey that most appear to find a suitable partner and pair off, returning to one member’s clan or seeking a new location to begin a new clan. These pairs will aggregate into clans, based on familial lines These clans would then organize themselves into cities and then states over the course of their history, based on our preliminary analysis.

Language

	The Malabari language is a complex language, and relies on a hard, consonant heavy sound that can range outside of the audible spectrum for humanity. The written language is an arrangement of representative characters. It’s presented as a grind of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines arranged across a 2x2 grid, which appears to be an extension of how they carved the characters into stone with simple hammers and chisels.

Architecture
	Uruli architecture is built to take advantage of the rough terrain of the mountainous regions. Early structures were arranged on the valley floor before stretching up along hewn terraces to spread the villages and cities up into the mountain range. As the Uruli progressed, they began to carve storage spaces into the mountains, and in time those storage spaces opened into homes and passageways and eventually into towns and cities within the mountains themselves. The Uruli became master stonemasons, building strong houses both above and below the ground, and even raised the great ziggurats we’ve seen in our travels.
The design of these homes on an average level are small, comfortable places kept warm by fires and lanterns. These homes twist and turn throughout a slope with storage space, recreation areas, and sleeping quarters tied together by winding stairs and paths. A cutaway recreation of one of these Uruli homes is detailed in imagery below.

	The Thikali on the other hand, never broke with their nomadic ancestry. Their structures were always built to be broken down and carried on their back in pursuit of new hunting grounds. The most common form of nomadic housing is a wide, high-roofed yurt similar to those observed among ancient steppe peoples of Earth. More permanent structures include longhouses with broad floor plans to allow the larger, tauric body plans to navigate without difficulty.

	Over the course of recent history, both Uruli and Thikali design elements synthesized in the formation of vast cities that covered the surface of Malabari, and yield wide sweeping avenues and arcing ramps up along the jagged slopes of the Malabari ranges. In simple terms, it can only be seen to believe.