Q'Mau

The Q'Mau are a primarily mammalian species from the Ervo Sector, hailing from the oceanic moon of Mev'Dar, capital world of the Talarian Union. The majority of their population resides in the aforementioned Talarian Union, and they are known for a cultural tendency towards mistrust and violence, although the latter is often overblown.

Appearance

The average Q'Mau is roughly 4 meters in length, with locomotion provided by an almost snakelike flexing of the back half of their snakelike body shape. A pair of arms is attached towards the front of their body near the head, which can be used to manipulate objects. Much of their bodies are covered in thick, self-cleaning fur that can be a variety of colors.

Physiology

Respiratory System

The respiratory system of a Q'Mau is fairly simple, with air being taken in through small openings at the back of their "neck" (if it can be called that) and passing through an increasingly branching pathway into a highly distributed system of alveoli before oxygen is extracted. Q'Mau cannot be said to breathe, as such, as air is pulled in and out of each opening and branch system separately without the presence of a single "lung" structure.

Digestive System

The Q'Mau number among the physically largest intelligent species known to the Verdan Federation. This combined with their warm-blooded physiology results in a high metabolic rate and thus a high requirement for food intake. As such, the Q'Mau are obligate carnivores, and learned to herd their food sources off the coasts of Mev'Dar's island chains very early in the life of the species.

Virtually the entire Q'Mauan muscular system is geared around allowing the digestive system to work efficiently, with huge amounts of muscle doing double duty both enabling the slithering locomotion and aggressively pulling unfortunate meals or fortunate mates into their belly. The layers of muscle surrounding most of the length of the body are extremely stretchy, allowing the stomachs and uterus to expand prodigiously to accommodate whatever may be inside them.

To actually eat their food, a Q'Mau generally grabs hold of the animal with their two forward limbs before latching onto it with their jaw, releasing a paralytic. Then, they "walk" their jaw over their prey until most of its prone body is in their mouth, at which point the smooth muscles of the esophagus begin to pull it downwards into the first stomach, which can distend greatly to accommodate the meal. They can do this repeatedly until they are full, after which they may not have to eat for up to a month. This seems nice, but it is negated by the fact that "full" to a Q'Mau constitutes eating up to one and a half times their own mass. This single meal is generally undertaken at the end of the day, as the sheer mass of the food in the stomach can make it difficult to move until it is thoroughly digested and its nutrients absorbed.

The stomach itself is in fact a set of two stomachs in sequence, which conduct different processes. The first, much larger stomach can expand greatly before the tissue tenses. Instead of violently breaking down anything which enters it, the gastric juices of the first stomach are much more discriminatory in terms of what they break down. The fluids secreted by the first stomach are composed of specialized enzymes and a selection of symbiotic bacteria, entirely harmless to living tissue. Instead, these bacteria and enzymes target dead, nutritious organic matter as well as invading microorganisms, almost functioning as a preservative for whatever is inside. Whatever is left over from this unusual step in the process can be sent along to the second stomach, which acts much more conventionally. It secretes an extremely powerful acid and enzymes, violently breaking down whatever enters it in a process which releases an unusual amount of oxygen. The remaining slurry can be quickly absorbed by the remaining length of the intestine. The gases produced by the digestion process of the second stomach can often travel back into the first stomach. Any undigestible waste is voided after everything of value is extracted from it.

This digestive system, due to the first stomach's discriminatory tastes, can almost function like a marsupial pouch. When the Q'Mau of old slithered through Mev'Dar's jungles, they often felt the need to protect their young inside it, their thick skin repelling most threats.

Reproductive System

The reproductive system of the Q'Mau is highly sexually dimorphic. Female Q'Mau release eggs into the system in sequence, but the lack of a "cleaning stage" in the ovulation cycle means that they can build up over time. This has the result of multiple births becoming much more common as the individual ages. In numbers greater than nine, certain fetuses tend to mature first with others pausing development after a certain point, and can be born in sequence with the remaining ones maturing after their predecessors are birthed.

After fertilization, the egg(s) implant in the uterine wall, taking in nutrients through the placenta as they grow for roughly two years. The birth canal does not lead to the outside world, rather it empties into their mother's first stomach. The presence of this protective "holding chamber" means that the mother can functionally postpone the birth of their children until they return to their home or some other safe place. When this takes place, the offspring are peristaltically transported out of their mother's stomach and enter the world through the mouth in a process known as the second birth. The second birth is held with much greater importance in Talarian society than the "real" birth, as the latter merely results in the children going from one chamber of their mother's body to another. The second birth is also an entirely conscious process, which can theoretically be held off for as long as the mother feels like. After birth, offspring can become mentally independent after roughly twenty years, and reach sexual maturity at fifteen on average.

Demographics

Over half of the Q'Mau population lives in the Talar System, the heart of the Talarian Union. Much of the remainder resides in the Koinon System, Merrilor System, and in the chaotic system of Alera Asenis. Systems like Theriland's Star and the Taum System play host to most of the last few percentage points, with the remainder residing outside of the Talarian Union, including within the Verdan Federation.

Culture

Society

Q'Mau society is a mostly rigid matriarchy, with males treated as inherently inferior, less smart, and only to be trusted with the arts of violence that they supposedly have encoded in their DNA or something. Q'Mau males are expected to pour everything they have into the protection of the females of their clan/city/planet/nation, as that is culturally seen as the only thing they are capable of doing. This society also greatly values scientific thought and advancement, where it doesn't interfere with their religion, and so give great amounts of funding to such pursuits.

Familial Dynamics

The smallest social unit in Q'Mau society is that of the clan, a group people who function as the immediate family unit. A clan can range in size from as little as four to as many as fifty, although the latter end of the scale is extremely rare. While parentage is recorded to avoid possibly incestuous sexual pairings, it has virtually no effect beyond that with the entire clan assisting in rearing new children. While male members of the clan are generally not culturally trusted with child-rearing, some more progressively minded clans dispute this.

Religion

The religions of the Q'Mau are many, as Mev'Dar never experienced a cultural movement akin to the Alorath Birth of Reason. After the species spread out into space, any philosophical movement between then and the founding of the Union would likely fizzle out before reaching beyond its homeworld. However, there are some basic trends: All native Q'Mau religions are polytheistic to some extent, ranging from "mother goddess with some comparatively underpowered godly underlings" to "small city worth of gods for various domains". The largest among them is that of Marwanism, a polytheistic religion consisting of a pantheon of roughly ~30 godly beings alongside a retinue of lesser spirits which assist in the management of the universe.

Language

Since the unification of the Talarian Union, the Q'Mau have moved to primarily speak a single common language. Ron'Zel evolved as a hodgepodge of almost every prior language, borrowing words and grammatical functions seemingly at random as it evolved. The languages that Ron'Zel stole from still exist today, but they lack the power that they once had.