#laurelai mahl

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The Mahl

Homeplanet: Roawei and Tik (Twin Planets) Habitat: High altitude mountain ranges (flying), shrubland (flightless) Lifespan: 50-90 years Diet: Hypercarnivorous (≥70% meat consumption)

At first glance, most would not assume that the Mahl, a quadrapedal knuckle-walking avian, are at the forefront of Laurelai Galaxy's interplanetary dipolamtic department. Armed with an elaborate series of gular sacs, Mahl can replicate any noise (verbal or otherwise) to near perfection. This, combined with their high intelligence and unwavering tenacity, gives Mahl quite the advantage when it comes to speaking a wide variety of languages across numerous species. However, mimicry is one thing. Learning the languages is another.

Mahl have four sexes (two fertile, two infertile), five size variations, and two forms of display. More on these under the cut.

The Sexes Three out of the four sexes serve a biological purpose when it comes to producing and caring for eggs. These are the egg layers, the producers, and the brooders. Egg layers and producers are the fertile pair, with an added brooder, an infertile Mahl with a special brood pouch, to take over incubation duties once the egg is laid.

The fourth sex is the keeper, an infertile Mahl filling a purely social role of gentle caretaking of the other sexes. This would include feeding, grooming, and housekeeping during times of egg laying and brooding, with producers generally absent from the process once insemination has taken place. Not every mate triad has a keeper, though it is highly unusual.

Fertile, egg laying Mahl only produce one egg a time, but mate networks (called 'universities') can be upward of eighteen individuals and can have any combination of the sexes.

The Displays Mahl have two versions of permanent display: plain and panache. Any Mahl can have either version of display and are not indicators of sex. The three most common forms of panache are shield, crest, and crown, but other variations of panache exist.

Despite not having association with sex, and Mahl tend to prefer merit over looks, many Mahl do appear to be physically attracted to the more flaunting forms of display (even if they won't admit it).

The Sizes Outside of the obvious differences, Mahl don't hold any outward and widescale prejudice against specific sizes of other Mahl. Even the names are somewhat superficial and are seen more as a fun addition to their identities then anything worth arguing over.

Preferences do exist, and noticeable life-span differentiations have potential to cause social strain. For example: "Little" and "Great" Mahl live the shortest lifespan compared to "Splended" and "Sweet", who live the longest. This doesn't appear to stop diverse mate networks from forming, though finding literal middle ground between the flying and flightless variations is still an ongoing problem

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Quadrupedal locomotion of mahl and marans.

Marans can walk bipedally, but it sacrifices both speed and comfort since the upright position causes a great amount of strain on their extra-long weasel spine.

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To date, the Mahl are the only species in the Laurelai Galaxy that utilize organic hybrid technology of any kind. Due to organic tech being a massive resource sink that requires a lot of time and patience to develop, it's understandably very unpopular. However, the Mahl find value in organic tech. This ranges from being a safer alternative to long-distance space travel to simple aesthetic appeal.

Mahl relationships with their tech is similar to an owner's relationship with their pets. Understandable, considering it would take over a decade of diligent care to grow organic components similar in size to the one shown above.

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All of Laurelai's predominant languages in one handy graphic!

Travelers Jhabber is the 'standard' (or 'universal') language for all those who do authorized interplanetary space travel. It helps in having a common tongue between multiple species.

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Places an offering a babies onto the table as I've been preoccupied with writing Threshold People for the past few weeks.

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Mahl don't get spring stylings because they're indecent nudist beasts. Daisy dukes upon thee.

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This Mahl has become a man.

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Mahl Fun Facts

Due to their language being nigh-impossible for non-Mahl to speak, it's very common for individuals who regularly work with other species to name themselves after their favorite word of that species' native language.

So sometimes you'll run into Mahl named 'Niblet' or 'Crack' or 'Double' simply because the Mahl thought the word sounded neat.

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Anonymous asked: can we see some stuff about the planets you've introduced so far?

While I do have maps for the Maran homeworld and the Mahl twin planets, I'll just do Frontier for now since it's the most relevant due to it being the setting for Threshold People.

Frontier has a supercontinent with only two distinct countries, Frontier and Aodilea. Aodilea is purely Audi country, and due to the exceptionally small population they only inhabit the east and west coasts. Everything in between is wild country. For Frontier, it's been pimarily used as a home for displaced Marans affected by the 80-year war on Mara. Humans and Mahl have a place in the LIPA Zone, but Marans have the highest population overall.

Fun facts about the World Flag:

Only Frontier is technically part of the Laurelai Inter-Planetary Alliance. Partnerships with the Audi are still ongoing.

The inner seal is a mixture of the three Maran subspecies' main lines of commerce. The forging clamp represents the Cosí, the two needles represents the Èlais, and the closed mussel shell represents the Ysk. The white circle reperents the Amora, who consider themselves ghost children of Mara itself.

The flag is considered the first real symbol of collective peace and representation between the Maran subspecies, having an official truce in place nearly fifteen years sooner then Mara.

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Anonymous asked: In your "Threshold People" post, it said Thu was "Parsi (human)". Is this an alternate name for Earth humans or is she something completely different?

Persis is a separate planet from Earth all together! While Parsi (the name of their people) are humanoids evolved from primate ancestors, they have no relation to Earth-based humans. If you want a meta answer, I wanted humans but the freedom to make a planet from scratch. Thu's specifically from southern Baskan.

Fun facts about the World Flag:

Each line on the outer circle represents each country of Persis, with the color coordinating with which continent the country is in.

The black triangles emitting from the central emblem represent each planet Persis has colonised or immigrated into (Mara and Frontier on the bottom two, Roawei on the top)

The four 'comets' represent the alien species that have immigrated onto Persis (Cosí, Ysk, and Èlais Marans and Mahl collectively)

Only planets part of the Laurelai Inter-Planetary Alliance (LIPA) have official world flags. As of present, there's only four.