The Murdon

Murdons are an alien species that got stuck there many, many hundreds of years ago, and have yet to find their way back to the home planet, Zar. As the story goes, the Murdons created a dimension machine, which would allow them to pass through time and space. Several groups of murdon were made ready to explore the unknown universe. Their memories of how to create the dimension machine was wiped, in order to protect the inhabitants of the planet they were being sent to, and to keep them from messing with unauthorized time/space. Without the knowledge of how to get back, the murdons found themselves stranded on various planets throughout time and space, with no hope of returning to Zar. So they began to adapt and integrate themselves with the inhabitants.

Physically, Murdons are one of the most unusual species here on Earth. They normally grow between 7 and 9 feet in height, with tall, slender builds. They have mottled skin of various hues, the most common being variants of brown, with the lightness/darkness of their skin depicting their rank. Other colors that can occur, but are not commonly, seen include; pale green, blue, purple, black, grey, red, and yellow. These colorations are very rare.

Murdons sport multiples of almost everything. They have four arms, one set being half the length of the other, and on each is a hand with six fingers. The extra finger is a thumb, and is located on the opposite side of the hand as the first thumb. They also have two brains, separate by a fine, waxy membrane. These brains cannot communicate, and therefore all Murdons have a split-personality. Fetuses that do not have the separating film do not develop properly and are stillborn. These brains allow the murdon to retain a huge amount of information, but their memories are quite often skewed. The Murdon cannot control what brain is 'active' and which is 'dormant' at any given time.

Once sexual maturity is reached, Murdons will grow a large crest of curled spikes on their backs, which also helps determine rank. The larger the crest, the more powerful the murdon. Murdons also sport a segmented tail that is quite often the length or double the length of their body. This tail ends in a similar horn as on the crests of their backs, an extremely long appendage that ends in an intricately curled spike of sorts.

In order to accommodate these two brains, all Murdons are born with natural telepathy. This is the only form of communication that passes between the twin brains. This telepathy does extend to external beings as well, and is the common form of interspecies communications. As the Murdon voice box does not resemble that of the average Lomeelain being, they cannot make audible 'words' that are understandable to our ears. Instead, they make a series of musical notes, very intricate, melodic, and hard to decipher.

Murdons have incredibly long lifespans, longer, even, than that of dragons. Which is one of the reasons why their small number has existed so long with such limited reproduction. The average Murdon can live for nearly one million years. Many species consider them immortal because of this, but they continue to assure that no, this is not so, they do die. Just not very often.

Murdons do have a male and female sex (as well as neuter , hermaphrodite, and gender-morph), but genitals are incased in a hard, shell-like structure for protection, making it impossible to tell the difference between the two. Generally speaking, Murdons only come into 'heat' once every millennium or so. As Murdons do not take mates, but rather...breeding partners, every time the 'season' comes along, there are really no rituals or courtships involved. Mating is a private affair, and the process is rarely talked about. Murdons don't like having to differentiate between their sexes and find the whole business of reproduction rather messy.

Once impregnated, the female will give birth to an infant Murdon within about 1-3 months. Murdons only give birth to one at a time, never any more than that. The child is, essentially, helpless until he/she is at least 30 years of age. Murdon children and their mothers have surprisingly close connections, but once the child reaches maturity he or she will go off on his own, and family ties will no longer matter. Murdons, naturally, are solitary creatures, and they tend to forget who their relations were after a few hundred years. Lineage is not terribly imporant to them, nor are there any taboos against inbreeding.

Murdons have a very detailed hierarchy, which often dictates how powerful the Murdon will be. Murdons are ranked at birth, and, generally speaking, their color will determine what rank best suits them. First in foremost is the Leader. Leaders tend to have the strongest psionic abilities, and the most control between their two brains. Very intelligent, and very powerful. Leaders tend to be the darkest in coloration.

After leaders comes advisers, who tend to be light to medium hued. Then the subordinates and rankless. After which comes the breeders (any gender other than neuter, but commonly female). Breeders are not necessarily the only rank that may breed, but at least one breeder must be involved in the mating for offspring to be produced.

Divines are not necessarily a rank, but certainly a very important part of murdon society. Divine murdons are considered 'gods' amongst the people, and are, most often than not, a Leader as well as a Divine. Divines have supreme magical powers, not limited to simply psionics, and elongated lifespans. Their coloration also tends to be somewhat more extreme, and they commonly sport mutations. Very few divines have the common brown coloration.

Murdons have an intricate naming system, and they have kindly translated their names into a more readable/pronounceable system since their first interaction with earth beings. This system follows closely with their ranking system, and goes as follows:

Leaders: 'Ku'
Adviser: None
Subordinate/Rankless: 'Kae'
Breeders: 'Se' or 'Si'
Females: 'bi' or 'ib'
Males: 'J'
Divine: 'A' connected to any other vowel.