Muuh

The Muuh are an ancient, sapient species of naturally-evolved crustaceans in the Orion's Arm science fiction universe. They were first found on the Titan-like moon of Muuhome, which was an ancient colony world.

Etymology
The word Muuh (plural: Muuh) might or might not have a meaning in a human language. In-universe, the Muuh were named by an impatient Cygexpa communications officer.

Anatomy and physiology
The body is symmetrical when divided into sagital and transversal planes. As such, a Muuh possesses two identical shells enclosing the brain and internal organs. There is a rim between them which harbors the sensory organs for echolocation and thermoreception.

A Muuh is a quadrupedal hexapod. Each of the frontal pair of limbs ends with a pinzer, while the remaining four used for locomotion end with tarsus-like structures.

All the body area is covered with an icy, hard exoskeleton that constantly grows. The upper and lower parts of the body have carvings, which are an indicative of an individual's health and attractiveness to other Muuh.

Being simultaneous hermaphrodites, sexual intercourse impregnates both partners. The Muuh form lifelong pairs as a rule.

Environmental requirements
Biochemically, the Muuh are carbon-based organisms that use a liquid methane-ethane mixture as solvent, along with other hydrocarbons such as tholins. They live in environments that highly resemble those found on Titan, the largest natural satellite orbiting Saturn.

Muuh metabolism is very slow, due to their reducing and cold biosphere.

Evolution
The Muuh evolved from a group of rapid mid-sized predatorial omnivores, occupying an ecological niche similar to that of raccoons on their original homeworld.

Senses
A Muuh visualizes its surrounding world by using echolocation and thermoreception. Sight is very underdeveloped due to the dim environments the Muuh have evolved on, though it is sophisticated enough to allow low-resolution, monochromatic imagery.

Psychology
Relying primarily on echolocation instead of sight, the Muuh psyche is somewhat closer to a To'ul'h than a human. Still, in terms of scientific aptitude, pragmatism and expansionistic tendencies, To'ul'hs and humans share much more between them. Their slow metabolism also slows down their thinking speeds.

The Muuh are regarded as romantics, which means that they emphatize on emotion, individuality and inspiration. A great deal of their intellectual activities are devoted to art, creating virtual realities, role-playing games and fiction. Displaying an overall disinterest in real life, the Muuh appeal to fiction to the point of warping historical events, disregarding accuracy in favor of drama in the so-called historifics.

Unfortunately, disinterest in real life has hampened scientific discoveries, ultimately slowing down technological progress. It is also implied that the Muuh are not keen at formulating or planning, since 99% of their ideas do not work out.

Society and culture
Muuh civilization is very old, and combined with their preference of arts over sciences, it can be assumed that their culture surpasses the complexity of the human ones.

Taboos
Upon talking to Muuh, there are some topics which are never open to discussion, independently of the Muuh individual. Xenologists refer to such topics as Muuh Taboos, and over a thousand of them have been identified. Some of the most notable taboos are the following.
 * Muuh Pylons
 * Location of the Muuh homeworld
 * The nature of the Dawn Hunters (a hypothetical extraterrestrial species)
 * Reasons for the stability of the Muuh culture
 * Reasons for the stability of Muuh phenotypes
 * The Ultima Gate (a wormhole)
 * Isolation of the Letavec enclave
 * The reason for and extent of the Muuh Taboos

History
Muuh history is way longer than To'ul'h or human history, though much more vague and inaccurate due to their tendency of blurring even historical records.
 * c. 180 Mya - The Muuh begin to evolve primitive sapience.
 * c. 120 Mya - Development of interstellar transport. Beginning of a slow expansion through the Milky Way.
 * c. 51 Mya - The Muuh set up a colony on the Titanean satellite of Jovian gas giant orbiting a G-type star located in the Perseus Arm. One of the planets orbiting this star harbors a rich Earth-like ecosystem.
 * c. 46 Mya - The Earth-like planet in the Perseus Arm is sorrounded by ships of unknown origin, which scape before the Muuh ships reach them. Shortly after, it is confirmed that the mysterious ships modified some of the species into sapience, creating a psychopathic, prankster species known as the Jesters.
 * c. 50 Mya - Revival of interstellar transport.
 * c. 32 Mya - The Muuh modify the Soft Ones into sapience.
 * c. 28 Mya - The Soft Ones develop many technologies.
 * c. 25 Mya - Unnamed species HIE300CZE modified by the Muuh into sapience.
 * c. 14.8 Mya - Muuh genocide occurs due to uncontrolled, automated war machinery.
 * c. 8.3 Mya - Re-contact occurs between the Muuh and the Soft Ones.

Muuhian Epoch (1.2 to 0.6 Mya)
The Muuhian Epoch is characterized by interstellar travel. It is roughly equivalent to the middle Pleistocene on Earth.

Onward

 * 7854 AT - Muuhome is contacted.