Mang Khyel

The Mang Khyel (native: Mang Khyel Fyel Li, "People from the Mountain Range"), singular Khyel, adjectival Fyelli, are a monstrous mountain-dwelling race that live in the crags cliffs of great and minor plateaus throughout the world, primarily the Fyel mountains. Tolerant to the winds and harsh weather, even precipitation, they can travel long distances from their homes and are quick to erect new permanent structures even as small groups.

Physiology

Mang Khyel are possibly the largest sentient race, both sexes standing at between 2.5m-3m tall and weighing on average 200kg. They are covered with thick hair, especially around their necks and muzzles, which form a mane (which is expected in most cities to be kept in good condition). Styles of this mane vary between the sexes. They sport claws on their fingers and toes which are kept filed to a couple centimeters so as not to get in the way of work, while keeping them in a proper condition to be used as weapons. Their maws are lined with incisors that protrude downwards, making it impossible for them to fully close their mouths. They walk digitigrade, like the Sehali, though lack tails; this makes them slow and unbalanced on two feet, forcing them to be semi-quadrupedal.

Government

Mang Khyel organize themselves into large cities, but apart from the communal efforts of building and destroying, which they attend to in dutiful unison in almost antlike fashion — with no one individual uniting the city, but everyone working in tandem for something greater — they do not have official leaders. The closest thing they have are their religious leaders.

Culture

Diet

The Mang Khyel are obligatorily carnivorous, and hunt and trap game both in the mountains and the lowlands nearby. They are just as commonly herders, using the meat, milk, and furs of livestock.

Technology

Although they shirk shipping technology, preferring to travel on foot through their treacherous preferred habitat, and use purchased Generator tech only occasionally for weaponry, the Mang Khyel literally tower above every other race as builders and destroyers. For the former, they utilize huge systems of simple machines, built on the spot with smaller tools, to construct vast fortresses with several spiralling stories both rising above and burrowing into the mountains. To dismantle — or to wage war — they use their immense strength to erect large, equally stationary and hardy siege weapons, and use massive blunt instruments on the battlefield, decking out their already thick hides with expertly smithed armour which even the Humans using their modern discoveries cannot reproduce.

Clothing

Outside of their fortress-cities, Mang Khyel tend to wear thick-furred steel and leather armour to protect them against the elements, which at those altitudes is often high winds, sleet, even hail, besides the dangerous slopes and rock formations. These garments are only minimally for decoration. Inside, they are happy to go about their business in the nude, as the state of their bodies is typically of greater pride to them than any show of status or monetary worth. Physical domination is paramount in Mang Khyel culture. The exception is for religious figures, who don thick, brightly-dyed shoulderpieces indoors, which line their spine and wrap again around their waist, still revealing much of their front but denoting them as individuals to listen to.

Sex and Reproduction

Contrary to popular belief, romantic love is as coveted by the Mang Khyel as it is by most any other race. However, it is quite possible that most young are sired through what most civilized societies would consider non-consensual intercourse. Both sexes engage in these acts of force.

Religion

Religion is important in Mang Khyel society, being the only uniting aspect for them. It is a ditheistic faith, worshipping Tywis, the god of destruction, and Welyn, god of creation. These gods are considered genderless and immaterial, and exist as two faces of a single entity which is nameless. The priests of the Mang Khyel prophesy which of the two aspects is prominent at any given time, and it is based on these prophecies that the city acts as a unit.

Language

The Fyelli language is very blunt-sounding, with short words characterized by a high number of guttural sounds and very few utterances that utilize the almost immobile lips of the species. It is, however, fully articulable by humans, which hints at the several times in recent history that the two species have interacted — true to Mang Khyel nature, both in peace and war.