Melumsi

Homeworld: Mirada
Government: Council of Elders (representative democracy/meritocratic federated commonwealth)
Population: Around 100,000 Melumsi and 1,250,000 Werashi

The Melumsi are an energy-based species located in the Mirada system. Made mostly of energy, the Melumsi taught themselves to inhabit the physical forms of other species to gain solid form.

They have amazing abilities with telepathy, empathy and telekinesis, and they tend to be fast learners. Most tend to be interested in the arts and have at least one field of interest in that area. However they are also very adept at science, having technology consisting of organic, living beings that work with them in harmony. They have also studied the technique of weather manipulation and terraforming for their cultivation of species that can house them.

After a nomadic beginning, they settled on Mirada and began to use a native species called the Werashi as their exclusive hosts. The Melumsi brought with them the gleaned knowledge and cultural adaptations of their previous hosts which they, over the centuries, have blended together into a culture and technology that is all their own.

Most of Melumsi history is lost to time, but much of their time on Mirada is chronicled on the walls of the Great Temple.

Melumsi history is vague and steeped in legends and myths previous to their settlement of Mirada. Mirada is seen as their native homeworld as it is where the Melumsi species gathered themselves from across the universe to form the nation that exists today.

Before Mirada, Melumsi were nomads. They wandered the universe in a loose group that was usually spread over neighboring star systems, living among the psionically-talented members of the different species that they came across. By taking over and inhabiting the bodies of these species, the Melumsi discovered culture and science, learning the development of both as they began making their own contributions to each species' technological advancements, most of which were already in the late-modern stage of development when the Melumsi encountered them.

However, the Melumsi rarely let a species know when it was being used, and even more rare was the species who appreciated the body-jacking of its members. Combined with the sometimes-uncontrolled psionic abilities such as telepathy that the Melumsi often unintentionally enhanced in their hosts, they found themselves unwanted on most of the worlds they settled on. Ironically, on the last world they inhabited before they found Mirada, the Melumsi helped to develop the anti-psionic devices that were used against them in their final exile.

To the common Melumsi citizen, the details of life before Mirada are vague or nonexistant, as over two generations have passed away since the nomadic times.

(Unknown time period) As they fled from the denizens of a frightened and enraged planet, the Melumsi happened upon a lone system on the northern pole of the galaxy, approximately 15 light years from where the Yamatian Star Empire was to develop centuries later. They found a planet that promised inhabitable hosts, but after the previous encounter the Melumsi were wary of what they would find. They were greatly pleased to find a sapient race of humanoids that were still relatively primitive, not yet out of the tribal state of civil development.

A highly superstitious and religious people with a technology level equal to that of early Mesopotamians, the Werashi accepted the Melumsi with open arms when it was discovered that 'gods' from the stars wished to live among them. The Melumsi found willing hosts and discovered a great genetic potential for psion-sensitives among the Werashi, while Mirada itself boasted many resources both for the further development of the technological knowledge that the Melumsi had absorbed and agricultural resources for the sustaining of their new host species, solidifying their decision to remain on Mirada as their permanent homeworld.

While it began as a time of advancement and sustained peace, near the end of the Golden Era both races became complacent and began seeking other challenges and territories to explore on their planet. Their populations had been relatively condensed on a single continent, so there was much space to map out.

With their homeworld explored and advancement in technology slowing, the Melumsi turned their sights back on space travel within their solar system.

• Jahi Rahlen, a Melumsi elder of high standing, encouraged a young apprentice bioengineer named Araiah Jal to create his own life-form, which Araiah did and made a little critter that he named “Tayar”.
  

Araiah became curious and tried to inhabit the creature, but something went wrong. After he escaped, Araiah discovered that part of himself was left behind, making Tayar a sentient creature. Jahi realized that it was possible to create artificial hosts.

• Jahi proposed research into artificial hosts to the Elders and High Lord, holding up Tayar as an example that completely artificial life was possible.
  

• Araiah was recruited as the lead scientist in a team to develop artificial hosts for the Melumsi. The project was kept secret while it waited for the approval of the Council. The other research members did not even know the name of their sponsor.
  
• Word of the proposal got out, however. Controversy flared and a protest group formed. A few Mavericks took advantage of the controversy and incited the Werashi on the topic.
  

• Araiah and his team slowly worked their way through the prototypes. At Araiah's insistence, they followed a series of versions, perfecting one important feature at a time, making sure it was suitable before moving on to the next feature.
  
• Araiah, concerned about the volatile nature of the protests, began a couple of private projects. He took the nanotechnology that he played around with as a student and enhanced it, finding the optimum for his desired product. When standard neural computing was found vulnerable, he took a neural computing system that he developed as a student and began to refine it, creating the neural-kinetic system he called Neurokinetic Assemblies for Nanomachine Operation (NANO).
  
• Eighteen years later, the controversy faded as no one was able to produce any evidence of artificial shells/exoforms being created. The Council approved the research “in the informational realm only. There is to be no experimentation” but gave no consequences if experiments were found.
  
• Araiah and his team completed the EP-6 and began testing. Jahi began authorizing Melumsi births for the sole function of providing the project with test subjects and participated in the experiments himself as a test subject.
  
• A bit of leaked information led to the return of the Artificial Exoform Controversy (AEC). Militant groups formed, and Jahi formed his own cabal who called themselves “The Brothers of Os'ir”.
  
• The unethical experiments caught Araiah's attention and he confronted Jahi about it to no avail.
  
• Araiah was attacked going home one night and was forced to flee the city. Fearing for his life, he planned his escape.
  
• The EP-7 was created and tested. Ariah performed secret tests with his Kinetic Interaction via Networked Electromagnetic Spacial Influence System and practiced every chance he got. Eventually he was able to wear the EP-7 full-time without anyone knowing. The EP-8 was pushed into a rapid development cycle.
  
• The Brotherhood committed several acts of terrorism in attempts to quell the AEC protests. An AEC terrorist cell discovers the location of the science complex and planned to attack and expose it.
  
• Ariah snuck into the complex and inhabited the newly-completed EP-8. After introducing the KINESI System, he destroyed the science complex piece by piece, making it into a sterile, hollow box of a building with no trace of anything. Then he acquired passage on a transport to an outer colony and left Mirada.
  
• The AE terrorist group raided the complex, only to find it empty. This was held as final proof that there was no experimentation. The controversy returned to being a political battle instead of a social one. Jahi searched for another to take Araiah's place and renew the project, but all of the experiment data was destroyed. The construction of an artificial host became just short of an obsession for Jahi, but he set it aside in favor of more fruitful plans.

With their history and the unique nature of their society, Melumsi culture is rich in tradition and nuanced customs. Unfortunately, little information is available outside of rumors and speculation.

A strong history of biotechnology and experience with electronics give the Melumsi many of their everyday tools and comforts, but the Werashi proficiency in mechanical technology has had its impact as well. This shows most obviously in their spacecraft with the planetside facilities and technology being a bit more segregated between the biological and mechanical.

The Melumsi Federated Commonwealth is considered to be within the borders of the Yamatian Star Empire, though talks were never completed between the two governments and no formal treaty was signed. The current understanding is that, despite their location, the Melumsi are an autonomous political entity. First contact aside, they have kept largely to themselves and have no desire to enter the galactic arena at this time.

Original Melumsi and Werashi concepts © 2004 by Jennifer Higgins.
Additional information and history written and developed by MissingNo with permission.

Wiki Article Status:
Second Draft and Reorganization In Progress. (2008-10-26)
First Draft Complete. Basic topics are covered and open for review. Please direct comments/questions/suggestions to MissingNo. Contact info is on this page.
Project retired, re-arranged for use as reference material for linked articles and related characters. Not intended for character-creation or as a playable race. All information is subject to change and organization.