Morwen

Home world

The home of Morwen is planet Morwe Gad. The planet is divided between two large continents; northern Tir Eira and southern Tir Poeth. Tir Eira is wide continent spanning between parallel 50 and 80 north latitude. Despite its size it is far smaller than its southern counterpart. Tir Poeth is spanning between parallel 25 north latitude and 30 south latitude. It has somewhat wild shape and several inner seas caused by large impact. Morwe Gad has about 29% of its surface as land, has one moon and is orbiting an orange dwarf star.

Tir Eira and Tir Poeth are connected by a massive land bridge; Pont y Byd. This land bridge is a salty wasteland that is third of the year submerged thanks to enormous storm that is circling the planet.

Appearance

Morwen

The Morwen are humans. Specifically descendants of norse and celts. Therefore they possess their genetic appearance. The only major difference is in their eyes. While most retain blue eyes, the effects of the storm have supported mutations, which spread green, grey and white eyes.

They have a tradition of tattooing their faces if they survived encounter with the Xuu-waz species.

Xuu-waz Esa

The Xuu-waz have similar anatomy to humans, but are taller and bulkier. Their skin is yellowish and is rigiddly rigging. Their hard black hair grows only on their nape and crown. Otherwise they are bald. Apart from sharp teeth, their short, stub like nose is the most disturbing thing on them. Their love for enduring pain is adding disfigurement to their appearance. Scarring themselves, cutting ears, sharpening teeth and more is what they do to prove their strength, among other things. 

Their lifespan is unknown considering that none of them ever died to natural causes.

History

Long before coming of today's Morwen, the Xuu-waz spaceship crash landed into the planet. The ship was AI controlled and carried genes of Xuu-waz species as well as many terraforming systems. The AI was most likely damaged by journey from far away galaxy and it is surprising that it survived the crash at all. 

The ship began terraforming process, however the damaged AI started skipping, overlapping and repeating procedures. The planet entered a state of endless storm which circles around the planet every year. The Xuu-waz species was released with barely any education made by the AI. 

AI, being somewhat conscious of the storm situation, is selecting number of the Xuu-waz who get sheltered in the ship, while others die in the storm. Of course AI selects the most capable and so the Xuu-waz have made a religion of the fitest with AI as their god. This means that those who manage to survive the storm outside are seen as impure and a possible threat to others. Therefore they get hunted and slaughtered. It is unknown how long this species existed like this without any progress.

Coming of Morwen

An island of Mornaw which was located between Anglesey and Isle of Man had a space monolith in a crater in its center. The same kind which allowed members of project Denebol to travel into different galaxy. Around 850 AD a vikings arrived subjugating local population and establishing settlement there. It didn't take long before they discovered and entered the sacred crater. The locals took arms and tried to stop them, only to set of chain of events which led the norse settlers to unintentionally activating the monolith. Whole island except the monolith was transferred to a planet now called Morwe Gad. The people of Mornaw luckily arrived in western part of Tir Eira, far away from Xuu-waz in middle of Tir Poeth. Another extremely lucky thing is that they arrived in spring and managed to sort things out. Of course the first winter storm has claimed many of their lives, but some survived and managed to create mountain holdouts where they were safe.

The people intermingled over the years and became known as Morwen. The flora and fauna which adjusted to local conditions has spread all over Tir Eira, as well as did Morwen. However, not all was good forever. When Xuu-waz discovered them, Morwen were stopped from going south. Xuu-waz have started hunting Morwen extensively, making them into cattle or bringing trophies. Every Xuu-waz wanted place on the ship and early Morwen were easy pickings. 

Morwen have managed to defend themselves eventually, but it took a lot and thanks to the storm they could never create defences pernametly. Therefore, when spring began and everyone wanted to claim some land, the Xuu-waz raids were worst.

Many armed expeditions were made beyond the Pont y Byd, but no one has ever returned. Single adventurous as well as whole armies have disappeared without a trace. And so, Morwen got stuck with limited progress in perpetual hostility with the Xuu-waz.

Coming of Arnorians

Arnorian coming to Morwe Gad was standard exploration jump to uncharted planet. Always preferring the north hemisphere, Arnorians arrived in middle of Tir Eira. It took some time before they encountered Morwian settlement. Alarms sounded immediately and armed contingent was shortly prepared to meet them in field. Morwen were stubborn and many envoys had to come before they accepted Arnorians as allies. Not many Morwen were pleased by the idea of submitting and joining Arnorian realm, but one by one, Morwian jarls accepted under a condition of removing Xuu-waz threat.

A small company called Grest has been assembled and sent beyond the Pont y Byd. They completely scattered the Xuu-waz warband which marched north to raid. After crossing most of the great desert right beyond Pont y Byd, which Morwen call Môr Marw, Arnorians encountered what stoped so many others. After appearing on Ai's sensors, it dispatched robotic sentinels. Levitating war machines with no face. A fierce fight ensued in which were Arnorians clearly losing. The sentinels beamed white-yellow energies from their faces. Death rays piersing and melting through Arnorians. All the while Arnorians only scratched them. A single Sentinel was downed before self repairing and rejoining the fight. After that, Arnorian centurion called a retreat. For three days were Arnorians chased, without rest, sleep or a single breather. So few has returned from the Tir Poeth.

Unwilling to accept this the Palarran, freshly returned from repairs after encounter at Lamös, was dispatched to provide orbital support to much larger company. Upon closing to the planet, Palarran was hit by a salvo from the crashed spaceship. Only thanks to quick evasive maneuver Palarran survived, but even so damage was massive. Unable to take another hit Palarran retreated and any plans for another company were canceled.

Nevertheless Arnorians were still determined to keep their word. With help from Redierrs they build series of fortifications along the Pont y Byd capable to wether the storm. Morwian jarls hoped for more, but Arnorians kept their promise and so did Morwen.

Although the ship somehow disturbs the Subdimension, Arnorians managed to do a series of mini-jumps and retrieved bodies of their fallen.

Culture

Morwian culture has strong roots in both Norse and Celtic cultures. Their society is divided into Jarldoms, which most of the time hold one mountainhold each. A few petty kingdoms are scattered around Tir Eira, but no large state has ever been formed.

Morwen are always on edge with each other. The changed landscape after every storm makes it impossible to determine fixed borders. Feud after feud, families, and even Jarls of the mountainholds are constantly having small skirmishes. These small wars and raids from Xuu-waz keep the Morwen in fighting shape. However, no skirmish matters when Xuu-waz comes; the Morwen are always prepared to quell bad blood and stand shoulder to shoulder.

Technology

Morwian technology is very much comparable to that of 13th-century Earth. They have some faster-growing crops and enriched metals, but that is more a result of the storm than Morwian progress.

Relations with Arnor

Morwians have become the most intercorporated foreigners in Arnorian realm. They gained safety and knowledge and Arnor gained much needed manpower. Morwians naturally cannot get into high positions in Arnorian realm, but they add bodies to Arnorian forces which are more and more becoming an elite core rather than standart force.

Apart from manpower, Arnor studied effects of the storm on crops and gained a ability to greatly increase yield. This is allowing Arnorians to move into martial occupations rather than farming ones.