Marrakun

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Marrakun (Marrah-coon) is the name of a multi-island region within the plane of Purgatorio, located to the south-east of the Necrotic Tower and to the north-east of the Witch's Waste. It is dominated by a bubbling, steep-walled volcano (Ahkahrrah), into which is built an Iron Fortress named Marrakun-Ahk.

Like all places within Purgatorio, the islands themselves are remnants from a previous universe and were once the site of a Nexal battlefield (much as Saint Germaine is now). As such, Marrakun contains its own "pre-war" and "post-war" history.

[edit] History

The history of Marrakun is moderately preserved within various documents found within the various "forgotten" buildings that comprise its make-up. However, the bulk of its history and library science appears to be contained within decaying computer systems of some kind which utilize programming languages entirely alien to current thinking.

[edit] Marrakunian Culture

The Marrakunians were a war-focused caste society with an enormous slave population (who may or may not have been used as "spare parts").

The Marrakunian caste hierarchy appears to have been:

• Marrakun - the singular lord of the realm.
• Marrakun-Gaa - the immediate spawn of the Marrakun
• Loghi-Marh - the "elite" soldiers; those who have proven themselves in battle.
• Loghi-Buhr - the "common" soldiers
• Yaruh-ha - "White Collar" workers involved in the priesthood, science, or magic
• Yaruh-wei - "White Collar" workers involved in some sort of service, including merchants
• Nehiine - the worker slave class.

Any Marrakunian (save the Nehiine) could better his lot by entering military service. Anyone of a higher caste had the power of life and death (literally) over anyone in a lower caste.

[edit] Marrakunian Technology

The "technology" possessed by the Marrakunians was a bizarre mish-mash of magic and science - they appeared to use both equally, with sorcerer-priests being accorded the same respect as physicists (both of these types of Marrakunians fell into the same caste).

Marrakunian science was almost wholly bent towards developing engines of war - even at the expense of basic technology. This, plus the abundance of slave labor, led to a bizarre, lopsided technological infrastructure. For example, they had the technology to replace limbs with working cybernetic prosthetics, but still ground lenses by hand using what amounts to middle-age techniques (why build a robot to grind glass when slaves exist?)

Few artifacts of Marrakunian technology have been discovered that continue to work. It appears that most devices drew "power" both from some physical source (such as electricity) as well as a form of "magical" power. Some researchers believe that Marrakunian civilizations made use of large magical "broadcast stations" which would send out a blanket "signal". However, the knowledge of creating such a station has been lost.

[edit] Marrakunian Biology

What can be determined about the "Marrakunian" biology is that the "human" inhabitants were biologically different than that of Earth/Saint Germaine. Bone analysis indicates that the Marrakunians were both cold-blooded and reproduced by laying eggs. Skeletons that can be found there indicate the species was thick, short, and stocky, and possessed prehensile tails and vestigial wings. Broad skulls with thick foreheads and vestigial ridges indicate a high degree of biologically-inherent aggressiveness.

However, few skeletons or mummified corpses have been found that had not been cybernetically enhanced in some way or another. Many Marrakunians had been radically altered, and it is obvious that such alterations were typically introduced at an early age. Marrakunian medical technology was rarely preventative in nature - documents indicate that rather than treating an infection in an arm, surgeons were more likely to simply remove the limb and replace it with a "superior" prosthetic.

Further, the degree of cyberneticization (and the quality of implants) appears to be directly tied to the caste of an individual Marrakunian.

Interestingly, there appears to be an entire caste of Marrakunians who sport no cybernetic modifications whatsoever. However, these skeletons appear to have been constructed out of body parts taken from several other Marrakunians.