M'nengi

Starport	C	Routine: No Construction, Major Repair, Unrefined fuel
Size	5	Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere	7	Standard (tainted)
Hydrographics	1	Dry World 10%
Population	3	Low (2 thousand)
Government	6	Captive Government/Colony
Law	7	Moderate Law (no firearms)
Tech Level	9	Early Stellar (fusion)

Primary Star

K1 V

Atmosphere

Standard (tainted)

Off-world presence

No

Zoetic individuals

Yes

Source

Reference

Signal-GK 08 21-25.

Canon

No

Also see

The M'nengi of Bechant (Dagudashaag 3039) are a Minor Non-Human Race with a semi-humanoid appearance and technologically developing sophonts.

Description (Specifications)

The M'nengi are an orphan race of sentient carnivore/scavengers, believed to have originated somewhere deep in the Zarushagar Sector.

Physiology & Ecology

The 2.5 meter-high race reached the Bechant in Laraa Subsector sometime near the end of the Long Night in an asteroid generation ship. It is now generally accepted that the M'nengi did not build the ship but stole it from an as yet unidentified race. The origins of the ship have never been confirmed because the M'nengi regard the ship as a holy site and have refused to allow anyone to examine it.

History & Background (Dossier)

It is currently believed that the M'Nengi originated on, an unidentified, oxygen-rich, high-gravity planet somewhere deep within the Zarushagar Sector. The reasons for the proto-M'Nengi gaining intelligence are unknown but they were assisted in their evolution by the ability to stand upright and by the development of fingers. What is generally accepted is that the M'Nengi must have managed to maintain a TL–3 nomadic society without outside assistance. It is also generally accepted that their Generation Ship "Giaani M'n" was built by another, as yet unidentified race and, that a viable colony of M'Nengi were somehow stranded onboard as it drifted through space. The M'Nengi seemed to retain the knowledge of how to maintain it through rituals, without any real sense of understanding. No one knows for certain how many generations of M'Nengi lived and died on board before the ship entered the gravitational influence of Bechant. Scientists trying to discover the history of the M'Nengi have been frustrated by their cultural attitudes of living in the present, with no real sense of past or future. They have also absolutely refused to allow non-M'Nengi to examine the interior of the giant asteroid ship. Unauthorized attempts to examine the ship have been attempted, but all have ended in failure.

The entire interior appears to have been booby-trapped by a mixture of high and low technology weaponry designed to kill in the most painful ways imaginable. How the M'Nengi survive their 'visits' is not known.

It is known from archaeological records on Bechant, that after recovering from the many earthquakes and tremors that accompanied the asteroid's arrival, the surviving Solomani colonists sent ships up to examine the visitor. The ships returned filled with M'Nengi hordes. The remaining colony was wiped out almost overnight. The existing city became the M'Nengi 'Khoa'ti or City of Kings and the rest of the M'Nengi built their own primitive cities amidst the dunes.

Archaeologists have been unable to explain why Bechant, or Chaa'egi M'da (First Crop) as the M'Nengi call it, was never visited prior to the Third Imperium. What is known is that Scouts discovered a stable TL–5 civilization on Bechant and that initially they were treated peacefully by the M'Nengi. During this period, the M'Nengi had been forced to utterly abandon Giaani M'n, though it continues to play a major role in their rituals even up to the present day.

For several years the M'Nengi endured the Imperium's visits peacefully. Then in 102 a visiting Scout ship expressed an interest in visiting the asteroid ship. The captain and most of the crew were tortured and eaten. Certain crew members were allowed to live until they had taught the M'Nengi the 'rituals' of running the ship. Four other ships sent out to investigate the scout ship's disappearance were subsequently captured. The M'Nengi hordes then proceeded to use these ships to attack and massacre neighboring planets. In 104 the Imperium finally agreed to send a battle cruiser to end once and for all the M'Nengi threat.

The M'Nengi expected honorable hand-to-hand combat instead they were slaughtered by weapons of mass destruction, first on NewPort and then on Bechant. The M'Nengi saw no honor in hopeless resistance to the slaughter; the survivors surrendered and were quarantined on the surface of Bechant. There they remained until the Civil War.

With the advent of a major power struggle in Dagudashaag, the blockade was forgotten. It is believed that an independent free trader may have taken this opportunity to try and open up new markets. It is almost certain that the crew ended up as dinner as the M'Nengi once more gained access to raid its neighbors. This is considered the bloodiest period in known M'Nengi history and was only stopped with the return of the Imperial fleet. Outraged and sickened by the depravity of their slaughter of the Pediica colony and others, the duke ordered every adult M'Nengi slaughtered. It is generally believed that the duke would have utterly exterminated the race in retaliation if it had not been for Cardinal Paliason's passionate plea to spare the innocent.

Fewer than 100 cubs survived the massacre. It was assumed at the time that the M'Nengi would die out through inbreeding within a couple of centuries. Instead, three years later, the eldest M'Nengi made a passionate appeal to the duke to allow him to personally visit Giaani M'n so that he could make his peace with his gods. This appeal was granted, and the M'Nengi youth entered the deadly corridors. A few hours later Imperial sensors registered a pulse of energy lasting only three nanoseconds coming from deep within the 'moon'. The next day the M'Nengi youth walked forth unscathed. After his return to Bechant the M'Nengi females began to produce broods of six or seven cubs, each of which survived to maturity. This continued until the adult population reached its current level of approximately 2,000 in the mid-800s and stabilized.

The situation has now reverted to racial norms, with only the strongest two cubs surviving nesting and an average of three out of every five adults dying before age twenty due to violence. Since the Civil War defeat, the M'Nengi have shown no interest in going off-planet and gradually the restrictions have began to be lifted.

Today Bechant is classified as a Green Zone. Most of the planet is un-colonized and visitors are free to roam unrestricted. Khoa'ta is primarily a M'Nengi-free zone and visitors are only allowed access to the M'Nengi sites under the care of experienced guides. Marines and factors continue to occupy the city of Khoa'ta and the starport while the M'Nengi live in their primitive cities.

Their cities are usually built on outcrops of the poorest land. They consist of several stockades surrounding a couple of hundred windowless, single story, round dwellings packed as close together as possible. These buildings, which in many ways are more like tents, are known as Yt's and are formed from a frame of sand-reed and hides, with mud sandwiched between. M'Nengi believe that windows would allow evil spirits easy access. Beyond the stockades are the animal pens and grazing grounds. While access to starships is utterly forbidden, certain M'Nengi are allowed to travel off-world and the Khoa has even been allowed to purchase a Jump-1 starship for his personal visits to New Port and Giaani M'n.

Astrography

This race is primarily located in the following areas:
Charted Space:

Dagudashaag Sector
- Laraa Subsector

Homeworld

The homeworld of this race (sophontic species) is:

Bechant (Dagudashaag 3039)

World Listing

Significant communities of this race are known to dwell within the following systems and worlds:

2 of 2 World articles in M'nengi

Bechant • Pediica •

startbacknext(2 listed)

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

Jae Campbell. "Contact: M'nengi." Signal-GK 08 (1994): 21-25. via HIWG
Jae Campbell. Encyclopaedia Dagudashaag (Signal-GK, 2017), 251-252.
Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science