Slaver Mantoids: Difference between revisions
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Mantoids prize newborn human infants for their flavor, and engage in ritual fights of dominance for the right to consume them. These fights can take place at any time once a human female begins to go into labor, and are usually fought only to the point of capitulation, as Mantoids do not believe in harming one another. However, since many Mantoids refuse to surrender (it is a point of personal pride to refuse to capitulate), many are wounded or even killed in these fights. The only instances where Mantoids will deliberately execute one of their own is to remove a ‘behavioral deviant’ from the community or to punish a Mantoid for the death of a female human (the Mantoids place supreme value upon the lives of breeder age females – women between the ages of 15 to 35) or of a human infant. (However, exceptions are made with ''females designated as workers'' in order to establish dominance and terror over other humans. This is accepted - albeit grudgingly so - and the Mantoid that does so must share his/her kill with others.) Occasionally, in order to deny a victor the spoils of his honorable victory, a defeated Mantoid will react by killing (or attempting to kill) either the newborn or the woman before she gives birth. This is considered (at present) one of the greatest crimes a Mantoid can commit (for it is considered a waste of food and a strike against the victor's honor), and is punished in the slowest, most grotesque and dishonorable manner possible. While some Mantoids hace been executed by being ejected into space, the worst of all possible executions is for the Mantoid to be bound, placed in an open area and then set upon by human slaves, who are free to do whatever they see fit without fear of retaliation.
===Luck and other superstitions===
A curious abberation to Mantoid society is that the Mantoids are very superstitious, to the point that it overrides almost everything else about their attitudes. Superstitious beliefs hold a very strong place in Mantoid society; for example, the concept of 'good luck' and 'bad luck' is so strong that a Mantoid who is believed to be possesed of 'bad luck' could possibly be killed by other Mantoids, in order to prevent that bad luck from somehow being transmitted to other Mantoids. Conversely, Mantoids who have managed to demonstrate that they are somehow possessed of 'good luck' are revered and move up in all facets of Mantoid society, including the opportunity to select better breeding partners (in the belief that the offspring will be born with the potential for greater luck).
The Mantoids realize that some humans are possessed of 'good and bad luck' to the point of being considered 'cursed' or 'blessed' beings; in these cases, the Mantoids will either try to keep that human near at all times (in the case of humand with good luck) or simply pretend that the human doesn't exist (in the case of bad luck). However, they will blanch at even the mention of killing that human, for fear of catastrophe; in the case that they capture such a human, he or she is treated as kindly as possible, allowed a measure of free movement and is not allowed to come to any harm, but is not allowed to go free (as the escape of a 'cursed' human is seen as a omen of catastrophe for the Mantoids).
==Consumables==
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