Mathis Tribes Coalition

Less of a formal nation-state and more of a cooperation agreement between several small, loosely-associating, wandering tribes of individuals who – as they'll happily tell you – really aren't all that committed to the whole “tribes” structure anyway. The MTC exists primarily to conduct foreign diplomacy and ensue that nobody tries to claim Mathus and it star system as their own. The actual Coalition itself is run by a small council, who then elect an “Executive Representative” to act as, as the the name implies, an executive branch of government. The council can call for an election at any time, but has yet to do so even once, as none of the other members are terribly interested in the position.

The Mathis, almost all of whom live exclusively on their home-world, do not have an organized religion, per se, but they are all united by a handful of philosophical tenets, chief among which is a commitment to pacifism. On their home-world, they live distinctly non-technological, ascetic and largely solitary lives, but are often happy to share their thoughts with others.

The Tribes are revered by many - especially the Gashtor - for their wisdom (which is sometimes exaggerated by their portrayal in popular culture) and for their “secret knowledge” (which might not even exist). This has led to a peculiar phenomenon wherein people from other races will abandon their regular lives for months or even years at a time to go live with a Mathis (one who doesn't mind having them around, obviously) and accompany them as they go about their life. This is often thought of as a “spiritual journey” of sorts, but whether or not it actually possesses any value is deeply subjective.

The Mathus system went largely unnoticed by the TAWN and the YE, as the lack of obvious technology and large settlements made the civilization very easy to miss. What's more, Mathis are known to occasionally disappear into the planet's vast network of lava tunnels, sometimes for years at time. This made them difficult to oppress, but incredibly easy to occupy, as they possessed no standing military forces.