Montis

The Montis, or Umma, are a race of man living on Harmony. The Montis are considered a lesser species on the racial hierarchy. The Montis are the remnants of a culture that is all but extinct, with their native laguage, architecture, and technology lost to civil war and disease. Today they are recluses of mountains and canyons, always living where others cannot easilly tread. Most Montis that leave their homes do so to participate in piracy, banditry, or are trained to become Askari; professional soldiers of the Cabal.

Physical Description
The effects of red mouth have caused the already slim build of the Montis to wither past the natural. These emaciated forms are further exacerbated by the common use of brown root, a psycho-active stimulant with side-effects such as loss of appetite and increased metabolism. Drugged and generally suffering from unrelenting pain, the Montis are generally hostile and apathetic; with even the most paitent of their kind being but a few bad moments from extreme violence. The emotional "dullness" of modern Umma is also a result of their disease, as the right hemisphere of the brain takes damage early in the Umma's life when their body is initially vulnerable to the disease. This disability leaves them with a difficulty in recognizing faces and processing emotions, forcing Immorti to rely on body language and accessories to determine mood and identity.

Montis produce very little of their own goods, as they have no centers of manufacture to produce them. They wear clothing that was not designed for them, and have little access to tools and medicine. If they have any material possessions that were not scavenged, self-crafted, or smuggled it is probably stolen; few can claim to have less than the wealthiest of the Umma.

Abilities
The Montis are a people with great reflexes and quick feet. These traits along with amazing dexterity make the Montis extremely efficient hand-to-hand combatants. These abilites are further enhanced by their suffering of the red mouth disease, which causes excessive production of adrenaline, and heightened aggression. When unable to engage in close combat, the Immorti run, hide, and sneak until they have the upperhand; a tactic that makes good use of their innate mobility.

When an Umma suffers a wound, the pain in generally indistinguishable from their passive suffering; they feel enough pain that it becomes a natural and mundane thing. This coupled with their hardy bodies makes them immune to non critical damage, with wounded Askari commonly fighting until their heart pumps the body dry.

Mentally the Umma are far from stupid. Their cold and apathetic approch to problems may be seen as a negative quality, but it ensures their prudence in all things. Additionally their inability to understand emotions normally causes their understanding of body language to take priority; with almost all Immorti becoming masters of reading micro-espressions, and hiding their own intensions.

History
The Montis were once considered noble savages and counted as a common species. When the great conquest came to them, the Montis held their ground. However, as red mouth spread throughout their population it effectively ended the war. The Umma were forced into the Angan Mountains. There, the uninfected tried desperately to stop the spread of the disease by exterminating the afflicted, who were to weak to fight back. Those infected that rose up from their great pain and fought back were nicknamed the "undying" or "immorti" by a foreign observer. By the end of this bloody civil war, uninfected Montis no longer existed, and the Umma as a whole were reduced to a lesser species.