Usually quite prolific in warmer climates, boulderous worlds have a propensity for being quickly buried beneath great flights of snow in the colder regions, turning after a time into planet spanning tundra, or ‘snow-globes’ as they are popularly known. Liu’Weck is located near the fringes of tundric space, and fosters a society of bizarre one-legged people. At heart a fun loving species, their physiology allows for attaining breakneck speeds travelling over the open plains, having a natural skate in place of a regular foot and a supremely streamlined form. Where they commonly live obstacles are so infrequent that crashes are basically unheard of except in adolescents. Despite their boundless energy, technology on the planet has never developed beyond simple tailoring or carpentry, and due to the rising of the snowy plains it is now impossible for one to dawn, with metals being locked so far beneath the ice. Luckily the Mesen’Chi are not dismayed at this and have expressed no interest in adopting tools from off-worlders, instead continuing to live as the reavers and sled-jockeys that they were prior to first contact. Some other species have travelled to Liu’Weck, but they live primarily amidst the few remaining mountain peaks and so contact between the two is infrequent.
A curious myth pervades much of their modes of thought, that being that in the distant future the earth will rise to meet the stars, and that they will be gifted the cosmos. Most believe this to be a glacially slow process, and are content that their furthest descendants will one day witness the event. This implies that they are at least peripherally aware of the piling effect of the snow on their planet, but that instead of despairing at it they have come to perceive the phenomenon as ultimately beneficial. A strange inversion of the popular ‘afterlife’ creed, this model of being positions the stars as the true centre of existence, relegating the current material setting on Liu’Weck to insignificance. The crux of this belief is that the future is alive, while the past is for all intents and purposes already dead, being overridden by whatever happens after it. This philosophy has manifested in tenuous relations between expat and home-dwelling Mesen’Chi, who view each other with a sort of placid contempt. Generally travelling individuals see their cousins as incapable of grasping onto the future, whereas those who have stayed regard their fellows cautiously, apprehensive to subvert their ancient customs. Some worry that their eager brethren might have denied them the future that was always prophesied.
In general the species is possessed of an indescribable urge to climb to great heights, a difficult task for a people of just one limb, who are rewarded handily in standing for completing the feat. This is likely a result of the environmental pressure of the rising snow, once necessitating that they avoid lowland areas, but infiltrating most areas of their philosophy. Spiritual ascetics on the other hand are content merely to skate the great plains, the most severe refusing even to jump such is their assurance that they will one day reach the stars. Every summiting of a new mountain earns an individual the right to adorn their person with a stone talisman of some kind. These are hallowed objects that are becoming exceedingly rare as the snow rises, and each new stone that a tribe comes into possession of is cause for celebration. The most renowned groups are those with the greatest treasuries of stone objects, and individuals bristling with stone totems are deferred to on the basis of their singular strength of will. Being mobile, clans transport their goods on the backs of specialised sleds, strung along in caravans and lagging behind the more adventurous members of the cohort.
An individual who finds a new stone is not allowed to keep it, instead apparently being blessed with good fortune of some kind. This figures in the dual mythology of stone against snow that pervades Mesen’Chi mythology. Stones are seen as eager but thoughtless bestowers of their essence, whereas the snows are much more patient patrons who throughout an individual's life will bestow them imperceptibly with the fortunes that they seek. Despite being competing presences in folk-loric tales, the two forces are said to complement one another and it is up to the individual to decide which they resonate with the strongest. Mesen’Chi have long ears that flutter in the arctic wind, and these are often adorned with trinkets of personal significance; beads, bones or shards of blue ice that, having no arms, they could not easily keep on their person otherwise. Simple goggles fashioned from bone are a popular accessory, and are synonymous with speed, being developed to prevent their lidless eyes from being ruptured by a projectile while travelling at extreme velocities. Thought to be planarian, it is possible that their distant ancestors once bored through the snow, accounting for their hermaphroditic nature. With every individual capable of bearing children, it often falls to the more respected partner to raise them. The other parent will figure prominently in the child's life, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the child-bearer, most often of a greater standing in the clan, to ensure their survival.