Nuhtbee Collective
Nuhtbee Collective is one of the oldest communities of planet Ephius who live on the secluded Nuht Island. They maintain an extreme communal lifestyle and refer to each other with the same name of Nuht. The only differentiation made to a person is to add their profession in front of Nuht: Painter Nuht, Baker Nuht.
Nuhtbee maintain a strong identity linked to the environment of the Nuht Island and organize themselves into groups based on affinity to a certain element of nature, like Tree Group, Grass Group, etc. Nuhtbee are incredibly technologically advanced in comparison to the rest of the planet, and can be considered an early industrial society. Nuhtbee are very secretive about their technology and do not share it with outsiders.
The structure of their society is non-hierarchical in nature, which makes a lot of things surprising to an outside observer. For instance, nuhtbee have no capital city. Each city tends to duplicate the infrastructure and functions, which exist in other cities, which gives all of them a very similar look and feel.
The Collective is formally governed by a despot ruler who must be a superhero warrior. However, the relationship of the ruler with the populace is complex and not straightforward.
Nuht Island
Nuht Island is a large island in the Awk Sea, containing a unique flora and fauna by virtue of being disconnected from the Continent. Discovered long ago by Continent travelers, it was kept a secret for more than a century by a religious cult Dariu, the members of which believed the island to be Quun Tirtoir, and did not want to share it with anyone. Their own attempts at penetrating the island's defenses have seemingly been unsuccessful, as the only massive expedition undertaken by the cult never returned. After its re-discovery by Carr Nuhlzee and Dultn Rantn, for the next 150 years it became a honeypot for daring adventurers, who quickly discovered that the island was inhabited by an enigmatic civilization. The vast majority of intruders, who tried to land on the shores of the island, had died at the hands of robotic defensive systems, protecting the island. At least 39 people had managed to land on the shores, but only 3 survived to tell the stories.