Mulian (The Other Other Not Humans)

Description:

Externally and aesthetically, mulians look identical to humans. The way they age, stages of life, life expectancy, etc, is no different to that of humans. However, despite this external, aesthetic sameness, it could also be argued that genetically, mulians are more different to humans that any other living sentient species on the planet, and are, in fact, perhaps the most distantly isolated of any living sentient races too. Whether their aesthetic similarities are due to evolutionary convergence or due to magical interference has not been clearly determined, though may possibly be due to some combination of both.

Unlike most sentient species, which use the iron-based hemoglobin as their choice of metalloprotein to transport oxygen throughout their bodies, mulians use the copper-based hemocyanin, used similarly by certain types of crabs and spiders. This also means that while the oxygen-carrying blood of most sentient species tends to be a bright red colour while oxygenated (thus the term "red blood cells"), or a purple-like colour while deoxygenated, the oxygen-carrying blood of mulians tends to be a deep blue while oxygenated, and semi-transparent while deoxygenated.

Internally, there are also some notable differences between mulians and humans. In particular, the left-right orientation of most internal organs is reversed, with for example, the heart being located on the left in humans, and on the right in mulians.

None of these differences are visible externally, and some other physiological differences are present to help maintain this apparent sameness, such as differences in composition of skin pigmentation and so on.

There are also some minor, but notable neurological differences between humans and mulians, which could affect socialisation in some instances. For example; Given their different evolutionary background, and likely variations in their equivalent of a neocortex, the parts of the "lizard brain" affecting their flight-or-fight responses would be somewhat different, having both somewhat different trigers and anticipated responses. Mulians are also more heavily numbers-oriented and process-oriented in their thinking than humans (which doesn't necessarily imply anything about the intelligence of either species, but merely implies a difference in their approach to problem solving), and less emotions-oriented in their thinking than humans (which also, doesn't mean they'd be without emotions, but simply that they'd process emotions differently), and generally have a distinctly different sense of humour than humans, to the point that most mulians probably wouldn't understand human humour in most cases, sometimes just not completely, and sometimes not at all, with the reverse also being true.

Distribution:

Their potential distribution would be no different than that of humans, due to similar ecological niche, adaptability and so on. However, mulians would be most densely distributed throughout their homeland, the Republic of Mu, while outside of their homeland, in human territories, it's likely that true distribution would be difficult to ascertain, given that most mulians would be inclined to hide their true identity as mulians, pretending to be humans, to avoid potential problems arising due to human xenophobia and negative superstitions. Outside of human territories though, their distribution would likely be similar to that of humans.