the vowel system is back-heavy on purpose, yes, to give it lots of ways to fall over in the descendants.

Manchu seems to have something similar, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_language#Vowels but the back vowels are even closer together and there doesn't seem to be a rounding distinction. i like the idea of /u/ being fronted initially. maybe word-finally, though.

For Proto Martial I was moving towards a vowel length distinction with something like

ə > e
iə > e:

a > a
ai > a:

ɒ > o or o:, depending on environment (after ß, which i wrote as an eszett because it makes long vowels)

ɯ > u
u > u:

i > i
ui > i:

idk about allophonics except the ß thing i mentioned

proto-RM also ends up with vowel lengths maybe except just a a: i i: u u: