Humma Society
In primitive humma society each humma of property ruled an estate. These estates eventually became the property of the lineage and were ruled by an elected leader. The head of the lineage, called the Hum, was chosen by tradition from among the neuters over the age of 170. Most ruled till death but a lineage that suffered a set back might elect a new leader from available candidates. The response of a deposed leader ran the gamut from suicide to political machinations to aggressive attacks on the causes of his downfall, within or without the lineage.
Houses developed when several lineages banded together or landless lineages swore fealty to a successful one. In ancient and times it was not unheard of for a house to fracture as infighting erupted within its ranks but this event has become exceedingly rare in modern times.
Houses allied in a constantly shifting web of alliances, loyalties, and feudal obligations with the leaders of preeminent houses being named High Ones, Higher Ones and eventually the equivalent of king, Highest One. Humma history prior to the First Sathar War has been described as one long brawl. While the houses eventually stabilized the web of alliances between them was always prone to fracture until the advent of the sathar. Some sociologist predict a return to civil strife should the threat of the sathar ever be removed.
Modern hummarin society is still feudal. The threat of the sathar and their intense hatred for the worms has frozen in place the kingship and feudal titles with the houses holding them at the time of the SW1. This present situation may not hold but the house holding the kingship of the star system has used the crisis of genocidal attack by the sathar to solidify its position and shore up control of the system. More and more its rivals are finding that they may never be able to challenge the royal house as it funnels tax revenue into a military organization that only bears fealty to the king, and not to any house including his own.
All humma take the fealty they owe to their superiors as a very serious matter. Some actually add the name of their lineage or house to their personal name (Glaxchild, Kuld of Arius, etc.).
The gender roles within society are vastly different but with the unifying theme of preservation of the species. Since fertile females are always in limited supply traditional hummarin society focused on protecting those that survived infancy and effectively used them as markers for keeping score. Modern practices have relaxed some but the expectation remains that a fertile humma has an obligation to perpetuate the species and few if any buck the system.
The role of the virile male has traditionally been that of warrior. Some sociologists believe that the warrior role played an important role in humma society in controlling the burgeoning male population. With the average female mating at around age 20 years and most humma spending another 150 years as a male a disproportionate portion of the population is always male. It may have been that the evolution of the warrior ethic was a societal strategy to relieve the pressure produced by the gender imbalance. It had the dual effect of focusing male energies and thinning the male population.
For the males that reached old age or the neuter stage their role transitioned to that of leader. The reduced population that reaches this gender stage become the “keepers of the tribal wisdom” as it were and oversee the care for the young, administration of their houses and lineage, and plotting the advancement of the house of lineage. The most significant achievement of a neuter is playing a role in securing a seat among the royalty for his house or lineage.
Customs
Sociologist have endlessly speculated about war being a cultural imperitive among the humma, a way of thinning out the herd. However, their love for war and conflict seems to be rooted in the fabric of thier genetic code. The primal humma concern has been attaining status for himself, his lineage and his house. Modern Hummarin society has seen a shift in this quest for status. The pride and honor that humma have traditionally assigned to feats of war have come to include accomplishments in technical, scientific, and exploration endevors. There is even a house, Platget, that now sends out its descendants to become Star Law Rangers. The paradigm shift that has seen status being assigned to pursuits other than acts of martial prowess has had the side effect of creating a population boom. The humma have begun to dominate and develop three planets in their home system.
Since ancient times warring houses would clash in an endless brawl in the quest for status. Alliances and fortunes could change overnight. The leadership of these institutions had to be ever vigilent. This role almost always fell to the neuters who were less volatile then the younger males. Old age carries none of the stigma sometimes seen in other species. The neuter humma no longer have to prove themselves as they have a lifetime of accomplishment and are generally respected for having lived until this milestone in their lives. After this change in their bodies the ambitions of the neuter humma change from personal status to concern for his legacy and the status of his house and lineage. This is not to say a neuter humma gave up warfare as many continued in the ranks but generally serving as officers.
Under the feudal system the humma fought in units based on lineage and house. They evolved customs of wearing house or lineage colors and emblems, standards or "flags", and royal seats awarded based on status. These practices persist.
In prehistoric times the hummarin lineages maintained a lineage totem. This totem bore stylized representations of the lineage founder at the top and over time significant leaders would have their heads added in relief beneath that. To be immortalized on the this pole is a high honor. House poles are slightly different, they bear the heads of all the founders of all lineages within the house. In addition if a humma's accomplishments are so great he may be accorded a place on the house totem but generally he is granted the formal priviledge to establish a new lineage within a house and thus have his head added to the totem.
Tail rings for formal occasions and neck rings for everyday wear are commonly etched with designs from the house or lineage poles. Unless a humma is disgraced he can expect that his neck ring will be displayed in the house or lineage's estate. A great honor is for the most accomplished to have their ring attached to the house or lineage totem.
A simplified version of the totem was carried into battle called a house or lineage standard. It is a light weight pole with a hollow metal head and streaming wind sock (called the tail) behind it. The head is crafted to represent the founder of the lineage or house but with an open mouth. Its fluted and vented for sound as air passes into the mouth and out the trailing wind sock. The sound is typically a roar.
A charging humma bearing this standard creates a repetative series of roars and pauses as he hops into combat with each hop; the roar occuring on forward bounds. The rythm of this roar allows a commanding officer to control a large group of humma in their famous carousel attack. Even when an officer halts his standard bearer will continue to swing the standard in a figure eight pattern. Standard bearers are choosen from the largest and toughest warrior with the highest stamina neccessary to swing and carry the standard throughout a whole battle.
While the customs surrounding mating combat are ritualized and formal and they are hold themselves honor bound to their warrior codes they essentially have no rule or custom reguarding warfare in particular. Rather they believe that there are no rules in warfare. The humma are amoung the most vicious and dangerous opponents in the Frontier.
This has led to some problems with regiments of humma in the service of the Rim and United Planetary Federation as humma are quite fond of despoiling the bodies of vanquished enemies and eating them. The UPF has tried to enforce a uniform code of military conduct which regulates such activities but most non humma commanders have learned to look the other way.
The practice of eating enemies is ancient in origin and has seen a resurgence since the First Sathar War. Since the humma's hate for the sathar is only exceeded by that of the ifshnit it is not surprising that this custom has returned. For the humma, eating a vanguished enemy is the ultimate expression of his contempt. All humma refer to the sathar as "meat" and its probably just as well for the sathar that they perfer suicide to capture.
Government
Humma society is feudal with the equivalent of a king (called the Highest One) and royalty (Higher Ones, High Ones, and so forth). These positions are chosen by election within the house (rarely lineage) that has the status to hold one of these seats. Hummarin society has been an every flowing web of alliance and jockying for these positions.
The advent of the sathar changed all that. By convention the First Sathar War is called "first" because it was Frontier wide encompassing the Rim and Frontier. It was not the first sathar incurssion in the Rim, the sathar having previously attacked at the Osak and Capella systems. Despite long and tedious negotiations by the osakar and the ifshnit to bring the humma into an alliance for protection from the worms the humma viewed these other species as lacking enough status to entice them into an alliance. During SW1 the worms swarmed the Osak system destroying its space infrastructure and invaded Fokrik, the humma's home system. The devastation wrought by the sathar rocked hummarin society to its core and for the first time in history all humma banded together in one cause, destruction of the sathar.
With a unified planet the Highest One had the power to institute other changes, levying system wide taxes, government funded military organizations, changes in legal, educational, and medical systems. By universal acclaim all seats of royalty were frozen in place till the threat of the sathar was removed. The Highest One used the crisis to solidify his position and that of his house while remaking his society in response to the crisis. Many of the houses holding royal seats were relieved that they would not have to defend their positions but have now realized that the Highest One's power has surpassed them exponetially. With the economic might of the second most populated system in the Rim at his disposal his position is assured for decades to come.
Attitude
Most Frontiersman do not like the humma, and even
their fellow Rim dwellers are not overly fond of them. That is fine
with the humma, because they do not care for the other races either.
Humma are rude, crude, lewd, pushy, and arrogant. The only races they
enjoy working with are the yazirians (humma admired their battle rage)
and osakar (because no one likes them either).
The hummarin view
of the ifshnit is complicated. In the early days of contact between
these races the ifshnit, in the agency of the Capellan Free Merchants,
the races readily traded. The humma desirous of new technology and
motivated to boot strap themselves into space while the CFM were
interested in expanding new markets. The market that the humma
represented was so strong that the CFM established an enclave on the
planet Larg in the Fokrik system to better serve their operations. The
aggressive exploitation by the ifshnit in Fokrik led to their undoing.
Willing to sell advance military technology to any buye, rivals attacked
the CFM and a short interplanetary war resulted. The CFM lost heavily
in material (they were forced to abondon their enclave on Larg) but the
humma lost heavily in casualties. With the osakar playing peace makers
the war ended and relations stablized.
Only one other time has a
hummarin house dared to attack a CFM vessel trading with a rival. On
that occassion the CFM not only struck back with extreme prejudice but
they also sold at whole sale prices arms, weapons, and equipment to the
rivals. Between the reprisal by the CFM and the rival's "sensing food in
the larder" the offending house was wiped out. Since that time the
humma have noted the object lesson well and CFM vessels are left alone.
There
is a second sentient race that co-evolved with the humma, the
boon'sheh. The humma being humma have hounded this race to near
extinction. Their name for the boon'sheh is indicative of the humma
attitude toward them, beck (it translates literally as excriment).
Largely seen as lacking any status for their inability to successfully
fight back most humma are largely ambivelent toward the boon'sheh. They
were driven into the most inhospitable locals on the planet Hum then
most were forcibly relocated to Larg in the quest to claim resources to
fuel the growing space industry.
A few houses and lineages
believe that the boon'sheh should just be exterminated once and for all
but there may be economic motives for this attitude as even now the
perservations on Larg have been shown to harbour important natural
resources. The Highest One has legislated protections for them due to
pressure from the osakar and the ifshnit.
Houses and Lineages in Humma Society
House Arius holds a seat of Higher One and is allied to the royal
house. Its leadership has chafed under the political status quo but
cannot break publicly with the king. The lineages in House Arius turn
out the best spacers and figure prominently in the Fokrik Defence Fleet.
(+10% to one spacer skill, chosen at the time of acquiring the first
spacer skill)
Lineage Eruditi produces war priests, who are fervent to
the point of zealotry. They are identifiable by their clean outward
appearance, their hair being clean and scented with pleasant oils. Their
Hum, quite unusually, holds the title High One, a seat generally only
held by a house. The Eruditi believe that the surge of adrenaline during
combat is actually the spirit of a humma from a past battle taking over
the body. They follow even the slightest impulse, deeming it the “will
of the spirit.” This makes them very dangerous even to their allies
though strangely effective. (Eruditi gain +10 to melee combat but must
make a LOG check every 5 rounds or attack an adjacent ally as an enemy
but with no +10 bouns)
House Falsguck is another house that holds a seat of
Higher One and is the main rival of the royal house. It publicly
supports the king but plots privately to change the status quo. Its
members are noted for their ability to read a “tell” and react quickly
to erupting combat. (+1 initiative modifier)
Lineage Glax is
a very traditional, some say backward lineage, holding to ancient ways
and practices. It produces few warriors as few of the young born to its
members survive infancy. They live very close to nature. (+5% to stealth
and concealment)
House Globulos, has turned its efforts to theatre and
literature gaining Frontier wide fame by its innovative adaptations of
significant literature from other races, the most critically acclaimed
being “Last of the Mohicans” as a stage production. (+10 to creative and
performance skills)
House Jorah is the largest house with over 60 lineages.
Its members are statesmen, diplomats and its Hum is a Higher One. They
have played both sides of the political divide concerning supporting the
king. Their status makes them effective leaders among the humma. (+10
to LDR instead of -10)
Lineage Kro is one of the strangest of all humma
lineages. Its members shave all fur and cover themselves with tattoos.
Due to years of selective breeding, members of this lineage are larger
then the average humma (3.5m tall). They are also very warlike and not
to bright. (STR/STA +15, LOD -10)
House Platget now sends out its descendants to become Star Law Rangers. (+15% to interrogation attempts)
House Recksill is the Royal House and holder of the seat,
the Highest One. It has astutely maneuvered to solidify control of the
planet since SW1. Its members are noted for their intuition. (+10 INT)
History of the Humma and Fokrik System
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