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.