Tackling another area of the humma; <br /><br />[quote=Zebs]"Humma society is feudal with the equivalent of a king (called Highest One) and royalty (Higher Ones, High Ones and so forth). The fealty they owe their superiors is a very serious matter with them. Humma are usually named after their forebears or the houses they serve (Glaxchild, Klud, or Arius, etc.). The lineage of a Humma is important to him and a source of pride.<br /><br />In the last few decades the pride and honor that humma have traditonally assigned to feats of war have come to include accomplishments in technical and scientific areas and explorations. There is even a house, Platget, that now sends out its descendants to become Star Law Rangers.[/quote]<br /><br />First of I need to state that I made two assumptions concerning the above paragraphs when I started digging into the humma.<br /><br />1. was that Glaxchild is the name of a hummarin House but its really an example of a humma being named for his forbearer. Though there is now some concensus in the thread on humma reproduction that kitten and litter are prefered words over child.<br /><br />2. I assumed that a Humma's House was determined by birth into it (like a Klingons) but that does not neccessarily bear from the statement in Zebs, "the house they serve."<br /><br />I like the idea that a humma's house doubles as his family with the female turned male pretty much abandoning the litter soon after birth and the neuters of the house ensuring the proper care and education of the young. Note I'm not trying to push the human cliche of the man not being involved with child care and etc. However since the book specifies house and lineage as being separate things then we should keep them separate though they could be closely associated- I like the idea of a House being several closely associated lineages.<br /><br />Zebs also tells us that the sathar threat was the only thing that ended centuries if not millenia of civil strife and unified the planet. So I like the idea that the king and various seat of royalty come from or are assigned by tradition to various houses. Before the sathar the focus of civil war was to gain the position for your house to have the kings or some other royalty throne appropriated to your house. It was situation of in fighting, treachery, and might make right, <br />The advent of the sathar may have unified the humma for now but some houses are not so happy with the arrangement of who has what seat of power. this gives you an undercurrent of instability beneath the surface to work with as a GM. The hummarin government can take measures to impeach a house and strip away its seat whether Highest One, Higher One or High One- in the past this led to war by that house and its allies and supporters.<br /><br />the cause that led the humma to set aside centuries of civil war was the sathar's whole sale killing of females and or cybernetically implanting them. since females only reproduce once the cultural imperitive is to protect them and as a race the humma are incensed over what happened thus they have unified. Some sociologist warn that without the threat of the sathar that humma society may yet return to a constant state of civil strife.<br /><br />I also see war as cultural imperitive in the humma as a way of thinning out the male population; with a lifespan of 200+ years and they turn male after 1 mating then the male population will be a huge segment of the overall population always. <br /><br />Neuters are viewed with respect because they lived through their turbulent male period and thus must now be wise, lucky or something. It would fall to the neuters to watch over the females. <br /><br />A non traditional female would chafe at the expectation that she has the obligation to mate while traditional females will gladly fulfill their duty to their race.
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