Husseri

A humanoid species, they evolved from an animal resembling a reptile and known for their cunning hunting tactics in the wetlands of the planet.

While their distant ancestors were cold-blooded and nearly completely covered in scales, the modern Husseri only have patches of scales that are largely just a holdover from their evolution, though the markings those scales create do play into social actions and standing. They also do not suffer from the negative drawbacks of being cold-blooded any longer, though the species as a whole does not deal well with low temperatures.

Their scales, which cover much of the body excepting the front of the torso and stomach, have long since stopped providing any protection against anything but light cuts and scrapes, but are seen as an advantage in the industrial sector none-the-less.

Their mouths, once a means of swallowing food whole, have largely lost the ability to unhinge as they could earlier on in the fossil record, though their mouths remain wide in a way that many, humans especially, find somewhat unsettling. The interior of their mouths are dominated by four large canine-like fangs, in amongst their other teeth. These fangs are considered a sign of ones birth, and their visual status can be used as a social point against certain individuals if their teeth are dirty, damaged, or broken. Of course, in the modern age it is not hard to get replacements, or even just a cap, but these options remain unpopular amongst the majority of the species.

Lowland Husseri organize them in many differing ways across the wetlands, but the most common way to do so is simply by families or by settlement. They eschew the clan system used by the highland Husseri. That being said, even as the Husseri industrial age started, some lowland Husseri, enriched by their 'land', attempted to bring some of the glamour of the upper plateaus to the lowands and adopted a familial system similar to the highland clans though it has become something else over the centuries.

Said clan system is important to the function of highlander society, as ones familial prestige is directly tied into many aspects of highlander life. Each clan is made of many families, which are jockeying for their own prestige within the clan, leaving both names as important.

Families moving between clans is a somewhat common practice, as is the adoption of individuals from one family to the other. these actions regularly show up in the political games of the Husseri. Certain families or clans are nominally a part of larger organizations, but are functionally free agents. As long as they aren't going against their nominal patron, this is accepted. If they completely break from the structure of the clans, however, they can be deemed Einselgän and marked as outcasts.

This can happen for differing reasons; with some clans simply being driven out by political rivals or choosing such of life purposely to live on their own on the frontier, many others are declared Einselgän for criminal behavior. Many Husseri pirate factions are, in actuality, Einselgän clans.

The lowland Husseri follow much simpler naming schemes than their siblings of higher altitudes, following a given name then family name format. They will invert this if they are doing business on the plateaus, or those that live upon them, for ease of communication. A habit that often persists when they are traveling the stars.

The Highlands on the other hand, have three part names that descend in the size of the umbrella that they cover. Traditionally the nation that they hail from is the first part, though since the uniting of the Husseri this just translates to the name of the plateau you hail from instead. Next is the clan name, which is then followed by a family name and finally a given name. The name that is used between individuals is a pretty accurate indicator of familiarity, with clan names being used as informal monikers between strangers and given names being used between relatives and the closest of friends.

The modern Husseri culture was born early on in the species social development, though it would take millennia to come to fruition.

The oldest archeological evidence points to the species first developing into nomadic bands that would travel across the wetlands of their homeworld in search of prey to hunt, and they would develop primitive tools to aid in this. Spears and bows being represented often in ancient artifacts. Due to the arid nature of the planets vast plateaus, they were largely avoided during the species early history.

These bands regularly clashed over hunting lands as well as for simple trophies and renown, with a few tribes creating the ancestor to the "polmekia" system; a sort of war tithe that involved the aggressing tribe challenging a tribe of recent hunting success to a duel of sorts. If the aggressing tribe won, they would seize the losers resent spoils, but otherwise leave the tribe in peace. If they lost, they would be forced to move on.

Simple metallurgy would not be employed by the species until long after they developed a sedentary society, which would come about when a few tribes would be driven from the lowlands and onto the plateaus. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that this had happened, evidence suggest it as a favorite method of punishment for a tribes enemies. An effective exile with the promise of a slow and painful starvation, but eventually those that were forced skywards figured out ways to survive. They couldn't hunt, there wasn't enough wildlife on the arid plateaus, but they began to subsist through farming. By no means an easy feat, but clever irrigation techniques would make it possible.

For a long time, this was viewed as a lesser form of living by the Husseri, and thus seen as part of the punishment for those that were driven onto the highlands. They didn't account for the power it could give one to be able to stay in one place.

As time progressed and the wealth of the sedentary Husseri began to be noticed, the defensive benefits of the high ground also began to be notice when the lowland tribes were repelled in their attempts at raiding again and again, all across the planet. The power balance had inverted. In time, they would advance to something resembling the Human's medieval age, with kings and queens claiming whole plateaus for themselves. While they would war and skirmish with each other well into the species industrial revolution, those first regents would prove resilient to the tests of time and war, with 95% of all bloodlines established before the Husseri bronze age survive until contemprancy unbroken.

That being said, the species likely could not have united in a way that would get them to the galactic stage if it wasn't for the intraspecies war of conflict that is largely credited with blunting the species overall taste for war, conducted by the God King; Diactoris.

Born to a minor kingdom, during the species industrialization, Diactoris had a knack for military command from a young age, a knack that his father nourished, and Diactoris himself used to great effect when he came into his crown. His homeland quickly grew, and grew, and by the time the God King had earned his title, there were few places on Eniephus untouched by his empire.

It was then that he seemingly had an epiphany of sorts. The conquest stopped, his iron grip suddenly lessened, and he looked inwards to his empire. He set about restructuring it, not around himself but around the sense of nationalism that he had fostered within it. The Princedom was born. No king over all, but united none the less.

A parliament of crowns.

This would serve as the basis for the largely unified government that would get them to the stars.