Hishmeri Septs

The Hishmer are organized into seven Septs based around specific "breeds" that have distinct colouration and markings. Sept leadership is loosely monarchical, with succession based on the adopting the individual Hishmeri deemed the most intelligent of his or her generation, selected by either leadership performance in Sept raids or developing useful new technology, and having them educated by the current “Majestic” of the Sept and their closest advisors.

There is no meaningful distinction between the military and civilian vessels of the Hishmeri, or between their fleet and their society.

The Perfect
The Domain is ruled for life by a “Perfect” advised by a council comprised of all seven "Majestics". The "Perfect" cannot be a Majestic themselves but is chosen by the council of Majestics when the current Perfect dies.

The Perfect theoretically has absolute power over the Septs but is actually hemmed in by unwritten rules and the fundamental instability of the Septs themselves. Some Perfects are unquestioned dictators and others are little better than figureheads depending on the skill and intelligence of the particular Perfect. Most Perfects live only a decade before they die in combat or are assassinated by their council of Majestics.

The main job of the Perfect is to maintain a long term vision for Hishmer expansion and to conduct foreign relations. And in such matters most Perfects are generally obeyed though, to date, even the most far sighted Perfect lacks the education or context to see a future for the Hishmer beyond the Septs' collective stomach. Though the newest perfect seems to be toying with a vision of a wider Hishmer Empire based around demanding tribute for protection.

Competition
Internal matters are much different. The Septs constantly jockey militarily for resources and living space on the constantly expanding orbital habitats that the Hishmer build in orbit of their claimed worlds. Each Sept has a number of semi-permanent orbital habitats that they maintain as bases to extract resources from the surface bound Brosman slaves. However most Hishmer live aboard ships that are constantly on the move, raiding Sept neighbours, other Septs, acting as hired muscle, or merely exploring for new food sources.

This obsession with food is due to the explosive population growth that the Hishmer are undergoing. Due to their large litters and rapid maturation the Hishmer Septs are constantly on the edge of a malthusian collapse.

Industry
The Hishmer themselves are surprisingly able to maintain their level of technology and in fact have a surprisingly capable industrial capacity. This is due in large part to being able to replace computers and machines with their large manpower pool as almost all Hishmer are capable of rapidly picking up demonstrated skills. Especially “rote” skills. These labourers are unfortunately easily distracted; but sometimes also become hyper focused on small parts of a task or one "interesting" part of a full task. Obsessively focused Master savants for a variety of tasks from shipwrights to generals and even artists are not uncommon, they just don't blend well with industrial society.

At the centre of the great nomadic fleet is a mobile shipyard, a tremendously large super-capital scale construct that can build both city ships, auxiliary ships, and the prized Andalusian frigates.

Military
The Hishmer are classic nomadic raiders, sweeping in with a lifelong knowledge of exactly what their ships can do and how to get the best out of their weapons. Most ships belong to a single ship-clan and when they operate in any larger formation it is almost always with other clans in their Sept and only very rarely with inter-Sept fleets, and usually only then in a Grand Raid.

Hishmeri raiders operating on their own will generally prefer to close to short range and use their oversized crew compliments for boarding operations. Though they prefer to take boarded ships as prizes, Hishmeri ship clans have no problem with mere smash and grab attacks against vessels that put up stronger than expected resistance. Boarding and then withdrawing at high speed.

When operating in formations the Hishmeri raiders operate with a Swarm doctrine that operates without heed of loss and focuses on quick raiding strikes that seek to seize the initiative and keep opponents off keel and unable to rapidly react. Though by the nature of Hishmeri raiding the Sept warfleets will avoid heavily defended targets and perform poorly in large scale fleet battles due to a lack of large formation coordination.

The majority of the Hishmeri ship clans live and raid aboard 900kt to 1mt large frigates that are optimized for speed and combat with a particular focus on boarding actions and carrying overly large crew compliments.

Active Ship Classes

 * Andalusian
 * Thoroughbred