Data File Updated: Tuesday, March 04, 2025

The Umiak Hierarchy of Principal Committees, Administrative Assemblies, and Contributing Accessories (or just "Hierarchy" for short) is an international treaty organization that includes the internal Umiak government and the governments of its many client states. Information on the inner workings of the Umiak government (or even the internal layout of Umiak territory) is difficult to obtain, as the Umiak have a very closed society, and movement within their territory is strictly controlled. The Umiak government is deeply bureaucratic and decentralized, and is collectivist/communal, especially at the lower levels. The Umiak seem to have a pragmatic view toward their alien client states, in the sense that each relationship appears to be unique, based on the needs of the moment; some clients are virtually enslaved, while others retain near-full autonomy and even their own military fleets. The one common theme among them is that the Umiak impose oppressively burdensome taxation in the form of resource extraction or production quotas that are at the extreme limit of what is physically possible to produce, and seemingly without regard to environmental or social impact.

The Umiak have been expanding toward the Steppes region for several hundred years, but details of the Hierarchy's formation are unknown. The date of formation, total number of clients, the exact location of the Umiak homeworld, and the true size of the empire are facts not known by any of the local races, including the Umiak client races themselves. The following list of members of the Hierarchy is therefore incomplete, mostly based on pre-war contacts.

Race: Umiak
Affiliation: Hierarchy Taskmasters
Biology: Low-gravity exoskeletal quadrupeds 2-3m in length. Two arms with four-digit clawed manipulators. Three primary eyes, and four secondary ocelli. Three sub-species (Hal-tik, Tizik-tik, and Kikkut), and numerous engineered derivatives. Cybernetic alteration is also common. See main article: Umiak.
Homeworld: Kkukit-tikhal
Notes: As individuals, the Umiak prize logic, efficiency and humility above all. They are tireless workers (it is rumored that they sleep little if at all) and their attention to detail borders on compulsive obsession. As a national entity, the Umiak are ambitious and aggressive, and seem bent on expansion and the domination of their neighbors. Their need to control their surroundings hints at a certain level of racial paranoia, and the drastic steps they are willing to take to accomplish their objectives (be it ecological ruin or total self-modification) suggest deep-seated issues of self-esteem and resentment that stem from their origins as a downtrodden subspecies. The Umiak see the Loroi as an inherent threat to their existence, but also as a remnant of the ancient Soia system in which their Hal-tik ancestors were slaves.

Race: Morat
Affiliation: Dependent Ally
Biology: 1.6m tall furred mammaloid bipeds. Separated by less than a million years from the pre-Soia common ancestor with their Delrias cousins, the Morat are smaller and sleeker, and with a more varied diet and a less martial culture. Considered "degenerate scavengers" by the purely carnivorous Delrias, the Morat are nonetheless quite dangerous in personal combat.
Homeworld: Kabel
Capital: Morat
History: Not unlike the Delrias, the Morat exhibit a nationalist pride, born of their ancestral history of pre-Soia galactic empire, that belies their current status as a client state. Prior to the war, the Morat had been Umiak trading partners in the Steppes region, but were independent-minded and had strongly resisted Umiak pressure for more binding ties. The Morat had helped facilitate early contact between Loroi and Umiak, but Morat reaction to the Loroi was suspicious: while very interested to learn of the existence of their ancient Delrias kin, the Morat were not pleased to find them under Loroi occupation. Rapid expansion of both the Loroi and Umiak into the Steppes hemmed in and squeezed out any ambitions of Morat expansion. The Morat finally acceded to Umiak influence at the start of the war when the Loroi forced the issue by using Morat space for their failed 2136 counterattack. 
Notes: The Morat are still nominally a sovereign power, and Morat fleets continue to fight alongside their Umiak allies when defending their section of the frontier. However, ever since the Loroi Semoset offensive brought Loroi lines back into contact with Morat territory in 2146, Loroi raids have ravaged many of the Morat border systems, and the ruinous demands of the Umiak war economy have left the Morat impoverished, depopulated and demoralized, a hollow shell of their former prosperity. Despite possession of an independent military, the Morat are now almost wholly dependent on the Umiak for their survival.

Race: Lurs
Affiliation: Subjugated Population
Biology: 6m tall lanky bipedal giants. Slow-moving, they stride atop stalk-like legs through their marshy natural habitat, their bodies a tangle of moss-covered wild fur. An extremely specialized diet doesn't provide much energy, but the vocal mimicry that they use to trigger their symbiotic link with the flora that provide their primary food source has also served them well in matter of diplomacy... despite being absurd-looking giants that require a low-gravity environment.
Homeworld: Oazn
Notes: The Lurs were already firmly under the Umiak thrall when the Loroi first contacted them in the early 2100's. They were seen occasionally in Morat and Tithric ports, but despite their skill at communication kept to their own affairs and did not engage in much contact with the Loroi. It is assumed from the Lurs' massive size and obvious discomfort under standard gravity that their homeworld Oazn has about one-half standard gravity, a feature which no doubt drew special interest from the low-gravity Umiak. Forming a wedge between Morat and Tithric territory, Lurs space has been out of the reach of Loroi raiders since the Umiak invasion and so is relatively untouched. Loroi intelligence believes that Lurs space is being used by the Umiak as a major forward industrial region, complete with Umiak colonies taking advantage of the lower-gravity environments to aid in production, so this region has long been a target of Loroi planning for future offensives.

Race: Tithric
Affiliation: Dependent Ally
Biology: 1.2m long sluglike body with rows of knobby ventral pseudo-appendages to improve mobility. Three of the upper pairs of appendages have developed into manipulators, and the four sensory stalks on the head can also be used as rough manipulators, particularly for food.
Notes: Situated in a precarious location on the coreward end of the Steppes front, the Tithric desired to remain neutral in the war, but did not have the political unity to make neutrality work. Local systems seeking to profit from the overtures offered by both sides made independent deals, in some cases even permitting Umiak forces to pass through their territory to raid Loroi systems. The Loroi pressed the Tithric to put a stop to this, but the central government was too weak and corrupt to control its own systems, leaving the Loroi little option but to conduct interdiction raids into Tithric space. These attacks finally unified the Tithric politically and prompted the formation of a stronger central government (and a formal alliance with the Umiak), but it was too late: the Loroi under Admiral Sunfall razed the entire region. Though destroyed as a functioning nation, the Tithric are not extinct. Some refugees escaped into Umiak territory, and survivors continue to eke out an existence on the devastated Tithric worlds, mostly cut off from the interstellar community. 

Race: Tenuki
Affiliation: Partially Amalgamated Population
Biology: Small (1m), furry, round, bipedal, bushy tails. Their homeworld of Misras is in the depths of an ice age, but the Tenuki have adapted well to warmer climates on other worlds.
Homeworld: Misras
Notes: The Umiak had already expanded just past Tenuki territory when they met the Loroi, and had begun the process of absorbing the feisty Tenuki into the Hierarchy. Tenacious but pragmatic, the Tenuki valued their freedom but recognized that their only way of retaining some self-determination would be to aid the Umiak as vigorously as they could. It was from the Tenuki border that the Umiak launched the first strikes of the war against the Loroi, and the Tenuki have been beyond Loroi contact ever since.

Race: Jilaad
Affiliation: Subjugated Population
Biology: Three-lobed polyp-like head/body, three long spindly legs. Each of the three lobes has its own separately-focusable eye. The lower body houses a single long tentacular manipulator, and three sets of hand-like groups of short tentacles, one above each leg.
Notes: Prior to the war, the Jilaad in the southern reaches of the Maiad sector were more concerned with resisting the encroaching Loroi sphere of influence than they were about the still-distant Umiak. But by 2139, the Umiak had expanded into contact with Jilaad territory, and the Umiak, desperate to open a new front against the Loroi, ran over the Jilaad like a freight train. Overrun, and further isolated by the new no-man's land created in the Maiad sector in 2151, it is not known how the main Jilaad nation is faring under Umiak control. A few outlying independent Jilaad colonies did remain beyond the Umiak surge, and these have since been annexed by the Loroi.

Race: Orgus
Affiliation: Subjugated Population
Biology: Squat, three-limbed
Homeworld: Orgus
Notes: The Orgus specialized in up-arm trade, on the far side of the Umiak sphere of influence from the Loroi point of view. They refused Umiak requests to join in the far-away war against the Loroi, and also attempted to maintain the exclusivity of their trading contacts by barring the passage of Umiak exploratory vessels up-arm. As the Umiak expanded ever closer, tensions grew until, somewhat unexpectedly, the Umiak invaded in 2158 and swiftly took control. A few long-range traders were able to use their knowledge of the periphery to escape the invasion before the Umiak sealed off the systems. Some fled toward their trading contacts up-arm, but one vessel was forced to flee in the direction of Human territory, and is now under the protection of Humanity.