Black Ash Clan Intelligence Report
1) Basic Economics
1.a) Trade
The Black Ash Clan is...not engaged in any large-scale trading operations. All of their planets are self-sufficient, and what they cannot manufacture with their local artisans or very limited manufactories, they make do without.
As such, only 4 civilian Warp Ships ply trade between their worlds, primarily engaged in ferrying nobles, Knights, Knight parts, and luxuries for the target world's nobility. All of those freighters are unique classes of unknown designs, which are further muddled by literal millennia of repairs, patch jobs, additions, cut-off sections, and a plethora of further alterations that make these ships into their distinct creations. It should be further noted that the Black Ash Clan polity classifies all four ships as "Free Cities" instead of anything else. This is, apparently, due to a refusal by the captains and crews of the four ships to move any freight or person from the Five Sisters (as they call the collection of Feudal Worlds) ~2.800 years ago after an attempt to press them into service without paying any compensation. For this reason, they also refuse to ferry any person or item that swears fealty to or belongs to the Knight House of Featherschrei. They also reserve the right to shoot on sight at anyone carrying Disk Mold Cheese, a delicious local delicacy. We have no idea why.
As for military ships, they possess 47 vessels made up of 21 unique Dauntless variants, with the rest filled out with the Disk Lancer Corvette. The latter seems to be a corvette armed with a singular Prow Lance. Beyond that, no training operations were recorded.
1.b) Shipbuilding
The only shipyard the Black Ash Clan possess is in orbit around The Disk, a literal disk floating in space; we are
not kidding,
that is a fucking flat frisbee
hurtling through space. HOW?!
The casual breaking of physics aside, the Disk Shipyard, owned entirely by the Lord of the Diskyard, is nearly entirely focused on providing maintenance, even as it is slowly expanding to an ambitious size that would allow it to service
twice its number. Due to the lack of visible progress since contact was made, the expansion that started four centuries ago is unlikely to finish soon.
Their largest ship is the flagship
'Black Goat,' 5.6km long and a massively oversized Dauntless Mk1. The average Light Cruiser stands at 4.3km, and their Corvettes are 1.2km.
2) Socio-Economics
As far as we can determine, the typical life of those in the Lower Classes is near-identical to that speculated of peasants of Feudal Worlds in Federation media, with the added twist that the Black Ash Clan is a Matriarchy the entire way down, from the High Queen to the lowest farmer. Skilled artisans and mechanics near-entirely dominate the Middle Class, while the Upper Class consists of the Knight House Nobility. However, the Upper Class is not as decadently wealthy as the nobility of Voxx Primus and only has access to commodities that a Lower-middle-class member of the Federation can expect to pay for with a low-wage job.
They are organized in a Feudal Monarchy under a singular High Queen, with the most recent one consolidating political power underneath her throne one duel at a time.
Education exists primarily on an apprenticeship-based system, though some initiatives have been started by their new High Queen to improve literacy and knowing numbers among the Lower Classes.
As far as we can determine, they use a mostly capitalistic system of economics, with a side of being able to pay taxes in labor or goods.
The law is enforced settlement-by-settlement, with only the "Code of Honor of the Bosom" being a polity-spanning set of statutes governing primarily duels, inter-noble conduct, and conduct to non-nobles.
3) Corruption
No visible/noticeable Chaos Corruption was found. Mundane Corruption is likely within an acceptable scope.
4) Propaganda
This mostly focuses on the rights and duties of the Knights as the rulers and guardians of the people. Recently, a bent has been toward getting the people and nobility ready to fight against the Croaf Hegemony. Unsurprisingly, their Knights feature heavily in any propaganda effort.
They are silent about any other polity, even though we are sure they intend to use Black Cat Mercenaries in the coming war.
Their stance on psykers is equal to that of pre-dissolution Neon.
The theology of the Imperial Creed upon their worlds has been bent to worship the "God-Empress" instead of the God-Emperor, with the Mechanicum delegated to a forgotten memory for nearly everyone.
Black Cat Company Intelligence Report
Notice: This Report has been flagged with the [Unreliable] Warning.
1) Basic Economics
1.a) Trade
The Black Cat Company does not engage in any trade whatsoever beyond selling its ships for mercenary work. Its homeworld, "The Talon," is a fully self-sufficient Civilized World with shipyards capable of maintaining and replacing its giant fleet. The Company is suspected to have ~70-80 military ships.
1.b) Shipbuilding
They mostly use old Imperial Designs, though it is likely that after-Imperial modifications have taken place, considering that their Widomakers sport Missile Pods and fly at an estimated ~9 Gravities when roused to action.
Their largest ship is an unnamed battleship with unknown configuration and weapon loadout, though Lances are suspected to be its main armament.
The average Destroyer is 1.5km, the Frigates are 1.9km, the Light Cruisers are 4.4km, and their Heavy Cruisers are 5.5km long.
As far as we can determine, their shipyards are owned by the Company.
2) Socio-Economics
We suspect life for the Lower/Middle/Upper Classes is equal to pre-conquest Quintura Diablo, though we cannot back this up beyond media broadcasts acquired by a passing Scout.
We have no information on how their education system works.
They are likely heavily capitalistic, though an underlying message to their propaganda is that all military workers are given a minimum of food, water, medicine, clothing, and housing without impact on their pay.
We have no information on how their law enforcement works.
3) Corruption
No visible/noticeable Chaos Corruption was found. Mundane Corruption is likely within an acceptable scope.
4) Propaganda
Their propaganda mainly focuses on getting more recruits for the Black Cat Company, with the rest of the gathered broadcasts focusing on entertainment and glorifying war for coin.
They seem to have no mention of psykers within their broadcasts beyond the fact they exist and are dangerous.
The Croaf Hegemony Intelligence Report
Notice: This Report has been flagged with the [HEAVY SPECULATION] Warning.
1) Basic Economics
1.a) Trade
It is unknown how many ships the Hegeomy possesses beyond a rough count of ~80, what trade they engage in, or their sizes. Only that they possess solid defenses and up to one Grand Cruiser scale ship.
1.b) Shipbuilding
Their ship production capabilities are unknown, as is the ownership status of their shipyards.
2) Socio-Economics
Considering the incomplete broadcasts caught by our scouts, the lot of their society is likely structured like that of Neon and the Free Duchy. The Lower and Middle Classes suffer what they must, and the Upper Classes reap the rewards of their labor. It should be noted here that we have strong evidence to suggest that planets under the Hegemony are prohibited from utilizing any kind of stellar infrastructure or even spaceships unless they are directly owned by the governing caste of Imperial Navigators that seem to have established their nation after the retreat of the Imperium from the Sector.
We have no information on how their education system works.
No concrete information about their economic system is known, but they use slave labor, as shown in various snippets of information gathered by our scouts, which show either Abhumans or Xenos in chains performing hard labor.
We have no information on how their law enforcement works.
3) Corruption
No visible/noticeable Chaos Corruption was noticed. Mundane Corruption likely exists heavily.
4) Propaganda
All we know about their propaganda broadcasts is that they focus on instilling into their oppressed populations that they are rightfully ground-bound and that the stars are only for those elevated by their betters.
Alongside that, anti-Abhuman/Xenos propaganda focuses on them being rightly in chains and used as labor for their "rebellious nature" and "contempt for the natural order of things."
Next Intelligence Reports:
(6-Hour Moratorium)
[] Shipwright's Alliance and Stellar Growth
[] Mashan Temple Authority and Ashan Families
[] Eldar - (Lone Wave) and the Republic of Asharru
Further Questions:
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