Editing The Yaotl (section)

== Society ==

While the Yaotl are clearly organized and capable of cooperating on projects of massive scale, it is debatable as to whether or not they have a society at all. Yaotls do not naturally socialize as humans do, as they do not negotiate for mating rights and are too territorial to interact with anyone other than their hormonally indoctrinated young, and have only been witnessed communicating with one another through machine interfaces. Aside from binary communications between Yaotl-built systems, which Mechanicus Explorators have confirmed do not imply an overarching language even on a single colony or even a ship, no Yaotl has ever been observed to communicate in a language other than that of the rare individual they have elected to approach for trade.

Yaotl are organized by their biology into clans, consisting of a dominant individual, their immature servants, and other Yaotls that have either been recently impregnated by the Alpha or are recovering from the birthing process. Between the territories of these clans lists an ill-defined neutral zone, where mature Yaotls who have not yet mated (or have mated, but as the inferior partner) languish, awaiting the opportunity to seize their own territory and start their own clan. This would be the highest state of Yaotl 'civilization' were it not for Yaotl biology naturally producing individuals whose intelligence vastly exceeds that of the average or even exceptional human. These individuals can effectively manipulate less intelligent Yaotl alphas, allowing for clans to form larger political structures (frequently, without the knowledge of those inside the clan itself). This arrangement is more akin to one (or more rarely, a few individuals) training and cajoling animals than it is a society or organization, as Yaotl vary in intelligence from sub to (heretical as it may be to make public) considerably above human levels. Thus, the Yaotls have a complex and ever shifting web of alliances, tributary clans and manipulated clans. Yaotl politics is to shadowy, complicated and chaotic for most races to grasp; fortunately for diplomats but less fortunately for neighbors, the Yaotl do not seem to be interested in dealing with outsiders in a non-violent fashion apart from the extremely rare trade. The primary activity of these clan networks, generally referred to among the Ordo Xenos as Tyrannies, appears to be the subjugation of rival Tyrannies, strip-mining their territory of all available resources, and occasionally organizing large scale raids which can devastate entire sectors. 

The Yaotl Hierarchy, as the Imperium has designated it, is the main Yaotl polity. This is the largest and oldest stable Yaotl entity known to date, and raids the Imperium with much less frequency than other, shorter-lived Yaotl tyrannies, while having conducted more than half of known trades between Yaotl individuals and other species. The Hierarchy found in the Halo Zone near the border of the Segmentums Pacificus and Tempestus; smaller Yaotl empires can be found in the surrounding regions, or rarely further into Imperial space. Due to the nature of the Halo Zone, there is little contact between the Hierarchy and the Imperium beyond periodic raiding fleets and the rare Imperial reprisal when the opportunity presents itself. How the Hierarchy itself is structured is unknown, but speculated to be radically different from the petty tyrannies surrounding it. Though knowledge of the astrography of the Halo Zone is hazy, it appears that over the centuries the Hierarchy has been drifting ever closer to the Segmentum Tempestus for unknown reasons.