Part 1 - Rejeptile Part 2 - Felona Part 4 - Coming Soon Welcome to Part 3 of the 4 New Races Multi-thread, featuring the Vespinites! Previously, I talked about the Rejeptiles, vicious brutal mockeries of reptiles everywhere; and Felona, kind but arrogant felines. Now, we go into a new region unexplored by Chucklefish yet...Shall we begin? Biology The Vespinites, alternatively known as the Hivoid, Hymenians, Fae (by Frostyshark) and other names, are a race of Bipedal Insect people. They are shorter than most races, being an average 5 feet tall at most, with fragile exoskeletons surrounding their bodies. Every Vespinite has an abdomen which carries their vital organs, and has either antennae, tendrils, or a plume of quills in place of normal hair, which usually can be styled easily do to flexibility of each feature. They have only four limbs however, the third set having disappeared as a result of evolving in the low-stress environments of their home world (or what they thought was low stress at least). The other two sets usually have around 2 to 3 claws and a thumb-like digit on their hands, all ending in a fine tip that can perform the most gentle movements, making them near perfect with microscopic circuitry without the need for tweezers-like tools. Their eyes are very large, multi-facetted domes for eyes, and a small mouth with biting mandibles capable of being snugged to the sides of the outer cheek, sometimes giving the impression they have four separate jaws even though they are dominated by only two. Their fragile exoskeletons are shiny and colorful, mostly of browns, blacks, yellows, reds, and greens with various designs. The most common design, however, is a brownish-red body with a black abdomen. The most noble Vespinites have yellow and black stripes, and a plumage of fuzz around their wrists, ankles, abdomens, and collars like a fur coat. Only the most powerful Vespinites harness the power to fly. Vespinites are omnivorous, both hunting and farming for their food, planting and growing 'Honeycomb plants' that are naturally found on their home world. A smart traveler never leaves without them. Do to some recent discoveries, there will be no Advantages\Disadvantages for Vespinites until more people begin to like this thread. This does, however, give me more room to write the lengthy Society section. Technology The technology of Vespinites is somewhat advances for most other races, but not nearly as advanced as Humans and Apex. However, they are the first race to have built over 75% of all their technology using biological means. Most of their armor, weapons, vehicles, and other machines are created using the natural materials created by their hive lords, intertwined with metal from the ground for the more advanced tech. The design of their machinery thus often matches a honeycomb design, with lots of yellow and orange colors. Advanced microchip technology is all they were able to create on their own without the help of the Rejeptiles teaching them of weapons and advanced devices of warfare. Finally, it was the Apex who accidentally crash-landed on the planet they shared with the Rejeptiles, allowing them to discover spaceflight and escape the threat of their sister race. All Vespinites start off with a barbed sword, like the Cerulium Datablip. Society The Hivoids naturally are born into a caste system, in the same way a beehive works, with workers and such acting as the bulk of the system. Beyond the influence of their ancestors, however, they have for the most part taken on individuality and self-reliance, a theme which developed later for them than other races. Most castes of Vespinites are able to think for themselves with a personality independent of the hive mind, though some still act as machines to their governors. The mass of individuals are still mostly related, though not by much. The Hive Monarch, the dominating ruler of hive, produces several up to 2 dozen eggs in one generation. These eggs hatch into Hive Matriarchs, lesser queens under the Monarch, who produce 3 dozen of their own eggs. These eggs hatch into Hive Matrons, who then produce Hive Mothers, who finally produce the rest of the colony, leading to nearly a hundred gatherings of unrelated individuals, leading to a much higher chance of total survival than a single queen producing the whole hive en masse. While the workers cannot reproduce naturally, their individual minds make them curious and so some groups of two or more workers (gender confusion is irrelevant since 70% of the colony are females) gather their younger siblings and pretend to mother them. This works very well, since it increases positive relationships between siblings and allows the intelligence of individuals to be less volatile. While technically genderless due to a lack of sexual organs, workers also seem to pretend there is a multitude of sexes like male and female based on other physical or mental differences. The complex society features a limited number of castes due to most castes being able to perform a single job. Hivoids may be able to slowly consume certain chemical mixtures produced by the hive to mutate themselves and allow them to perform a different profession if that profession is at a lack of members due to, say, a plague or an invasion. The castes are as follows; Workers, who perform all major jobs as hive construction and repair, food production, material refinery, nursing of eggs and young etc.; gatherers and hunters, two separate classes who harness different genetic traits to either grow and harvest plant-life within internal 'farms' inside the hive, or to hunt and kill meat-based food; the soldiers, the only caste which contains both females and "males", who protect the hive or partake in raids on enemy hives; drones, the only all-male caste which develop into maturity from young male soldiers and act as both military leaders and as partners for the many queens in a hive (almost all drones originate in a different hive than the ones they live in); and, other than the queens, the myrmarchs, who enforce to hive monarchs will, acting as judges and managers of work. Hive lords, a special caste of totally genderless biological machines, are not birthed by queens but built using advanced genetic manipulation, merging a drone and a queen into a single mutated blob that devourers ores and bio-matter, filtering out impurities and producing the foundation from which the hives are built. Basically they are giant living cement-mixers. Relations with other races The Vespinites are very kind and open to all races, but years of slavery under the Rejeptiles have left them fearful of all other races, and so they seclude themselves from others in underground hives reminiscent of their original homes of ancient times. Some hives have separated from the kindness of their sisters and have become murderous vandals, always trying to defile another races culture in the belief that there are no kind people in the universe. Most have found a fondness for the kindness of the Hylotl, and as the Rejeptiles they revere the Apex as divine. They are always on the run from Rejeptiles and are always hostile to solitary ones. A Rejeptile invasion of a world will result in the total evacuation of all Vespinite hives until the Rejeptiles have left the planet. Felona and Vespinites have had difficulties with each other trying to control a planet, and thus are very tense with one another. Culture The culture of Hivoids is mostly atheistic, worshipping no gods (though seeing Apex as something close). However, they are possibly the most civilized of all races because of this, having little religious interferences with there new found individuality. They do seem to believe in an afterlife, and think the first Monarch of a hive watches over them after death, acting as god for them and guiding them down the paths of right and wrong. Structures The Vespinites have, like all races, two different structures. Both of these structures are underground, hidden from the surface with only a single entrance exposed. The first of these structures is of the hostile Avengers, a splinter cell of the original populace who are hostile to all other races. These underground strongholds have a very large funnel opening that lets only their large warships in and out, protected by giant bio-mechanical cannons resembling giant beetles. Soldiers constantly wander the winding halls and tunnels, and attack anything that enters, including other Hivoids. The single tower room in the center is filled with weapons, bunkers, and docked ships preparing to invade neighboring worlds. The Monarch resides in a central "inner sphere" and if killed will send the hive into disarray. The design of this structure is in a flat bell shape, or round like a wasps nest. Mining pipes leading down into underground caves are the only safe way to gain access. The second structure is of the kinder people, who always accept visitors but will not allow violence. The shape is more of a splat-like form, with different tower cavities scattered about, interconnected by pipes. As reference, a tower cavity is a huge open chamber with several many-roomed tower structures used for living spaces, with makeshift farms beneath each. The floor of all these chambers are filled with a thick, poisonous gold ooze that irrigates these farms and gives nutrients to both the Honeycomb plants and the colony itself. The queens live in the tops of these towers, the Monarch in the highest of all. This structure is the larger of the two, and would possibly end up being the largest in the game itself if implemented. They lack the warships and mining tunnels of the war hives. Both structures are filled with lakes of this toxic 'honey', and are made up of comb-like structures you would expect from an insect hive. Fancy décor is always common. Story Finally, the good part. The reason you are floating around in space in the first place! After many hundreds of years in the enslavement of the creatures they share a home world with, the Rejeptiles, who discovered the Vespinites during a mining expedition and went about imprisoning all the Hive Monarchs of the world to keep their new found slaves in line. One day, however, the Apex ship that crash landed on the planet gave the Rejeptiles their new vessel for conquering the galaxy...and the vessel for freedom of the Vespinites! After the Rejeptiles successfully reverse engineered the technology, the Hivoids quickly stole a sum of hyperspace drives and reverse-reverse engineered them for their own use! In the secrecy of the deep underground hollows beneath the planet, so dangerous that Rejeptiles dare not venture without Vespinite guides, they built huge colony-ships capable of transporting several hives worth of Vespinites, materials, food, and technology across the stars, and once all the preparations were made, the time came to free their Monarchs! While a coalition of revolts and uprisings distracted the Rejeptile overlords, the real resisters snuck into the prison chambers where the enslaved Monarchs were being held. After securing the Monarchs and surrounding them with protection, the colony-ships launched, bombarding the prisons with gunfire while the ground troopers defended the queens from the Rejeptiles who would surely execute them. Many Monarchs died in the process, but a good number were freed from their chains and escaped into the stars. The Rejeptiles, not willing to lose their only way of extorting the Hivoids, they easily took down dozens of colony-ships, but for the most part, the Vespinite race had finally escaped! Several ships were damaged or stranded, though, separated from the main exodus and lost in the stars. On one of those small ships, a lone Hivoid overlooks a strange world where s\he intends to land and make repairs. That Hivoid is you.
