Hive Kin
Slaves
Forager
Riders
Queensguard
Siege Colossus
Hive Kin
Chroniclers have some idea of when it happened - seemingly around the times of famine that befell all tribes of Korash's south east. Though as records of the tribe before the event can't be found, and they are not in the habit of sharing their history with outsiders, the specifics are still uncertain.
The why of it is more clear. It seemed those same famines forced them to brave a Korashi ant hive, assaulting further and further into the labyrinthine warrens as they searched out ever deeper nursery caves, full of soft larval meat and reservoirs of water.
But the how... At this, the chroniclers can only guess. How did this tribe come to tame - and then in turn, be tamed by - a hive of Korashi ants?
Scholars understand that both Korashi ants and their tiny cousins use a bewildering system of scents to identify their own, and - up to a point - to communicate. It is surmised then that the tribe who were to become the Hive Kin found methods of extracting these scents from the glands of slain ants, bathing their people in the stolen solutions. Apparently, this - or something like it - was enough to convince the hive that the human creatures within its warrens where a part of their collective, and intruders bent on devouring their young.
Maybe it is only natural that the tribe would begin to worship the strange and powerful creatures all around - to become enthralled by the machine-like perfection that is their society, and its defiant survival in their dying land. To observe up close as these creatures - each one less intelligent even than a lizard - build, war, hunt and gather, forming from scattered simplicity a complex and capable society... Perhaps in that immaculate living clockwork they glimpsed, or thought they glimpsed, something of the divine.
Or, perhaps they simply went mad. Ant worship seems mad from the perspective of outsiders. Though mad or not, they became the Hive Kin, perhaps the most enigmatic of the tribes.
Contrary to rumour, they do trade - though with a hesitancy that betrays their discomfort with outsiders. And they will engage in diplomacy - though not very well: they are prone to making demands, believing with a frank, self-evidenced certainty in the obvious superiority of their people, and their bizarre way of life (and thus, the obvious inferiority of all others).
Sometimes, some of their number will even become scholars (or something similar enough to the scholars of other tribes that the term might as well be applied), travelling to distant lands under the usual sacred protections that such privileged knowledgeseekers are afforded, to gather and exchange lore; although, even these sages of their tribe do not know most its secrets. Only the insular caste of priestesses bear that privilege.
What all outsiders agree on is the tribe's aptitude for war, and lack of hesitation in declaring it. They have little fear of death, it seems, and their casual attitude towards the suffering of others leaves them quite capable of atrocity. And, of course, they command an army of giant ants. And despite their comparative lack of technology or strategic subtlety, once on the warpath they are accursedly difficult to halt - surging outward from their hives, devouring or enslaving all before them, then receding like an ebbing wave back to their tunnels with the spoils of their victory. Surge, and recede, surge and recede - like some terrible force of nature.
Factions (the tribes)
Forager
Riders
Queensguard
Siege Colossus
Hive Kin
Chroniclers have some idea of when it happened - seemingly around the times of famine that befell all tribes of Korash's south east. Though as records of the tribe before the event can't be found, and they are not in the habit of sharing their history with outsiders, the specifics are still uncertain.
The why of it is more clear. It seemed those same famines forced them to brave a Korashi ant hive, assaulting further and further into the labyrinthine warrens as they searched out ever deeper nursery caves, full of soft larval meat and reservoirs of water.
But the how... At this, the chroniclers can only guess. How did this tribe come to tame - and then in turn, be tamed by - a hive of Korashi ants?
Scholars understand that both Korashi ants and their tiny cousins use a bewildering system of scents to identify their own, and - up to a point - to communicate. It is surmised then that the tribe who were to become the Hive Kin found methods of extracting these scents from the glands of slain ants, bathing their people in the stolen solutions. Apparently, this - or something like it - was enough to convince the hive that the human creatures within its warrens where a part of their collective, and intruders bent on devouring their young.
Maybe it is only natural that the tribe would begin to worship the strange and powerful creatures all around - to become enthralled by the machine-like perfection that is their society, and its defiant survival in their dying land. To observe up close as these creatures - each one less intelligent even than a lizard - build, war, hunt and gather, forming from scattered simplicity a complex and capable society... Perhaps in that immaculate living clockwork they glimpsed, or thought they glimpsed, something of the divine.
Or, perhaps they simply went mad. Ant worship seems mad from the perspective of outsiders. Though mad or not, they became the Hive Kin, perhaps the most enigmatic of the tribes.
Contrary to rumour, they do trade - though with a hesitancy that betrays their discomfort with outsiders. And they will engage in diplomacy - though not very well: they are prone to making demands, believing with a frank, self-evidenced certainty in the obvious superiority of their people, and their bizarre way of life (and thus, the obvious inferiority of all others).
Sometimes, some of their number will even become scholars (or something similar enough to the scholars of other tribes that the term might as well be applied), travelling to distant lands under the usual sacred protections that such privileged knowledgeseekers are afforded, to gather and exchange lore; although, even these sages of their tribe do not know most its secrets. Only the insular caste of priestesses bear that privilege.
What all outsiders agree on is the tribe's aptitude for war, and lack of hesitation in declaring it. They have little fear of death, it seems, and their casual attitude towards the suffering of others leaves them quite capable of atrocity. And, of course, they command an army of giant ants. And despite their comparative lack of technology or strategic subtlety, once on the warpath they are accursedly difficult to halt - surging outward from their hives, devouring or enslaving all before them, then receding like an ebbing wave back to their tunnels with the spoils of their victory. Surge, and recede, surge and recede - like some terrible force of nature.
Factions (the tribes)
Comments
Post a Comment