Queensguard
To the Hive Kin, the queen is a living god. Mother to thousands, vast in size, secreted away beneath the world. Without her, the tribe's insectoid companions would die out, and perhaps the tribe along with them.
Only two castes of human are allowed into the queen's hallowed inner sanctum - the priestesses, those strange beings who speak only in cryptic phrases, smiling their knowing smiles and wearing their translucent cloaks, fashioned from the gossamer wing-stuff of flying ants; and the queensguard.
Beyond guarding the royal chambers, the queensguard have a secondary role - that of elite soldier, deployed when a task requires a small number of nigh-peerless warriors. They may be stationed, for instance, to guard the inner chambers of a sandship carrying vital supplies for a hive colony's survival (and indeed, the Hive Kin do possess a small number of sandships, treating them as something akin to mobile hives). Or perhaps they will be deployed to infiltrate an enemy hold ahead of an invasion, secretly opening its gates or slaying swathes of its garrison before vanishing back into the night.
All of this they accomplish with an uncanny strength, speed, and endurance. Truly, those chosen to join the ranks of this caste are exceptional fighters and athletes. But of course, all are of these abilities are within the limits of human capacity...
...Aren't they?
And what of their sleek, exoskeletal armour - those insectoid suits they are never seen without? Is it armour? It must be. Though, the contours of it's shaped segments are superb. The Hive Kin have grown truly skilled in their crafting of discarded carapace, but the queensguards' suits would have to be the pinnacle of that skill, covering their wearers from head to toe in perfectly fitted plates. Like a second skin of carapace. Almost as if the pieces where grown especially for their human forms. But that couldn't be the case...
And then there are those rare accounts reaching the other tribes from the Hive Kin themselves - that no-one knows who joins the ranks of the queensguard. Who where these warriors, before donning the armour? And how are they never seen without it, clad always, always, as they are in those immaculate exoskeletons?
There are quiet speculations of secret breeding chambers, known only to the priestesses and the queensguard themselves, where special, changed children are born and grow - too quickly - deep beneath the world, away from the light of the sun... But such things stretch the limits of credulity, and are surely products of the tribe's own bizarre mythologies.
And yet...
Original lineart by Ellen, background is Creative Commons media
Hive Kin
Only two castes of human are allowed into the queen's hallowed inner sanctum - the priestesses, those strange beings who speak only in cryptic phrases, smiling their knowing smiles and wearing their translucent cloaks, fashioned from the gossamer wing-stuff of flying ants; and the queensguard.
Beyond guarding the royal chambers, the queensguard have a secondary role - that of elite soldier, deployed when a task requires a small number of nigh-peerless warriors. They may be stationed, for instance, to guard the inner chambers of a sandship carrying vital supplies for a hive colony's survival (and indeed, the Hive Kin do possess a small number of sandships, treating them as something akin to mobile hives). Or perhaps they will be deployed to infiltrate an enemy hold ahead of an invasion, secretly opening its gates or slaying swathes of its garrison before vanishing back into the night.
All of this they accomplish with an uncanny strength, speed, and endurance. Truly, those chosen to join the ranks of this caste are exceptional fighters and athletes. But of course, all are of these abilities are within the limits of human capacity...
...Aren't they?
And what of their sleek, exoskeletal armour - those insectoid suits they are never seen without? Is it armour? It must be. Though, the contours of it's shaped segments are superb. The Hive Kin have grown truly skilled in their crafting of discarded carapace, but the queensguards' suits would have to be the pinnacle of that skill, covering their wearers from head to toe in perfectly fitted plates. Like a second skin of carapace. Almost as if the pieces where grown especially for their human forms. But that couldn't be the case...
And then there are those rare accounts reaching the other tribes from the Hive Kin themselves - that no-one knows who joins the ranks of the queensguard. Who where these warriors, before donning the armour? And how are they never seen without it, clad always, always, as they are in those immaculate exoskeletons?
There are quiet speculations of secret breeding chambers, known only to the priestesses and the queensguard themselves, where special, changed children are born and grow - too quickly - deep beneath the world, away from the light of the sun... But such things stretch the limits of credulity, and are surely products of the tribe's own bizarre mythologies.
And yet...
Hive Kin
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