WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0052 0052
Bạn đang xem bản rút gọn của tài liệu. Xem và tải ngay bản đầy đủ của tài liệu tại đây (1.05 MB, 1 trang )
gathering site, where she mates with as many as fifty of
them to begin a new hive population. Drones sacrifice
themselves for the honor and the pleasure. Newly fertile, the young queen then returns to her hive, or seeks
out an entirely new location for a hive, to begin laying
eggs. In the meantime, the workers open up the brood
chamber again, emptying the cells of food so the new
queen can lay eggs to replace the missing population.
Thus the Krikis expand across the face of Khitus.
Krikis occasionally overthrow a reigning queen when
something goes wrong, such as when the queen suffers
an injury, becomes ill, or grows too old to lay healthy
eggs. House workers guide the queen into laying eggs
in cells that they secretly remodel into queen cells.
Guard Krikis on hand closely watch this conspiracy and
the other workers only proceed with their approval. The
workers then keep the queen away from those cells while
the new queens mature. When the first one hatches, the
house krikis simply hope for this younger and presumably stronger queen to attack and kill the old one in
battle, after which she takes nominal control of the hive.
Warriors, in addition to patrolling the environs around
a hive, spend some time each year scouting out new
locations for hives before the next swarming. When a
scout warrior finds a cavern, it explores to measure the
dimensions of the cavity and its relative humidity for
suitability as a hive location. Ideally, a site has only one
main entrance, which limits the amount of guard Krikis
needed when it becomes a hive.
Intraspecies Warfare & Krikis Rivalry
Krikis only breed in communal societies, and aside
from the intelligent warriors, live out their lives within
those societies. Krikis of the three major colors (black,
red, & yellow) hate each other intensely and battle over
resources constantly. However rare, single hives can also
erupt in massive civil wars, often but not exclusively
instigated by a new queen’s failure to depose an older,
established hive queen.
Krikis wage war in search of food, to defend territory, to
obtain slaves, and for other reasons. It is a misconception
that warriors conduct all the fighting. In fact, workers
and drones are more often in the thick of hive-focused
battles, driven by instinctual impulses or chemical triggers from a queen. Such combatants often give way to
allow warriors better access to the enemy when they arrive on the scene.
Krikis behavior is driven by smells. The lack of food
smell drives them to gather more. The smell of an ailing queen drives workers to aid her or make arrangements for her demise. The smell of enemies—or specifically non-members of one’s hive—drives them to battle.
50
They recognize members of the same hive via special
password scents that nurse workers provide when pupae first mature into adults. If enemies gain a password scent, that Krikis hive could not defend effectively
against them, even if such were hated other-colored
Krikis. Scents or chemical triggers matter more than the
color of one’s chitin in a pinch.
Some Krikis hives are slavers, attacking other hives,
and the hives of other large insects or insectoids. They
carry off immature larvae that then hatch among the
enslaving hive. The young mature believing they always
belonged with the slavers. Krikis slaver hives have only
queen and warrior castes, while all other hive members
are slaves captured from other species. These rare but
powerful hives strike fear throughout the Hivelands.
The Megha Stone
The reputed solitary source of ‘bright lode,’ the necessary component for the creation of black steel alloy ganshyer, is the Megha Stone which lies in a remote valley
deep the Krikis Hivelands. Ganshyer is immune to the Iron
Virus that is slowly denuding the world of steel, making it
extremely valuable. Krikis warriors who carry bright lode
with them beyond their borders find a ready market for it.
Few Krikis know the Megha Stone’s exact location,
though it is thought to be somewhere near the Rift. Racially, it is not terribly important to any one hive’s survival, so it is largely ignored. Any expedition into the
Hivelands without considerable Krikis assistance would
be doomed to fail.
Rumors & Whispers
While there are more lies than truths about Krikis
afloat among the human tribes, few rumors surprise or
shock humans after hearing of the cruelties from the
Chitin Wars. For the most part, rumor is all most folk
hear about any Krikis, save for those near Gathush who
bought such knowledge at the price of hard experience
and warfare. Even so, few “sages” or knowledgeable
folk like the Gare Attessa choose to confess to knowing
nothing, so they spread vicious lies rather than admit
ignorance. Some of the more popular current lies on the
winds recently include:
• Warrior Krikis are exiles and wander farther from
their hives because the “bugs” resent their growing
intellects.
• Warrior Krikis seek better human-made weapons
to return to the Hivelands to overthrow some hated queens. Trading in bright lode is one accepted
method to get more such weapons in the Hivelands.
