Hiveworld: A Bugs Life
Abuzz at all hours of its 60 hour days. Being near the galactic core meant only a few hours of "darkness" per day, but the honeycombed surface left plenty of shadows for those that craved a bit of dark and dank, and these tunnels wormed their way deep into the ancient planet. In contrast it also sports immense hive towers that stretched up to a mile above the deep purple seas. While most of the life on Hiveworld was insectoid in nature, several stranger denizens had migrated there over the eons. Abeil builders harness the strength of giant vermin to help build the massively complex cities. Thri Kreen hunters stalk the jungles and deserts and even the depths of the world's core for enormous worms and savage monstrous beetles to feed large colonies spread over the planet's surface. These societies have evolved along a completely organic path, to the point that their bio-engineers can now "grow" everything from medicinal microbes that can devour poisons and disease, to weaponized organisms that generate tremendous beams of energy and plasma, to town-sized living spacecraft in the very obit of the hiveworld herself. Whether it has something to do with its proximity to the galactic core or just something in the water, the life on hiveworld grows very fast, with most animal life reaching maturity in 5% of the time it takes on other worlds. It's giant trees and plants are always in bloom and every area that can support it is covered in lush growth year round.
The simpler ways of thinking has lead Hiveworld down a different path than most societies, as it's civilization is nearly devoid of political skeaming, instead devoting itself to the perfection of the various crafts its people pursue. Though the concept was not unknown, it just didn't make much sense to the ruling councils, and the need for those who could move in societies that did embrace these ideals presented little challenge from a utilitarian standpoint. From biologists and assasins, to mystics and mercenaries, beings travel across the entire Eschaton to either employ the expertise of those here or to try to learn from it. And this fact has not been lost on either the denizens of Hiveworld or those who seek to profit from it's many bounties. Every once in a while when the occasional "person" disappeared or a chunk of forest mysteriously vaporized, nobody made alot of fuss since they could be replaced quickly and the vegatation would grow back in days. So when a very young feral thri kreen went missing, nobody even noticed.
[sblock=History]Shak'ralzius Ralz'aniora was experimented on relentlessly after his abduction when he was an infant. Kept in darkness for months on end, while being constantly prodded with needles, he began to learn other ways to see the strange cold world around him and his flesh beneath his exoskeleton could barely support him without further injections. He was reapeatedly tortured with sound waves that froze his nervous system and burned with chemicals until his hide became extremely resistant to these types of assaults. Then blinding pain in his shoulders left him unable to move for days and in a state of nightmarish fever, as his mind was attacked over and over. When he finally regained his mind, he found that he had grown a brand new extra set of arms, and as his captors soon found out, were just as deadly as his first 2 sets.
His captors had not anticipated how fast the child of the Hiveworld would grow. When they had to move the little beast to a larger sell, he proved to them all how ferocious a youngling could be as he ripped them limb from limb after breaking his bonds. Shak's long incarceration in a tiny cell had left him slightly slower than he remembered, he burst from the facility before any alarms could be sounded. The strange world that greeted his unblinking eyes was one of towering metal and glass, with a sky full of strange lights that moved far too fast to be stars. He followed the lights to a starport and stowed away aboard the first vessel that was unattended, to be found later by a wisened old captain who took pity on the strange young creature. Teaching him many languages and skills during many trips across the stars, the captain eventually showed him the way of the swordsage. Along the way he picked up several small cibernetic implants as he tried to express the longing of his tribal heritage, without even knowing what he was looking for. After a couple of years, Shak'ralzius learned of Hiveworld and immediately returned to his original home.
The now completely unique thri kreen returned to Hiveworld a truley changed being. The other mantid warriors saw the extra weaponry and strangely attractive hide that pulsated with its own inner light as an omen. That Shak was a prophet, sent to impart them with the wisdom of the stars. Being so glad to be home, he accepted the role of sage and began to teach them how to be more than simple rangers and warriors. Gaining influence over the years that followed, the swordsage began to be deferred to in more and more matters of state. As he continued his training and keeping in touch with the freighter captain, his mentor, he applied the true determination of Hiveworld that couldn't be cut from his soul. Becoming a true Master of Nine, he was offered citizenship into the Eschaton as his word, along with only a few others on the entire planet, could sway the choices of who the vast resources of Hiveworld could be used by.[/sblock]
