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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 6765710" data-attributes="member: 57383">Well it isn't the today in question, but here's a first stab at it.If you recall, we'd decided to give them primary and secondary queens like some termites. Isopterites are a race of "termite men" that live in vast hives they build underground or in the trunks of giant trees (see Isopterite Hives for details). There are many castes of isopterite, one of which is the isopterite queen described here, whose primary function is laying the eggs that hatch into new isopterites. In addition, an isopterite queen can fill the additional key role of hive queen. A hive queen is the communications hub of an isopterite hive mind. The hive queen does not command her subjects, but acts as a central telepathic relay for the isopterites' hive mentality. Should this queen be slain, the surviving isopterites wander purposelessly until a new hive queen establishes herself. Until this happens, the isopterites will only act out of self-preservation, fleeing or fighting if their life is threatened. Most isopterite queens are chosen for their role at birth and then fed a special diet that causes them to quickly develop into a "virgin queen". These virgin queens will either mate and immediately start laying eggs in their hive, or leave with an escort of other isopterites and attempt to found a new hive. Moreover, every female isopterite has, in theory at least, the potential to become a queen. This potential is usually suppressed by chemical and telepathic signals from the hive queen. If a hive has no queen due to one misfortune or another, some of the largest of its female isopterites begin to develop the capacity to reproduce. The first female to complete this process becomes the new hive queen. The transformation into a queen may take weeks or months, but if the hive has enough stores and defenses to last that long the colony has good odds to survive. Large isopterite hives may contain multiple queens. In such hives, one queen is a primary queen (see below), and the remainder are "secondary queens" of lesser size. The primary queen is always the hive queen. Should she be killed, the secondary queens battle each other until one emerges as the new hive queen. Those who lose are either killed during the succession struggle or driven into exile outside the 50-mile range of the hive mind. Exiled queens occasionally prosper and found new hives of their own, but most perish. They usually lack the large escort of other isopterites that assist the colony-founding expeditions of virgin queens. Isopterite queens are always accompanied by a retinue of isopterite worker attendants, isopterite warrior guards, and at least one isopterite king to fertilize her eggs. A queen isopterite stands about 20 feet tall and weighs at least 16,000 pounds. As a queen grows in size, her abdomen elongates into a mammoth sausage-like mass of flesh, and she could develop into a Colossal sized primary queen weighing up to 200 tons, or maybe even more (see below). I also think we should modify the Warrior and Worker entries' as follows:An isopterite's every action is coordinated via telepathic signals that pass through the Isopterite's hive queen (see the Isopterite Queen for more information). The hive queen does not command her subjects, but acts as a central relay for the isopterites' hive mentality. Should this queen be slain, the surviving isopterites wander purposelessly until a new hive queen establishes herself. Until this happens, the isopterites will only act out of self-preservation, fleeing or fighting if their life is threatened.What thinks thou?</blockquote>

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