Formians

[Yair]

I just wanted to say I finally given the Formian entry a good reading, and I like them. The queen's ability to "communicate telepathically with any intelligent creature within 50 miles whose presence she is aware of" can be used to great effect even at low levels. The hive-mind qualities of the formians combined with only the queen and males (myrmarchs) being true individuals provides a very alien society and characters.

I wonder how formian society would look like. Not so unlike a feudal one, I think, with hives being the equivalent of households and myrmarchs a mix of knights (the scheming war leaders) and daughters (married off to other queens and incosequential relative to them). Since a hive has somewhere between (about) 120 to 450 members yet the queen's reach is 50 miles, a central hive will probably dominate a "barony" of lesser, lower-class hives within the 50 miles radius, with taskmasters supervising the lesser hives. This allows the baroness direct control over her demense. Larger areas (kingdoms) would be controlled indirectly through (greater-teleporting) mymarch intermediates/embassadors.

Real-world ants breed by combining the genes of a "princess" (combining the genes of the queen and her mate) with that of a male (containing the genes of another queen). In this way the genes of queen A will be combined (through the male carriny them) with the genes of queen B and her past mate (the princess) to form a new queen C (the ferilized princess). Formians, however, apparently lack princesses. This suggests a different breeding scheme entirely - the males (mymarchs) mate with foreign queens to affect the next generations of workers, taskmasters, myrmarchs, and very rarely queens. In this way mating of sons (mymarchs) will be a key consideration. A lesser house whose male mates with the baroness' queen, for example, would stand a great chance to spread its offsprings to other households through their sons.

Real-world ants also take slaves from other ant colonies, larvae grown to be workers without the "expense" of making them and caring for them in their early stages. Would formian hives expect slaves like human feudal lords expected workers?

Ant colonies can reach millions of individuals. A typical formian colony, by the SRD entry, would only reach as high as 450 or so - but do atypical massive colonies exist? If so, I'd suggest they would be very rare. A single super-large colony is too monotonic, and far less fun as a society to encounter.

Ants also engage in farming, and the formians' taskmaster caste indicates that they administer herds of other monsters. I would expect formian societies to heavily engage in farming (most households/hives primarily engaged in it), with taskmasters controlling some large brutish monsters out of small herds to plow the land and do other difficult menial jobs.

Overall, an interesting creature to contemplate.

 

[F5]

Very interesting interpretation of the Formians. Well done!

I've not spoken with many gamers that like the formians. They're pretty much ignored in most games I've played in, I think in large part because they seemed to have replaced the Modrons as the primary lawfully-aligned extraplanars in 3E, but didn't have much flavor to replace them with. I'd like to see them get a really in-depth write-up, like you gave, in some "official" WotC sources...show us what, exactly, the designers had intended them to be.

I would add to your description of the feudally-inspired formian culture that, as lawful-aligned planar beings, they would be exemplars of Law, in the same way that Demons and Devils are exemplars of Evil. They might have rigid laws and codes, that would dictate all details of their lives. There would be laws about when to eat meals, what days certain foods were permissible, and even how many times one was expected to chew any given bite of apple. All of which are communicated telepathically to all members of the hive (and surrounding barony hives), who instinctually incorporate these laws into their daily lives. Outsiders to the hive would have no idea what any of these laws were, and have no means of learning them, and so would be hopelessly out-of-place. I could imagine wars being fought between rival Queens, in true Dr. Seuss style, over something as trivial as the number of staves that should be used in a 20-gallon barrel...

 

[amethal]

I've never really given formians much thought.

However, there was an interesting formian hive in City of Brass (which I recently purchased) which has got me thinking positively about them at the moment.

 

[Knightfall]

However, there was an interesting formian hive in City of Brass (which I recently purchased) which has got me thinking positively about them at the moment.

What? When did City of Brass come out? I thought it was still in development?

 

[amethal]

What? When did City of Brass come out? I thought it was still in development?

Assuming we are talking about the same thing (the Necromancer one), I have no idea .

I bought a new copy on eBay from a guy who sells lots of roleplaying stuff (new and second hand) and it arrived yesterday. I'm pretty sure there's a review in the reviews section, so I can't be the only person who has it.

EDIT Apparently it came out at Gen Con.

 

[Knightfall]

Assuming we are talking about the same thing (the Necromancer one), I have no idea .

We are.

I bought a new copy on eBay from a guy who sells lots of roleplaying stuff (new and second hand) and it arrived yesterday. I'm pretty sure there's a review in the reviews section, so I can't be the only person who has it.

EDIT Apparently it came out at Gen Con.

Cool!

Must. Find. Copy Of. City. Of. Brass!!!

 

[Yair]

I've not spoken with many gamers that like the formians. They're pretty much ignored in most games I've played in, I think in large part because they seemed to have replaced the Modrons as the primary lawfully-aligned extraplanars in 3E, but didn't have much flavor to replace them with. I'd like to see them get a really in-depth write-up, like you gave, in some "official" WotC sources...show us what, exactly, the designers had intended them to be.

I have high hopes for the 4e MM.

I would add to your description of the feudally-inspired formian culture that, as lawful-aligned planar beings, they would be exemplars of Law, in the same way that Demons and Devils are exemplars of Evil. They might have rigid laws and codes, that would dictate all details of their lives. There would be laws about when to eat meals, what days certain foods were permissible, and even how many times one was expected to chew any given bite of apple. All of which are communicated telepathically to all members of the hive (and surrounding barony hives), who instinctually incorporate these laws into their daily lives. Outsiders to the hive would have no idea what any of these laws were, and have no means of learning them, and so would be hopelessly out-of-place. I could imagine wars being fought between rival Queens, in true Dr. Seuss style, over something as trivial as the number of staves that should be used in a 20-gallon barrel...

Oh, shiny. Definitely a cool point.

 

[Tonguez]

I once used a Formian invasion force and enjoyed playing up the image of a relentless swarm trampling over all obstacles, the workers using the corpses of fallen comrades to build their bridges and fortifications, whilst the Taskmasters stood over them all relaying messages to the Queen.
Only the Myrmarchs were able to break from the swarm and thus deal with any threat to the Formian onslaught...

(at one stage I even allowed a rogue worker as a PC)

 

[dogoftheunderworld]

My last big campaign centered on a Formian invasion in the Forgotten Realms Underdark. The campaign, as far as the characters were concerned, started above ground with a minor adventure hook here and there. As campaign time passed, creatures started being driven from underground and making unpleasant appearances in cities, farms, etc., culminating in an Orc army pressing into "civilized" lands. As the PCs followed the trails back down into the Underdark, they mostly encountered razed areas. They finally made there way down to Akin's Throat (thanks P.C., et al!) and had a chance to re-supply amongst not very friendly inhabitants. Deeper down, they started running into the Formian... at first a scouting party. At this first encounter, the Queen became aware of them... and from then on, they all had recurring dreams/waking visions with one constant thought .."Resistance is Futile" Yes, I ran my Formian like a Borg collective. They did not directly assimilate other races, but enslaved them as a workforce. When they retreated to Akin's Throat to rest and re-supply... it was gone. Razed to the ground with only an insane goblin bard, now ghost, remaining. Anyway... Lawful bad-guys can be fun

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I like the idea. In a campaign I ran the formians were extremely rational, and were willing to eradicate other formian colonies for resources if need be. The party had the option to stop the attempted genocide of opposing colonies if they could find enough resources for the two to thrive, otherwise they would find themselves in between two warring factions. My players used to get frustrated that they couldn't provoke emotional anger in the formians when they would tell one colony's leader that the other colony planned to poison them and basically practice genocide. The friendlier formian leader seemed somewhat disappointed in the tactic, but otherwise conceded that the other formians were being very logical and reasonable in their murderous goals. The players were floored by his reaction and gave up trying to have the two sides come to terms.