[CLOSED] Hive To'zu

[Absynth]

I've been using this hive largely in antag roles and have come up with a bit of a backstory for them. I think the To'zu could fill an important semi-antag niche.

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Faction

Region of Space: Origins are Sedantis, current location is scattered in tiny hive clusters

Info: A mysterious hive of thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, with highly advanced technology even by Vaurca standards. Lesser Queens (wizards) and Elite Warriors (ninjas) have been seen in Nanotrasen space, often visiting stations or investigating human technologies.

Long Description:

To'zu - The Hidden Ones

The To'zu are one of the strangest and rarest Vaurca hives, and also one of the oldest. For long millenia the To'zu were the great thinkers, dreamers, and philosophers of the Vaurca, their Lesser Queens capable of using the combined might of their hive as an enormous unified mind. Generally nonviolent by nature, the To'zu scattered to the cosmos during the Great Evacuation and disappeared from the crumbling Hivenets and fading VRs. Within a few short centuries the To'zu had vanished so thoroughly that they were nothing but memory. Where other hives focused outward, the To'zu focused inward, to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Color: Young To'zu are pitch-black, which lightens to greys, then white as the vaurca ages. All castes share the same colors.

Castes: To'zu have nearly none of the warrior caste, and only a small handful of Unbound not including the Lesser Queens.

Ruling: The To'zu live in tiny, nomadic groups scattered throughout the local cluster, each group not numbering more than a few individuals, or even just a single Lesser Queen doted on by mindless drones. The To'zu number only six billion in total, with perhaps 70% drones, 20% workers, 8% warriors and 2% lesser queens. The few warriors of Hive To'zu are known as utterly fearless killing machines, with odd, sleek bodies and viciously sharp spikes all over their carapace. They are given the best of To'zu's stealth and war technologies, usually in order to test the defenses or behavior of a subject they find interesting.

It is rumored that Lesser Queens among the To'zu ritually cannibalize other Queens at the end of their life, which vastly increases their own lifespan. It's conjectured that the Great Queen is an ancient, enormous thing embedded inside a planet, but stays largely dorman, which allows the Lesser Queens to take their own initiative more often.

Living: The To'zu live not in hive ships, but in the hollowed-out interiors or exteriors of asteroid belts, comets, and small moons. Their ships, when they do rarely use them, are small, fast, and stealthy, with few weapons but numerous luxuries. To'zu hives are much the same, often with various propulsion systems on their chosen home site to enable them to roam the stars, looking exactly like an errant handful of drifting asteroids.

The To'zu spend huge lengths of time in deep meditation, which they say allows them to 'hear the universe's whispers'. The Lesser Queens can spend years in silent meditation, well protected by a warrior honor guard and scuttling drones. Though the To'zu are passive, they are not completely nonviolent, and are particularly known to be merciless in self defense. They do have a degree of honor, never knowingly causing harm to innocents and an individual often commiting ritual suicide should it happen, so it doesn't happen again.

Recent History: The To'zu have lived in human space without anyone realizing it, but have only just begun to reveal themselves. The other Hives no longer even remember them, and find their ways, particularly the various ceremonies and rituals, bizarre and mysterious. The To'zu have begun an era known as the Pilgrimage, where each hive cluster sends a representative to the homeworld, Sedantis, from whereever they are. Most clusters have only a Lesser Queen, so she packs things up and begins the Pilgrimage alone.

It's during this event that the To'zu have been spotted again, and first contact was made and confirmed with them in Tau Ceti. The To'zu are reluctant to send anyone to explicitely work for or help Nanotrasen or any other race, as their particular technology and lifestyles are typically superior to most other Vaurca and often far superior to mankind's, which they call 'quaint'.

Mainly contact from the To'zu is initiated directly by a Lesser Queen who is traveling for the Pilgimage. The Lesser Queens are innately powerful beings, with tremendous psychic abilities allowing them to be very well protected even when travelling alone. They are often curious, having had no outside contact for possibly thousands of years, and certainly understand things like laws, regulations, or culture the least out of any Vaurca hive.

[LordFowl]

There are several key issues with this application that I'll present concisely now because I'm on mobile;

1) The existence and presence if a Greater Queen. This is very important - neither the K'lax nor the Zo'ra have maintained contact with their Great Queen, which has crippled their social order. The possession of a Great Queen would make this hive relentlessly efficient, and compounded with the fact that they've been hidden for an indeterminate amount of time, I fail to see why they haven't greatly expanded to the point where they become unnoticeable.

2) I find it very dubious that they were able to perform the Great Evacuation without a singular or at most group of Ark Ships, for numerous reasons. Recall that no Vaurcae were really proficient at space travel before the Evacuation.

3) Contact with Sedantis. So long as this "contact" is one way, then its fine. If they receive a response from Sedantis, it of course becomes unacceptable.

Altogether I am very hesitant to canonize the existence of a new hive in human space. In strictly non-canon antag encounters, it's fine, but canonizing an entire new hive has several ramifications.

[Muncorn]

Creator has requested application be closed due to inactivity and lack of current relevance.