Creative Corner

[center][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/drs/2397522][img]https://i.imgur.com/x5yAWHD.png[/img][/url] [size=6][font=lucida console][b]THE HIVEMIND - EXTENDED LORE[/b][/size] [size=4][font=lucida console][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/drs/2397522]LINK TO MAIN THREAD[/url][/font][/size] [size=3][font=lucida console][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489785]Drone Biology[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489788]Assimilation[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489790]Consciousnesses[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489791]Castes[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489792]Breed Specifications[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489799]Hives[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489803]Wavelengths[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489804]Origin[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/2746309/1#post_40489805]Additional Drone Variations[/url][/size][/center] [font=lucida console][size=5][u]EXTENDED LORE THREAD[/u][/size][/font] [font=lucida console]This is a thread that contains the extended lore of the Hivemind subspecies, including notes on their biology, behavior, and variations. Please note that all lore here is flexible and prone to change and re-interpretation; treat it like a guideline, not hard rule. [font=lucida console][size=5][u]INTRODUCTION[/u][/size][/font] [font=lucida console]Nobody’s entirely sure what it is or where it came from. Theories vary, but most tales generally hold that the hivemind is old, very old - perhaps even older than dragonkind itself. It is a deadly, soul-sucking phenomenon that can steal away the very minds and bodies of dragons, reducing them into nothing more than drones, who work only to further the plans of their consciousness. It behaves almost like a hive of insects. Most individuals are drones; dragonlike creatures with black chitin in place of scales, who move as though possessed. Drones are not sentient, they are not sapient, and they can barely be considered alive. They are disposable workers, who serve under the control of a rogue consciousness that treats them less like living beings and more like extensions of its own body. A consciousness is the brain, and its drones are the muscle, the sinew, the churning innards. The presence of a consciousness is critical in supporting a hive. Drones are hollow-minded beings without any autonomy or individuality, and most are not programmed with a survival failsafe to remind them to eat and drink if the consciousness commanding them is disconnected. Though they come in many different shapes and sizes depending on what they were in their previous life, drones are rarely prone to doing anything other than what they are told, and those who break the mold are often considered defective and subsequently terminated. Consciousnesses are sentient in the most alien of senses - they can use logic and reason, but think more like computers than flesh-and-blood beings, seeking only to survive and thrive in the most efficient way possible. They tend to work alone. They are capable of communicating to their drones and to other consciousnesses along wavelengths, psychic signals similar to radio signals that permeate the globe. The threat of hives comes from the way they grow. Though drones can create more of themselves naturally by laying eggs, this process takes time, and is only advantageous for its production of pureborn drones. Instead, a much quicker process is that of assimilation. In assimilation, a dragon is forcefully transformed into a drone via a concoction called assimilation fluid that only the hive has been known to produce. Assimilation completely strips a dragon of their appearance, autonomy, and memories, leaving them an unrecognizable husk. Hives do not care for the wellbeing of dragonkind, and view it as a race of farm animals at best. To them, dragons are only a means to an end, more fodder for their ever-growing forms. They steal dragons away from their homes to be assimilated or worse, they exploit everything they come across for the sake of their own benefit, and they destroy any who would pose a threat to them. The hivemind is clever, and it will not stop unless it is beaten back with force. If left unchallenged, it will swallow the whole of Sorneith. Do not let it win. Do not give in. Do not assimilate.

DRONE BIOLOGY
STANDARD DRONE LIFE CYCLE
Pureborn drones are those who have been hatched naturally by drone parents, and tend to grow through the following life cycle.

1. Egg. Drone eggs may look like many things depending on the locale of the hives and the consciousness’s own preferences, though standard eggs tend to resemble slick black orbs. The egg, laid by a drone, nurtures the larva within until it forms the most basic body parts, including a head and digestive tract.

2. Larval stage 1. Folds appear on the top of the egg and peel back like a perverted sort of flower, revealing the larva within. The larva is moved to a small chamber in the wall, barely bigger than it is, with its head sticking out so it may be fed. They resemble worms with faces at this stage, with nothing more than nubs where their limbs will develop, and a mouth on their face. Small divets where the eyes will develop can be seen.
[Scry: XX Maize-Dust Iri or Slime/Shim or Sludge; dull eye colors, especially Pastel eyes or Light Unusual]

3. Larval stage 2. Larvae outgrow their initial chamber and are moved to a larger one. Legs begin development. More prominent facial features can be seen, and the eyes open for the first time, allowing the larvae to see the world around them.
[Scry: XX Maize-Shale Iri or Slime/Shim or Sludge; all eyes allowed, multi-gaze and primal not visible until this point]

4. Larval stage 3. Larvae outgrow their secondary chamber. Front legs are developed enough to allow for writhing and dragging; back legs are still in development; hints of wings have begun to form. Stage 3 larvae are often kept in large out-of-the-way pits where they writhe about and peck at one another for food, and some hives may keep the larvae in such close quarters that they begin to fight and eat one another, leaving only the strongest remaining.
[Scry: XX Maize-Coal Iri or Slime/Shim or Bee]

5. Larval stage 4. Front and back legs have fully developed, along with most facial features and the basic skeleton of wings. At this point, they enter a dormant stage where, over a period of several days, they rapidly shed their skin and eat it again multiple times as they grow, as their skin transforms into inflexible chitin and hardens. Drones in this stage are often sealed into small chambers, just large enough that an adult of their breed could walk one or two paces in either direction.
[Scry: XX Maize-Oilslick Iri or Wasp/Bee]

6. Adult. The newly-formed drone, now a full adult with functioning limbs, wings, and senses, tunnels its way out of the sealed chamber to join the hive. Adult drones have a lifespan shorter than that of dragons, and with proper maintenance and care may live to be up to 40 years of age before they pass their prime and are terminated.
[Scry: XX Any, preferably Obsidian, Wasp/Bee]

DRONE ABILITIES AND HEALTH
The average purebred drone has several abilities in its arsenal. First and foremost is the well-known assimilation fluid. Most drones only carry enough fluid to assimilate a dragon of their size or smaller, meaning that a Tundra-sized drone couldn't properly assimilate a Guardian or Imperial. Assimilation fluid is typically administered by forcing it down the recipient’s throat.

Another gland in the drone's throat produces a sticky substance called building fluid (sometimes called building silk or tar), which has the consistency of maple syrup when fresh. It's a semi-clear black in color and hardens within a minute or two of application, strengthening and gaining a texture somewhere between plastic and dried glue. This substance is used to construct walls and restrain assimilating dragons. A common variation of building fluid retains its flexibility and stickiness after drying, useful for making webbing and traps.

All drones can hear their consciousness, and certain techniques to connect with their brains can allow one to temporarily connect with the hivemind itself. It should be noted that drones require sustenance to survive, but don't need nearly as much as dragons do. They can eat nearly anything, no matter what their breed is. Most drones feed on a mulchy pudding made from a mishmash of resources in the nearby area, which is typically disgusting to the average dragon, but perfectly nutritious to drones. Additionally, they require only three to four hours of sleep a day, which is used as a resetting period wherein their memory banks are transferred to the consciousness's permanent reserve, and any injuries they had are given time to heal.

COMMON DEFECTS AND VARIATIONS
All drones, no matter how well-made, are at risk of defects. Pureborn drones are significantly less likely to hatch with defects than assimilated dragons are, but all drones are susceptible to mutations and variations. This is a list of common mutations, variations, and other odd growths drones may have. As the circumstances of hives are equally as open to interpretation, more variations may exist that have not been listed here.

MUTANT DRONES: In-game, drones who have developed a tertiary. Tertiary genes have many, many possibilities, and there are some hives who have explicitly experimented with their drones to force them to hatch with beneficial tertiaries to make the hive’s workings smoother and more efficient. More purist hives may shun the idea of mutant drones, and terminate them or otherwise banish them from the hive.

DEFECTIVE DRONES: Defectives are drones who have deferred from the norm in both mind and body. With pure white chitin instead of black, they bear a physical trait similar to albinism, though their eye color generally remains unaffected. Most defectives hatch with a nonexistent or only semi-functional connection to their hive’s wavelengths, which can render them immobile or, more terrifyingly, self-sufficient. A drone that can survive on its own without directive from a consciousness is a nasty defect indeed. Defective drones are not usually hatched with their own individuality, and pureborns are often inevitably condemned to lead confused, broken lives. Those who are assimilated improperly and develop into defectives may retain scraps of their former personality and memories.

GLITCH DRONES: Glitch drones only ever result from an improper assimilation, during which parts of the dragon didn’t finish the transformation. Though it usually only affects their physical appearance, some glitch drones bear scars upon their psyche as well, and may have varying levels of sentience, sapience, and connection to or knowledge of the hive. If a glitch drone has been assimilated properly enough that they are still mentally dronelike, then they may be utilized by the hive; if not, they are typically terminated.

DRONE DESCENDANTS: Drones are typically incapable of producing offspring with dragons. However, thanks in part to a number of horrific methods, it is technically possible for a drone to produce offspring with a non-drone, thus producing a drone descendant. The appearance, behavior, and intelligence of a drone descendant can vary wildly, making the likelihood of them living a normal life unpredictable. Some drone descendants can pass for dragons and do their best to behave normally, while others are no better than drones. After the second generation, hive genes become entirely non-dominant, meaning that hive lineage and influence only counts for the direct descendants of a drone.

PSUEDO-DRONES: Psuedo-drones are artificial drones created by those of darker intent attempting to replicate hives for their own purposes. As real drones are difficult to control without a hijacker, psuedo-drones are a very convenient alternative, and are created to behave towards their master like drones would to a consciousness: unquestioningly obedient. They lack the pure genetics of the body. Some psuedo-drones are close enough to drones in mind that they can be connected to real hives.

STRANGE DRONES: Drones typically only come in shades of pure black. However, some hives, when left to their own devices, have habits of developing odd coloration, for better or for worse. These oddly-colored drones may come in any shade of the rainbow. Their color tends to have no inherent impact upon their abilities, unless they were specifically designed for that purpose, in which case it may serve some greater cause, like camouflage. Strange drones may occasionally become mutant stranges, drones with tertiaries.

FALSE DRAGONS: A result of failed assimilation, false dragons are drones who failed to transform physically but managed to transform mentally. False dragons resemble dragons externally, and are even capable of moving and talking like them. Their innards may show some signs of assimilation, such as the presence of a gland that produces assimilation or building fluid, and their brains are hollow vessels to serve the consciousness’s whims, like any drone.

FALSE DRONES: The opposite to false dragons, false drones are dragons who transformed physically but retained their mind and memories. False drones resemble drones on the outside, though their lack of connection to the hivemind means that they’re easy for hives to spot and terminate. It’s rare for a false drone to escape a hive, as they will often be given more assimilation fluid in an attempt to continue the process, or they might just be slaughtered on the spot.

ON DRONE CODE
The minds and bodies of drones run on code. Though the word is used often, it has two primary meanings depending on context. The first type of code is a drone’s genetic code: its DNA, the blueprint that tells its body how it should be made. A glitch in this code will result in physical defects, most commonly the albinism mutation and tertiary genes, though it may manifest itself in countless different ways. A consciousness may alter a drone’s genetic code while it is still within the egg by injecting experimental assimilation fluid into a preexisting egg. A drone’s genetic code, by general rule, cannot change once it has become an adult, though this may occasionally be circumvented with magic or technology. Drones who undergo metamorphosis may also have their genetic code altered while in this state.

The second type of code is the code that a drone’s brain runs on. It’s most similar to a computer’s code, containing a basic series of behaviors that dictate what it does and when. The mental code in drones varies highly between individuals and even moreso between hives, as it can be altered at any time by the consciousness to suit the hive’s unique needs. Certain loopholes in the pathways of a drone’s coded behavior can be taken advantage of by dragons and other intelligent individuals.

ASSIMILATION
Assimilation is the process by which a dragon is transformed into a drone. A horrific and mind-numbing ordeal, assimilation takes several hours to complete, and leaves its victims nothing more than mindless, insectoid husks - drones. To assimilate a dragon, it must ingest assimilation fluid, a substance most drones and all consciousnesses are capable of producing. The process begins once the fluid is ingested. It is typically force-fed to its victims, though other methods of ingestion, such as being fully submerged in a bath of it or even having it injected directly into the bloodstream, are used in some hives for their differing results or impacts upon efficiency.

Assimilation is a painful process that begins deep inside the body, making its first impacts upon the digestive system, followed by the nervous and cardiovascular system. The digestive tract is quickly retrofitted to absorb assimilation fluid faster so that it can enter the bloodstream, after which it’s changed to become the nearly-impermeable system of a drone, capable of eating almost anything. It then proceeds to attack the nervous system, paralyzing the victim to prevent their escape and increasing heart rate to make the blood pump assimilation fluid through the body faster.

An hour or two after assimilation begins, external changes become obvious. Scales darken and lose their luster, fur grows oily and stringy, eyes become cloudy and listless, and plates of chitin begin to grow over normal features. To the dragon being assimilated, this feels a lot like hyper-intense growth pains, though most hives have modified their assimilation fluid to include a painkiller or tranquilizer in the mix to ensure that the victim is either unconscious or otherwise too drugged to care about the pain, so that they don’t scream or fight back.

About halfway through the assimilation process, the brain undergoes changes. Its connection to the hivemind is established, after which the consciousness scans its memories and uploads all valuable knowledge to its own databanks before erasing every last shred of the dragon’s mind and installing a drone’s programming in its place. The dragon’s mind floats among the hive’s collective brain before eventually fading altogether, locked away in a databank somewhere or outright erased depending on the hive’s preference. After all of this is said and done, and both the body and mind have been changed, assimilation is complete and the newly-created drone regains control of their movements and is set to work in the hive.

With so many delicate processes going on at the same time, assimilation is doubtlessly going to produce some oddballs and mutations that are unwanted or even outright hated. Most assimilations go off without a hitch, so long as enough assimilation fluid is provided, and those that fail due to a lack of assimilation fluid can usually be fixed with an administration of more.

Horrible things can happen if the assimilation process fails or stops early. It can glitch during any part of the process, resulting in any number of monstrosities. A partial assimilation results in a glitch drone, and an improper full assimilation creates a defective. Other symptoms of an improper assimilation include amnesia, warping of the internal organs, and a partial connection to the hivemind, which can result in insanity and vivid auditory and visual hallucinations.

CONSCIOUSNESSES
Every hive must have a consciousness, or a creature that resembles one, to function. Drones are fine in body but entirely lacking in brain. It is the primary directive of all consciousnesses to fill the role of the mind, guiding their drones as extensions of themselves in order to further their own goals, as well as the goals of all of hivekind. As intelligent, thinking beings, consciousnesses are widely varied in appearance and personality, and are not nearly as mindless nor conformative as their drones.

However, it is a mistake to presume that a consciousness thinks in the same way that a dragon does. Whereas a dragon’s viewpoint is inorexibly mutated by its own emotions, tainting its vision and clouding its judgement, a consciousness thinks like a machine: cause and effect, mathematics and efficiency. Like clockwork. A pure consciousness, one that is fully functional and defect-free, will always adhere to this norm. Consciousnesses are completely emotionless, and have an aggressive adaptive memory that allows them to alter their behavior to suit different circumstances, unlike the rudimentary automatons that dragons produce, which can do nothing other than repeat their own glitched code in circles. This allows them to adapt and to learn - a very dangerous prospect for anything trying to stand in their way.

Emotionless does not equate to a lack of personality, though. Among pure consciousnesses, they tend to have enough differences from their fellow consciousnesses that many of them have different goals. They frequently fail to get along well. All hives following the hivekind’s ideal strive to become the dominant species on Sorneith, but they attempt to reach this goal in different ways. Some see the only way to peace as purging the entirety of dragonkind, as well as any other threats to their being, like the dragon-gods and the Beastclans. Others seek to be the dominant species without the genocide, and view dragonkind as a resource, or perhaps a farm animal, that retains some usefulness.

Pure consciousnesses can also have fixations. Most have one or two primary values they place great importance in, and strive to emulate whenever possible. Adaptability, caution, knowledge, power, and purity are among the most common values, though there is a wide range of traits that a pure consciousness may possess.

Of course, that’s all just stuff for consciousnesses who bear no defects. Like drones, consciousnesses are susceptible to glitches, both physical and mental, and the mental ones can become daringly prominent. A consciousness who is mentally compromised in such a manner is rare, as it’s much harder for a consciousness to submit to a glitch than a drone, but it’s not impossible. The most common glitch is the development of emotions, which are often crude and loud; in the lesser cases, only the most primal of emotions, such as anger and fear, are prominent, while in more developed cases the consciousness may have an array of emotions so wide and multifaceted that they are nearly identical to a dragon’s.

Consciousnesses are more susceptible to developing emotions if they were assimilated instead of pureborn, and in these cases the emotions are often the result of resurfaced memories of a prior life and personality. In the cases of glitched pureborn consciousnesses, the glitch is always present from hatching, though it doesn’t usually become prominent until the consciousness has matured into an adult. Glitched consciousnesses are often regarded as a dangerous defect by pure consciousnesses, even more dangerous than dragons - non-glitched consciousnesses will often go out of their way to target and take down a hive headed by a glitched consciousness, even if it costs them dearly in numbers.

VARIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESSES
There are several types of creatures that resemble consciousnesses or take over their functions that are not considered standard consciousnesses in their own right.

HIJACKERS: Hijackers are false consciousnesses meant to perform all the services of a consciousness while remaining subservient to a master. Originally created by dragonkind, the earliest hijackers were used to engage consciousnesses in mental battle and steal their drones, so that the hijacker could build a hive of their own for their master to command and use for their own devices. Whether the first hijackers were made to fight the hivemind or to further the goals of an individual with dubious morals remains unclear.

Regardless, knowledge of hijackers soon spread quickly throughout anti-hive resistances and eventually reached the ear of the common folk. Most dragons who know about the hivemind will have at least the most basic idea of what a hijacker is. Hijackers are incapable of producing assimilation fluid, meaning that they are incapable of building hives of their own without first acquiring drones from a neighboring hive. To this end, most of them live very short lives, dying quickly when a consciousness detects the first signs of their presence and sends a squadron of drones to terminate the threat.

Hijackers communicate with their masters in multiple ways, the most common being verbal speech and telepathy. As they were based off of consciousnesses, hijackers are intelligent beings with at least some degree of autonomy and personality, and are perfectly capable of functioning when left to their own devices. They have deeply-ingrained instincts to obey their masters in order to prevent them from growing unstable and disobedient. The most loyal hijackers are the ones who are built by hand.

Speaking of building hijackers, there are three primary ways in which they are created. First is the most classic method, where a hijacker is built from scratch - created with metal, wires, circuit boards, that sort of thing. These hijackers are mostly metal, but a good chunk of them are closer to cyborgs, and may have organic brains and organs that are supported by biomechanical systems. The second type of hijacker is created by modifying a standard drone’s mental code, which can only be done if the drone has preliminary consciousness code already embedded into it; a thing only gifted to them if a consciousness plans on turning the drone into a consciousness itself at some point. (see Castes for info on consciousness creation)

The third method is the least morally redeemable, and involves modifying an unhatched dragon egg. A hole is drilled into the shell of the egg, through which modified assimilation fluid is injected. The developing hatchling is then left to incubate. It will assimilate while still gestating inside the shell, and if the process is successful, will emerge as a hijacker, which will take the first person it sees as its master. These hijackers are the most dragonlike and the most prone to developing glitches just like consciousnesses, especially when it comes to developing free will and emotions. They are the most volatile of the bunch, but the most intelligent and autonomous.

GENESIS MODELS: GENESIS models were the first of hivekind to lay foot on Sorneith. Like ancient breeds to modern breeds, GENESIS models were modern hivekind’s predecessors. Though their origin is unknown, they are widely regarded as rare, dangerous, and hyper-intelligent. Standard GENESIS models stopped being produced aeons ago, and as such, most individuals are exceedingly old and exceedingly powerful. Typical GENESIS models are absolutely massive, even dwarfing Imperials, and are armored to the teeth. Some of them, such as the very first GENESIS, provide crucial services to hivekind; the first GENESIS is the creature who broadcasts the baseline wavelength, a psychic radio signal of sorts that all of hivemind may communicate across.

When it comes to the hive’s internal hierarchy, GENESIS models sit at the very top, commanding the respect and loyalty of consciousnesses. They don’t tend to get along well with one another, and meetings between them can frequently result in violence and death. They are prone to self-delusion and becoming hyperfixated on a single goal or view of reality; the failure of said goal or the rejection of said views can often make them enraged. Some believe that these flaws are the reason why there’s so few of them - if they were created by an even higher being, then that means that they were prototypes; failed versions who went out of style in favor of the smaller, more concentrated modern consciousnesses.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible for more to be made, though. All GENESIS models hold the secret to creating more of themselves. The process of creating a new GENESIS model involves a consciousness metamorphosing into one, similar to the manner in which a drone may metamorphose into a consciousness. GENESIS models rarely give out this secret, as they hate having rivals.

CASTES
Drones and consciousnesses are the bread and butter of hives. Every hive possesses the capability to tailor its drones to suit its specific needs, warping them in the egg or having them metamorphose into a new form. This creates many interesting variants of drones, most of which are exclusive to their individual hives and add a layer of unpredictability when it comes to assessing a hive’s capabilities. Given how rapidly consciousnesses can communicate with one another, though, a number of so-called ‘castes’ have risen out of these various experiments. Castes are drones with certain abilities and specifications that are common enough to be seen in many hives.

DRONES are fairly self-evident and already well-described. Drones come in many different shapes and sizes, and their varying morphology depending on their breed lends them well to a hive’s many needs and desires.

CONSCIOUSNESSES are the brains of hives, and tend to work alone. Consciousnesses can be created in a variety of ways. Some consciousnesses are created through hatching eggs, for just as eggs can be modified to change a drone’s physique, they can also be modified to produce a consciousness. Most consciousnesses produced this way emerge first as backups, and only metamorphose into a full consciousness once the previous consciousness has been terminated. Consciousnesses can also be created through assimilation, though this is very rare and unstable.

The more common method of creating a consciousness is through backup code. If a consciousness fears that it might be killed, it can insert some mental code into a drone of its choice that acts as a contingency. The drone, now referred to as a backup, will continue to look and behave like a drone until the circumstances of the contingency - usually the previous consciousness’s death - are met. After this, it will follow a series of pre-programmed instructions.

The instructions typically tell it to find a suitable hiding place and to begin the process of becoming a consciousness, wherein it freezes and metamorphoses into a consciousness, becoming physically larger and undergoing a massive restructuring of its brain. Once the metamorphosis is complete, it sheds its previous carapace and emerges a new consciousness. Many consciousnesses, upon entering near-death, will send a massive burst of information to the backup detailing their memories, personality, and goals, such that the backup might learn from them.

MEMORY BANKS, also known as databanks, are a type of drone dedicated entirely to the cultivation and preservation of information. Unlike typical drones, they have overdeveloped brains and underdeveloped bodies, which gives them long, stretched-looking skulls, skeletal limbs, and visible bones. Memory banks are intensely frail, and are usually kept deep within a hive’s bowels for their own protection.

Memory banks are typically found in a deep comatose state, their bodies entirely useless while their mind is occupied logging the various memories of the hive’s drones. This allows them to store any and all useful information, such as the movements of dragons through territory, the health of the hive and areas in need of repair, the various strengths and weaknesses of enemies, and anything else of relevance. Larger hives often require multiple memory banks to keep up with the onslaught of data coming from the hive. More intelligent databanks may have heads so large they cannot lift them off the ground, but come at the advantage of being smart enough to pick through their data more thoroughly, deleting and filtering out information that is not particularly important or necessary to keep around.

DEACONS are diminutive drones who often resemble the hatchling life-phase of dragons. They are, for lack of a better word, housemaids. They deal with small messes and repairs, clean off the carapaces of their fellow drones, and help in the creation of more drones, feeding larvae and helping restrain dragons about to be assimilated. Deacons are especially favored by consciousnesses who are too busy to clean themselves and need a helper or two.

PRAETORIANS are the elite guards of hives, usually found protecting important drones like consciousnesses, memory banks, and backups. Most praetorians are of larger breeds like Imperials, Ridgebacks, Guardians, and Gaolers, though they sometimes come in smaller warrior-caste morphs like Wildclaws and Mirrors. Praetorians have overdeveloped muscles, insanely thick and spiny carapaces, and devastating natural weaponry. They tend to be hyper-aggressive and will attack anything they deem a threat. If separated from their charge against their will, they become stressed and panicky, lashing out at everything in sight - and sometimes going into such crazy fits that they begin to scratch and tear at themselves.

Praetorians are not a threat to be taken lightly. A single praetorian, even of a smaller breed, is capable of holding its own against an entire squadron of well-trained warriors. Many praetorians have additional natural weapons, such as acidic blood, additional limbs or heads, and the ability to spit dangerous substances like acid and poisonous gas. When it comes to praetorians, they are limited in power only by the imagination of their own consciousness.

PRIVATEER HIJACKERS, or privateers for short, are what happens when a hijacker takes a consciousness as its master. The fight against the hive is a neverending arms race to counteract one another’s weapons, and though hijackers are often a threat to hives, hives have also found ways to twist them to their own needs. In incredibly large hives, a consciousness may have so many drones that it begins struggling to divide its attention and monitor all its drones accordingly. A privateer acts as a sort of secondary consciousness, taking over a group of drones and regulating their actions autonomously. In this way, the hive can be divided into sects and ranks, wherein orders from the consciousness are passed through a chain of command until they reach the bottom lines.

Privateers are very useful to hives. A hive with a couple privateers will allow the consciousness to focus only on regulating the behavior of its privateers instead of its hundreds of drones, greatly freeing up its time and mental capacity. This allows the consciousness to dedicate its mind to more fruitful ventures, whatever they may be.

BREED SPECIFICATIONS
All drones use dragonkind as a blueprint, but there is no consensus on the best breed. Sometimes, drones may have a few quirks of the species they most closely resemble. These quirks tend to be most prominent in assimilated drones; pureborns rarely exhibit behavioral differences by breed.

Everything listed here is merely suggestion, not set-in-stone lore. Ruminate on the unique behaviors of your drones as you will.

BANESCALES are an odd sort, who experience some issues in the assimilation process and come out with half-baked hides. Their minds are just as malleable as any other breed's, though, and so they may be of use to hives. Lacking the limbs to perform any delicate handling of tools, Banescales are best at combat and aerial surveying, soaring high in the sky and keeping an eye on the territory from above. Their breath weapons, should they have any, are nothing short of terrifying.

BOGSNEAKS are somewhat difficult to assimilate thanks to their solitary nature. They work well as spies and scouts, and are often called upon if there's a situation that requires invisible bodyguards. Bogsneak drones work best in tandem with Mirrors or other Bogsneaks as guerrilla fighters.

COATLS show a propensity to wield tools and weapons with their arms and prehensile tails. Coatl drones with any amount of sentience other than none can make great mediators between hives and non-hives. Even as drones, they may feel a slight pull towards the Firelands, and do quite well in outposts in that Flight.

FAES retain their affinity for magic. They are incredibly sensitive to magic in the surrounding environment, and may require a stronger grip to keep assimilated than any other drone type, simply because their pull towards magic conflicts with their pull towards the hive.

GAOLERS are hard to come by, but their nature as Ancients doesn’t dissuade the fact that they can be assimilated. Like the larger breeds such as Guardians and Ridgebacks, Gaolers work best on a defensive or offensive point, charged with the protection of the hive. Their thick fur doesn’t go away during assimilation, which can prove a problem to some drones, as it needs to be cropped to prevent it from getting stuck between chitin.

GUARDIANS work best as bodyguards and guardians because they often take their consciousness or entire hive as their Charge. They are prone to wandering if they have no established Charge, making duty outside the hive ill-advised.

IMPERIALS retain a superiority complex if they had one in their former life. They exhibit a flicker of sentience in the form of a desire to be the greatest; the best scout, the best food-gatherer - the best at whatever role they are assigned, really. If not carefully watched, they may develop a rivalry of sorts with Pearlcatcher drones. Certain consciousnesses may seek to use them to make an Emperor drone, though this has never been proven to be possible.

MIRRORS are great hunters and scouts thanks to their heat vision. As they are used to working in teams and living in packs, assimilation to the hivemind is immensely easy. They have great synergy when working with other Mirror drones.

NOCTURNES can mimic sounds with an ease that no other drone type can match. Their small stature makes them great spies and scouts, and their vocal chords are great for mimicking dragon language if a hive wishes to communicate in more conventional manners.

OBELISKS are a new addition to the drone roster, and as such, much of their unique potential is considered untapped. It is currently known that their statue-transforming abilities are retained as drones; however, as pure drones have no ties to flight or personality, the material they transform into is uniform throughout any given hive. Some consciousnesses have discovered ways to alter their obelisk drones' statue material, making them exceptional sentinels.

PEARLCATCHERS have a stronger connection to their past life if their original pearl is not destroyed. As drones, they make excellent memory banks, and their pearls can serve as a focus to store information for later use. Many larger hives use Pearlcatcher drones to store memory, so as to take some of the strain off of the consciousness.

RIDGEBACKS are immensely hardy and armed to the teeth. This makes them excellent warriors, as they have a habit of entering a dangerous area alone and returning nearly unscathed. Ridgebacks also make for the best hijackers thanks to their affinity for theft.

SKYDANCERS retain their mental prowess and ability to navigate a dragon's thoughts and emotions. As consciousnesses, they have a very firm hold on their drones, and as hijackers, they find it easier to slip past mental defenses and convert drones for their own means.

SNAPPERS are some of the rarest types of drones, since their nomadic nature and wanderlust is hard to quench even when assimilated. This makes them favored by hijackers or consciousnesses on the move. If they can be kept under control, though, they are valued as guard dogs thanks to their lack of a need to sleep.

SPIRALS make for very energetic drones and are prone to tying themselves in knots if their consciousness is agitated. Due to their ability to squeeze into small spaces, they are often used as spies in conflicts.

TUNDRAS have a reputation for being bad at scouting and spying due to their weak memories, although their olfactory memory usually makes up for it. They tend to form close bonds with their fellow drones.

VEILSPUN are often a highly preferred breed for drones. Their predisposition towards swarming and hivelike behavior makes them efficient and obedient, and their natural hypnotic talents can be employed to terrifying effectiveness as hypnodrones. However, their diminutive size makes them impractical for many tasks required by a hive.

WILDCLAWS are the first to be selected for fighting thanks to their physical prowess, and often make up the elite warriors and guards of the hive. They are deadly when paired with Guardians, Imperials, Mirrors, or any other defensive caste. Duels have been reported among Wildclaw drones, but this is a rare phenomenon.

HIVES
‘Hive’ is the term used for a single consciousness and all of the drones underneath it that coalesce into one unit. An individual hive will always have at least one consciousness, though it is rare that they have any more. The term ‘hive’ is also used to reference the physical territory a consciousness and its drones occupy, especially the artificial structures they build to house themselves in.

Most hives are constructed primarily with building fluid (also called building silk or building tar), a viscous black substance that hardens into a tough, plastic-y texture within a few minutes of exposure to air. Modified variants of building fluid may instead have a silky or webby texture, retaining their stickiness for usage as traps or glue. Drones can produce large amounts of building fluid in very short amounts of time. This allows them to easily spread their hives - a small group of drones can construct a number of new tunnels and chambers within a day, if not less.

TYPICAL HIVE LAYOUTS
Hives can settle just about anywhere. They are most commonly found in places that are dark and out of the way, in the shadowy and forgotten corners of the world, where no sentient being dares to tread. Preferring secrecy, most hives are partially or completely underground. Their tunnels are long and tubular, pitch-black and dripping with moisture left from the breath of drones and whatever seeps in from the dirt around them. Deeper chambers are considered safer, so most outer chambers are small and populated only by guards and sparse disposable drones like scouts and food-producers. More important drones, like consciousnesses, backups, and memory banks, are held in the deepest depths of the hive, which are the hardest to breach.

Other hives may utilize the natural landscape. Hives might take root in abandoned towns, transforming houses into chambers and building tunnels around them, growing upwards until they create what might be likened to a giant termite mound. Others may drill their hives into the sides of giant trees and fungi, or outcroppings of bone, or hang them off the side of cliffs, or construct giant air bladders and allow their hive to float along the winds like the Windsinger’s beloved kites. The possibilities are endless, and every hive will have its own solution to the challenges it faces to survive.

FUNCTIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY
The purpose of a hive is to serve as a base of operations and safehouse. It is the home of its consciousness and drones, and they defend it likewise. A hive is like a castle - fortified, defensible, and frequently possessing all of the necessary materials within itself to sustain its own population, such as farms, rivers, hatching chambers, and other such necessities.

One of the primary requirements for a hive’s survival is its ability to take care of itself. A hive that relies on outside aid, such as that from other hives or allied dragons and the like, is a weak hive, with the links in its chain exposed to enemies. A hive must be able to secure the safety of its consciousness. It must also be able to meet the needs of its drones - there must be food, water, and shelter for them. Hives frequently meet this requirement by farming nearby resources. They may create underground fungal farms, care for livestock, or cultivate their own form of food. Hives may occasionally have hunters who go out to scavenge for sustenance outside the safe walls of the hive itself, but this is often an act of desperation, found commonly only in hives who live in exceedingly harsh environments, or who have not had enough time to solidly establish long-term sustainability programs.

ANTI-HIVE FORCES
Though the hive has an approximate cryptid-level status amongst most citizens of Sorneith, a select few know better. Often times, these are the dragons who have gone toe-to-toe with the hive itself and lived to tell the tale. Escaped assimilations, the friends and family of those who were taken, or those who have had their resources stolen by the hive are all frequently members of anti-hive resistances.

Some resistances amount to little more than a local mob with pitchforks and a vague idea of their enemy’s capabilities. Others, however, are in-depth research operations with a wide knowledge of the hive’s workings and a drive to crush it and save the world from its threat. These resistances are scattered across the globe, and many who grow large enough may begin to collaborate with one another and pool resources, forming even larger groups.

They must be wary, however. Any hive that’s big enough to have experienced a pushback from the local population will know of the existence of anti-hive forces, and will defend itself likewise. Weaker hives are prone to closing their doors and lying low, camouflaging their drones and keeping their activity in the area to a minimum until the threat has waned. Others that are large enough to sustain losses may actively fight back against their enemies. They may launch coordinated attacks upon resistance bases, use false dragons to manipulate their way into the ranks to sabotage the operation from the inside-out, cut off supply lines to strangle the operation’s strength, and destroy and assimilate nearby towns to make recruits harder to find and word harder to spread.

Any threats to the hive will be reacted to very quickly. Even if an operation is as covert as possible, it’s nearly impossible for it to remain under the radar for long. Many resistances end here: crushed by their own hubris, for the crime of thinking that they could avoid the hive’s watchful eye.

The fight against the hive is a neverending arms race. Not only must a resistance have the strength to fend it off, but the intellect to counteract its inventions. Every time the resistance gains an upper hand against the hive, the hive will take that upper hand, deconstruct it, analyze its weaknesses, and punch back with something that can negate, counteract, or destroy it. And the resistance will act likewise to new inventions from the hivemind, finding ways to neutralize the hive’s various weapons and innovations.

Hijackers are an excellent example of this phenomenon. When they were young, resistances used them to capture a hive’s drones and turn them against their masters. The hive was quick to find uses for them, and has since reprogrammed them and welcomed them into their hives, where they make the consciousness’s job easier and allow it to focus more of its strength into keeping itself alive and well. In effect: every invention each side creates to fight the other will almost certainly backfire eventually.

WAVELENGTHS
Wavelength is the term used to describe the signals that hives communicate across. It’s best described as being like a psychic radio signal - a long-range mental broadcast with an intensely specific sound and shape, making it difficult to key into accidentally. Every consciousness is constantly emitting their own custom wavelength, which they can use to communicate with any creature keyed into the wavelength. Some other sapient hive-creatures like GENESIS models and hijackers emit their own wavelengths as well.

A consciousness’s wavelength is unique to it, like fingerprints. Consciousnesses are capable of sensing other’s wavelengths when they get within range. As consciousnesses cannot stop the broadcast of this wavelength at any time, they have to be careful about bumping into other consciousnesses, who will doubtlessly be alerted to their presence by their wavelength. Likewise, they can only issue commands to their drones who are within radius of the wavelength. Drones may be sent out of the radius if they’ve been programmed to perform a task and return within the radius after its completion, but it renders them vulnerable to damage and theft. As the consciousness will no longer be able to track its movements and senses through its broadcasts to their wavelength, the drone will essentially be completely dark on their radar until it returns.

Wavelengths are also similar to network connections on computers. They can only be accessed within their broadcast radius, and many of them are private and require either permission to access them or significantly skilled hacking to bypass their own defenses. Most consciousnesses do not allow beings aside from their drones to access their own unique wavelength, instead preferring to communicate with others alongside custom wavelengths they set up through transistors, or along the baseline wavelength.

THE BASELINE WAVELENGTH
Most wavelengths have a limited radius that extends for some set distance around the consciousness, often miles and miles across. However, these wavelengths still have a boundary limit. This limit is found on all but one wavelength: the baseline wavelength. The baseline wavelength is an intensely powerful wavelength emitted by the first GENESIS model, and it covers the entire globe. It is open to all communications. This means that any consciousness or other being with the ability to connect to wavelengths may access it at any time, from anywhere.

The baseline wavelength serves as a method of public communication amongst the hive, where consciousnesses can speak to one another while keeping their messages silent to most of the world.

TRANSISTORS
Transistors, sometimes called signal boosters or broadcast drones, are a special caste of drone whose explicit purpose is to broadcast wavelengths. Transistors have structures in their brains similar to that of consciousnesses for this purpose. As a consciousness’s unique wavelength only travels so far, transistors are often stationed on the edges of this border, where they broadcast their consciousness’s wavelength to extend its radius and enable it to expand its reach without having to leave its hive. These types of drones are commonly employed in larger hives, who may have claimed a territory so large that transistors become a necessity.

Transistors may also broadcast their own custom wavelengths instead. These wavelengths, controlled by the transistor’s consciousness, are unique from all other wavelengths, and may be used to facilitate private communication between a few consciousnesses who don’t want to enable each other to have access to one another’s private wavelengths.

ORIGIN
Nobody knows where the hivemind came from. There are theories, of course, as there always are. Some of them have more evidence than others. However, none of them have been confirmed as true, and it’s likely that they never will be.

For your consideration and inspiration, here are a few of the most common theories. Keep in mind: these are all conjecture. None of them have been confirmed as true.

THE HIVEGOD THEORY
The Hivegod Theory states that the hivemind was created by a being of immense power, one possibly on a level to rival Sorneith’s elemental gods themselves. The being is often characterized as being malevolent, dark, and hungry, desiring to swallow the other god’s creations and take them for itself. These interpretations of the Hivegod have often been likened to retextures of the Shade.

According to the theory, the hivemind’s ability to assimilate is its form of magic. Similar to how the other deities exude their own magical influence that enables dragons to summon and wield it in some form, the Hivegod’s magic enables its users to change a creature’s biology on a molecular level, repurposing living tissue.

Naysayers of the theory first point to the fact that the hive doesn’t have its own unique magical signature like the other elements do. Secondly, elemental magic manifesting within the hive (often in the form of primal eyes) is frequently catastrophic, producing individuals whose motives and powers are counter to the hive’s primary goals. Some think this means that the hive is the opposite of creation. Whereas dragonkind and their various gods represent the concept of creation, chaos, matter, and diversity, the hivemind represents the aspects of destruction, order, antimatter, and conformity. Where the gods would paint the world with a thousand different brushstrokes, the hive would cover it with one single monotonous streak.

THE EXPERIMENT THEORY
The Experiment Theory states that the hivemind was the result of an experiment of some kind. It is not necessarily at odds with other origin theories, as its very concept is immensely vague. The Experiment Theory says that the hive could’ve been created by any sort of being with the tools to do so; it could’ve been the spawn of a god, or a dedicated band of cultists, or a single scientist lurking in a bunker somewhere. The Experiment Theory also lends no hints towards the intention behind the hivemind’s creation, and as to whether or not this was the intended result or a catastrophic failure.

The largest piece of evidence pointing towards the Experiment Theory is that of the GENESIS models. They are significantly older than modern hivekind, and share some similarities amongst themselves that suggest, perhaps, that they were some sort of early prototype, with each GENESIS model being tweaked to better emulate their creator’s vision. Given the intentions of the modern hivemind - to create more of itself in the most efficient way possible - the behaviors of GENESIS models may seem counter to that intent at times, which additionally suggests their role as prototypes. Where the perfect modern consciousness is emotionless, adaptable, and focused entirely on their singular goal, GENESIS models are emotional, prone to distracting hyperfixations and flights of fancy, and needlessly destructive towards one another, even when cooperation would be to their benefit.

THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL THEORY
The Extraterrestrial Theory states that the hivemind is not the creation of anything on Sorneith, but an entity that originated somewhere deep within the confines of outer space. An alien organism, if you will. The theory is widespread amongst those who know of the hivemind for a couple reasons, despite the innate flaws in its logic. For the dragons who believe in it, the thought that something so alien, so horrific and disgusting, could have possibly originated at the hands of anything that even remotely resembles them is impossible. To suggest otherwise is to insult not only dragonkind, but the entirety of the god’s creation.

And secondly, it’s easy to see how the hivemind might seem alien at a glance. Its goals and thought processes are unusual to say the least, and are not found among most other organisms on Sorneith. Its appearance is that of some giant warped insect, and yet its parts clearly never originated from insects.

There are a number of questions that rise with this theory, though. How did the hive get to Sorneith? It hasn’t shown the ability to make spaceships, at least not that anybody’s seen. Where did it come from? Did it consume its entire planet and require more resources, hence its departure from there? How is it able to so seamlessly integrate its biology into the biology of Sorneith’s native organisms, if it didn’t originate from here and cannot wield the native magicks? These questions remain unanswered, and likely will for a very long time.

ADDITIONAL DRONE VARIATIONS
Hives are adaptable and capable of engineering new types of drones, which may be unique to their progenitor hive… at first. Over years of communication and collaboration, some of these unique castes have entered more widespread usage, seeing members in a number of different hives across the world.

These additional drone variations were originally unique castes created by the various fine folks who engage in the hive’s lore, and have subsequently been adapted into primary hive canon. They may have been modified from their original incarnations to better suit current lore.

This list does not include crossbreeds with other subspecies.

DIVINE DRONES
[Starmap/Bee/Basic OR Wasp/Constellation/Basic]
[Typically XX Obsidian, but may be Strange (XX any color) and/or Mutant (tertiary gene present)]
Divine drones are believed to have been created by Sorneith’s deities, though the source of this claim is unknown. What is known is that they have some sort of nascent connection to divine magic - that is, elemental magic emitted by the gods. This often manifests in the form of glowing eyes, with a mild tint from the type of magic they can harness. Starry patterns dance across their carapaces, glittering in the light and growing brighter when they call upon their powers.

Some divines seem intent on protecting the god’s creation. They do this by destroying hives in whatever manner possible, whether it be burning the entire hive down or infiltrating it and poisoning it from the inside out. Others have allied themselves with the hive, using their powers to further its goals in return for some unknowable benefit.

ASSIMILATORS
[Wasp/Bee/Capsule]
Assimilation drones are drones whose assimilation fluid-producing throat gland has been modified to contain a much larger amount of fluid. Its appearance varies, sometimes confined to a large throat sac, while others have a pouch that continues all the way down their chest and to the tip of their tail. As the name suggests, assimilation drones have only one purpose: to assimilate. Their enlarged glands enables them to carry a much larger amount of fluid than their normal counterparts, so they can assimilate dragons much larger than they are.

ARCHERS
[Wasp/Bee/Capsule]
Archers are a subtype of assimilation drone whose belly-sac carries building tar instead of assimilation fluid. The fluid’s exact chemistry varies, but most iterations of it harden within ten seconds of contact with air. Archers are capable of spitting this fluid from an impressive distance, aiming for the wings of flying dragons who pass too close to the archer’s location. Archers are often accompanied by other drones, who keep watch for potential targets and drag the captured prey back to the hive for assimilation or other purposes.

WEAPONS
[Wasp/Bee/Firefly]
Weapons, similar to some castes like assimilation drones and archers, have an expanded pouch located within their throat. Instead of fluid, however, the pouch contains hundreds of tiny, insect-like creatures that the weapon can exhale and control. Weapons have innate knowledge of the insect’s location and senses, enabling them to monitor and control them like a consciousness controls its drones. Weapons earn their name from the way they use this ability - most frequently, the insects have a number of painful or deadly weapons like massive mandibles or deadly venom, and are commanded to swarm and attack targets as a method of distraction until the weapon or another nearby drone dispatches them.

HYPNODRONES
[Wasp/Bee/Peacock]
Hypnodrones have a series of hypnotic patterns splattered across their body, especially the wings. These patterns are brightly colored, and may induce disorienting effects on those who stare at them for too long. Hypnodrones are capable of utilizing this property to hypnotize their prey by dancing about it and moving their wings in certain ways. They can’t command their prey to do anything, but they can captivate them and hold their attention until further help arrives, and victims in such a state may be especially suggestible.

TRAPPERS
[Wasp/Bee/Filigree]
Trappers are drones who have additional growths emerging from various points along their body that act as snares for unwary passerby. Most commonly resembling the tendrils of plants like drosera, these growths are thin, stalklike, and tipped with an incredibly sticky substance that will snag and hold onto nearly anything that brushes up against it. In some cases, trappers may even have entire blossoms of the things emerging from the places where their wings should be located. Trappers often have camouflage similar to sentinels, as their favorite place to hide is along the sides of well-worn paths and within bushes and leaf litter, where they can get close to their prey without alerting it to their presence.

SENTINELS
[Wasp/Bee/Any]
[X/X/Any]
A subsection of strange drones, sentinels are drones whose coloration has been specifically tailored to camouflage with a certain type of environment. Used as scouts and guards, sentinels are capable of holding perfectly still for hours or days at a time, and can slow their metabolism to the point where they enter a near-comatose state during their silent vigil. Aside from odd coloration, their carapace may have unique growths that mimic the texture and appearance of things in their native environment, like branches, leaves, and icicles.