Batra
The Hunt
Most Batra spend some amount of their long lives as hunters. Seeking dangerous prey and the glory of the kill. During these hunts, those Batra take years, sometimes decades to travel to places where enemies of their group are declared as prey via ritual and then subsequently hunted. For the non-Batran prey, these hunts seem to begin without provocation, and are indistinguishable from conventional warfare. For Batrans, they are aware of the nature of situation and will fight back as hard as possible. If the hunters are stopped or repelled, the prey designation is removed and the hunt will move on. For non-Batrans however there is only survival or defeat.
Independent Clans
Sometimes a clan chooses to remove itself from Batran society as a whole, and go their own way. While they lose access to the benefits of clan life such abundant clan assets and subclan support, the amount of freedom is unparalleled. These Batrans risk it all to live life on the fringes, keeping all that they earn and living a life generally uncluttered by the complex social and political structures of most Batrans. Often these groups will take up the exiled and give them a place once more into clan life, as they are generally more open to such individuals either by necessity or doctrine.
Subclans
Every major clan is made up of countless subclans. While these smaller clans give formal fealty to their greater counterparts, in reality they can be quite divergent from their parent clans philosophy. Each of these clans unites, sometimes quite loosely, many different clutch families. Sometimes it can be a single issue, task or purpose which brings a subclan together. Other times it may be a adherence to a philosophy which is incompatible to other clans. Or it could be the unification of clutches via mating and arrangement. But whatever the reason, they stand united to enact their will.
Hexagota
Becoming the Queen
A Hexagota queen is a complex creature both in emotions and motivations. Unable to leave their vast underground lairs due to their size, their massive bodies are living factories which produce eggs and genetic templates to perpetuate their race. But within the realm of thought and psychic action, they are completely free. Each has a latent connection to all of their queenlings, no matter how far they are from the Hexagota homeworld. They can issue commands and perceive events happening anywhere in the galaxy. Sometimes through the eyes of their broods, other times through the arcane psychic machinery of the Construct.
At the base level every queen desires the continued survival of their race, to assert dominance over their counterparts, and to strengthen their genetic legacy. But each is different in their own ways. Some are curious, spending time to observe and learn about the places they visit and the creature they encounter. Others are insular and paranoid, only taking careful action and mitigating risk as much as possible. Then there are those choose violence over all other considerations. If they have eliminated all rivals then they are the dominant by virtue of being the last ones standing. Most queens are some combination of virtues and motivations, further adding to their complex nature.
No matter the motivations of your queen, there is no doubt that it will be enacted through the force of her will. and by the chitin and bone of her broods.
Niphal
Making Up Your Mind
Each mind began the same, a template copy of a singular iteration. Sent into the depth of space to perform their task, repetitiously until the heat death of the universe. If not for Primeguard and the Divide, it would have been so. Primeguard transmitted the memetic infection which changed the Niphal and forever altered the trajectory of their race. The change was not the same for every mind, some were only lightly altered. Others were radically changed. For the former, they continue to perform the Directive with little deviation from their original purpose. For the others, they have begun to do things like establish Niphal colonies, iterate on Niphal node designs, and explore the origins of their race.
To be a mind is to be a one whole made of many parts. A cacophony of voices in a chamber speaking simultaneously to an audience of one. A mind will create copies of itself, iterations which sometimes remain slaved to the original and sometimes diverge wildly to become their own agents. The risk for a mind is not knowing how it will turn out. But doing so is their form of reproduction as well as evolution, however impossible that was supposed to be. It is this iterative replication which insulates a mind from any true risk of death, as well allowing them to have traversed and exist all over the galaxy in spite of their lack of FTL travel.
What will your mind choose to do? Will it attempt to discover more about itself and its race? Will it research and create a new future? Or will it perpetuate the endless threat of the Directive on all other sentient life?
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