Ariformids

The Ariformids are half human and half ant, tauric creatures, human torso and ant bottom. As you know, contrary to Dridders ants have SIX legs as most insects and not eight. Their sizes vary from to tiny to giant, depending on the species.

The only thing, that all the species of Ariformids have in common, is that they are omnivores, which means they will eat both meat and vegetation, a single Ariformid or even a hive, might refuse to eat meat or vegetation, but never an entire species. Of course some species will share another similarity or two. Some of the Ariformids lives together in hives of several hundreds, maybe even thousands of ants, but a few species live by themselves, but these are typically the giant sized species, though some smaller species does as well.

There is a thing that all the hive species share as well, and that is, the “Hive marking”. The “Hive marking” is a glowing symbol that all Ariformids, who is part of a hive, has, of course the shape, size and colour is different from each hive. The “Hive marking” originates from the loyalty to the hive, though more loyalty will not make the symbol bigger or brighter. Ariformids can switch their hives, though this comes with the painful consequence, of changing “Hive marking”. When a “Hive marking” changes, it gives the hive switching Ariformid, up to a week of major headache. Ariformids can also leave the hive lifestyle altogether and live by themselves, this however, will result in “Hive marking” erosion, which means, as much as a whole month of intense pain, in the whole body.

Every species of the Ariformids have a different set of abilities and elemental dispositions, though some might have none, some of the species might even be different from hive to hive and others yet from Ariformid to Ariformid.

For travellers in Felarya, one of the best places to be, is in the territory of befriended Ariformids, because no matter the species, it's pretty much guarantied to have less carnivorous plants and animals (And non carnivorous too XD)

Just like the regular ants we know, Ariformids have a really big sweet tooth, and will go to great lengths to get whatever the sweet thing is, though it depends on each species, just HOW far they will go to get it.

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Black Ariformids

The Black Ariformids will only grow to human size, and they can only carry about 5 times their weight, though they are getting slightly stronger all the time. They don’t have any magic or special abilities. They will eat just about anything that moves or just looks remotely edible, as long as it is not a sentient being.

Personality:
The Black Ariformids are nice and helpful, they will stop and help any sentient beings if they need help, unless in a hurry of course. This does not count for members of another Black Ariformid hive however, Due to the fact that each hive competes over territory, so any unneeded intruder will be cahsed away.

Hive community:
The black Ariformids are a community controlled by two central figures, the queens…yes there are two queens. The deal with that is, that one of the queens serve as the worker queen, while the other server as the warrior queen.

The worker queen, who is very knowledgeable in the subject of construction, will mostly give birth to males, only once in her lifetime will she have a period of a few days, where only eggs containing females are laid, the hatching order will decide, who becomes the next queen.

There are two types of male Ariformid, the workers, who are the backbone of the hive, and the less numerous drones, who have a very different purpose altogether. The workers are muscular and very ordinary looking, though there may be a slightly prettier worker, once in a while. Drones look very different from their siblings, having a lighter build and fully functional wings. Compared to the workers, they would be considered very handsome.

The worker males will use their pure physical powers to work from the time they hatch from their larva state, as little Ariformid children, until they die, which means either eaten or killed directly. Males of the Black Ariformids are all born, with the inability to grow, though it has been found out, that it can be made possible, by simply injecting them with a little bit of growth hormones, where after they will start producing them on their own.

From birth, drones are treated with more respect and care than the average Ariformid, being fed more and better food, and being educated in etiquette, self-defence, surviving off the land, and most importantly, wooing ladies. When the drones reach a certain age however, their situation abruptly changes, as they are cast out of the nest and into the dangerous Felaryan forests.

Once they're on their own, most of the drones end up being killed off by predators and other circumstances. However, those lucky and skilled enough to stay alive for any period of time, sets out to look for another colony. This would be suicidal for a worker or warrior, but not quite as dangerous for a drone, as other nests depend on drones to help repopulate them, so killing them on sight would just be SILLY.

Still, it isn't really a cake walk for the poor drones once they finally find another nest. He has to earn at least a grudging respect from the workers and warriors, as they'll be quite happy to dismember him if he seems unworthy. Many Ariformid nests have devised their own ways of testing prospective drones, such as a dangerous obstacle course, a battle of the minds, or a test of strength, depending on what sort of attributes are valued most in that particular nest.

If the drone survives his initiation into the new nest, he finally gets to do what he was born to; make some babies with the Queen.

The warrior queen, who is very knowledgeable in the subject of battle, will only give birth to females. The females will use their speed and agility to fight and hunt, they will grow up with intense training all the time, the only time females will not train for battle, is when…. Well, never. The females will ALWAYS train, even when eating or sleeping they won’t be able to relax, they can always expect a stone flying through the air…

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Now that people have shown interest, i will spend alot of my time between my story and my gaming, making this into a full fletched race

In terrestrial ants, workers and soldiers are female. The males are breeders.
I imagine that all workers and soldiers would be unswervingly obedient to the queen, a hive mentality perhaps?

These would have to be pretty limited in max growth size (both of Ants and their Hives): A thousand Spine Beetle-sized ants alone is going to play hell on an ecosystem unless they either Farm or interact with other Sentient Species that do-so (So Nekos, Humans, Elves, and [maybe] Nemesis).

Would be interesting the see a Tauric Race working alongside one of the other races: Humans / Nekos let the Ant-People "clear" a section of Jungle / Forest and use many of the resources, then use the open land for crops that they share with the Ant People?

Personally, I think Ant People should be tiny sized. Like Neeras and so on.

how about this then: make them half human size and very territorial to other ants than thier own hive members, while on the same time, making the area of thier territory much larger. this way they wouldn't be able to cause as much havoc and they wouldn't make alot of hives near each other.

Making them half the size of humans would be... odd. Pygmy ant warriors seems... I don't know. My own ideal for them would be tiny size, but you are the ant people pioneer.

Regardless, they'd be the bane of fairies due to their insectoid nature. Making some natural predators for them would be interesting too. An anteater type creature, and a few flora that eat them as well.

i now completely reedited the ant-people, to a degree that fit's in a bit better

When it comes to names, I like to derive it from the Scientific name. How does Formicids sound?

Interesting idea but before to start to a specialize sub-specie you should develop a global definitions where you state the common traits and after you develop the sub-specie.

thanks man, i can always rely on you to give me a helping hand^^

No problem. I'll think about it more after some sleep though.

I think having them small is a good idea. Knowing ants, if they were predator sized they would start on a campaign to conquer the world...

This subject has gotten me thinking about insectaurs in general. To list so far, we have miaxi, gyspas, mantoids, and gerridis as races with an insect base. It could probably do to re-classify all those into one group ala squamataurs.

Now specifically about 'antaurs' or such, I think they could do fine as a tiny race. Like ants they could be known to live underground, and likely not be too friendly with other tiny races, or anything else. Maybe known as troublesome prey to nekos due to their ability to bite, scratch and swarm. Perhaps could serve as one of the most developed of the tiny races due to their living structure. That really just seems like a niche that makes the most sense to me.

Heh, in such a form they could do as a main prey species to the mole-people I was working out, as their version of neera.