Huhurin Hive Creatures
The Huhurin are an unusual species. Each individual hive
creature is no more intelligent than an ordinary house cat, but a
colony of hive creatures has a collective intelligence equal or
greater than that of the average human. The Huhurin are housed
in a hive. During primitive times, that hive was made of mud,
sticks and stones, but as the Huhurin civilization advanced, the
hives increased in sophistication, eventually reaching their
current plasteel and duridium state. These hives increase in
size with the powers of the hive, and the Great Elder Hive, ruler
of the Huhurin people, resides in a hive over 6 kilometers in
diameter that has been equipped with high power hyperdrives, and
numerous weapon mounts.
The general physical appearance of a Huhurin is of a six-
legged creature, around 20 centimeters long, with a hairless hide
that is covered with non-overlapping pebble-like scales. This
basic form varies greatly, as seen below. The mental activities
of a Huhurin hive are coordinated by an androgenous "Lord". This
lord is around three times as large as the average Huhurin, pasty
white in color, with an expanded braincase and vestigial limbs.
On it's own, a Huhurin lord is sentient, though much less
intelligent than a full hive (1D in Kno, and Per). The lord
controls the mating of the lesser Huhurin, and will
autoinseminate to produce other lord eggs. Huhurin lords are
usually sessile creatures, and are incapable of independent
motion. However, many have equipped themselves with repulsorlift
chairs that enable them to travel from one part of their hive to
another, an especially useful ability for those Huhurin that live
in hives not initially designed for their use, such as walkers or
starships.
At the beginning of a hive's life span, all lesser Huhurin
in the hive are essentially the same. However, as the Lord has
some influence in the development of Huhurin in the egg, and it
will control the breeding activities of Lesser Huhurin, the hive
soon develops a great number of castes of Lesser Huhurin, each
with it's own purpose, and each designed to fill that purpose as
best as possible. Typical examples include stronger and larger
heavy laborers, light camouflage colored scouts, and many others.
Some of the older and more advanced hives have hundreds of
castes, and have stretched Huhurin biology to it's very limits,
with castes of flying, gilled, and armored Lesser Huhurin, but
the differences in the castes of most hives are small, and in
many cases can only be determined by long observation or
dissection.
The number of Lesser Huhurin that a Lord can control, and
the range at which they can control them vary greatly. Younger
Huhurin Lords can only control a relatively small number of
Huhurin, and at very short ranges. As they age, these numbers
increase. The Great Elder Hive is rumored to contain nearly a
million lesser Huhurin, and it's lord is said to be able to
control them for parsecs.
The Huhurin are an egg laying species, with two sexes
necessary for the production of fertilized Lesser Huhurin eggs,
and only one needed for the production of a Lord Egg. A hive
will always have three or more Lord Eggs stashed away in various
places, which the resident Lord usually eats before they reach
maturity. However, when a Lord Huhurin is dieing, it will send
out a tight telepathic beam to these fertilized eggs, containing
all it's memories. The Lord loses it's memories as it broadcasts
them, and if it survives the situation that it thought was fatal,
it will remain as nothing more than a vegetable. The first of
these eggs to hatch immediately gains control of the hive, and
has the other eggs destroyed. If there is a period where the
hive is without a Lord, everyday operations will break down, and
the lesser Huhurin will do nothing other than find food and
defend their hive as best they are able, and will often wander
out of the range of their lords, to live and die as nothing more
than animals. When a Huhurin lord feels the need to reproduce,
it will produce a Lord egg, bundle it together with some common
eggs, and order a Lesser Huhurin to take that bundle as far away
as possible.
Stats:
Attribute Dice, hive: 11D
Attribute Min/Max
Huhurin Lord:
KNO: 2D+1/6D+1
PER: 2D/4D (see below)
Typical Huhurin:
DEX: 2D/4D+2
PER: 1D/3D (see below)
MECH: 2D/4D
STR: 1D/2D
TECH: 1D+2/4D
Move: 5/14,
Special Abilities:
* Lesser Huhurin: a beginning Huhurin lord can maintain
telepathic control and contact with up to 20 Lesser Huhurin.
They can increase that number permanently by spending 10
character points per additional Lesser Huhurin desired. The
range of the control starts at 20 meters, and can be permanently
increased at the cost of a cp per extra meter. The Lesser
Huhurin that have been produced by a Lord can only be controlled
by that Lord or that Lord's first generation descendant.
* Lifespan: Because of their memory transfers, the life of
a Huhurin hive is virtually unlimited. The Great Elder Hive is
at least 45,000 standard years old, and possibly much older than
that. The life span of the individual Huhurin is relatively
short, with Huhurin Lords living around 20 standard years, and
Lesser Huhurin living around 2 years.
* Castes: By expending cps to improve the stats of Lesser
Huhurin, the Hive creates a caste, specialized for the purpose
that the cp were spent on. 6 Lesser Huhurin eggs are improved
with a single expenditure, and that is the lower limit for the
number of members of a caste for it to breed true. A Huhurin
caste can double in numbers each generation. In addition, a
Huhurin Lord can breed in other modifications to it's castes,
with the cp cost and the number of generations required for the
modifications to take place varies with the difficulty of the
modifications.
* Perception: Those perception skills that rely on mental
abilities, such as Investigation and Con, reside in the hives
Lord, and the other purely sensory abilities reside in the lesser
Huhurin. As with other mental skills, when the lord is
controlling a Lesser Huhurin, that creature gains the full
abilities of it's lord.
Story Factors:
* Hives: The Huhurin hives are wonders of miniature
construction, with crawlspaces, a large number of propulsion and
defense systems, and a fair number of atmospheric controls. Many
hives are formed from pre-existing shells, such as landspeeders,
starfighters and freighters. There are even rumors of a hive
that took up residence on an Imperial Star Destroyer, and managed
to drive the imperials from that ship. What became of that hive
is unknown.
* Hive Wars: Due to the nature of the Huhurin, violent
disputes between hives are far closer to wars than brawls. In
fact, their home planet of Huhurin has no government other than a
large number of warring hives. These conflicts are protracted,
as the memories of the principles are refreshed every twenty odd
years, and their are almost no Huhurin without a long running
feud with one or two other hives which are seldom resolved
without the complete eradication of one of the hives.
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