Serve, protect, live, die, all in the name of the colony. A formian lives their life in servitude to a greater whole. Formians are a race of taurid ant-like insects that live in massive colonies. They've existed nearly unchanged for millions of years, far exceeding the age of dwarves, elves, and humans. Their numbers are immense and their forms diverse. Through millions of years of evolution, they've inhabited almost every location on the planet and even some locations off world. Numerous subspecies exist all under the one name they all recognize themselves as: formian.
Basic Information
All formians are taurid ant-like insects. They walk on four legs and have two arms. They're covered in tough chitin which serves as a form of natural armor.
Formians mouths are completely alien to most humanoid races featuring many clacking pieces of armor and two large forcep-like mandibles. Surprisingly, formians are capable of speaking many humanoid toungs although always accompanied by many clicking noises as their mouth pieces move together. Many of their own languages incorporate these noises.
Although several colonies have unique forms of reproduction, most colonies tend to follow the same model. Each colony has at least one queen that produces all the eggs in the colony. Each queen has an assembly of males that mate with the queen. The queen produces many, many eggs over the course of her lifetime. Unique to formians as opposed to their animal cousins, the ants, formian workers may also be male. Although, worker males are not allowed to breed with the queen unless under the most dire of circumstances. Worker females are incapable of breeding.
Formian eggs gestate for around 14 weeks, individual subspecies take different times. During this time, the eggs grow and molt and are tended to by other formian workers. A formian queen has the ability to decide almost everything about a formian before it dies including sex, and caste.
Following an average of a 14-week gestation period, a formian hatches. Once hatched, the formians are in a larval stage in which the have no eyes or major organs and are only capable of making small movements. They do have a mouth through which workers can feed them. The queen is also capable of feeding larvae. If she does so, she can decide through constant feedings of special chemicals created in the queen's body, to produce a princess, a juvenile queen, or a prince, a breeding male. The larvae are also covered in small hairs that developed during the molting process during its' time as an egg. These hairs work similar to a strong velcro and allow the eggs or larvae to stick to each other or to other surfaces. This allows the eggs to be stacked, hung on walls or ceilings, or carried in batches with ease. Following around 7 weeks as a larvae, the developing formian will spin a silk cocoon around itself and begin to pupate. The pupae stays in this form for around a month during which the develop into adult formians inside the cocoon. After around a month as a pupa, the formian breaks free of its cocoon as a fully developed adult. Following this point, a formian is sentient. During the first day as an adult, their chitin is soft and pale but quickly darkens and hardens.
Formians live all over the world typically in immense underground colonies. However, not all formian subspecies do this. Some are solitary, some live underwater, and some even live within other colonies beneath that colony's very nose.
Different subspecies have different diets but all formians tend to eat foragable plants, small game, and even some larger prey if they can get their mandibles on it.
Most formians go into some form of hibernation during the winter if they live in a cold environment.
Additional Information
Most formian colonies are ruled by one or more queens which each have several male consorts known as princes. The queen has undisputed rule over the colony but many times takes council from the princes and developing queens known as princesses. Each colony features several castes which differ greatly in biology. Most colonies feature a working caste which manages building, foraging, taking care of young, and much more. The warrior caste forms the armed forces of the colony and serve to protect the colony, attack its enemies and other martial duties.
Formians are found all over the world and in many different environments.
Formians have unblinking compound eyes, meaning that their eyes are actually made of many smaller eyes that work together to create a larger image. They also have three simpler eyes called ocelli on top of their head, which detect light and polarization.
Formians are capable of communicating in a way that seems strange to many humanoid species, through smell. Formian bodies produce pheromones that stick to the formian's body or other substances at the formian's behest. These pheromones allow formian's to communicate simple concepts nonverbally and even leave messages behind for others. Each formian is also identifiable by a unique scent which tells other formians several pieces of information including the colony they belong to, their rank, job, and name.
Average Height
Varies by caste
Average Weight
Varies by caste
Average Physique
Formians are incredibly strong creatures, capable of lifting several times their own body weight with ease.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Formians come in many different colors depending on their subspecies. Many formian colonies mark their chitin with tattoo-like etchings or paint. Some even encrust themselves with jewels as decoration or a sign of status.
These are various subspecies of formian
Atratu
Bodus
Chychondyla
Ciinae
Cocysti
Colodersi
Coruni
Ephalo
Hamatu
Lanoce
Lenogax
Lombica
Mitzi
Monomur
Nitudu
Notho
Nylan
Obscur
Oeco
Odontum
Orys
Paravata
Phei
Scutellari
Siaver
Soleno
Tocandira
Venatri
this is really cool! I love the detail in the growth rates and their biology. An interesting and captivating read.
Suuuper late response but thank you so much. College caught up to me and I took a writing break around the holidays so I didn't check back up here. I've still got a lot of work to do on these guys (you may have noticed the enormous collection of Formian subspecies on the sidebar), but they'll all get done in time.