Hylax

Before the Swarm became the monolithic hive mind of devastation that it is today, its members followed a goddess named Hylax. Shirrens believe that Hylax was the first of their species—a mortal queen who ascended to godhood to watch over her progeny for eternity. But when The Swarm rejected individuality for the collectivity of the hive, it abandoned Hylax as well. Hylax respected the Swarm’s choice and resolved not to interfere with its development, turning her attention to other sentient insectile species in the galaxy, but she always hoped her children would return to her. Eventually, the Forever Queen’s patience was rewarded when the shirrens broke from the Swarm’s hive mind and became individuals once more, rediscovering their ancient patron in the process.
Hylax knows that peace is a better state than war and that friendship is more rewarding than hostility. She teaches her followers to consistently use diplomacy in their dealings with others, to constantly strive for fellowship and harmony, and to always seek allies rather than conquest. But Hylax also realizes that sometimes diplomacy fails and that the peaceful must sometimes defend the innocent. There’s nothing wrong with failing to achieve peace—the moral imperative is simply to make the attempt, no matter how difficult or distasteful it might seem.
The intelligent arthropods of the Liavaran moon of Nchak have worshiped Hylax since even before The Gap, believing that their leaders are the mortal incarnations of the Forever Queen and striving to build their civilization in accordance with her teachings. Since the shirrens’ arrival, however, her faith has spread throughout The Pact Worlds. Shirrens make up the vast majority of Hylax’s followers, followed closely by Formian, Haan, and other insectile races, but diplomats, envoys, mediators, negotiators, and peacekeepers of all species venerate Hylax as well. Priests of Hylax often serve on starships engaged in interstellar exploration missions, acting as first contact specialists should their crews encounter new extraterrestrial species. Hylax’s hive-like temples may be found wherever species from different worlds mingle together, and all are welcome inside in the spirit of amity and harmony.
Though Hylax is traditionally a god of hive creatures, she’s paradoxically fond of individualism, and she encourages her followers to seek strength in community but recognize and embrace their individual value. Differences in doctrine and tradition among her followers are only natural, and while the Forever Queen of Nchak acts as supreme pontiff for her hive-based followers, shirrens are encouraged to have a more personal relationship with the divine.

Assets

The traditional center of Hylax worship in the Pact Worlds is the Forever Halls on the moon of Nchak, an underground palace of tunnels that plays host to the goddess’s living incarnation, the Forever Queen. This spiraling, hive-like structure is filled with thousands of rooms, offices, and painted pathways that provide a luxurious, if claustrophobic, place for government officials and visitors alike. For obvious reasons, Nchak has become a place of holy pilgrimage for shirrens and other worshippers of Hylax, and adherents come from far and wide in the hope of attending a church service overseen by the Forever Queen herself. Visitor accommodations around the Forever Halls have expanded exponentially to meet demand, and priests of Hylax work with government officials to ensure all pilgrims receive a satisfying religious experience. In addition to Hylax herself, the Forever Halls contain many of the most accomplished philosopher worms, including the queen’s primary consort, known as the teleologarch.
Outside Nchak, some of the holiest sites of Hylax can be found on the planet of Verces, among the shirren colonies collectively known as Sanctuary. When the shirrens entered the Pact Worlds, their first encounter was with a Vercite ship commander, who brokered an agreement for the shirren to set up permanent residence on Fullbright, the eternally sunlit side of Verces. The original shirren colonies exist in a scorching and inhospitable environment, but the shirrens consider this spot to be a symbol of the new home, new peace, and new friends that they found within the Pact Worlds. A church known as Second Chances, named in homage to the Vercite commander’s starship, stands on the ground where it is believed that the first shirren stepped when disembarking onto Verces. Much as the name suggests, Second Chances is a popular destination for followers of Hylax looking for a new start or hoping to make amends. Aiding such pilgrims in these tasks are the quietly cheerful Heterarch Raknithil (LG female shirren mystic) and her entourage of assistants.
Castrovel is home to two churches of major significance to Hylax: Promise of Peace and Voice of the Overqueen. Promise of Peace is a small shrine near the site where shirrens managed to broker a peace treaty between the warring formians and Lashunta. The shirrens also convinced the formians that non-formian creatures did not need to have their behavior forcefully “corrected” into conformity. Though the regular congregation is small and donations from tourists and historical preservation societies provide most of the church’s support, Heterarch Synechtax (LG host shirren mystic) proudly welcomes new members or visitors into the fold. Each evening service opens with a short speech on how the church is a monument to the fact that peace can be found in the most improbable circumstances.
Voice of the Overqueen is located in the colony of Broken Minds on Castrovel, where nonconforming formians can find sanctuary from the rest of their species. A small sect of formian converts runs the temple, and the congregation believes the theoretical concept of the Overqueen is real, embodied in Hylax. The temple’s leader, Vion (LG female formian soldier) knows that she can never spread her faith to most other formians. Instead, she preaches the word to new arrivals in Broken Minds and works with shirrens to prepare free-willed formians for a new life outside the collective they’ve known their entire lives.

History

Ages ago, according to shirren legend, an insectile species now known as kucharn thrived in an unknown part of the galaxy. Their innate psychic connection to one another allowed them to form a tight-knit society based on community and empathy, as each kucharn could feel the cares and emotions of the others. For generations, a queen known as Hylax, a kucharn of godlike psychic power, benevolently ruled the species. Hylax watched and guided her children with a gentle touch, refusing to issue direct commandments out of concern that such acts would stifle kucharn individuality and their growth as a species.
Yet some among the kucharn craved to be of one mind with their divine queen. When they were refused, they decided to fuse their minds together to form a godlike collective of their own. Hylax did not intervene. She knew she could not save her children from the path of conformity by demanding obedience—which she considers merely a different type of conformity. Thus was the Swarm born. This monolithic mass of pure destruction has devoured countless worlds in the centuries since. Abandoned, Hylax turned to other insectile species for a time, but she never forgot the kucharn. And in time, her patience was rewarded when the shirrens broke away from the Swarm and returned to her.
Hylax, known fondly among her insectile followers as the Forever Queen, is the goddess of diplomacy, friendship, and peace. She is also considered to be the patron goddess of first contact, facilitating nonviolent interactions among species. Her followers were instrumental in negotiating the entrance of the shirrens into the Pact Worlds alliance. She is also revered and beloved on the Liavaran moon of Nchak, where she has been worshipped since before the Gap. The intelligent arthropods who reside on Nchak believe their queens to be the mortal incarnations of the goddess. Diplomats, mediators, and other peacekeepers pay their respects to the Forever Queen, and the prevalence of Hylax’s worshippers among first contact specialists means that the word of Hylax has spread to numerous alien species.
Shirrens make up the majority of Hylax’s followers within the Pact Worlds, followed by eusocial creatures such as formians, Trox, and haans. Beyond these, Hylax welcomes anyone who seeks her guidance, though some non-insectile species have trouble understanding the Forever Queen’s embrace of individual expression and community. Hylax sees no contradiction in these two concepts, encouraging her followers not only to give to the community at the cost of personal sacrifice, but also to celebrate the unique contributions that each individual brings to that community. Hylax believes that society must value and nurture its individuals. Each being contributes to the whole to keep society strong, and each is worthy of genuine love. If an individual is worse off within a particular society than they would be outside of it, Hylax guides that person to a new collective where they can contribute and be supported.
Hylax also encourages her followers to reach out to others and strive for harmony. She understands that these ideals are not always possible, however. Some creatures cannot be persuaded, while others are unwilling or unable to hear her message. Hylax asks only that her followers make their best effort in good faith. She stresses that no shame exists when peace efforts fail or when—to save friends or innocents—conflict must be chosen over compromise.
Those who reject Hylax’s message pursue their own paths, as the goddess considers it beyond her rights to force her will upon others. This explains why she allowed the Swarm to turn away and embrace extreme collectivism, and also why she does not meddle in doctrinal disputes among her followers. This policy of noninterference has drawn criticism from other good-aligned gods and mortals alike, especially those with influence or experience on worlds that the Swarm has ravaged. Some feel that Hylax’s inaction in these matters allows evil to fester without opposition. Nevertheless, Hylax knows that her respect for individual choices separates her from cruel tyrants and despots. The Forever Queen is forever patient, willing to wait as long as necessary for a creature or a community to come to her out of free will.

Divine Origins

The holy scriptures of the church of Hylax are more in touch with modern society and less dogmatic than those of most other religions. The reason is straightforward: arthropods of Nchak believe their queens to be the mortal incarnation of Hylax, so the goddess herself can be consulted on any new situation or doctrinal dispute. Hundreds of data-entry scribes collect and update the pronouncements of the Forever Queen. These scribes also compile and maintain searchable databases for ease of reference. Scripture updates are uploaded to planetary infospheres as quickly as possible to ensure that religious establishments on different worlds can share the same knowledge.
The Forever Queen knows that divine dictates can unduly impact mortal behavior, however, and a people unwilling to question their leader can be fatally blinded by their own adoration. For this reason, the Forever Queen rarely speaks immediately on contentious matters, instead allowing her caste of advisors, the philosopher worms, to consult with her on the subject before choosing whether to make a pronouncement. These philosopher worms also write treatises as part of their governmental and religious duties. These essays range from ponderings on the metaphysics of the universe to explorations of the physical world, and include dissenting opinions that challenge existing doctrine. Such supplemental scriptures are known within the church as “pharynges,” but they are commonly referred to as “ribbons” when communicating with outsiders. One of the most popular of these works, Ribbon of Spinning String, uses advanced physics and divine numerology to theorize that all beings in the universe share a connection with each other. The misery of one creature, this scripture posits, can create entropy across the entire galaxy.

Cosmological Views

DEIFIC RELATIONS As the deity of friendship and peace, Hylax gets along well with most good-aligned deities and tries to keep on the better side of other gods. As she is a patron of hive-minded species and a proponent of collective action, it surprises no one that she and her followers work well with Abadar. Hylax’s love of finding common ground with others means her faithful are also often in agreement with Sarenrae's church, and when disagreements between the two arise, it is often due to Hylax’s unwillingness to interfere in affairs of free will, even when the consequences of such inaction seem dire. On the other hand, Iomedae considers Hylax to be too reluctant to confront the reality of the Swarm, and many gods consider Hylax to be overly tolerant of Zon-Kuthon's corrupting creed. Indeed, provided no one involved has been coerced, Hylax makes little effort to oppose those who serve the Midnight Lord, even when they have strayed past the boundaries of the safe and rational.
Hylax and Oras have a tentative friendship with each other, driven by mutual curiosity and interest in the process of evolution. Many of Hylax’s worshippers create their own castes or evolve themselves to better suit their society’s needs, so Oras considers them to be natural followers. Hylax herself consults Oras often on the nature of random mutations, such as what might have caused the shirren to break away from the collective mind of the Swarm. This question is of extreme importance to many of Hylax’s shirren followers, but if Oras knows the truth, the deity has yet to reveal it.
Paradoxically, Damoritosh respects Hylax, despite his disinterest in diplomacy. The Conqueror originally considered Hylax to be nothing more than a bug to be squashed on the way to victory, but the Veskarium has since seen—and on occasion, faced—the full extent of the destruction that Hylax’s followers can conjure when fighting to save their friends. Damoritosh and some of his highest followers eventually developed a grudging respect for the goddess who could inspire such ferocity. Hylax responds to these sentiments with ambivalence. She treats Damoritosh cordially when they are both fighting toward the same goal, but she does not otherwise approve of his philosophy or his actions.
The Devourer is the only deity that Hylax makes no attempt to befriend. Even at her most generous and optimistic, Hylax recognizes that there is no reasoning with an embodiment of malevolent nihilism. Individual worshippers of the Devourer might be saved, but the church believes that it is far better to encourage strong communal attachments and friendships that prevent anyone from turning to the Devourer in the first place.

Tenets of Faith

The highest ideal of Hylax is to create a perfect society based not on laws and obligations but on mutual friendship and personal fulfillment. The first role of a Hylaxian priest is thus to aid in making this society a reality by whatever means is best suited to the priest’s strengths and abilities. In most cases, priests practice what they preach to achieve this aim. A Hylaxian is expected to find a necessary role within society at which they excel and in which they find satisfaction. To a worshipper of Hylax, no distinction exists between religious and secular positions. Any space with cooperative environments and strong friendships is holy to Hylax. A priest is as likely to be found working as a vehicle mechanic as she is to be found in a church. Priests and other powerful devotees are expected to use their influence to make their workspaces as healthy and supportive as possible, encouraging an environment that allows everyone to thrive. Issues that stifle individuals and prevent them from offering their contributions must be removed or otherwise resolved.
Priests who take on a counseling or administrative position are expected to help others find a role and community where they can likewise flourish. In the case of insectile species with castes, an individual must be placed as best fits their personality. Priests often find the non-insectile species of the Pact Worlds more difficult to manage due to cultural differences. Many Hylaxians happily embrace the challenge, though, acting as career counselors or workplace mediators to ensure that everyone is content and doing their best work.
Worshippers who are not clergy seek peace, facilitate understanding, and help their friends. Members of eusocial or hive-minded species have more extreme interpretations of these tenets than others expect, however. Shirrens are known for being generous with friendship and making sacrifices for their friends, a pair of virtues that can be dismaying to associates. Self-sacrifice is often glorified in Pact Worlds media but is sometimes associated with coercion or an eroded sense of self. This disconnect between fiction and reality can result in friction between followers of Hylax and those who don’t share their faith. It’s also one reason why eusocial insect species remain the primary worshippers of Hylax, despite the increased importance and influence of the church.

Ethics

APHORISMS Many Hylaxian aphorisms hearken back to the insectile nature of her earliest followers. They are rarely used outside such circles due to negative responses among other species. For instance, “I vomit into your mouth” is a declaration of supreme gratitude that tends to be poorly received by mammals. Similarly, a gentle head butt meant as a warning to stop can be interpreted as aggression when none was intended. The following common aphorisms are more accessible and more popular among Hylax’s disciples.
As It Harms None: A simple aphorism with a deep meaning, this saying is a reminder that actions have consequences, some unforeseen. A Hylaxian speaks this maxim to reflect on any deed, often before doing it. The “none” in the saying includes all, even the speaker, so it’s as much an adage about self-care as one of considering potential harm to others and the environment.
Of My Own Will: While this is sometimes used as an affirmation of the speaker’s freedom of choice, it is most often used when heading into dangerous situations or making a painful sacrifice. It serves as a clear statement that the adherent is making a decision aware of the likely consequences. The believer chooses to act anyway for her own reasons—likely to aid her friends.
We Have Evolved: Followers of Hylax say “We have evolved” whenever a significant peace is brokered, whether it’s a truce between warring powers or a resolution to a quarrel with a friend. In contrast to those who believe that evolution comes in response to conflict, Hylaxians feel that peace and compromise is the ultimate evolution—each side must change to accommodate the other.

Worship

Hylax is more than an abstract divine figure. Residents of Nchak know her as the supreme pontiff and a beloved mortal queen. To shirrens, she is a progenitor and loving mother who faithfully waited for her children with open arms even after they abandoned her. For this reason, despite the presence of a strong and centralized church, Hylax encourages all her followers to find their own relationship with her. Differences in doctrine and tradition are natural, as friendship and peace mean different things to different adherents. In accordance with this philosophy, the Forever Queen sets aside a few hours every day for adherents to visit with her, allowing them to speak to her rather than hear about her secondhand. The wait times for such meetings are tremendous due to high demand, and many shirrens have begun booking meetings for their future children instead of themselves.
Although the church tolerates doctrinal drift and encourages individualism, organized worship is common among worshippers of Hylax. The church provides a friendly community and a strong foundation for collective action. Services rarely contain long sermons or proselytizing unless a new pronouncement has come from the Forever Queen on Nchak. Instead, much worship involves communal activities that engage the entire congregation, such as singing or ceremonial decoration. Synchronized dancing is one of the most popular forms of worship among Hylax’s insectile celebrants, with priests creating and teaching the congregation dance routines to holy hymns and popular modern music. These dances are uniform among local churches so that adherents know the same steps. It’s common for devotees who encounter each other to perform these synchronized dances together, especially if a relevant song is playing nearby.
Hylaxian holidays are the most likely to vary from church to church, since they are intended to be inviting to the local community. One major holiday that most churches share is a ceremony known as The Leaving. This celebration, a formalized version of the help most species offer their own children, occurs every 20 to 30 years, but it stands out due to its magnitude and the responses it evokes in other Pact Worlds residents. On the designated day, old and established members of the community voluntarily turn most of their material possessions over to younger members of the community, so as to give the next generation the strongest chance to succeed. Business owners hand their operations over to younger partners, while parents give their houses and vehicles to their children. This kind of generosity is baffling to some people, but Hylaxians feel that older individuals have sufficient experience, connections, and resources to rebuild from scratch.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Hylax is a positive figure in most Pact Worlds media. The church of Hylax is extremely enthusiastic about popular culture, as media is a common language that allows people to overcome cultural barriers and learn about each other in a safe setting. Followers of Hylax gladly fund public media services, especially educational shows and programming for children, considering them investments in the community and the future. Hylaxians are involved in countless media projects, from smash-hit holovids and games to reading programs and grassroots community productions. All these endeavors promote harmony and peaceful growth through inclusion and diplomatic ties.
In some media outside Hylaxian influence, Hylaxians can be caricatured as overly friendly insectile beings played for comedic value. However, even these characters are frequently allowed poignant moments that support Hylaxian values, and few Hylaxians have trouble accepting goodhearted jests at their own expense. Many sapient creatures experience Hylax for the first time in first-contact scenarios. Therefore, their view of Hylax and her form, including that of her insectile followers, is generally positive. Many species know a Hylaxian greeting, involving a slight bow or bending to bring sensory organs, such as antennae, close together, and Hylaxians are far from the only people who now use this gesture as a sign of intended peaceful interaction.

LG goddess of diplomacy, first contact, friendship, peace; Centers of Worship: Absalom Station, Castrovel, Nchak (Liavara), Verces; Symbol: A Shirren head crowned with stars

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Alternative Names

The Forever Queen

Demonym

Hylaxian