Apiar
The Apiar are a race of bee-like fae. They pollinate large flowers hidden deep within forests and jungles where the realm of Faerie bleeds into the material realm, and from this pollen they create a honey which is highly valued by other races for its taste and ready inclination to ferment and create a popular and fairly intoxicating alcohol.
The race is believed to be entirely female, reproducing by magic, and to be monarchal. In truth, there are males, but they are even more bee like, hardly sentient, barely capable of doing anything other than pollinizing followers, fertilizing the queen and then dying.
Apiars are also not monarchal, they are in fact quite democratic, and the term "queen" was actually given to their brood mothers by other races who saw the ensconced female, larger than the others, in an ornately constructed chamber, as a ruling figure, rather than one of self-sacrifice.
Queen Apiars rise from the ranks of their sisters, called workers, in times of need. When the previous Queen Apiar dies, or it is time for a new hive to be created, the sisters convene and discuss who should become the new queen. Suggestions will be made by the convened apiars as to who might make the best queen, and, occasionally, some will make the case that they themselves would. The apiars will eventually decide, and one will be chosen. They are given a specially prepared version of Apiar Honey, Iobairt Glothach (lit. Sacrifice Jelly), traditionally created in the year that the Apiar was born, though in times of great need it may be created on the spot. The Iobairt Glothach causes the apiar to grow larger, and her mental abilities to dull, as her body is transformed and reprioritizes physical ability to birth and deposit large numbers of eggs over the ability to pollinate, create honey, or construct hives.
If the new queen was created to found a new hive, she will gather males to her with pheromones, and a sizable number of workers will accompany them, and they fly off to start a new hive. The workers create the queen chamber first, allowing the males to fertilize her and her to start building the population, while they begin tending to the more complex duties.
Personality: Apiars are a cordial, polite people, primarily concerned with the pollination of Fae-wild flowers, the maintenance of their hive, and the care of next generation. For leisure, they pursue artistic endeavours, such as flower arranging, topiary, bonsai, cooking and brewing.
They prefer peace, but will fiercely defend their hive-communities when threatened, using spear, sword, and, if needed, stinger. Their potential for flight, and four arms also makes them quite capable and devastating archers.
Physical Description: There are three forms of apiar, which other races refer to as castes, and the apiar have taken on this terminology in dealing with other races for simplicity of communication. The three castes are worker, queen, and drone.
Most other races think that the entire apiar race looks the same, and is all female. This is because they usually only ever see the worker caste. All worker caste apiar are female, and resemble short (average height 5'4"), humanoid women, with some insectile qualities. They possess four slender arms, a "wasp" waist, and a thin chitin. Four wings sprout from their backs, two just behind the shoulders, and two just under the rib-chitin. Their faces are an eerily attractive combination of humanoid woman and bee, with large, black, almond shaped, compound eyes. Instead of a nose, they have a pair of antenna, situated on the forehead between the eyes, and sweeping back over the head. Their thin chitin rises just above the forehead, creating a crown-like crest which their hair line starts behind, and ends smoothly at the joints, around the mouth and eyes, and the more sensitive parts of their bodies, giving way to soft, petal-like skin. They range from vibrant yellow to black, with small insect-like abdomens which extend from the small of their backs, which are typically a more vibrant shade of body colour, with black bands. The abdomen ends in a sharp stinger, which they try to avoid using, as it can cause grievous damage to their bodies when the barbs anchor to an enemy's body and pull the stinger, and a not inconsiderable amount of their (non-functional) reproductive system, from their own. Worker apiar are almost always infertile, and unable to lay eggs. In times of exceptional need, such as after a great many losses to the hive’s population, a worker may become fertile. This worker fertility, however, cannot birth other workers, only eggs that will hatch into 1d10 males each.
Queen Apiars are more intelligent than males, but still dim and animalistic compared to their worker sisters. They are typically 8 to 12 feet long, with most of the length being made up of their abdomen, which elongates in the transformation to queen. It is difficult for queen apiar to move, save by flying, but even that can be difficult for them. Unlike their Worker sisters, Queen apiars are fully capable of reproducing.
Male Apiars, known as Drones, are essentially large bees, about the size of a halfling, and only marginally more intelligent than an animal.
While not complete nectarivores like their mundane cousins, apiar are primarily herbivorous. They typically only consume pollen and fruit, though vegetables, nuts, seeds, fungi and tubers pose no real problem for them. They can also consume other non-meat foods, such as bread, or even candy, though they are relatively unfamiliar with cooked foods, as fires pose a grave threat to their hives. They have difficultly digesting animal proteins, though more delicate, or less bloody fleshes, such as fish or arthropod are only mildly unpleasant for them to digest, similar to a lactose intolerance in humans.
Relations: Apiar typically have good relations with their neighbours, trading honey, mead, and wood craft, for weapons, ornamentation, produce, and any of a number of other things. They highly prize silks and fine linens, all the more so because they will actually not trade, or even associate with, the races which make the best silks, namely drow and spider-like races such as aranea and ettercaps.
Apiar produce a waxy substance, similar to beeswax, which is also quite prized, for use in cosmetics, candles, and even food. Other races tend to studiously ignore the fact that, unlike apiar honey, which is made through a process more alchemical than natural, apiar wax is a secretion from their bodies, exactly like normal bees.
Apiar are wary of reptilian races, such as lizard folk, as in the past such races would, when given an opportunity, raid apiar hives for honey and worker apiar to eat. However, lizardfolk, and a number of other reptilian races, have proven themselves able to deal civilly with the bee-women, and so relations are merely strained.
Arachnid races, on the other hand, are greatly despised by the apiar. A hive will frequently attack such creatures on sight, attempting to drive them away, especially if they wander too close to the nest. Aranea are acknowledged by the apiar to be generally good creatures, and for their own part, aranea have tried to make up for past indiscretions, but old grudges die hard.
Apiar have the strange quirk of tending to assume other sentient creatures are female. They truly have trouble distinguishing the sexes of non-insectile races, and so assume that anyone talking to them and able to hold a conversation is female. It's not, exactly, sexist, it's simply to what they're accustomed.
An encounter with the mantid-like Thri Kreen is always a nerve wracking one for apiar. They've had to defend against hungry thri kreen looking for a meal almost as often as they've been helped by them, and thus the apiar race literally has no idea which to expect from a given encounter, especially as encounters have, in the past, gone from one circumstance to the other with little foreseeable reason.
Alignment: Apiar are very socially minded, but tend to use discussion and democracy to govern, valuing individual freedoms and input. They may be polite, and inoffensive, but are really only slightly more likely to go out of their way to help a stranger than ignore them. They tend towards chaos and neutrality.
Apiar Lands: Apiars build large hives, either free standing, or, more usually, in grand dead trees or natural cave structures, deep in forests and jungles. Large fields are important to them, as are Faerie bleeds. If a swarm cannot find a suitable spot with a faerie bleed, they will often settle for a field with flowers and then create a bleed.
Apiar hives are governed completely democratically. Every worker has a say in the conduct and maintenance of the hive, so long as she does her job. Males, being little more than animals, have no say, nor would they typically notice if they were given one. Queens abstain from giving input, though they would be listened to if they gave it. Apiar are also somewhat communistic, in that the hive as a whole provides the minimum needs for their people, including food, clothing and shelter, so long as the individual is performing their job and contributing to the hive.
Apiar would probably welcome members of other races if they wanted to join a hive and were willing to work, but it has never been known to happen, as the apiar trappings of living are so alien to other races, more accustomed to living in homes of wood and stone than wax secreted by a friend.
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Adventures: Adventurers are somewhat common amongst the Apiar. Some will leave the hive simply to seek more. Their basic needs are met by the hive, and many find a balance between performing their duty for their basic needs, and partaking of a hobby or passion that can get them a bit more, such as painting, performing, or crafting. Others, however, want more from life than just quiet security, and so seek out great deeds. The second main reason for apiar to go adventuring is to find suitable sites for future hives. When a site is found, the apiar will claim it for their hive with pheromones which will linger for around a decade. Site theft is not unheard-of among the apiar, though seekers will usually respect prior claiming.
Apiar Racial Traits (Worker)
- -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Cha
- Fae: As fae, apiar eat, sleep and breath, but are immune to spells such as Hold Person or Charm Person.
- Medium: Worker apiar range from 4' to 5' 8". As medium creatures, apiar have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Apiar base speed is 30'.
- Low Light Vision.
- Natural Armour +1.
- Ultraviolet Vision: Apiar can see into the ultraviolet spectrum. This changes, slightly, the way they see the world. More importantly, however, magical effects in place radiate ultraviolet light, and thus apiar can see magical auras. Apiar can use Detect Magic at will. Each school of magic gives off a different “colour” of UV light, meaning that they make Spellcraft checks to determine the school of an effect at +4.
- Flutter: Apiar wings are generally too weak for true flight, though they may flutter their wings to slow their falls. This works like the monk ability to slow falls, save that they do not need a surface within arm's reach, and they can only subtract 10' from their fall. At 3rd level, their wings grow and strengthen, and they gain a 30' (poor) fly speed, and can shorten fall distance by 20', if necessary. At 6th level, their wings strengthen more, anf their flight improves to 60' (average), and they can reduce fall distance by 30'. At 9th level, their wings almost reach the floor, and have powerful muscle attachments. Their flight improves to 90' (good), and they can reduce fall distance by 40'.
- Sting: Apiar have a natural sting attack which deals 1d4 damage, and inflicts poison (see below). Using her sting attack has a chance to injure the apiar herself. She must make a DC 15 Fort save, or her stinger breaks off, taking internal tissue with it, and dealing 1d4/3 Character Levels to her.
- Poison: Apiar venom is a mild neurotoxin and contains an enzyme which, essentially, slowly dissolves the target's cells. DC 10+1/2 HD+Con Mod. Initial Damage- Pain (-1/3 HD of Apiar to all attacks, skills and damage rolls). Secondary- 1d6 Con.
- Automatic Language: Apiar, Common, Apiar Dance Language. Bonus Languages: Auran, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Sylvan. Apiar are well received by most races. They also frequently learn the languages of air creatures and other fae. Their own languages, Apiar and Apiar Dance, are rarely found in use by other races, the former because it is difficult to speak correctly, consisting primarily of buzzes and clicks, the latter because most races consider it deeply sill to convey locations via dance.
Apiar Racial Traits (Drone)
- +6 Dex, +2 Con -6 Int
- Fae: As fae, apiar eat, sleep and breath, but are immune to spells such as Hold Person or Charm Person.
- Small: Drone Apiar are usually around 3' in length. As a Small creature, a drone apiar gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
- Drone Apiar base speed is 10'. They have a fly speed of 40' (Good)
- Low Light Vision.
- Natural Armour +2.
- Ultraviolet Vision: Apiar can see into the ultraviolet spectrum. This changes, slightly, the way they see the world. More importantly, however, magical effects in place radiate ultraviolet light, and thus apiar can see magical auras. Apiar can use Detect Magic at will. Each school of magic gives off a different “colour” of UV light, meaning that they make Spellcraft checks to determine the school of an effect at +4.
- Automatic Language: Apiar, Common, Apiar Dance Language. Bonus Languages: Auran, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Sylvan. Apiar are well received by most races. They also frequently learn the languages of air creatures and other fae. Their own languages, Apiar and Apiar Dance, are rarely found in use by other races, the former because it is difficult to speak correctly, consisting primarily of buzzes and clicks, the latter because most races consider it deeply sill to convey locations via dance.
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