Hive Ultun: Hive of the Star Demons
Lay of the Land
Hive Ultun's homeland is a heavily forested region sprawling on the windward side of a mountain. It's often snowy and rainy, but not enough to create the full, franticly overgrowing rainforests found under Redarkhan sky cities. The wood here, rather than expand to cover every last inch of land as fast as possible, grows slow and steady, becoming as hardened and nearly unbreakable in their old age. There are paved paths through the forest, along which people come and go, but beyond them is the forest, unchanging, forever.
Under the great Ultunese forest are the mines of Ultun. Their tunnels run deep, all throughout the forest. Their walls are held up with the sturdy wood of the great forest, making caveins exceedingly rare. Swarms of people move through the hive, always working at every hour of the day. The hives bussle with the sounds of industry, the forging of tools and the growing of food. These mines have long been one of the richest silver mines in the world and now mine the iron which clads the Star Demons of Ultun
Major Cities
Hive Ultun was, early in it's history, conquered and forced to work as slaves in the mines for their masters. After three decades of enslavement, the slaves revolted and established Hive Ultun as a small independent hive based inside of a silver mine. The Hive has grown since, but the old silver mine where the Great Rebellion began remains the capitial city and the home of the Star Queen who rules the entire hive.
There are a number of other sub-hives, about 30 in total. Each of the sub-hives has it's own queen and consists of a sprawl of mining shafts, tunnels and other excavations extending from the surface to about a mile underground. Above the mines are small villages with rows upon rows of orchards, not looking all that different from the forest itself. Most travel between cities is done along the underground tunnels and the paved roads do not go through the orchards, as to keep travellers from stealing the crop. They are much less dense than the standard ormigan hive, as they were initally just mining camps.
There are two basic divisions between the sub-hives, that of the Silver hive and the Iron hive. The distinction comes from the time of the Great Rebellion, in which the Silver hives were those founded by their masters to mine silver. These hives were the only ones which the masters knew of, and keept producing silver for the masters right until the day of the first battle of the Great Rebellion. In modern times, the Silver hives are the economic and civilian centres of the hive. The Iron Hives, on the other hand, were the hives kept secret from the masters, which mined iron and trained members of the warrior caste for the Great Rebellion which would free their people. To this day, they remain heavily guarded military camps, with mountain fortresses instead of forested orchards and warriors training for the next battle or raid.
The Capital City of Ultun is the major exception to this rule. It is both a Iron hive and a Silver hive, both being produced here. It is the location in which Hive Ultun first discovered iron and, despite being in the forest, has a large city with paved streets, stone buildings and many paved roads leading in and out. It's central keep contains the Queen, the drones and their servants, along with the elite warriors of Ultun, the Star Demons.
Economics
Hive Ultun's economy produces five things in any major amount: Fruit, Silver, Wood, Iron, and Slaves.
Hive Ultun's diet is one of large plump fruits and tiny pecan-like nuts grown in massive orchards. Meat is hunted for, but most of the food is harvested off of trees. A wide varitey of fruit is planted, grown and harvested all throughout the year. The pecan plant takes a full year to produce it's nut, but each fall great mounds of them are harvested in baskets, shelled and stored. The shells theselves are ground into a sort of flour, which makes dark, bitter tasting bread and is generally served with fruit to all except for the slaves.
The Ultunese forest is full of thick, ancient trees. Due to the Void magic used in the region, the trees absorb trace amounts of Iron and grow a dark wood that is extremely difficult to cut without iron tools and burns exceedingly slowly. Hive Ultun, having iron tools, chops the wood and uses it as fuel in it's forges, to hold up the walls of it's mines, and as long lasting torchs. Large tracts of trees are not cut, as not to draw attention to the positions of the hives, which the Queems prefer to remain something of a secret.
According to Hive Ultun's most popular (and only) religion, Silver is a holy metal which, if offered to the Queen, will allow her to secure a joyful afterlife for you in the Silvery Palaces, that religion's afterlife. Failing to offer enough silver means a painful afterlife eternally burning to death on the Sun in extreme pain. As such, Silver mining is a major industry in Hive Ultun. Silver is the currency of the people and the preistesses are the tax collectors. Travelling the world to find large piles of silver makes you somewhat like a saint.
If Silver is the holy metal, Iron is the gift from the gods. Iron is the basis of Hive Ultun's large military, which is constantly requiring more recruits and more iron to arm them. Mining Iron, forging the Iron and using Void magic to enhance the Iron are all services which garner a large amount of silver in payment. For this reason, being a Warrior insures a healthy, happy afterlife and a your own personal Palace in the Silvery Realms once you die gloriously in battle.
The purpose of the Iron mining and the massive military is to capture Slaves. The ormigans of Hive Ultun do suprisingly little of the actual mining, wood cutting and growing of fruits themselves. They have teams of human slaves tending the orchards and toiling away in the mines. The worker ormigans themselves process the metal and fruit but, by and large, do not do nearly as much work as workers of other hives.
Law and Order
The laws in Hive Ultun are brutally enforced by the Star Queen's iron clad guards, who are members of the warrior caste. The law itself is a combination of religious law and royal decrees from the Star Queen. The law is written on large silver pillars in public squares, at the gates of the Capital and in the Queen's palaces. Laws of intrest to outsiders include:
- All free humans visiting the Capital must wear special, bright red clothing to indicate that they are not slaves. All outsiders entering the city must wear special iron braclets which glow brightly when they use magic. Lastly, outsiders are also forbidden to speak with human slaves they do not own without supervision
-.Being suspected of attempting to incite a slave revolt, freeing slaves inside the city(whether you own them or not) and making maps of the Ultunese forest are all capital crimes punishable by death.
- For outsiders, being in the tunnels or in the Ultunese forest off of the road is grounds to be imprisoned and interogated with sharp bits of very hot metal.
- If a priest asks for a donation, you are expected to give him atleast a silver coin. If he asks for a specific amount, you're to give him that much. Impiety is a crime, even for non-belivers and humans, as is refusing to pay taxes.
- Critism of the Star Queen, the Hive Queens, their drones, the Warrior Caste and a number of subjects is illegal, as is the preaching of foreign religions.
Despite this, a small number of free humans, mostly slavers and the few rare Iron merchants, regularly travel and trade with Hive Ultun.
Magical Traditions
Hive Ultun was one of the first groups to discover Void magic and, according to them, the only people to ever discover it independently. All other Void mages, according to the Star Queen, are pale imitations of Hive Ultun's glory and power.
The Void sorcerers of Hive Ultun use their magic to work iron armour, weapons, tools and jewelery so that these items can be used to shape void magic. A side effect of the process is that all iron shaped with void magic becomes silvery and magnetic, powerful items being steely in color and very strongly magnetic. These items require void magic to power them and are nothing more than strange peices of magnetic iron without the proper training.
The armour of the Warrior and Drone castes of Ultun has small studs of Void-worked metal, resembling stars. The void magic repulses and hampers non-void magic even more strongly than normal iron. The armour itself has spikes and large masks with images of their religion's demons on them, to inspire fear in their enemies. It is from this silver-spotted, monsterous armour that the names Star Queen and Star Demons come from.
The Drones and Warriors of Ultun favour a set of four swords, each strongly charged with Void Magic. These swords cut through magical defenses with ease and can be used to parry and block offensive spells, such as fireballs. Higher ranking members of these castes can become Void sorcerers. They are able to throw bolts of crackling black void lightning, create powerful Void-worked Iron armour and weapons, project their voices out of distant peices of Void enchanted Iron and scry upon distant pieces of Void enchanted iron. They cannot send images or 'scry' sounds, however.
All members of Hive Ultun know basic charms and prayers that protect them from evil foreign magics and the spells needed to operate their tools. A number of charms and talismans are made from iron to confer resistance to other forms of magic. Slave Overseers are given iron rods which can supress non-void magic in an individual.
Government
The ruler of Hive Ultun is a theocracy led by the Star Queen. Under her are the Hive Queens and, below that, the Drone caste. The Hive Queens vote to choose the next Star Queen after her death, after extensive prayer and under the table agreements with eachother. Nominally, the Star Queen serves the Gods, but the Gods have yet to speak to anyone but the current Star Queen.
The religion of Ultun is as follows: The Star Queen is the representive of the Gods on this world and the Divinely appointed Ruler of Everything. Iron is a gift from the Gods to allow the Hive to conquer Everything, in the name of the Star Queen and the Gods. The Gods themselves live in the sky, on the Moon and on the Sun. Silver is holy and must be offered to the Gods through the Star Queen to insure a good afterlife. When someone dies, they will ascend into the heavens, either upon the next sunset if they were a bad person, or the next full moon if they made enough offerings. Bad people are eternally tortured in fiery prison by the Gods who live in the Sun and good people live happily in beautiful palaces in hives made out of pure silver. These Silver Palaces are the stars.
The Drones either become Void sorcerers and lead the Warrior Caste in battle or study religious texts on the nature of the Divine and the laws of the hive so they might serve serve as the priests of the state religion. Priests also serve as the judges and tax collectors for the Hive.
Culture focus: Hive Ultun
Moderator: Moderators