Andegat

Biology

The Andegat are a species of Ant-Folk. They come bipedal and four-armed, with a protective exoskeleton and two strong mandibles. They have two antennae which they use to smell, hear, and occasionally feel. While they can see in the dark, their visual sense overall is relatively poor, especially over longer distances. They possess however and excellent sense of smell. They differentiate others by their smell. The Andegat hatch from an egg, undergo a short infantile stage as a larva, after which they become pupa, before emerging as imago in their iconic form.

Castes

The Andegat come in 3 biological Castes. Workers: The sterile females making up the vast majority of the population. Queens: rare large fertile females who lay all the eggs, and are thus the mothers of the colony. Drones: the rare winged fertile males who may mate with Queens. The Andegat have a haploid-diploid sex-determination system. Fertilized eggs become females (Workers and Queens), unfertilized eggs become males (Drones). This means females have both mother and father, yet males have only a mother.

Worker

Lifespan of 80 years. She is the classic and most common Caste. The Worker can come in Sub-Castes, often divided into the Minor Worker (120 cm, 30 kg), Median Worker (170 cm, 80 kg), and Major Worker (220 cm, 150 kg).

Queen

Lifespan of 200 years, size 300 cm, weight 500 kg. A Young Queen is called Princess and comes with 2 pairs of wings. As she gets older and larger, she becomes too heavy to fly, and she may clip her wings as a symbolic act of having matured into a Queen. In addition growing much larger, a Queen has a wider build than a Worker.

Drone

Lifespan of 40 years, size 170 cm, weight 50 kg. A Drone comes with 2 pairs of wings. He has a slimmer build than a Worker, with a smaller head and larger eyes.

Family

The Andegat lay heavy importance on relatedness and family. They can recognize family by the smell alone. Because only a rare few individuals can produce offspring, Queens and Drones, families tend to be very large, with Workers having a lot of sisters with the same Queen as mother. A family usually consists of a single Queen at the top, like a matriarch, with one or more Drone partners. Because Queens live a lot longer than Drones, Queens often acquire new partners over their life. Andegat families usually house in a Kastellion.

Name

An Andegat's full name consists of 3 names. Their Person Name, Generation Name, and Family Name. The Family Name is typically the name of the original Matriarch Queen of the family. The Generation Name is the name of their parents joined, with the Queen's name first. So a Worker named Zenir with a mother Elisedra and a father Veils, would be named Zenir Elisedra-Veils of family Elisedra. Multiple generation in the family have different fathers and thus different Generation names; and Drones lacking a father alltogether just have their mother's name as Generation Name. A Queen starting their own sovereign family changes their Family Name to the one of the new family, typically named after themselves; Like: Elisedra [mother]-[father] of family Elisedra. When the old Matriarch Queen dies, and a daughter Queen replaces her, the name of the family usually remains the one of the original Queen.

New Family

To start a new family, a Queen, often Princess, together with a large set of her Worker sisters (sometimes a few brother Drones) splits off from her old family, usually after having already acquired a suitable male partner. She, her partner, and her accompanied siblings become generation zero of the new family, and take on the new Family Name. The Queen's siblings are the placeholder workforce to build the foundations of the family and help raise the offspring of the coming generations. A generation is marked by a new father, which changes about all 20 to 30 years.

Structure

As a family ages, the single Matriarch Queen dies and gets replaced with a more complex multi-generational system of her Queen daughters. The leadership of the family usually consists of the oldest Worker generation and all Queens of that generation or older (and perhaps their mates), with sibling Drones rarely taking family leader roles, on grounds of never being part of the older generations.

Princes & Mating Season

Drones who are intended to become mates for Queens are titled Princes. Spring is Mating Season. Families may send some of their Drones to fly off as Princes to find partners during Mating Season. Families who in turn are looking for Princes for either unwed Princesses or widowed Queens ceremoniously craft an large fire releasing iconic rosy smoke to be recognized from afar for Princes. Families may alternatively arrange planned exchange of Princes with each other.

Culture

Colony

A colony can consist of a single family, a collection of allied or intermixing families, or typically for large cases a unified and managed breeding structure of many Queens and Drones. While individual families may be more Queen-led, colonies as a whole may be more steered by the Worker collective, with them preforming the majority of the colony's functions. Especially when the bond to the colony starts overwriting the bond to the family.

Loyal Collectivism

The Andegat are very collectivist. They very much think of themselves as a working part in a great machine that is the colony. They put their own needs to the side to serve the greater good of the collective, and think others should too. They value altruism, but a selective form of altruism. The Andegat tend to think of things in In-Group and Out-Group terms. If something is part of their In-Group, like their colony, it is to be altruistically treated. Yet this niceness usually doesn't extend as such to anything considered the Out-Group. The condition of being considered In-Group may be smaller or larger depending on circumstances, perhaps extending to allied factions in a war, or shrinking to family in intra-colony dispute; but it tends to be very binary, with little grey area once applied. External threats are always good to push the bounds of the In-Group further outwards, for a more inclusive collective. Betrayal of the group by a member is perceived as the greatest sin.

Work Ethics & Conformism

The Andegat have strict work ethics. Everyone should do their part, fill their function, be a working cog in the great machine. A Worker is classically proud to conform, and this is expected of her. Queens and Drones are given more leniency. Work is your life and purpose, and being useful is one of the greatest virtues.

Militarism

The Andegat tend to be very militaristic. The tribalistic mindset makes them very keen on defending the interest of their group against the "other". With a culture of high discipline and working for the good of the collective, the readiness for military service is high.

Societal Tensions

In a classic diploid sex-determination system system, individials are 1/2 related to their siblings, parents, and children (1/4 to grand-children, grand-parents, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces). Because of the haploid-diploid sex-determination system of the Andegat, females have an exceptionally close bond to their sisters (3/4), closer than parents (1/2), with brothers trailing behind (1/4). males in turn are closest to their brothers (1/2) and their mother (1/2), further from their sisters (1/4), and have no father to be related to. Because Andegat loyalty and amity is closely tied to relatedness, this carries certain implications.

Family Bonds

Nothing is stronger than a sister-sister bond. This creates generational distance, with both mothers and daughters feeling closer with their respective sisters than each other. Drones carry the opposite effect, being closer with their mother or children than their sisters. This makes father-daughter and mother-son bonds more open than mother-daughter ones. But sons and fathers always being second choices for females after their sisters, the best option for Drones is still their brothers.

In-Laws and Steps

There is typically a familial rivalry between the Princes and the Queen's sisters, both drawing for the Queen's favor. The Prince and their sister-in-laws are genetic foreigners. Having no relatedness at all, fathers and sons are always step-fathers and step-sons. Their relationship is typically cold. They too are genetic foreigners to each other.

Inter-Colony & Inter-Family Rivalery

Given their closeness to their family and their ingroup-outgroup thinking, Andegat colonies are typically in fierce competition with each other. But even families within the same colony may experience a mindset of rivalry, unless the bond to the colony as a whole is strong enough. Families wishing to enter a truce, may intermarry, typically by exchanging Princes, and thus combine into a single family. While the old generations are still in conlfict, the new generations will carry a unified genepool. Princesses/Queens are more valuable that Princes, since from their relatives' view they carry more related genetic material to the offspring. Intermarrying may be one way greater colonies form.

Drone Position

Being both in the minority, and the second-choice sibling, Andegat society can be very alienating to Drones, making them tend to feel as outsiders in their own culture. This effect is only magnified in the mating culture. Princes being the ones to leave their family to join another Queen's family as a genetic practical foreigner cuts them off from their own familial ties, until they have children. But with more Drones being sent off as Princes that there typically are available Queens means some Princes go without partners, being called Stray Princes. They may find a partner in later years, but with each cycle competition against younger and more desirable Princes gets harder. Being groomed to be a mate and not a working member of society makes it difficult for Princes to find a place to participate. Stray wandering Drones, especially Princes, are a classic aspect of society. On the positive side, Andegat culture tends to be very lenient with Drones, having a lot less expectation on them being useful; and given the travelling nature of Drones and mating culture of Andegat, people tend to be more open to foreign Drones than foreign Workers or Queens.