Chrysalis

The society of the Colony was alien to me at first, as one may well expect. The differences in origin between I, a surface born sapient of the Iron Sands, and the ants who made up the insect empire (as I like to call them. They dismiss the title and refer to themselves exclusively as 'the Colony' or 'family'), are obvious at a glance, and so it was difficult for me to make heads or tails of their dealings for a goodly while.

An example would be the lack of a clear chain of command. An absurd amount of industry and labour is done inside the many nests of the Colony each and every day, but who decides which work is to be done? Who decides who does what work? Where are the decision makers and enforcers that ensure the necessary work is completed? It was to my shock that I learned that no such roles exist. Imagine a warehouse with no roster, a mine with no foreman or a ship with no captain. How could it possibly function? How would anything get done?

My mind rebelled against the feasibility of such an arrangement when I heard it, certainly I had no parallels to draw within my sphere of experience. It was only from this point forward, that I truly began to understand the differences between our peoples.

The division of labour within the Colony is surprisingly democratic. The ants organise themselves into groups with similar Skills and capabilities, then decide what it is that they are going to do. Central to this structure is the detailed information that is disseminated throughout the Colony of their activities. There are many ants tasked with simply collecting information as to what goes on within the territory. How much ore was smelted today? Will there be a shortfall? Is there a dearth of cores? Exactly how much Biomass has been gathered? All of this is known, collated, and spread throughout the workforce. If there is a shortage, teams of ants will go and fill it. If there is a surplus, they will find other things to do to not clog the pipeline.

voluntarily. Once they feel they have enough ants for the job, they'll get to work, feverishly and industriously racing to complete the task. When it's finished, the team will either move onto another

for the work, without greed, always prepared to sacrifice for the collective, and without sloth, for nothing is more absurd than a lazy ant. I found it fascinating to observe in action, growing bewildered at the sheer speed they could assemble a specialised group, complete a task, then move to the next. If ever there was need, there were workers to meet that need. The pace of it all was enough to make my head spin, the incredible number of individuals involved, the density in which they lived with each

formed one organism. A giant, living and breathing creature formed of millions of parts, with one will

from 'The Insect Economy: Macro

feed the grub and trap it back into its inescapable cage. Some might say that putting the larva into a prison carved from solid metal is inhumane, but she chewed her way through the rock so we didn't

any malicious intention from her, she's just curious and wants to roll about the place, free and uninhibited, quite apart from most of the grubs in the Colony who are perfectly content to go with the flow. The only downside is that she's a completely defenceless larva with almost no sensory apparatus or ability to defend herself. Considering her almost uncanny ability to wriggle out of sight and hitch a ride with passing ants, locking her up is necessary for

stayed in the

has also been a wonderful opportunity to start grinding my mind-magic. I only need to push it up a rank or two and then I'll have the ability to create mind constructs just like the envy demon! Of course, I don't expect that I'll be able to maintain nearly as many as he