I am thinking of basing my insect race on this. What do you think? I will be giving them a more "spiky" armored look to them and making them Earth brown. Would camouflage be right for a hive race?
In my universe I have both: Giant bugs and humanoid insects. I wouldn't set myself any limits for invention of new alien species. As someone said before: Other plantes, other conditions, other lifeforms. On of my "main species" are actually the giant insects. They are from a planet with higher oxygen levels and need a suit to survive in earth-like conditions. In the end it's your own decision, what kind of aliens do you want or need for your story. It's not on us to decide.
I'm actually not a fan of that mindset. Spoiler: Definitely long and possibly off-topic *Rich Burlew's D&D webcomic The Order of the Stick started out as a simple gag-a-day strip, but it has since become one of the greatest fantasy epics of our time specifically because he's gone to such great lengths to fight the traditional D&D gamer attitude "Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Hobbits Halflings look exactly like us, so they're the good guys, while Orcs, Goblins, and Dragons don't look like us, so we should kill them on sight." One of the most compelling villains in the series - a Goblin high priest known only as "Redcloak" - is hell-bent on revenge against the gods (who created goblins for the explicit purpose of being killed by the "Good" races for fun and profit) and is determined to make the world safe for goblinkind if he has to kill every human, god, and goblin in the world to do it. *John Scalzi's scifi novel Old Man's War has what I consider to be a fantastic scene where the narrator - a recruit to the Space Marines - is being shown a slideshow of some of the intelligent species on a certain planet. One of the species was an amphibious crustacean that the narrator thought of as a disgusting horror movie monster, the other was like a humanoid elk that the narrator imagined as having the wisdom of a mythical forest spirit. The commanding officer running the presentation then informed the room that the crustacean species included some of the most creative artists and brilliant mathematicians in the known universe, while a pack of the elks had murdered and cannibalized an entire human colony in the cruelest ways imaginable, and that "If you don't get your stupid anthropocentric biases out of your head now, then you are going to get people killed." --- I don't mind if most of the characters in a story think that the conflict is a race war between Good/Evil humans (who stand for their species) versus Good/Evil nonhumans (who stand for their species), but in that case, I still want the story to make it clear that the actual plot is Good humans/nonhumans (who stand for peace and life) versus Evil humans/nonhumans (who stand for war and death). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes appeared to be about Carver (human supremacist) and the rest of the humans versus Koba (ape supremacist) and the rest of the apes - and in fact, even Carver and Koba thought that they were on opposite sides - but the story was actually about Malcolm (human conscientious objector) and Caesar (ape conscientious objector) trying to stop Carver and Koba from making everybody kill each other.
Yeah, I have seen all of the movies. I am trying to make my own spin on a humanoid insect and get closer a look to the Collectors from Mass Effect except more 'Alien'/insect looking.
Yes. It's pretty much identical to what you just mentioned - making different hybrids from different species. The queen does it. The process and deference, etc, for the royal insect babies vs the workers, etc, would seem to fit well with your insect culture.
Nice, and yeah there are a lot of bug types I plan to put in my Insect race but I need something to unify them (a look like that big bug right there). The problem is I just can't find anything that scares me or looks weird. I mean once you blow up a bug to a large proportion all I can think is "Oh, it's just a large bug." Not "oh scary."
You just wrote, "Oh it's just a large bug". Sounds pretty benign to me. If said large bug is chewing on something and you can't see what it is and then it drops a skull, and you call out to your girlfriend and she doesn't answer, and now you notice one of her shoes trapped under the big bug's body.... Dunno.
But that's frightening in context without the context it's just a bug. My view is for you to just look at it and be "oh no that's scary/creepy". The whole point is the race is for everybody else to make a quick decision about them without them doing anything (based on fear obviously) but end up having them be really nice (once they figure out they're dealing with a sentient being).
I think the only way you can tap into that visceral reaction is through remembered experience, as outlined above where the elk look noble and friendly and the crustacean look mean and nasty. For me, I would find anything bug-like looking that was also man-sized to be scary or at least threatening. Big spiders are far more scary than little ones at face value. When you see the red mark on the abdomen of the smaller one and have knowledge of "red back spiders" you might try your luck with the larger one first.
And markings - furrowed brows and the like. You know this looks kinda upset / angry, yeah? >:-( As humans we are usually clued into the facial expressions of things and derive a lot of unspoken information from body language. Aggressive looking faces would be a good place to start perhaps?
I don't think so. Bees and termites are the insects I am most familiar with in terms of hive behaviour. Bees are yellow with black bands and noisy. Termites build mega structures and are white. Insects have markings often to indicate they are poisonous to eat, but I can't think of an example of a hive-based insect that also camouflages itself.
True. But I have thought of one new part of the hive that are "planet protectors" of sorts. Make sure nobody comes to their worlds. It would be possible for them to need camouflage so they can watch out without being seen. Lots of bugs do it. So would that be possible?
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but World of Warcraft has a humanoid insect race called the Kalaxii.
Cool name. Although I am looking for a more "Primal" (but kind) type of Insect race like the Arachnids from Starship Troopers 1-3(movies), Roughneck Chronicles, and Ender's Game (Movie). As for the humanoid insects; they will be part of the hive as a way of communication towards other species, and will wear Terran cloths WHEN they wear cloths.
You could use giant bugs, provided they are still presented with the sort of manual dexterity required to develop technology. The could be semi upright, like a mantis, standing on two sets of limbs, while the third set is dedicated to manipulation. As already stated, there are limitations to the exoskeleton and respiratory systems for larger bugs. Now, as for the humanoid bugs, there's no real reason why an insect couldn't evolve an endoskeleton and a humanoid respiratory system. It could start with something like gills, which could transition into lungs. Similarly, they could develop an outer membrane to help keep water in the body, and other tissues develop within the skin, until the skeleton is internalized completely.
Thanks, you gave me an idea for a water bug that I just realized I am missing in my hive. As for the bug I haven't quite figured out the look and such yet.
I have planned for a team of humanoid / arthropod beings, each with heavy influences from their original species. Each walks on 2 legs, but the insects each have 4 arms, while the others (based on a crab and a scorpion) have a pair of legs, a pair of pincer like claws, and several appendages on their abdomens which would have been legs on their original species, but are now used for grappling. Their heads are based on those of their original species - the only humanoid features are their posture and height. Their antennae allow them to communicate telepathically among each other. Finally, their mentor lacks a humanoid body shape, instead being purely a gigantic sapient millipede.
Humans interacting with giant hairy intelligent insects that are vegetarians (to get away from the 'kill the monsters trope') could be refreshing.
