• removing debris and dead or dying Krikis from the hive, • making food, and so on The last two weeks of any worker’s life are spent as a field Krikis; her first journey away from home marks an important milestone in her life Field Krikis forage in surrounding areas up to eight or ten miles from the hive for raw materials, including pollen, nectar, water, and sap from various trees This is extremely dangerous work, and many field Krikis quickly succumb to exhaustion, predators, or cold weather Warriors & “Bright” Krikis The primary difference between warrior Krikis and either their fellow workers or other Krikis is their lifespan Very few hive Krikis survive longer than a year or two, while warriors can survive indefinitely out in the wilderness among the hives and the frontiers While warriors have no role back at the hive, another reason warriors rarely return to their original hives is a noticeable lack of anyone from their same egg clutch or generation alive, including a queen Warriors exhibit adaptive intelligence and show personal initiative outside the hive imperative; presumably royalty and administrator-workers the same Drones, by comparison, are not intelligent and perform their tasks guided solely by instinct Cognitive function, selfawareness, and freewill are relatively new concepts to the Krikis, racially, specially, and individually They are the impetus for expansion and empire, the driving force behind conflict with the other Khitan races, and the cause of deep-seated confusion as the Krikis seek a new balance between self-awareness and their traditional hive mentality Warriors, administrators and most royalty are selfaware and intelligent, although the active queen herself is barely more cognizant than a drone She serves the hive unwaveringly, but her motivations are instinctual, not willful Collectively, “bright” Krikis have virtually no regard for their drone brethren, treating them as less than slaves They are non-entities, treated with the same regard humans might treat tools Only in times of hive emergencies, when all the drones are motivated by the queen to help defend, the intelligent take direct notice of them at all Oddly, Krikis warriors are more subject to fear than their less intelligent brethren Drones, bereft of independent thought, take care of their specific, laborious tasks and seldom confront danger, but when it enters a hive and the signals go out, drones defend the hive fearlessly Drones selflessly sacrifice themselves against any perceived threat without regard for their personal safety 48 Warriors, on the other hand, are completely self-aware and understand the value and necessity of retreat, of survival to fight another day They recognize that when the odds are against them, this manifests itself as fear In fact, the flight response is a relatively new concept for them, racially speaking, and officers acknowledge its utility both as a motivator and as a survival tactic Successful applications of fear are applauded and even rewarded in the ranks Drones Drones encompass a menagerie of subgroups, physiologically adapted to the many tasks necessary for continuing the hive, from tunneling and chamber manufacture to gathering, farming, and caring for the young Drones are physically bulkier and shorter than queens, and their compound eyes encompass nearly the entirety of their heads Drones are often thought of as “male” but in fact are really just a means for one queen to mate with another Generally unable to feed or groom themselves, and performing no known chores, drone Krikis are important to hive reproduction, but on an everyday basis they contribute mainly to its protection Drones serve as a living shield against attack Drone eggs fill cells closest to a hive’s exterior walls and surface, making drone larvae the first (and often the only) casualties suffered during an attack Worker Krikis are considered more valuable to a hive than the drones who sacrifice themselves first Drones gather with others from outside their hives in congregation areas in the neutral grounds between them Here, they wait to mate with new queens Newly hatched queens must find their own way to these places in order to mate Drones must return to a hive by nightfall in order to receive food Drones are expelled from the hive during the winter, where they soon die Customs & Culture There is very little culture or society among the Krikis, aside from the hive nature of their race and the organization that comes with it However, these recent increases in intellect among the warrior castes have started to change Krikis life Even with those creeping changes, there are yet many customs and standards within Krikis hives Krikis build their underground hives on the same general plan: brood chamber on the bottom levels, food storage on the upper levels The entrance can be either at the top of the hive or several miles distant and connected to the hive by a tunnel Multiple entrances must be easily defended, which is why very few hives have