Drifting over the skies of the gas giant Grro Thum are the Vishva-Rupa. These organisms exist as vast, floating colonies, stretching across the skies of their homeworld like living cities adrift in the atmosphere. Though they appear as singular entities, they are, in truth, great eusocial collectives, each individual a mere fragment of the greater whole. They are not born into rigid roles but are sculpted into them – each embryo containing the full potential to become any caste, its fate decided by the engineers, a specialized group that wields a third gamete, not for reproduction, but for shaping the body and mind of the developing young.
With this power, they dictate the growth of workers, soldiers, kings, queens, and even the archive – an immobile, sprawling entity that serves as the very brain of the hive, storing the knowledge of generations.
At the heart of the colony is the queen, the guiding force behind its every movement. She chooses where to drift, when to feed, and whether to wage war upon rival hives. She does not act alone, however, for the king is her enforcer, a being responsible not only for fertilizing the hive’s eggs but for commanding its soldiers, ensuring the engineers remain loyal, and maintaining the hive’s security. The engineers themselves are both creators and potential threats, for their mastery over the third gamete means they can shape the hive’s future – or twist it toward their own ambitions. To prevent rebellion, kings and soldiers monitor them closely, ever watchful for signs of treachery.
Though the hive drifts as a singular entity, it is composed of many bodies, with even its very walls formed from its own kind. A specialized caste – the hive caste – has long since abandoned mobility, fusing together to create the vast living structures that house the colony. Some serve as nurseries, their chambers filled with growing embryos, while others act as biological waste processors, breaking down refuse into useful compounds. The archives are housed within great organic towers, their bioelectric pulses transmitting knowledge through the hive’s network, while defensive structures hold soldiers in hibernation, ready to awaken at the first sign of attack.
Communication is the lifeblood of the hive, flowing through pheromones for short-range messages and bioelectric signals for long-distance transmission. The archive, with its vast network of neural nodes, acts as the central relay, storing knowledge and distributing it to the hive’s higher castes. Yet, information is not hoarded indefinitely – only the most vital knowledge is preserved, with old memories compressed or discarded to conserve space. Lower castes, such as workers and soldiers, retain only what is necessary for their tasks, their experiences regularly uploaded to the archive before being forgotten. The higher castes – queens, kings, and engineers – retain far more, their memories forming the backbone of leadership and decision-making.
This society did not arise from peace but from necessity. In their ancient past, these creatures were simple, drifting beings, feeding on the endless plankton of their world’s upper skies. But then the world changed. The climate shifted, resources dwindled, and competition grew fierce. Some turned upon their own kind, becoming predators that hunted the weak. To survive, the others adapted, forming protective collectives that grew more complex with each passing generation. In time, intelligence flourished, not as a gift, but as a weapon – those who could strategize, who could remember past conflicts, who could organize their kin, were the ones who endured. What began as simple alliances became hives, and what began as instinct became thought.
Now, these great colonies drift through the skies, their living walls protecting their inhabitants, their archives holding the wisdom of the past, and their engineers shaping the future with every new generation. They are not like the civilizations of humanity, but they are civilizations nonetheless – woven not from stone and steel, but from flesh, mind, and the unbreakable will of the collective.
Entry by Necrolithic