Colonies

The Colonies

(Nation)

Region

Pact Worlds system

Languages

Common

Source: Pact Worlds (sourcebook), pg(s). 28-36

The Colonies is both the name of a continent on the Pact Worlds system planet of Castrovel and the name of the country that dominates it. It is a single formian nation and neighbors the lashunta-inhabited continent of Asana. It is located south of the continent of Ukulam and southwest of Asana. To its east lie the Shattered Sea and the Snowsalt Sea, while south of the Colonies is the southern polar ice sheet known as Aurovas.

History

Before all the hives (the name given to a formian settlement) were unified into a single government, each hive was independent and in a perpetual state of war against its neighboring hives. This constant state of war kept formians as a whole from advancing their civilization. Eventually, in order to end these conflicts for good, several queens called the Meeting of Queens and pledged to work together under a single Overqueen. At the time of the meeting, this title was a purely theoretical concept that the queens used to create cooperation between the hives while still allowing for formians' instinctual need for a single authority figure. The newly unified Colonies coalesced within a few years and began a new millennia-long war of conquest against a people outside of the Colonies.

While formians are fiercely collectivist, their lashunta neighbors on the continent of Asana naturally gravitate toward the promotion of individualism. It was therefore only a matter of time before these two telepathic species came into conflict. This conflict eventually blossomed into a millennia-long war that raged across the planet, especially in southern Ukulam where both sides built outposts and fortresses. This war only came to a close when the shirren, a relatively recently-arrived (and also telepathic) species brokered a peace deal between them in 287 AG. This event is believed to have been necessary for the foundation of the Pact Worlds government in the system in 291 AG.

Peace treaty & aftermath

After the signing of the peace treaty, both sides began to scale back their militaries and withdraw from Ukulam, leaving behind a few small bases and monitoring centers.

Politics

The nation of the formian people is known by many names depending on the region and the beliefs of its inhabitants. These include the Everlasting Queendoms, the Unified Hive, and the Glorious and Undeniable Dominion of All Beneath Moon and Soil, but most frequently it is just called the Colonies by outsiders. Despite the end of their millennia-long war with the lashuntas, the borders of the Colonies are well-protected from foreign aggression. Internal military and police patrols are relatively rare away from the densely-populated hive cities.

Society

Life among the formians of the Colonies is highly structured, collectivist, and authoritarian. A formian's role in society is based on the caste into which they are born. Workers are bred and trained for a single profession which they (generally) accomplish with out complaint. Taskmasters and warriors supervise the workers and in turn are supervised by their own superiors, all the way up to the queens of a hive.

Most formians live in densely packed hive cities that stretch both above and below ground. Their surface agriculture is so efficient and consolidated near their hives that much of the continent is untracked, rarely patrolled wilderness. Many other species, both intelligent and not, can be found living there.

Crime

Crime is relatively rare in the Colonies, as most formians are genetically programmed to follow the rules of any legitimate formian authority figure of their hive. Transgressions are either (depending on the severity of the crime) ignored to reduce cognitive dissonance, treated as ignorance in need of correction, or treated as treason resulting in immediate execution. Non-formians living or working in the Colonies are a special case, as most queens have been convinced (thanks to generations of diplomatic missions, particularly by the shirren) that non-formians do not fall into the "natural order" of their kind, and that some individualism must be tolerated as long as it ultimately benefits the hive.

Economy

The Colonies are the major center for manufacturing on Castrovel due to the formians' incredible hive-mind work ethic and lack of environmental regulations (at least compared with the lashuntas). Since the end of their millennia-long war, the lashuntas have been moving their fabrication facilities to the Colonies and belching factories and strip mines are a common site there. Agriculture is also heavily industrialized both above and below ground with huge stretches of densely-planted fields above and miles of caves filled with bioengineered fungus farms and chemical-synthesizing bacteria vats below.