The Kinden

The Apt
Ants
Bees
Beetles
Flies
Mole Crickets
Scorpions
Soldier Beetles
Wasps

The Inapt
Dragonflies
Grasshoppers
Mantids
Moths
Roaches
Spiders

The Apt

Ant Kinden

Ants are found throughout the world. Their totem makes them very social with other Ants within their city. They don't care much for non-Ants, but they have a special hatred for Ants from other cities. Ants have the Mindlink Ancestor Art, which gives them instant and constant telepathy with any Ants (from the same city) around them.

Ants are also rather militant. A solitary Ant is a worthy foe, and Mindlink makes a group of ants a many-armed killing machine. If Ants didn't hate Ants from other cities, they would undoubtedly rule the world.

Being Apt, Ants have artificers among them, and they make machines and other technology. They're not quite as inventive or creative as say Beetles, but they get the job done.

Most Ants have bony knuckles and an "acid touch" Art weapon.

Those Ants not suited to living in each other's heads and following orders often leave their cities, and are considered renegades. Those who regret the choice do not have happy lives. Ant renegades, though, are fairly common.

If you're an Ant you are likely a soldier, mercenary, or artificer. You are probably a renegade Ant, unless you're in a group where most or all of you are also playing Ants from the same city.

The Voice of the Ant

I live for my City (...my/our nest...). I revel in battle, when I join and become one-mind-many-bodies (...I/we/us...). My sovereign, my ruler, my King, my Queen (...the queen of my/our nest...) is worthy of my loyalty, against all others, against death itself.

But other Ants! (...other-nest, evil, unclean, unworthy...) For other Ants, not of my great City (...my/our nest...), the hatred burns in my veins like fire. Renegades are perhaps even worse.

Ant Cities

Sarn

Sarn is the most open of Ant cities in the Lowlands. There is a thriving foreign quarter within the walls of Sarn, and much that would not be tolerated in the foreign quarter of other Ant cities takes place in Sarn.

Sarn is allied with Collegium, and there is a fair amount of trade and cultural sharing.

Sarnesh Ants have light brown skin, with straight dark hair.

Tark

Tark is in the eastern Lowlands, close to the Dryclaw Desert and the Spiderlands. Their foreign quarter and markets include a thriving slave trade, and are frequented by Wasps, Spiders, and even Scorpions.

Tarkesh are pale with blond hair.

Kars

The city of Kars was located about midway between Sonn and Vesserett. The Empire invaded Kars and enslaved or killed most of the Karsen, and burned the city to the ground. Ruins remain.

There are now bands of Karsen ants in various places across the Lowlands and Spiderlands. Most have turned mercenary.

Karsen resemble the Tarkesh: pale skin and dark hair.

Kes

Kes, on the island of Kes, is a powerful military and merchant naval state. Ants from Kes particularly dislike those from Tark.

Kessen Ants have bronze skin and black hair.

Red Porphyris

Red Porphyris is an island in the Spiderlands - a Satrapy of the Spiders. The residents of the island and city are Fire Ants; they have brown-red skin and red eyes. They probably have Art that allows them to use fire in a similar way that Bees and Beetles project their stings.

Tsen

Although technically in the Lowlands, Tseni Ants are rarely seen. Unlike most Ants who favor short swords and square or rectangular shields, the Ants of Tsen use scimitars and small round bucklers.

Tseni Ants have pale bluish skin.

Vek

Although close to both Sarn and Collegium, Vek is particularly unfriendly to both.

Bee Kinden

Bees are social and industrious. They have smallish cities all over the world - there's a few that are larger and well known, but there's many more that are less notable. Bees are extremely loyal to hive and queen, and like to keep their heads down and do their work.

Bees have ample natural weapons, and the social coordination to carry out conquest, but they're just not that interested in ruling the world. In particular, Bees in the Lowlands are not exciting, but elsewhere, e.g. towards the Spiderlands, Bees tend to be more prosperous and in some areas they're even in charge.

Bees are excellent artificers, but like Ants are less creative and inventive than other kinden.

Bees tend to be artificers, scholars, soldiers, farmers, and merchants.

The Voice of the Bee

Bee Cities

Szar

Szar is northeast of Helleron, north of the Darakyon and just west of the Wasp empire. The Bees of Szar are peaceful artificers, craftsfolk, and traders.

Vesserett

Vesserett is the center of what once might have been a Bee empire. They're rather more aggressive than their cousins in Szar, but still build and trade with their neighbors.

Vesserett sits at the south end of Vesserett Lake, between the Dryclaw Desert to the west and the Wasp empire's desert lands to the east.

Tyrshaan

Tyrshaan sits at the south end of the Wasp empire's desert lands, just across the mountain range north of the Exalsee.

Dirovashni

Sitting on the southern shore of the Exalsee, Dirovashni is a semi-industrial artifice Bee city.

Beetle Kinden

Beetles are the backbone of the modern world. They're found around the world, and they tend to surpass others in artifice, industry, and as merchants. They're not particularly aggressive or martial, although they also aren't shy or timid.

The Beetle cities Collegium and Helleron are respectively academic and industrial power centers. Collegium is the true center of learning and research in the Lowlands, and Helleron is the world's forge, turning out machines and weapons from the Empire to the Spiderlands.

Beetles are often artificers, scholars, and merchants. However, being so plentiful they are found in every Apt occupation from metalworker to writer to mercenary to criminal to... etc.

The Voice of the Beetle

Fly Kinden

Flies are small - they're kind of the Halflings of the SaE world. Flies are numerous, found everywhere, exploiting every niche available. The Fly stereotype is that they're small, fast, sneaky thieves. That's not entirely wrong, but it's not the whole story. They are indeed fast and agile fliers and are often messengers. Flies also flourish as artificers, scribes, con artists, servants, and more. Flies live in almost all cities, across the world.

Flies are the ultimate pragmatists. They're not trying to run the world, but they're definitely getting their share, wherever they are and whatever they do.

The Voice of the Fly

Mole Cricket Kinden

Mole Cricket kinden are huge (around 9 or 10 feet tall), incredibly strong, peaceful, and shy. They're primarily subterranean, but can be found above ground as artificers or miners (with their unique earth and rock shaping Art) in the Lowlands, and as slaves of the Wasp Empire. Mole Crickets are slow to anger but once roused are terrifying warriors.

The Voice of the Mole Cricket

Scorpion Kinden

Scorpion kinden are large, usually belligerent, and usually unpleasant (there are exceptions). Scorpion society is brutal; the weak or old do not live long. Scorpions can be found living in and around the deserts east of the Lowlands, west of Kanaphes, and in the south of the Spiderlands.

The Voice of the Scorpion

We fight. We breed. We kill. We devour.

What is best in life? To fight. To breed. To kill. To devour.

Soldier Beetle Kinden

Soldier Beetles appear to be a stable hybrid of Ants and Beetles, found native in Myna and Solarno. They draw physically from both Beetles and Ants, being robust and hardy but also muscular or even athletic. They very rarely have Ant Mindlink Art, but most have some of the other Ant or Beetle Ancestor Arts.

Soldier Beetles make capable artificers and excellent soldiers. They're soldiers, artificers, scholars, mercenaries, even occasionally merchants or sailors.

The Voice of the Soldier Beetle

Wasp Kinden

Although they've become more civilized than their cousins the hill tribe Hornets, Wasps tend to be as ornery and warlike as their totem would suggest. The Wasp Empire has successfully conquered many neighboring lands, and the world is aware of their ambition for more.

Wasp culture is xenophobic, misogynistic, and unkind to most besides, well, male Wasps. Every male Wasp is a soldier in the Wasp army, regardless of actual profession. While Wasps can be decent artificers, their Apt slaves and their machines are a significant pillar of their war efforts. Slavery is universal in the Wasp Empire.

Not all Wasps feel at home in their culture; there are many renegades or exiles (or escapees), across the Lowlands and beyond, who have abandoned their place in the army and Wasp culture for something less bleak.

The Voice of the Wasp

The destiny of the Wasp is manifest. Great Wasp shows us the way: might is right. All other kinden are lesser, fit only to serve.

Every Wasp is a warrior - even some women. This truth is why our Empire grows. One day the sun will never set on the Wasp Empire.

The Inapt

Dragonfly Kinden

Dragonfly kinden are graceful, fast fliers and graceful, fast warriors. They have a long aristocratic history, and most other kinden consider them exotic and aloof. They value art, poetry, and noble martial arts such as archery and horsemanship.

Dragonflies live primarily in the sparsely populated Commonweal - north of the Lowlands, across the Great Barrier Ridge. The Dragonfly kingdom in the Commonweal is a strict feudal society, with what is effectively a caste system. At the top are Dragonfly nobility; next are those that directly serve the nobility. At the bottom - everyone else.

The Voice of the Dragonfly

Grasshopper Kinden

Grasshopper kinden have historically been serfs or slaves to other kinden. While they are not particularly aggressive or hostile, when trained they are fearsome warriors. Grasshoppers range throughout the Commonweal and northern parts of the Wasp Empire. They are found outside of cities in smallish nomad bands across the Lowlands and the deserts, and it's said that there is a large population of Grasshoppers in Forest Alim north of Kanaphes.

There are stories about a large settlement of Grasshoppers in the cold northwest region of the Commonweal. The stories include a powerful group of ancient magicians, and the Wardens, a warrior caste unique to the Grasshoppers.

Grasshoppers are often farmers, hunters, sometimes merchants, rarely warriors.

The Voice of the Grasshopper

Mantis Kinden

Mantids are found in their forest holds, such as the Lowlands forests Felyal, Etheryon, Nethyon, Y'yen in the Commonweal, Eryon and Aleth in the Spiderlands, and Alim north of Khanaphes. They often choose to stay in their forests and ignore the larger world.

When the magicians of the Inapt ruled the known world, Mantis kinden were the servants and warriors of the Moths. They are still well known as the most dangerous fighters, feared above all other kinden.

Honor is such an important part of Mantis culture that they are enigmatic and odd to most others. They often appear to be stoic, brooding, even cold. Until they start to fight.

The Voice of the Mantis

Moth Kinden

With their pale gray skin and white eyes, Moths look otherworldly. No surprise then that they have historically achieved and held power with Magic, generally being more skilled with it even than other Inapt kinden.

The Moths ruled the Lowlands before the Apt revolution; Beetles, Ants, Flies, and others in the Lowlands were commonly Moth slaves. Collegium, the academic Beetle city by the sea, was a Moth resort city known then as Pathis. While the Moths still held sway, the Lowlands were called the Darklands or the Shadowlands.

Since the revolution, the Moths have been fairly rare outside of their mountain cities Tharn and Dorax. More and more Moths are seen to frequent Helleron, given its close proximity to Tharn, and the fact that the Moths are less than thrilled about the Beetle mining activity encroaching on their mountains.

The Voice of the Moth

Roach Kinden

Roach kinden have white hair and tend to be brown skinned. Like Flies, they're found around the world, perhaps more in the Commonweal than elsewhere. Most Roaches are perpetually nomadic, traveling in smallish family groups.

Although Roaches are generally peaceful, they're looked down upon by other kinden and though to be thieves and just kind of untrustworthy. Their Ancestor has made them adaptable, hardy survivors - if you see one, you can be sure there's ten that you don't see.

The Voice of the Roach

We abide. We survive - on the edges, on the boundaries, in the interstices - we thrive, and we abide. Great Roach bade us seek out the spaces between and there make our lives. We thrive where other kinden shiver and whine about hardship. We survive when others flee, and our numbers grow. This is our way.

We abide.

Spider Kinden

Spiders are slim, often tall, pale, and graceful. Spider society revolves around a hierarchy of families, with women uniformly in charge. Most Spider life and culture is dictated by strict and complex rules, usually determined by the status of one's family and one's place within that family.

Spiders spend most of their time and efforts carrying out intrigue of one kind or another. To Spiders, life is politics and politics is life. Their highest goals nearly always include raising theirs and their family's status above others.

Spider culture includes slavery, and while kinden such as the Beetles rightly view this with disgust, the life of a slave among the Spiders is generally much kinder than among the Wasps.

While the other Inapt world powers declined in the wake of the Apt revolution, the Spiders were largely unaffected. They rule much of the known world to the south, called the Spiderlands.

The Voice of the Spider

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