Race: Apinaean, Apinaeans (pl)
Scientific Name: Apis Sapiens Civitas
Common Name: Beefolk
Gender: Male and female. Ratio normally up to 3 times more males as females. Males called drones, females called workers
Height: males up to 1,65m, females shorter up to 1,60m
After their pupation they still grow by molting
Weight: lightly with normally not more than 45kg
Hair: consistently blond hair with two black antenna sticking out
Tongue: both sexes shares long, tubed black tongues with females going up to 30cm and males stopping at roughly 20cm
Eyes: Black compound eye without visible iris
Wings: both gender have thing, transparent insect-like wings which enable them to flight easily, as long as they aren't wet
Sting: both genders have a stinger locates above their butt which the males one slightly longer. Both produces a poison that leads to massive pain in most creatures but normally isn't harmfull
Lifespan: Royal Bees up to 160 years, females up to 80 years, males up to 60 years
Sexuality: while females are straight, males, especially unbound hunters are known for a tendency to bisexuality. Nurse Bees and Guardian Bees are forced to asexuality
Diet: Omnivore
Habitat: Apinaeans originates from tropical jungles where they build their hives made from way and stone-dust in caves or the shadows of huge Trees
Society: Tribalism
Tribe-Size: up to 300-600 Members
Ranks: from up till down – Royal Bees (Queen, Princess, King), Nurses, Royal Guards, Workers, Hunters, Guardian Bees
Relationship to Outsiders: passive aggressive
Thru to their mostly isolated lifestyle and also their territorial behavior when it comes to their hives Apinaeans acts very cautious against Outsiders. Also they assume that all other species follows the same rules and traditions as them which often leads to misunderstandings and aggression.
But if this initial problems can get solves peacefully, they mostly get along with them by ignoring them most of the time. The highest honor an Outsider can reach with a tribe is the state of a “Hunting Friend” but but other Outsiders should considering not to hassle with Apinaeans, not even for trading purposes. When something like this is intended it would be the best to just settle outside the hive (but still far away) and wait for them to make the first step.
Appearance and Physicality
Both genders body's are made of dark-brown chitin-plates which covers their whole body and are optical divided by stripes of yellow fur. Their body-shape varies between individuals but is determinate after their pupation and won't change anymore, no mater their amount of food or exercise.
Their strength is similar to a human beside their small frame but their light weight gives them a small disadvantage in comparison. A fact they covers by a quick and dexterous fighting style.
Female Apinaeans have developed chitin-plates on their chest resembling mammals a-cups but doesn't fulfilling any kind of reproductive purpose
Genitals
Females have a ovipositor located on their waist, which normally lays internal, covered by a chitin-plate, and works like a normal vagina but also can extract when it comes to laying eggs. Besides their unusual small womb, female Apinaeans also have a special abdomen laying deep beneath, which serves as a “sperm bank” after their first mating
Males have internal balls and a very long, thin, tapered and overly flexible penis going up to 30cm or rarely even 40cm which is also located on their waist and covered by a chitin-plate
Conditioned by their mating habits, male produces way less sperm-cells at the time then comparable species and are also more likely to firing blanks after a long mating. While looking pretty normal, reports refer to a scente and taste of honey in their cum.
Reproduction
Both, male and female Apinaeans reaches their sexual maturity at the age of 12. But ovulation of females is suppressed until the so called bounding which also closes their special abdomen. After the bounding, the male Apinaean uses his long, thin penis to enter her special abdomen filling it multiple times. After this the female is able to produces eggs for the rest of her life without the need of another mating, but sex on a regular base it's more healthy for future offspring.
The mating process takes the whole night after the bounding and 2-3 hours at any mating after that one.
Queens lays 3-5 eggs a year which are normally results in female offspring with a very small chance of a drone (roughly 1 in 200 chance). Also a Queen will normally have 2-5 princesses in her lifespan with a small chance of 6-7 or just 1, if unlucky.
Working Bees only lay 1 egg per year and the offspring will always be a drone.
The incubation takes 1 month inside the females womb and she will lay an egg which hatches into a grub after 4 more month.
At the age of 6 (8 for Royals) the grub will pupate and emerge 6 month later.
Intercourse Offspring between Drones and Outsiders are known, especially with other insect or arachnid races. But hybrids with some mammals are also possible, but at a smaller rate. Hybrid offspring are not accepted in the hive and will always be treated as Outsiders
Thru to their special reproduction and the fact, that the insemination don't happened in the womb, crossbreeding between female bees and outside species are unknown and very unlikely.
Clothing:
Apinaeans uses simple textiles made out of fur and fiber to make their clothing's.
The clothing mainly represents the Rank of an Apinaean. While Guardian Bees only uses a simple cloth as loincloth, Hunters also have a short poncho with tribal symbols, covering their shoulders and upper chest. Working Bees shares the same clothing like Hunters.
Royal Guards, Nursing Bees and Royal Bees clothing style only varies in the used symbols, representing their Rank in the tribe
Gear and Equipment:
Female Apinaeans uses short blades made of stone to fulfill their daily duties or to defense themselves from wildlife.
Male Apinaeans uses stone-made lances in their fights and when reaching the Rank of a Hunter also are allowed to use wooden throwing-spears
Conditioned by their natural chitin-plates neither uses any kind of artificial armor that would weight them down.
Ranks
The rank of a Apinaean is mostly based on it's gender. While they don't make a difference for grubs and young Apinaean under the age of 12, after reaching this age all is terminated by the tradition.
Males:
Guardian Bees: Drones are start as Guardian Bees on the lowest rank in the hive. They are forbidden to leave the hive outside of the so called “Hunters Challenge” and have no right to any kind of sexual intercourse. They are the first line of deference when the hive is gotten attacked and lot of drones never got above this Rank.
Hunters: After absolving (and surviving) the “Hunters Challenge” a Drone will be considered as Hunter. The hunter Rank is equal to the rank of a female Worker Bee and they are allowed to leave the hive for hunting any time and also are permitted to the so called “bounding”. Besides that they have earned the (sexual) right on every non tribe-member they are able to defeat outside the hive. Hunters are the main attackers of the hive and also responsible for the defense of the hive like Guardians. Mostly a drone never got above this rank. Their main job is the supply of the hive with fresh meat.
Royal Guard: The highest Rank a drone can reach. Royal Guards are the best and swiftest fighters of a hive and responsible for defending the Royal Bees, especially the princesses from any kind of harm. Royal guards stands above the workers and below the Nursing Bees. It's highly unlikely for a Drone to survive long enough to reach this point of honor.
King: The likely-hood of a Drone becoming a Royal Bee is near to zero. Based on the requirements. To reach this goal the Drone have either to capture a princess of another hive or reach the rank of a Royal Guard and win a tournament without getting bonded in both cases. In both cases the Drone, along with the new Queen will heat out to found a new tribe at another place. Besides popular assumption Bee Kings still participate in hunting and sometimes defense of a hive, especially when it's still new and lacks the population of lower Drones, which often leads to a earlier demise.
Females:
Working Bees: The lowest Rank of female Apinaean are the Working Bees. This Apinaean doing most of the work in the hive, like building, crafting and collecting. They also are responsible for the honey production. Female Apinaeans are immune for attacks of other Apinaeans by tradition and Honor, but it's possible for them to become “Prey” by an unbound Hunter if they are also unbound. bounded Working Bees are save from that too. Unbound Working Bees lives asexual.
Nursing Bees: If a Working Bee reaches the age of 60 without getting bound, she becomes a Nursing Bee. This is the highest Rank a female Apinaean can reach and her responsibility changes to serve the Royal Bees directly. They are also involved in the production of the legendary Royal Jelly which takes a huge part in the society of the Royal Bees. Nursing Bees aren't forbidden to bound and by that safe from the attempts of Drones by Tradition and Honor.
Princesses: A female Apinaean don't become a Princess, she get born at it. She get's special treatments from her birth on and stands above every other Apinaean besides the Queen herself. Princesses got extra special Protection from the Royal Guards to prevent them from any harm. To capture a princess is the highest honor a unbound Drone can reach and by this a tribe does it's best to prevent this from happening. Even if that included to keep the princesses locked up in the hive. When a princess reaches the age of 40 and wasn't bound before, the hive will hold a huge tournament where all the unbound Royal Guards of the other tribes can enter and the one winning will become the bound of the new Queen. The tournament is a challenge of strengths and wits and goes 1on1 Battles between the participants until one is death or gives up.
Queen: The highest Apinaean. After getting bound a Princess becomes a Queen and usually found a new tribe. The Tribe rises and falls with it's Queen. By this attacking a Queen by any means will lead to the attacker becoming a fiend of all hives by tradition, a point especially Outsiders often falls for.
Important Events and Therms:
The Hunters Challenge: The most important Rite in a Drones life is the so called hunters Challenge. While it's possible for a male to take this challenge as soon as they become adults with 12 years, it's more common that a male does it at the age of 20-25 when not later. The challenge itself consists of going into the jungle all by their own just armed with their spear and hunt down an animal. Like in most cultures that contains a similar kind of challenge the more dangerous the prey is the more honor the Drone will get after finishing it. The most honor a Drone could obtain is by killing a “Black Monster” a task that is nearly impossible and nearly always ends in death. Which ever prey the successful Drone would bring back home would become his Totem for the rest of his life. If they are unlucky and can't make prey, they are forbidden to return to the hive until they does and more than a few end up death trying or starving.
The Bounding: The ritual of the bounding is in the Apinaean culture comes close to a marriage in more “civil” cultures. It happens always when a unbound Drone I able to capture a unbound female Apinaean. Be it by defeating her guardians while she id working outside in the jungle or, more likely, by the so called “Great hunt”. When captured the Drone brings the female back to his hive where the female is fed with a special kind of honey that not only makes her an official of her new tribe but also enables her to produces eggs and allowing access to her special womb. After the bounding both Apinaeans are excluded from another bounding, even if their partner dies before them. The right of a Hunter on every Outsider he is able to defeat is unaffected by this rule, but it is shown, that bounded Drones are much more unlikely to make use of that right.
The Great Hunt: Every roughly 3-5 years the Queen of a tribe will get a vision about another tribe. When this happened all unbound Hunters will gather and attempt to attack the said tribe to capture unbound Females for themselves. Being a tradition between all tribes, neither the Bounding nor the Great hunt seems to causes any bad blood between the tribes, ensuring both that only the strongest, fittest and most wits survives and be able to gives their genes to the next generations.
A successful Great hunt mostly results with the loss of circa 30 unbound females thru the bounding on the attacked and roughly 75-150 Drones thru death on both sides.
The Black Monster: The greatest Enemy the Apinaeans have is a creature they called the Black Monster. While this term sounds unspecific and like a legend, Outsiders shouldn't judge to early. The so called Black Monster is an existing Danger. The monster in question is a variant of the Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, a creature which is more common known under the name Black Widow which not only picked Apinaeans as it's preferred prey, but also surpasses most other species when it comes to strengths, agility and resilience and by this is a danger for anyone who decided to explore the jungles not carefully enough, thru this Predator isn't very picky when it comes to meat and has a good variations on poisons to deal with. Apinaeans try to wipe out the danger when ever they are able to found it. A Task that normally takes a huge amount of beepower and isn't guaranteed the survival of all hunters.
Hunting Friend: The greatest (and by default only) honor an Outsider can have in the Apinaean culture is that of a Hunting Friend. To get declared as such an Outsider would have to not only assist an Apinaean in the hunt on a Black Monster but s/he also must be able to survive it and make a significant difference, likely by dealing the killing blow or by saving the live of a lot of hunters. Ironical the Apinaeans award the title of a Hunting Friend to an Outsider post mortem. A Hunting Friend will be treated by the hive like a member with the status of a Hunter. Including the right on all non-tribe-members outside the hive.
Royal Jelly: The legendary Royal Jelly plays a huge role in the society of the Royal Bees. It isn't known much about this mysterious Honey besides that even every attempt to steal it would end up in the condemnation and by this lost of all honor of those responsible.
