Laxeiorin

The Laxeiorin

The laxeiorin are the last laugh of Zeh’Laxaehr, old god of darkness. When he and his brothers left Kirandur in ages past, the old god realized that he wasn't finished with this world. Playtime was far from over. So he left a single egg, black and pulsing, buried in the untamed jungles. Just a drop of his magic that he would let the world cultivate in it's own right. He left Kirandur, laughing. Born from that egg was the first laxeiorin, and, with the dark magic pulsing through it, it began to replicate.

Over the centuries, the laxeiorin remained relatively dormant. They stayed hidden beneath the ground, finding safety in secrecy. Civilizations grew. The land changed. Life as we know it came to be. And the laxeiorin changed too. The first, the laxeiorin king, felt as though his work could become stronger if he had someone of equal strength. So, from his body, and with a great deal of dark magic, he formed his queen, a being identical to him in all but coloration. The two insectoid beasts, standing tall and gaunt, sheathed in chitin of blue for the king and sickly green for the queen. They stood in their throne room, surrounded by their drones, and they began to plot.

Drones

The drones are small, beetle shaped monstrosities, measuring about a foot long and six inches wide. They have strong wings and a potently poisoned stinger with which they infect their thralls. Laxeiorin poison kills, but slowly, taking perhaps years to fully infect a host. When the host is infected, chitinous spikes grow through their skin and through their bones, turning them into zombie-like, spiked golems of flesh and pain. Drones are relatively weak, though, and unless swarmed, easily dodged, and though their poison is potent, the application is relatively cureable given the right tools.

Living Hives

The Laxeiorin hives are ascended drones, chosen randomly from the armies the king and queen command. The position isn't earned, it's forced upon one. A laxeiorin mage will take the drone, and through a months long process, will slowly oversize the drone, forcing it's wings back into it's body and causing it to become more humanoid, an image of the king and queen, though much shorter and with clawed hands and retractable stingers in each arm. They stand at around six and a half feet tall, but are skinny and spindly. The process is incredibly painful. Many do not survive. But the hive is vast, so many lost drones means nothing, for they are quickly replaced. The hives are sentient, much smarter than the mindless drones, and given one purpose: To spread the hive's influence. The mage embeds a small pocket dimension in the chest of the hive, and forces roughly five hundred drones within before closing the dimension. Should the hive wish to release it's army, it digs into it's own chest, forcing it's exoskeleton apart in a cracking, painful motion, and lets a stream of drones fly free, before slamming it back shut. Should the hive keep it's portal open too long, around five seconds, the dark energy flowing through it will rip it to shreds, killing all drones still within the pocket and destroying the hive itself. If the hive creature is killed, the pocket dimension remains, though it may be impossible to open, trapping the drones forever.

The hives are masters of stealth, slipping silently and quickly through trees and underbrush. They have almost supernatural fighting skills, with speed and grace and brutal, fast strikes with it's claws and dual stingers. Their one weakness is their battle rage: They rush forward with little regard for their own safety. So, they are nearly invincible in single combat, but relatively easy pickings for a group. Their true danger lies in the fact that the poison deliered through their claws and stingers is incurable if not treated within about a minute of infection. After that, the person is doomed to live forever as a thrall of the hive, if not killed.

Mages

The court of the king and queen is made up of these smaller mirrors of the monarchs. They use their dark, twisted magic to keep the hive connected, control the drones, and make new horrifying creations for the hive. They are rarely seen in battle, usually spending their time speaking to and advising the king and queen, steadily gaining and syphoning power from their monarchs. Someday, when the king and queen are killed, one of the mages will start the process again. The dark magic that sustains the laxeiorin would have to be cut off at the source to finish off the race entirely, but no one is sure where that is. Not even the laxeiorin.

Soldiers

Standing just shorter than the hives, these are similar to them, though built much stockier and heavily armored. They're much slower, and they're almost as abundant as the drones, though far too valuable to risk. They will often read small raiding parties against outposts, and though slow and not excessively skilled in battle, their ferocity and durability make them dangerous for anyone unprepared. They are the only type of laxeiorin that cannot deliver the infection. They are meat-grinders, nothing more.

Habitat

The laxeiorin are native to Quor Zanin, and luckily for all, remain there. The drones aren't long-lived enough to ever latch on to trading vessels and spread, and the hives and soldiers are too single-minded to consider subterfuge. The laxeiorin also do their best to stay hidden in the most remote parts of the jungles, only attacking small villages or outposts. They stay far from the river, though have been known to make rushes in that region to try and punch through. They are spread across both sides of the river, mostly through deep, deep tunnels. They are all self-sustaining, living off of the dark magic that fuels them.