LittleWasp
Well-Known Member
Hey, everybody.
I've been quietly working away on more space wasp stuff over the past couple of weeks, mainly to expand the I'ee as a whole within my own head. Their history in particular has expanded a little since I first wrote up their wiki page.
Before I go and do a big rewrite, I just wanted to hear a bit of feedback on it; make sure it doesn't conflict with established canon or make no sense as well as just hear if it makes them more interesting.
Ok, so here is the history of the space wasps! Wall of text incoming:
So, a long time ago: Thousands and thousands of years ago, the I'ee homeworld (known only to them as Ee'ee, which means 'home') was home to two intelligent species. One of these was a more familiar, human-like species who had an advanced, industrial civilisation. The other was the I'ee; an uncivilised species of colonial insect that lived and died with no concept of aspiring to bigger things or thinking outside of the box.
The I'ee's neighbours were beginning to explore space travel whilst back home their biologists began extensive study of the I'ee after discovering their surprising, untapped intelligence. They began to breed families of I'ee in captivity, interacting with each from an early age to teach them abstract and creative concepts. The use of these faculties was further encouraged by the now-constant availability of food provided to them by their carers.
To elaborate: When uncivilised, the I'ee lived and died. Each family would build a nest, grow in numbers, hunt for food, breed a new generation of young queens and then die. No knowledge gained by the parent family was passed on to the children, and for the most part the I'ee were too busy with their instinctive processes to do more.
With their new teachers providing for them so readily, each 'adopted' family now had more than enough time to experiment with their imaginations and expand their mental faculties.
This was what I call the First Restructuring Event.
Naturally, the impressionability and easily manipulated nature of the I'ee was exploited. Families were bred and sold to be taught in the use of factories and machinery so as to be used for cheap labour. As a result, this caused an immediate decay in the intelligence of those families, who were again put to work endlessly with no time for expansion.
In addition, the I'ee's violent, instinctive tendencies also resulted in an eventual collapse of the slave families. Remember how uncontrollably violent the Thoot family got over Edtoto accidentally drifting into their territory? Imagine a similar mess-up happening in countless factories and workplaces across the world, swiftly escalating into an uncontrolled 'revolt' of confused, enraged insects getting upset over things they don't understand.
---
As a side note, this has all occurred over the span of at least one thousand years. During this time, the I'ee's 'progenitor' race has become space-faring and spread out across the neighbouring star systems. They even encountered an enemy, and begun fighting a stellar war. A few years into this war, all hell breaks loose on their home planet with crazy wasps wrecking and killing everything.
Communication breaks down, and the progenitor fleet is annihilated by their enemies, along with their colonies, one after the other. A climactic battle is fought in the home system, and the progenitors lose, leaving a sizable field of debris orbiting the star.
The enemy arrives at Ee'ee, prepared to annihilate the last bastion of resistance, and instead finds a world struck by an apocalypse.
Amused, or maybe simply curious, they stay around and watch the last of the progenitors get killed off by their pupils, then leave; perhaps leaving behind some means of observing the I'ee from orbit.
The generation of 'rabid' slave I'ee is left alone in a devastated world, confused, and simply go about doing what they had done before.
They gradually bring factories back online, mines and farms begin to produce resources again, etc. The system by now was almost self-sufficient enough for them to keep going on their own, without a 'brain' per-say.
Eventually, there's enough of an over-supply of stored food and technology that the families begin to experiment again, this time on their own.
Years and years pass on by, with the I'ee slowly expanding and rediscovering more of the world they destroyed. Some newer families even dedicate themselves entirely to learning more, gradually deciphering meaning from things and experimenting with creating new technology from the knowledge that was 'imprinted' on them before.
Finally, they realise they have no idea where they came from or why the world is the way it is: as far as they had known, the technology had always been there. They even begin philosophising a bit! The families begin to record their history and share it with one another and their children.
This was the Second Restructuring Event.
Give them roughly another thousand years of fairly sedate expansion, exploration and learning, and you have the modern I'ee families beginning to expand out into space. They discover the age old wreckages from battles they never saw, and start to examine them, recovering additional pieces of useful technology and knowledge.
Currently, the I'ee are undergoing a third Restructuring Event, which is defined by their increasing interest in foreign entities and the younger, more adventurous families which are less scared of meeting them.
The alien race which the Oo'tut clashed with may or may not be the same one which destroyed the progenitor species. I'd like to leave it as ambiguous as possible for obvious reasons.
The I'ee are meant to be like a bizarre phenomenon of civilisation: Without the progenitors and the war which devastated their world, they wouldn't be as they are now. The I'ee civilisation as a whole is extremely fragile in more ways than one. Their greatest defense, though they don't know it, is their obscurity.
As a result, it may ironically be families like Ee'ith, and individuals like Sally, who end up destroying the I'ee's tenuous freedom by exposing just how gullible and easily manipulated they are as an entire species.
I've been quietly working away on more space wasp stuff over the past couple of weeks, mainly to expand the I'ee as a whole within my own head. Their history in particular has expanded a little since I first wrote up their wiki page.
Before I go and do a big rewrite, I just wanted to hear a bit of feedback on it; make sure it doesn't conflict with established canon or make no sense as well as just hear if it makes them more interesting.
Ok, so here is the history of the space wasps! Wall of text incoming:
So, a long time ago: Thousands and thousands of years ago, the I'ee homeworld (known only to them as Ee'ee, which means 'home') was home to two intelligent species. One of these was a more familiar, human-like species who had an advanced, industrial civilisation. The other was the I'ee; an uncivilised species of colonial insect that lived and died with no concept of aspiring to bigger things or thinking outside of the box.
The I'ee's neighbours were beginning to explore space travel whilst back home their biologists began extensive study of the I'ee after discovering their surprising, untapped intelligence. They began to breed families of I'ee in captivity, interacting with each from an early age to teach them abstract and creative concepts. The use of these faculties was further encouraged by the now-constant availability of food provided to them by their carers.
To elaborate: When uncivilised, the I'ee lived and died. Each family would build a nest, grow in numbers, hunt for food, breed a new generation of young queens and then die. No knowledge gained by the parent family was passed on to the children, and for the most part the I'ee were too busy with their instinctive processes to do more.
With their new teachers providing for them so readily, each 'adopted' family now had more than enough time to experiment with their imaginations and expand their mental faculties.
This was what I call the First Restructuring Event.
Naturally, the impressionability and easily manipulated nature of the I'ee was exploited. Families were bred and sold to be taught in the use of factories and machinery so as to be used for cheap labour. As a result, this caused an immediate decay in the intelligence of those families, who were again put to work endlessly with no time for expansion.
In addition, the I'ee's violent, instinctive tendencies also resulted in an eventual collapse of the slave families. Remember how uncontrollably violent the Thoot family got over Edtoto accidentally drifting into their territory? Imagine a similar mess-up happening in countless factories and workplaces across the world, swiftly escalating into an uncontrolled 'revolt' of confused, enraged insects getting upset over things they don't understand.
---
As a side note, this has all occurred over the span of at least one thousand years. During this time, the I'ee's 'progenitor' race has become space-faring and spread out across the neighbouring star systems. They even encountered an enemy, and begun fighting a stellar war. A few years into this war, all hell breaks loose on their home planet with crazy wasps wrecking and killing everything.
Communication breaks down, and the progenitor fleet is annihilated by their enemies, along with their colonies, one after the other. A climactic battle is fought in the home system, and the progenitors lose, leaving a sizable field of debris orbiting the star.
The enemy arrives at Ee'ee, prepared to annihilate the last bastion of resistance, and instead finds a world struck by an apocalypse.
Amused, or maybe simply curious, they stay around and watch the last of the progenitors get killed off by their pupils, then leave; perhaps leaving behind some means of observing the I'ee from orbit.
The generation of 'rabid' slave I'ee is left alone in a devastated world, confused, and simply go about doing what they had done before.
They gradually bring factories back online, mines and farms begin to produce resources again, etc. The system by now was almost self-sufficient enough for them to keep going on their own, without a 'brain' per-say.
Eventually, there's enough of an over-supply of stored food and technology that the families begin to experiment again, this time on their own.
Years and years pass on by, with the I'ee slowly expanding and rediscovering more of the world they destroyed. Some newer families even dedicate themselves entirely to learning more, gradually deciphering meaning from things and experimenting with creating new technology from the knowledge that was 'imprinted' on them before.
Finally, they realise they have no idea where they came from or why the world is the way it is: as far as they had known, the technology had always been there. They even begin philosophising a bit! The families begin to record their history and share it with one another and their children.
This was the Second Restructuring Event.
Give them roughly another thousand years of fairly sedate expansion, exploration and learning, and you have the modern I'ee families beginning to expand out into space. They discover the age old wreckages from battles they never saw, and start to examine them, recovering additional pieces of useful technology and knowledge.
Currently, the I'ee are undergoing a third Restructuring Event, which is defined by their increasing interest in foreign entities and the younger, more adventurous families which are less scared of meeting them.
The alien race which the Oo'tut clashed with may or may not be the same one which destroyed the progenitor species. I'd like to leave it as ambiguous as possible for obvious reasons.
The I'ee are meant to be like a bizarre phenomenon of civilisation: Without the progenitors and the war which devastated their world, they wouldn't be as they are now. The I'ee civilisation as a whole is extremely fragile in more ways than one. Their greatest defense, though they don't know it, is their obscurity.
As a result, it may ironically be families like Ee'ith, and individuals like Sally, who end up destroying the I'ee's tenuous freedom by exposing just how gullible and easily manipulated they are as an entire species.
