The Changeling Hives by Written Word

by josh_the_changeling

Frost Fang and Ash Raiders

Hive Frost Fang

As their faith dictates ten thousand years ago a mass cave in at Hive Chrysalis resulted in thousands of changelings getting injured and much more importantly, hundreds gained independence. Discovering this too late the queen at the time thought eradicating such numbers could have drastic side effects on the hive and as such she decided to banish them instead. Surprisingly though instead of heading to the warm and bountiful south they headed even further north. I can’t say why…Their belief teaches they were called that way but more likely the queen just banished them there probably in an attempt to starve or freeze them. Eventually they went as far north as any living creature had ever gone and on the verge of death, kept going. They came across an ice dragon the size of Canterlot Mountain fighting a being only named as “The Light”. This light consumed all matter and threatened to devour the world and so the dragon fought to defend all life. Feeding the changelings its love she told the changelings they have been fighting for hundreds of thousands of years and with their help maybe it could tip the balance. The fight lasted another thousand years, the changelings breeding and growing in number under the protection and love of the dragon while they sent out soldier after soldier to help in the fight against the Light.

Eventually the Light was defeated and the dragon, tired from fighting for so long decided to finally rest. Before going though she gave her power to the changelings which turned them into what they are now before allowing the use her body to build their new hive. Now you must remember that while this is what the hive believes, the evidence that this ACTUALLY happened are slim at best and is more a religious tale then factual history. Changelings of Hive Frost Fang are snow white with icy eyes and hair. From a physical standpoint they look like recolored generic changelings. The only real physical changes is the fact that each use ice magic as opposed to force like most changelings giving them an ice version of all their common spells but also allows their skin to freeze water on touch. Their hive comprises of a massive mound of ice most notable is the fact that it has a long tail like appendage to its rear and a long neck like appendage at its front, ending in a room chiseled to look like the skull of a dragon. Really what stands them out besides being…well…ice changelings is their religious zealotry. Starting supposedly after the death of this ice dragon the Frost Fang faith believes the dragons mind becoming their Hive mind and the queen is a conduit for it. As such its queen is not really worshipped as a ruler but as a prophet. In their view the dragon continues to watch over them and in return they worship her as a god.

To those of Hive Frost Fang they worship her not out of fear but out of love and to show how thankful they are. This does not mean non-believers are shielded from criticism…Quite the opposite. To the changelings living here it’s not a question of whether you believe the faith is true or not but if you appreciate what you have or not. Those few who choose not to follow the faith are seen as greedy, selfish and self-thinking with no value to the community. Most are chased off by other changelings while those who stay are eventually trialed as a heretic and sent to the hives dungeon.

An interesting aspect of the political structure is that it is a matriarchy society. The faith teachers that the dragon was female and so females are not just given more rights than males but position is based on sex. Drones that work in the tunnels and as frontline infantry are not just all male but forbidden to take the form of a female even when taking a disguise.

Military commanders and those in position of power are females though this does not mean if you’re born male or female you are given a certain role in this society. Instead all fillies are taught from an early age to change sex so all changelings begin their teenage life as male. As they get promoted, eventually they earn the right to be female. Now while some view this power base as feminist the truth couldn’t be more different. Females do not think themselves better than men because all females were male at one point or another. It’s a religion custom as opposed to a political one. Another unique aspect of the hive includes holy leaders also being in a position of power creating no different between church and state, also giving the faith an iron grip on the population. Those who believe have greater rights than those in other hives but as mentioned, non-believers are castrated. Due to this zealotry very few hives ever even bother to communicate with them making the hive quite isolationistic.

Since the start of their history there has been a custom involving the queen being isolated for the majority of her life, the only time she engages with others is to selected individuals who ask her for wisdom which due to how close the church guards her, only happens once every couple of months with political orders and the current situation of the hive being communicated through letters. The idea behind this was that the queen is in contact with the will of the dragon and that isolation along with heavy meditation allowed the queen to better understand its mind and also achieve a higher understanding.

This resulted in a string of suicides however that eventually led to a modification to the custom that allowed a single changeling to act as her assistant and maid. This new assistant would clean and sort her room while the queen was still present, help her with her work and studies, assist in organizing meditation and to be a companion. This did vastly lower the queen suicide rates but did start its own set of problems. Soon the queens kept falling for their maids as one often does when spending all their time with a single person. Having the embodiment of a god degrade herself to mating with a drone does not help the faith but there is little anyone can do about it. Even if they go behind the queens back the maid and the queen spend every single moment with each other even sleeping in the same room. The worst case was an individual known as the fallen queen who left the hive with her maid after the priestesses found out they were together, never to be seen again. It’s told now as a cautionary tale about how easy even the purist of souls can fall to temptation.

Now you must be asking yourself “Where do changelings so far out north possibly get their love from?” Well in the few chances one is ever asked the only response anyone has gotten, including other changelings, is “the dragon provides”. It could be possible they are keeping a dragon’s organ alive somehow and are feeding off that but all we have are theories. The fact they don’t need to hunt for prey though means they are very shut in simply not caring about the outside world. They pose no danger to anyone that’s smart enough to stay out of their hive.

Hive Ash Raiders

Now just like Hive Frost Fang most of the history of the Ash Raiders comes from word of mouth though while Hive Frost Fang decrees this as part of their faith Ash Raiders see this more as folk lore. Hive Ash Raiders believed that thousands of years ago there was a hive far north. The queen of this hive chose one of her changelings to become a powerful warrior, training him for decades and sending this drone on the most dangerous of missions. He grew stronger and stronger as time went on all the while still under the heel of his queen till one day he became so strong not even the bonds of the hive mind could control him and tearing free, destroyed his previous master leadding the other drones to freedom. This is how Hive Ash Raiders supposedly began, known mainly as the hive with no mind.

While Hive Frost Fang is orderly and single minded Hive Ash Raiders could not be more different. The Hive could be better described as a tribe living a simple, if violet existence. To the south east of Equestria is swampland and in the center is a small volcanic bio. The area is covered in a never ending rain of ash and in this hostile environment Hive Ash Raiders exist. One would ask why in the name of Celestia they would reside in such a place but they believe living in such harsh lands make those who survive strong and those who pass away the weak. Still, this results in them having only a fraction of the numbers other hives boast though each changeling certainly pulls its own weight and more.

Biological wise the changelings of Hive Ash Raiders could not be any different from Hive Chrysalis. They show a massive size increase, two times the size on average though some get as big as three times the average sized changeling. They have thick chitin that grows in plates forming an organic armor that, oddly enough, does closely resemble ACTUAL plate armor. Even their faces are coved in a helmet of chitin. They are extremely resistant to heat even surviving in lava for a short time along with red eyes. There are some major drawbacks though. Their wings have disappeared, they’re unable to transform and they have no hive mind which means there’s little order and no sense of being part of a bigger machine.

Their social structure is actually pretty simple. Whoever is strongest is in charge. This might seem quite silly but one must realize in their society and environment the strongest usually survive long enough to take over by being extremely clever and quick witted. Many ponies expect to find their chief some simple minded brute only to be shocked by their intelligence. There’s is a second governmental position in the form of the hives shaman. Now, what is so unique about this position is that this is the role the queen fills making this hive the only major one to not have the queen as top dog. In fact, technically the shaman HAS no power but those of the hive show her so much respect she might as well be second in command. The shaman spends most of her time meditating and communing with the spirits of the mountains, helping to keep the hives customs, what rules they do have alive and perform rituals with other members of the hive. A changeling is not considered officially part of their culture until they have drunk a mixture with unknown ingredients, though it is theorized to contain pond weed and poison joke.

Upon drinking this mixture it is described that they go into a long trance where they fight their greatest fear with some accounts including fighting Celestia herself, being buried alive and becoming a filly hunted by wolves. Once they have defeated their fear they return to our plane of existence. Those who fail suffer a panic attack and are disgraced though can try again if the shaman is convinced they are ready. Oddly enough this ritual can be taken by any species but few have ever even tried since not many people find living in an ash wasteland in a tribal society attractive. It has been put down however in cave paintings who have tried and succeeded and this includes two griffins, a unicorn and a diamond dog though any other information on these individuals have been lost to history.

Love is collected though raiding which while primitive, tend to be quite effective. When in a good mood they offer protection in return for an offering of love every few weeks creating a permanent love source. In a bad mood they tend to burn the village down, steal personal possessions and forcefully pin ponies down and suck them dry. It’s a good chance this is where their name comes from as raiding and warfare have become a major part of their culture. Royal guards have taken the fight to them quite often but have always failed to cause any permanent damage. The biggest issue involves the hives bio. Despite their massive size and fighting strength, they have known defeat through clever tactics and numbers but once they retreat to the ash wastelands no one has actually beaten them in battle though anyone with any tactical knowledge would see why. Fighting in a volcanic ash filled land wearing plate armor is not exactly the best position to be in but to the changelings that live there, its home.

Relationship wise they tend to have good partnerships with hives close to nature or simple ways while those with a strong sense or order and religious beliefs they hate. They don’t seem to have any strong enemies though this is mostly because they seem to be constantly fighting local pony forces. Many people, changeling or not, have attempted to convince them to join some plot to take over Equestria thinking they would jump at the chance with their warlike nature but they live simple lives and their culture teaches them to like it this way. Taking over the country tends to be viewed as not only a useless venture, but could break tribal tradition that has stood since the hive’s founding.

Religiously they tell folk lore and believe in natural spirits as opposed to any single entity. Usually tales are told more for entertainment then anything and range massively from each other, such as how one of their kind tried to live an adventures life only to be crushed by a bolder as soon as he entered his first dungeon to a warlord who made war with water itself, turning as much as he could into steam only for a storm, or the waters counter attack as he called it, to scare off his followers. They tend to have morals along the lines of being happy with what you have and the higher you aim, the farther you have to fall. They believe that the spirits of the mountain watch over them since they were chosen as the favorite people because of their strength and power, worshiping them to say thanks for their favor. They pose a serious threat to anyone living or moving near their land but on a national scale, they will always be a pain but nothing more.

Comments

[josh_the_changeling]

Why thank you! I just hope this goes much better then my last fic...Got it was bad >.< Though for the record I think the idea was awesome, just the execution that was really bad But yeah this is actually a final shot to see if I'm any good at this stuff, make it short, simple and fresh. I'm actually super nervous to see what people think.

[lordofmyth]

fairly interesting world building. i also have created some dieas of my own, though a few are similar to this.

two things i can full on say is unqie (and i will hire changleing assassins to come after you if you outright steal) is two things. one part of it is that i have something called Carpels, named after a reproductive structure from a flower. als known as the first daughters, they are the ones that produce most of the changelings of a hive. the breed faster than their 'mother' and are also fairly powerful and intelligent, albeit they often are bound to their own personal hive mind. they are, in a small sense, imperfect lesser clones of the queen, if as sacred to the queen and hive as anything.

the second thing is reproduction and, in exention, something i call Corrosion. simplest terms changelings were once something more Whole than they are now. now they are tattered variants of something much greater. what a pure bred, so called, changeling would look like would be quite frightening and feral. the only way to keep the corrosion from overcoming their breed is to keep up the variance. this is done by a queen breeding with a highly developed speciman of some sapient species. the queens cna reproduce with changeling drones, but the child will be corroded.
put it into perspective, as i am also using carnifex brillant designs, the likes of calliphora, ambrosia, and myxine are examples of changeling queens born from that form of breeding. Chrysalis, and some other in my story, are an example of inbreeding of sorts, of changeling queens impregnated by drones. not horrific but with at endency to insabiltiy and irrational behavior.
Miasma is a changeling queen that is far more corroded, a inbred queen's child with another changeling. any further creates a particrually unstable and vicious queen. so much so that they are considered risks to changeling kind and are kept sealed away, as their insanity and aggression would cause them to expose far too many changeling secrets to the world.

........making a story with changelings, and i am mowing over whether or not to make chrysalis have her own changeling foal from..... well guess.

[josh_the_changeling]

4155576 Very interesting but when building these hives I wanted to be as close to fan canon as I can, for example, that remark about how a changeling becomes free came to me after realizing almost all changeling fanfics have the changelings horns snapping at the start or landing on their head after a fall. However, there really isn't any fan facts on weather the queen breeds or not so I wanted to keep that open. The same goes with some small facts with the hives. I mentioned in the Hive Ash Raiders description that a number of different species did join the tribe at one point but there's no information on them. Would make for a good fic no?

[Diamond Sparkle]

Ideas you might want to use (or not)

-A Hive that acts the way a biker gang would, minus the bikes
-A Hive where even when they are alone, they are disguised at all times except when sick or when having sex, thanks to their religious beliefs
-A Hive of Celestia worshippers
-A Hive that defends the weak and has got a lot of love from them freely given
-A Hive that is the local Mafia in an area
-A (very small) Hive that betrays other changelings to their foes and is hated by all other hives

[josh_the_changeling]

4155843 Well when I create changeling hives I tend to take then quite seriously, and while they would have different cultures, as I can't see a entire nation of pony bikers, I can't see a nation of biker changelings. Nations are made up of individuals, but overall tend to have deep singular moral beliefs and ideals. Plus I have studied history and thought that I have learned there is no such thing as a "Good Guy Nation", every society is out to further themselves, weather it be with power, financially or religiously, and that reflects in my world building. A good idea would be the NCR from the fallout universe. They are classified as the "Good Guys" but even if their goals are ultimately nobel at their core it is to further their reach. Adding good will being this is so one can sleep at night, or so your population remain loyal. As for each idea...
-Sorry too silly
-Actually I did have a hive in mind like that, though the reason they stay disguised is a lot more deeper then some religious belief, but any more would be spoilers.
-The way I see it, Celestia is a ruler to the changelings, on par with the Griffon Emperor or even their own queen. More then that I can't see themselves worshiping someone who actually makes life difficult for them. While other gods will come up, none of them will be ponies (or any mortal race for that matter) and they would be those who showed the race favor.
-Certainly not. While I am very interested in doing Hives living alongside other races, defending the weak and all that just stuff would be silly on a national level. Its not worth spending resources to help others for little in return, as those who do find themselves so stretched out they collapse.
-Once again, too silly.
-Now, while I won't be using this idea because defining a hive as them just generally being jerks isn't every interesting or deep, I should point out that when I have done enough Hives, I will be looking into independent groups. I'm still working out the kinks, but these will include the Free Changeling Confederation (FCC), The Followers of Elizabeth and the Cult of Order. Some of these all changeling, other are actually a mix of races, but have changelings as a major player.

Their not bad ideas, I just don't think they will fit in with my hives, nor would I be able to give them the density they deserve.

[lordofmyth]

4155843 woouldn't the last one technically be chrysalis? she comes in and bsaically shouted through a megaphone "HEY EVERPONY! THERE ARE THESE MONSTES THAT DRAIN YOUR ENERGIES AND PRETEND YOU BE YOU, AND WE ARE SOME OF THEM!!"

[josh_the_changeling]

4204307 Ah good point! But once again I see hives as states or nations not a unified thing. Even ponies, the most pro friendship species in the MLP WORLD have their own countries with their own goals. I think anyone who believes that all changelings follow one person or all want the same thing or even CARE about what all other hives do even if it doesn't concern them does not know how governments or even just society works. OH! And work experience is coming up but I'm getting those two next hives done.