The Central Nest
| Author: Rasgon "Them's a sad lot, thems is. They don't quite believe they ain't on the Prime anymore." The Central, or Mother, nest is a tall honeycombed mound built by the Kind, sentient insects from some prime world or another. The insects-large, hornet-like creatures-are an expansionistic race used to conquest, but their invasion of Sigil took them by surprise. The construction of the central hive in a ruined dancehall (naturally enough, in the Hive Ward) went perfectly, but things rapidly began to go wrong. First, there was razorvine. The stuff grew everywhere, easily piercing the thick paper of the nests. The Kind were at a loss. They had never needed any kind of tool before to invade and control, but their pinchers and stings were useless and cutting back the stuff. It was apparent that they would need to acquire cutting utensils from the two- and four-leggers if they were even going to survive, much less conquer. For a time, combing the ward for creatures with tools became a full-time job, and expansion was not an option. After a time, the united force of the Kind accumulated enough equipment from the disparate groups of the Hive to keep the razorvine at a tolerable level. The expansion began. The satellite nests all seemed to fail. The first one, built in the Lady's Ward, was burnt down by the strange humanoids with red carapaces, all of its population arrested. The second one, built in the Guildhall Ward, found itself so troubled by the various "guilds" that it left of its own volition, joining the nest of a different species altogether (they went to live in Krijjt). Communication with the third satellite in the Lower Ward was discontinued after the queen mated with a chasme, creating a brood of insectile cambions. Another nest in the Hive Ward's communication suddenly became disjointed and irregular one day. It seems the queen had allowed herself to be recruited into something called "the Xaositects" and no longer favored the Kind's agenda. Small parties of the rebellious Kind even began returning to the mother nest, destroying parts of it or performing bizarre pranks that seemed to have no point and no logic. After a long struggle, the central nest simply gave up. It stands tall and lonely in its corner of the ward, Kind only leaving it to hunt for food. One day, it may not exist at all. |
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