APPLICATION
Nation Name: The Hive-Collective of the Manymind (Ot-Skodat)
Flag: Type of Government: The Hive-Collective is run as a representative democracy of sorts, with each hive offering between sixty and seven hundred and twenty Ot-Skodat representatives and six Selfgivers to the Chamber each month. The interaction between the various Selfgivers and the Chamber's own Outerself grants each representative a Truerank, which then allows them to interact properly amongst each other and the official residents of the Chamber. With this established, each individual will take up the role their Truerank grants them and govern or advise within their domain.
While the Chamber holds a fair degree of centralised power, there are still positions of not-inconsiderable power within each individual hive which - as with the representatives to the Chamber - are designated by the hive's Outerself. Even below this level, much the same pattern emerges - the Outerself of each hive bestows Trueranks upon the members of this hive, who then slot themselves into their role with a minimum of fuss. It is rare for the Outerself to be outright denied - more often, noticeable issues generally cause the Outerself to shift to correct - but when it is, the awareness such an act causes usually brings enough attention to it that the issue is solved on the conscious level.
This is a degree of harmony entirely absent from Leavers, who are unable and often unwilling to participate in the ebb and flow of social unconsciousness and
revel in their social unorthodoxy. As such, those who remain within a hive often find themselves being treated with amusing awkwardness at best and with general suspicion at worst, depending on just how on-edge the hive is as a whole. Alongside those who are not themselves Ot-Skodat, Leavers are generally considered second-class citizens which are generally avoided if at all possible, and only dealt with when an issue pertaining to them arises.
The bizzare exception to this rule, out of all things, are the colonies of Pipemen which flourish in every hive of the Collective. In almost all cases, the Outerself and its constituents are utterly baffled by the strange creatures now residing within their hive, usually expending vast effort to keep the Pipemen entertained and, as such, relatively safe. A few attempts have been made at integrating them into the larger workforce, but the traditional Ot-Skodat methodology of slow, carefully planned work is often ruined within moments of the Pipemen arriving at the work scene. Instead, the Pipemen provide the impetus for the continual expansion of the hives, in the vain hope that the smaller beings stumble into a cave system and embark upon a vast exodus. It's been known to happen before.
Head of Government: While there is no Selfspeaker, the closest thing to an overall leader the Hive-Collective has is Nine-Eyes All-Sees, who is the official Governor of the Collective and is considered responsible for the province meeting its monthly tithes. Equally influential is Half-Arm Far-Wanders, who is a long-time resident of the Chamber and has a large degree of influence over its Outerself. The two represent the internal and external leaders of the Collective - insofar as it can be said to have leaders
per se.
Economy: When considering their economy, it is important to note that the Ot-Skodat have rarely ever come up with technology themselves. Indeed, their current technological level was only really attained when Yllendyr subjugated them, but they have taken to this new technology level like ducks to water. Though they rarely prove able to produce new technology themselves, they have perfectly happily adapted it and refined it with the degree of methodical precision to be expected of the Ot-Skodat. Mechanisation of the workforce came as naturally to them as breathing and eating, and after a little internal rearrangement the hives became a wonderful nodal point in the production of materiel for the ongoing war efforts.
Internally, the hives operate entirely without currency. The Outerself is relied upon to provide the majority of individuals with their needs, and those who are not Ot-Skodat themselves more often barter than they do buy. Whether a failing or not this is unlikely to change anytime soon, given how heavily the presence of the Outerself looms over the Ot-Skodat civilisation. Still, as a people with little concept of value, their external dealings with currency are esoteric and bizarre and primarily revolve around the Hive-Collective offering what it has for what it needs.
And, as such, the Collective primarily trades for either technology or raw materials with which to continues its manufacturing operations. Any new technology is to be rapidly dissected and emulated, while the raw resources from other nations are often of a far higher quality than those mined locally. Weaver-silk from the Old Forest is a special favourite for the northern Hives, as their ability to rapidly turn thread into surprisingly high-quality fabrics and the relatively short transport distance allows the Ot-Skodat to churn out garments to sell to the Old World.
More enlightening than the merely industrial portion of the economy is the agricultural side, which sets the standard for integration and efficiency. Fields are rotated with crops and animals to keep them fertile and productive, heavily fertilised with both natural and enriched and filled with a diverse and hardy ecosystem meant to repel pests. What waste cannot be directly recycled back into the agricultural systems joins sewage to help cultivate fields of mushrooms below the hive.
Vital to both industry and agriculture are the integration of magical and mechanical processes and a heavily-ingrained system of experimentation in order to continuously fine-tune processes down to ever-smoother polishes. For example, the enforced ecosystem of most grain-fields is comprised of numerous Shaped meant to compete highly effectively, and numerous test-fields exist to optimise each organism without disrupting the careful equilibrium needed to provide the perfect growing conditions. Much the same exists in industry - the highest-quality forges are operated by the Collective's handful of Plasma mages operating alongside Solid mages, and often vary the compositions and heats used in the smelting process to find new and interesting materials.
In spite of this, it is perhaps telling that the leaps of intuition so common to other races simply do not take place within the minds of the Ot-Skodat. Where others would fill in the gaps and attempt something entirely radical, the Collective instead makes its slow, incremental changes until enough pieces are in place that a new idea can be confidently adopted. Without outside interference, it is unlikely that they would have industrialised for a few millennia more, and even now they play an eternal game of catch-up even as they polish now-obsolete technologies to a blinding standard.
Demographics: Of the known population of the Collective, the Ot-Skodat make up around ninety-two percent. Of the remaining eight percent, two percent is made up of Elves - primarily Dark Elves - and the last three percent is made up of the descendants of refugees who found themselves trapped in the Collective as it was overtaken. For the most part this last group of people tends to live further out in the wilderness, out of sight of the hives and where the Ot-Skodat rarely tread, while the Ot-Skodat themselves reside within their hives almost universally - those found wandering the wilds alone are either mad, or well on their way.
The Pipemen are not counted on any census. Not only would this present logistical issues which cannot easily be solved, the number fluctuates so rapidly that any census would become invalid long before it could be completed. The Ot-Skodat console themselves with simply knowing there are more Goblinoids than they know what to do with, and try to find newer and shinier lures with which to keep their charges distracted.
Population: The total Ot-Skodat population is between forty-five and forty-six million, with a further four-and-a-half million others and an unknown number of Pipemen on the periphery of every hive.
Culture: Ot-Skodat culture is, unsurprisingly, heavily conservative and highly meticulous. Values such as caution, foresight and emotional detachment are considered to hold the highest value, while impulsiveness, over-emotional behaviour and disobedience are heavily frowned upon, primarily owing to the influence of the Outerself. This probably helps to explain why Leavers are quite as insane as they are, and why they so gleefully start breaking things the moment they feel they can get away with it.
It can be noted that the Hives are, in general, painfully naive. This is primarily a result of their Outerself - should one Ot-Skodat attempt to harm another or lie to another, both parties will be fully aware of that fact. This engenders a form of blunt honesty from them, which they automatically assume of outsiders - an assumption which contributed heavily to their rapid subjugation by Yllendyr. This was also helped by the generally empathic nature of the Outerself - most fighting groups need very heavily-sanitised Outerselves with dedicated combat-Selfgivers in order to operate as a fighting force, and a hive can quite easily descend into a self-reinforcing terror.
Pressing beyond the purely practical, the Ot-Skodat is heavily rooted in the above- and below-ground structure of their hives. As such, outward-facing art is considered to represent danger and various methods of overcoming it, while inward-facing art (usually through forms of interior decoration, though kaleidoscopes and other such systems are popular) represent safety and are often prized far more than their counterparts.
As with their technology, Ot-Skodat art rarely improves itself but when intersecting with the art of others they often prove capable of assimilating the techniques and styles of others while still integrating them with the known baseline. Given the Yllendyr subjugation, the elves' own severe style of art has increasingly permeated the Ot-Skodat mindspace. Most importantly, the introduction of the fresco to the Ot-Skodat palette has enabled for traditionally inwards-facing and outwards-facing styles to be hybridised. The impact of this has been such that hundreds of new caverns have been excavated by storytellers and historians alike in order to portray their narrative on lime.
Beyond the actual methods of creating the art, however, the Ot-Skodat rarely care for the artistry of other races. For the most part, this is an issue of context - their attempts to express the Outerself dictates much of the Ot-Skodat artistic style, and they interpret it in that context. With that perspective, much of outsider art becomes seemingly pointless to all but the most esoteric of collectors, who stretch their minds to the limit in order to comprehend the strange perspectives of the outside world.
What little art the Collective produces from outside its Ot-Skodat population eschews or adopts the conventions of the Collective often within the same piece. The use of stylistic juxtaposition - such as the Ot-Skodat have discovered with frescoes - is a technique which has long since become commonplace amidst the refugee population, and often extends out into the conventions of other cultures. Bustle and solitude are the elements most commonly contrasted with each other, and common themes include alien landscapes or the mundane turned esoteric as the artists attempt to capture the experience of living within the Collective. Though small, this portion of the artistic community excels at pushing stylistic and societal boundaries, often aided by a small sub-sect of Leavers who have not yet become dangerous. Interestingly, the Pipemen of the collective contribute significantly to this community, and often help to hold it together when isolation and their alien nature of their homes threatens to send them flying apart.
Socially speaking the Ot-Skodat lack the concrete concept of a
class as such, but certainly have an awareness of
prestige. This is expressed as Truerank, or the ability of an individual to affect the Outerself and the individuals connected to it, and is the core of Ot-Skodat internal competition and their societal structure itself. The silent, subconscious decision-making systems which so characterise the Hive-Collective operate primarily by the constant feedback loop of modifications to Truerank and the subconscious changes to individuals which this causes.
Beliefs: Though they lack any official belief system, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Ot-Skodat have a very heavily-entrenched form of ancestor worship. This is traditionally closer to simple veneration than worship proper, but there have always been cults around particularly impactful figures - especially those who are still remembered by the Outerself. Despite this, each individual will choose their own pantheon to venerate based on their own experience and position in life.
For those beyond the Outerself, belief systems remain somewhat flexible. Most of the minorities living in the Hive-Collective are amalgams of various refugee cultures, and as such the dozens of pantheons and solo deities which swim through that sea are the result of myths and legends from numerous cultures being melted together and producing new and highly unusual products. If the Ot-Skodat cared, it would prove to be a fascinating course of study.
Since one Ot-Skodat is pretty much the same as another, the Pipemen of the Collective generally worship either their Bugbear leader or the hive they currently occupy, depending on just how megalomaniacal their leadership feels. On occasion the Gremlins will adopt, or bastardise, one of the minority religions and start labelling themselves as various mythological figures and deities, much to the amusement of onlookers.
Territories: Climate: Primarily temperate, in part owing the warm-water current snaking its way around the southern coast and in part owing to the intense programme of weather control and forced climate change which the Ot-Skodat hives practice in order to sustain their vast populations. In general it becomes harsher as you head further inland, away from the warming effect of the currents, though there are still some temperate patches at the very tip of the Collective.
Military: In theory, the Collective has no standing military force of its own - both due to the Imperial occupation and the natural Ot-Skodat predisposition to having everyone possible actually at work. In practice, there are two primary - if unofficial - military factions at play outside the four Imperial Auxilia Legions - the Selfswords and the League.
The League is a coalition of refugee-descendants, Leavers, and Pipemen who aim to remove the Imperial occupation by any means necessary. For the most part they operate hit-and-run attacks, relying on the sheer brutal
insanity of both Leavers and Pipemen to leave the enemy reeling and paralysed on first-contact before breaking and regrouping to begin again. These operations are usually screened by refugee-descended cavalry and light infantry, who usually also provide their allies with logistical support.
While often tactically successful, these operations currently operate without any real strategic framework, and the largest force which the League has been able to muster thus far has barely managed to scrape past fifty men. Some of the more influential cells have attempted to remedy this, but without access to major communication lanes this has been slow going at best. Still, the League's soldiers boast a chaotic competence which few can match, and those cells which boast alchemists can bring down watchtowers if need be. Maybe a small fort.
The Selfswords are considered to be "pest control" by the hives - though the Ot-Skodat group bandit raids, stray bears and wyvern packs under the umbrella term "pests", so the Selfswords are somewhat better-armed than most equivalent organisations. This state of affairs is most likely exaggerated by the constant desire of each hive to test out new and slightly different variations on each of its weapon styles, making the Selfswords one of the few pest control organisations to regularly bring canon into the field.
Doctrinally the Selfswords are weighted towards a more mobile style of warfare, and depending on the exact hive a unit hails from they might have a handful of Kol-Kurak per company or one for each squad. Either way, all Selfsword units have a large degree of airmobility which lets them intercept, ambush or simply pursue most enemies at their leisure. Of course, this - combined with the size of their operational envelope - means they don't need to be particularly numerous to do their job, and no hive has more than two thousand Selfswords. Most don't reach half that.
Finally - though not precisely a part of the Collective - it can be interesting to consider those Imperial Auxilia Legions which contain Ot-Skodat. Usually numbering approximately twenty thousand within these forces the Ot-Skodat here also keep Kol-Kurak, though these are usually reserved for specified airmobile companies and pure logistical extension. Kol-Kurut and Kol-Karat are also used by light and shock cavalry respectively, though their tactical airmobility is severely stunted compared to the Kol-Kurak.
Despite the unique forms of locomotion available to the Ot-Skodat forces, the most important part of their composition is the two thousand engineer-soldiers - replete with explosives - which is incorporated into their TO&E. While regular soldiers are perfectly capable of digging a few ditches or making a simple rampart, Ot-Skodat engineers can turn almost any natural choke into a deathtrap within an hour. Combined with airmobility and their distributed tactical awareness, Legions with Ot-Skodat elements can pull of a defence-in-depth like none other, should their commanding officers permit them to do so.
Between these two, Ot-Skodat forces tend to deploy somewhat lighter artillery than their counterparts, needing to be able to lift each piece with a Kol-Kurak and relying on good entrenchment or misdirection to keep enemy artillery at bay. Machine guns are a favourite with infantry teams, and some have even attempted to fire them while in mid-air - to the detriment of both sides - while engineers enjoy using semi-disposable rocket batteries against fortifications or dense enemy forces if at all possible. Attempts at using these from atop a Kol-Kurak have not yet materialised, but the engineers are still attempting to produce infantry-portable versions so all things are possible.
The four Imperial Auxilia Legions stationed within the Collective have around twenty thousand Ot-Skodat between them, but these forces are far less combat-capable than those in the wider world as they are too small to isolate themselves from the general Outerself of the hives and tend to lose resolve rapidly. Even still, the overall Legions have access to Kol-Kurak making them surprisingly mobile despite their size and somewhat deadlier than they would otherwise be.
Magic: Interestingly the Collective is Aligned primarily towards Liquid, with seventy-five percent of Ot-Skodat mages being Liquid mages with some degree of aptitude. Beyond this, fifteen percent are Solid mages, five percent are plasma mages, two-point-five percent are Gas mages and an equal number are Selfgivers. These statistics obviously go out of the window with the non Ot-Skodat community, but between their relatively small numbers and the Outerself's lack of involvement with the minorities it is rarely considered important for anyone.
Selfgivers are uniquely important to the Ot-Skodat, as they form the medium through which the Outerself permeates. While this might otherwise result in the Selfgivers becoming walking tyrants, the vast requirements on their minds renders them vegetative within days of being hatched. Still, they are cared for by the rest of the Hive and form a vital node within Ot-Skodat culture, and their few days of real life are the most comfortable any in the Collective know.
While the Outerself of a hive might stretch for dozens of miles around, voyages beyond this require dedicated Outerselves and, as such, dedicated Selfgivers. Vast numbers of Ot-Skodat are then added to create a healthy Outerself which can spread itself out over a few miles without too much issue. To facilitate the movement of the Selfgivers over these distances, Shapers long ago modified the traditional Kol-Korat into the Kot-Korat, which is equal parts mount and life-support system. Still derived from honeypot ants, the Kol-Korat was Shaped with an underslung pouch to hold the Selfgiver and a tube which steadily feeds them. While it is not quite the ceremony with which most Selfgiver meals are provided, it provides a degree of practicality otherwise impossible.
Other mages are treated with somewhat less reverence than the Selfgivers, though their Truerank is certainly boosted comparative to those around them. Even still, they are integrated practically directly into the machinery of the hive and often find themselves on the shortest end of the stick available in the hive. This ranges from the Liquid mages who distil water from excrement to the Gas mages who bring forth and trap deposits of natural gas, or the Plasma mages who often find themselves acting as literal forges. While there are plenty of opportunities for a competent mage to attain a Truerank of some note, it is a long and arduous road to reach those heights.
As with most things, the Ot-Skodat style of magic is heavily dependant on highly precise cooperation between individuals. This is most common between Liquid and Solid mages, and from this combination the most common usage is Shaping - the use of magic to physically and genetically change animals to suit the needs of the hives. These are used intensively, and permeate Ot-Skodat society - making them a good overall metaphor for magic within the Collective.
History: The founding myth of the Hive-Collective speaks of a living forest full of shadows, from which those who would eventually call themselves Ot-Skodat were forced to leave. In exodus, they fled south into new and darker forests, where fires would leap from tree to tree to sear at the skin of the refugees and strange figures would cleave through them with a single blow. Thousands died, but just as many managed to make it to the plains beyond where they took up a semi-nomadic lifestyle and began to settle down.
Unfortunately, other tribes wandered the plains and they turned upon the newcomers with blade and fury. The refugees found themselves wracked with strife and internal conflict and a small cabal of sorcerers - the reason the Forest initially rejected that people, according to the Leavers - offered to provide a ritual which would undo these strifes and allow the refugees to overcome those who assailed them. The refugees were split, but eventually those who did not accept the ritual were rounded up and sacrificed to help fuel it. All but one of the cabal died from the backlash of their efforts, but the one survivor found himself to hold the whims of those around him within his hands. With sudden, vicious unity, the refugees hunted down and slaughtered the tribes who had once threatened to do the same to them.
Within the decade, the refugees had become entrenched within the region and began to spread further outwards, still ruled over by their surviving cabal member. By the time of his death, the first hive had seen three generations and had hundreds of Selfspeakers to vie for the throne he had left behind. The war which broke out upon his death was intense, almost halving the total population before it finally ended, but in its wake was a rigid system of direct control where each Selfspeaker would answer to another in a chain ending in their absolute monarch.
With this system firmly in place, trusted Selfspeakers began to lead the first generation of new hive out into the world beyond. These would clash with new tribes all around, who would fall one after the other as the new hives strengthened their foothold in the world. Satellite hives were commonplace, each one the dominion of a would-be lord tied to the would-be lord above him, and skirmishes or full-on wars were waged at every border to push ever-outwards.
This ceased when the northernmost portion of the Collective was struck by plague sweeping in from the east. Refugees swept west, crowding hives and stressing their limited Outerselves, and birth rates skyrocketed as a result. Population density exploded, placing greater and greater strain on the Selfspeakers until they eventually succumbed and became catatonic. The first true Ot-Skodat were born out of these results as Outerself of each hive swelled with the increasing influence of regular citizens.
With a truly-distributed Outerself, the Ot-Skodat spent several decades regrouping before once more surging forth into the world. Clashing with various tribes which had moved into their hives in the interim, they began to make genuine advances for the first time in their history. Steel was mastered within a decade, the few Shaped creatures they had possessed before making way for the war more diverse plethora which the Ot-Skodat nowadays enjoy. Each hive discovered new and interesting forms of technology, and by periodically sharing their Outerselves they began to compound each other.
It still wasn't enough, and their first introduction to properly-modernised warfare was when the Yllendyr swept in from the still-weakened east and tore through the Hive-Collective like wildfire. Ot-Skodat forces managed to attain a few tactical victories, but between their manpower and technology advantage the Yllendyr conquest of the region was inevitable and barely even slowed down. Less than a year from the first shot fired the Chamber finished construction as the official capital of the Hive-Collective, from which elves would rule by proxy.
Even still, the Ot-Skodat have managed to adapt to the elven rule remarkably well, assimilating and polishing modern technology with frightful ease and even recovering their population faster than the Imperials can siphon it away for their Legions. Even so, they remain one of the smaller powers of the region in terms of population and size, with the northern half of the pre-plague Collective under direct Imperial rule, littered with hives and satellites and filled with Shaped creatures. Still, with the Collective being officially declared for Ecruir in the Imperial Civil War, perhaps an opportunity to change that will arise...
