I is for Insects

Insects - underestimated and neglected

Insects are poorly represented in the Old World books beyond the giant beetles, chaos ants and the like. Game masters are encouraged to fill the blanks and surprise veteran player with new kind of insects. One easy way is to create a new subtype of beastmen or demons with the subset of mutations fitting with an insect lineage. In this entry, we will focus on even more twisted insects.

Frankinsect is a tall and bulky humanoid formed by the aggregation of thousands of insects bound together by powerful force being magical, druidic or shamanic. Sometimes also named crawlers elemental they are very rare, always unique and very powerful. The first reported Frankinsect was cast centuries ago by a powerful druid named Frankus The Creeper. He successfully defended a sacred grove attacked by beastmen but at the cost of its own life. Each Frankinsect is one of a kind as its composition depends on the insects available in the surroundings: grasshoppers, cockroaches or carrion beetles, etc. There are reports of skaven grey seers, orcs shamans, dark druids and Nurgle priest to invoke and control those living constructs with great difficulties. Frankinsect are very resistant to physical damage while the magic involved makes them partially resistant to elements. Only high level dispelling magic can destroy them directly. If this is not possible only killing the controller will make the Frankinsect slowly becoming unstable and dissolve. But not before creating an huge havoc in their vicinity.

Dagmar zum Averland, lector at the Altdorf university, wrote a famous essay on the topic of insectaïd. Her work is based on several testimonies and old manuscripts describing nature spirit shaped as enhanced and augmented insects. Dagmar’s theory is that insectaïd are related to insect the same way dryads are related to trees. She makes the hypothesis that these entities are the tools created by nature to help cleanse and regenerate herself. Insectoïds appears to gather in small communities and cleanse and regenerate their surrounding. They perform menial works like removing tainted ground, irrigating and planting trees. They are also said to perform rituals involving exquisite choreography and humbling chants. Dagmar would finance an expedition to observe insectaïd directly.

-JMT

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