Hive insects are highly social creatures, working togeth-er as a group to build a collective society. Although all insect spirit types are noticeably different in appear-ance and abilities, all hive insect spirits exhibit similar tendencies in how they gather, organize, and construct their hive. Even the hives themselves have similarities in structure and form. The chief aim of all hive insect spir-its is to prepare for and summon a Queen of their kind.
Hive insect spirits have a highly ordered society, and the Queen forms the fundamental pillar of that society. Prior to the arrival of the Queen, the entire hive society works toward preparing and protecting the hive for the arrival of the Queen. Once the Queen has arrived, all members of the hive selflessly carry out her will.
Queens are utterly merciless in their dominance of all aspects of the hive and suffer no rivals to their total-itarian control. To this end, mature nymphs may some-times be destroyed if they are perceived to be rivals, and even the shaman that previously summoned the Queen may be exiled or killed if the Queen believes he or she no longer fulfills her needs.
ANT
The most highly social and cooperative of all hive
spir-hives comprise numerous members of all insect spirit types: caretakers, workers, and nymphs. As exceptional and prolific builders, ant hives quickly expand and are often the largest hives encountered. These hives fol-low a logic and pattern that only these alien beings can understand, leaving any metahumans that attempt to navigate them utterly confused and easily lost. Ants work to accomplish any goal in groups of at least two or three, never alone. Small groups are only employed by the shaman or queen when subtlety is necessary. In all other cases, ants solve their problems by dedicating a large number (often more than is necessary) of mem-bers to the task. Ant spirits are also highly territorial and respond swiftly and with overwhelming force to anything that threatens their territory, be it metahuman or another hive of insect spirits.
Unique Qualities: All physical damage done by ant spirits is also considered acid damage (see Acid Dam-age, p. 170, SR5). Ant spirits are highly dependent on their hive mentality and on its controlling force in partic-ular. If a single ant spirit is ever isolated from all others of its hive (e.g., through physical distance or due to a mana barrier), or if the shaman or Queen of the hive is killed, the ant(s) suffer a –2 penalty on all tests.
LOCUST
While classified as a hive species due to their social organization, locusts do not create a physical hive in a single location. Instead they form into a migratory swarm that moves from place to place. Locusts are the prototypical “destroyer” insect. They travel to wherev-er a food source is abundant, consume evwherev-erything in a hyperactive flurry, and then move on, leaving nothing but a barren wasteland behind. The only other time a locust swarm will halt its movement is to replenish its numbers. Locust swarms have a singularity of purpose that functions like a force of nature. When the Queen of the swarm sets a direction to travel, the swarm goes, destroying anything that is in the way and consuming everything in their path. Locusts are legendary for their insatiable hunger and their ability to digest nearly any-thing as food.
Unique Qualities: All locust spirits can fly and have the Flight skill, as well as the Devouring power (p. 194).
Locust spirits are single-minded to the point of being oblivious to their surroundings. When fighting a foe or feeding, all locust spirits (except the Queen) have a –3 penalty to Perception Tests.
TERMITE
Termites, like ants, are highly social hive spirits. Though instead of the totalitarian leader system of the ants, ter-mites exhibit a complex caste system, where more ma-ture members of the hive exhibit authority over junior members. Termites build large, highly ordered hives, but
them above ground. Typically they construct them in abandoned buildings in barrens, ghettos, or other iso-lated urban areas. The most unique aspect of termite hives is the material that makes up their construction.
The walls of a termite hive are made of a concrete hard material that is made from mixing sand (or another bal-last-type material) and their saliva.
Unique Qualities: All termite spirits have the Rein-forcement power (p. 198).
WASP
While described as “wasp,” the term refers to several families of the hymenoptera order, including wasps, bees, and hornets. Wasp insects form a highly ordered society, entirely matriarchal in nature. Most members of the hive, especially the worker and soldier types, are not overly intelligent, but the nymphs and Queen exhibit an above-average to exceptional intelligence, with a high level of malevolence and deviousness. Un-der the direction of such females, wasp spirits have been observed employing spies, using decoys, feign-ing retreats, and layfeign-ing traps. Wasp hives are physically smaller than those of other insect spirits but are more densely populated, so they will have as many or more members. Wasp hives are always built in high places in the open air, such as the upper stories of buildings and other such structures.
Unique Qualities: All wasp spirits can fly and have the Flight skill (p. 394, SR5) and the Venom power (p.
401, SR5).
SOLITARY
INSECT SPIRITS
Solitary insect spirits do not form large hives or colo-nies, but instead sometimes form small family groups.
All solitary insects are far more independent, intelli-gent, and adaptable as individuals. Any particular spirit in a group would feel comfortable leaving to achieve some individual goal. Although there is no singular to-talitarian leader like a Queen spirit, a shaman follow-ing the totem of a solitary insect spirit will eventually summon a Mother spirit. In a distinct contrast to hive insects, there can be multiple Mother spirits in a group, as each Mother can summon others. This allows the solitary spirits to spread far more widely and rapidly than their hive brethren.
BEETLE
Like the Earthly insects they resemble, beetle spirits come in many different varieties, but all exhibit the same basic characteristics and tendencies. Oddly, sum-moned beetle spirits will take on the appearance of dif-ferent kinds of sub-types (stag beetles, dung beetles, etc), despite all coming from the same group. Beetle
but range far to find sources of food wherever they are available. Beetle hives, when they gather in significant numbers, are overseen by one or more mother spirits.
Beetles are among the more territorially aggressive in-sects and attack any perceived intruder with little prov-ocation or warning. Beetles are known for their excep-tionally tough, chitinous hides.
Unique Qualities: When calculating the Hardened Armor value for a beetle’s Immunity to Normal Weap-ons, add +4 to the value. All beetle spirits also have the Mystic Armor power (p. 399, SR5).
CICADA
Cicadas are grasshopper-like, flying insects. They have wide prominent eyes, and wings made of a thin mem-brane that is almost transparent. Being extremely mi-gratory, cicadas travel in small packs searching for food sources wherever they can be found, and they have exhibited a preference for plants and other organics.
The most prominent feature of cicadas is the noise they produce using their internal membranes. Using this ability as a weapon, a cicada spirit can amplify the sound to over 100 decibels (approximately the noise level of a power tool).
Unique Qualities: All cicada spirits can fly, have the Flight skill (p. 394, SR5), and have the power of Sonic Projection (p. 199).
FIREFLY
Firefly spirits are soft-bodied fliers that are most well known for the intermittent glow they produce from their abdomens. Fireflies only glow for specific rea-sons: when agitated, for communication, or when in close proximity to a Mother spirit. When being invest-ed into a new host as a larva, the firefly emits a fainter, but constant, glow. Mother spirits appear to know the vulnerability this causes, and they make attempts to hide their young, moving to different locations to re-produce. Fireflies are the least aggressive of all insect spirits, preferring to evade foes. For this reason scouts and nymphs are by far the most common type of fire-fly spirits.
Unique Qualities: All firefly spirits can fly, have the Flight skill (p. 394, SR5), and have the Confusion power (p. 395, SR5).
FLY
Fly spirits, in all their various varieties, subsist as scav-engers off of metahuman waste. Thriving in unclean areas where refuse is abundant, fly spirits propagate to match the supply available. They prefer dark, moist environments where disease and pestilence run ram-pant, inevitably becoming disease carriers themselves.
Fly spirits are mostly self-sufficient, but they gather
abundant. When they gather and make a nest, the area becomes a noisy, chaotic cesspool, with an overpower-ing odor that most metahumans find unbearable.
Unique Qualities: All Fly spirits have the Flight skill (p. 394, SR5), the Pestilence power (p. 197), and Immu-nity to Disease.
MANTID
Mantid spirits are the most unusual of all insect spir-its. They appear as large, bipedal insects, with a pair of large scything talons as upper arms, and two large mandibles around their mouth. The most remarkable aspect of the mantid spirit, however, is their means of reproduction. Mantid spirits are the apex predators of the insect spirit world: they reproduce by “eating”
other insect spirits. Mantid spirits are extremely strict about gender roles among their kind, with the females always being the leaders and soldiers, and the males being caretakers and workers. These gender roles are enforced through the sex of the vessels they choose to invest with their spirits. Mantid spirits never have a Queen or Mother and only rarely produce a nymph. In the rare cases that this happens, the other mantid spir-its treat the nymph with a high amount of respect and deference, as if she were a sort of tribal elder.
Female mantid spirits reproduce by “eating” oth-er insect spirits. In actuality, the mantid consumes the spirit energy within the host vessel. When a sufficient amount of energy has been accumulated, the female can incubate a new mantid into an empty host vessel (as described under Inhabitation, p. 195). This energy can also be used to enhance the spirit’s own abilities instead.
Mantid spirits are notoriously difficult to summon and dangerous to control. Because of their ability to re-produce without the aid of a shaman, they rarely see the need to continue to cooperate with one. Gender roles and the matriarchal nature of mantid culture is so strong that all known mantid shamans have been female. Flesh-form mantid spirits have been known to hide and in-tegrate into metahuman society in order to aid in their hunting, reproduction, and survival.
Unique Qualities: All female mantid spirits have the Energy Drain (Insect Spirit Force, Touch, Physical Dam-age) power (p. 195). Force drained in this manner can be spent as Karma to improve the skills and attributes of the spirit as per the rules for free spirits (p. 202). When a female mantid has gathered Force equal to its own, it can spend it to “give birth” to a new mantid spirit that inhabits a living vessel (see p. 135).
MOSQUITO
Mosquitoes are a unique type of spirit that subsists off the life force of living beings. They appear as small, hairy, flying insects, with a prominent proboscis in the center of their face. While all spirits appear the same, only the
to need to draw the life force of other living creatures in order to power the infestation of a new spirit into a host.
The males (typically soldiers and workers) act as scouts and protectors of the females so they can focus on prop-agation. Some have been known to become carriers of virulent diseases. They are among the most hated and actively hunted of all insect spirits.
Unique Qualities: All mosquito spirits have the Flight skill, “females” (as determined by the gamemaster) have the Essence Drain power (p. 396, SR5); some spirits may also have the Pestilence power (at the gamemaster’s dis-cretion; see p. 197).
ROACH
Cockroaches are omnivores, gathering food primarily as scavengers. Unusually for insect spirits, they form what appear to be “family” units, centered around the Mother spirit or shaman that “birthed” them. They also build nests, though not nearly as large as the hive spirits, that can have one or more family units living in them. Roach spirits, like their terrestrial counterparts, are famously hardy and resistant to damage. Roach-es can withstand extreme temperaturRoach-es, radiation, go without food for extended periods of time, and even hibernate when necessary.
Unique Qualities: All Roach spirits have +2 to Dam-age Resistance tests, and all have Allergy (Light, Mild) in addition to the normal insecticides Allergy.