The Ento

The Ento are a race of giant insects. Entos are emotionless creatures who adhere to a rigid caste system of workers, soldiers, and queens.

Culture

The Ento have castes: queens, soldiers, nurses, technicians, food producers, and builders. A queen is the ruler and mother of her colony; the nurses care for the eggs a queen lays. The soldiers protect the other Ento, and help colonize, while the food producers harvest food and care for animals. The technicians design and operate spaceships, communication satellites, weapons, vehicles, and so forth. The builders construct buildings, and help the technicians.

The Ento have blunted emotions. They exist to serve their queen and to expand their colony, and most Ento mindlessly obey orders. An individual usually has only one of two functions, and does not consider doing another job. The workers rarely, if ever, encounter other creatures who have emotions, and perhaps Ento simply do not consider it a part of life.

History

The Ento were first encountered by the Empire over 450 years ago (1842, by the Terran calendar). The Ento were initially hostile to the Empire and the First Ento War quickly errupted. The Ento were defeated and driven back to their original borders.

For 380 years, the Ento and the Empire engaged in minor border skirmishes, until, finally, a Second Ento War erupted over both governments' claim to the planet Menkar. After a ten-year war, the Ento relinquished their claim on Menkar, and the war was abandoned. Ten years ago, the Third Ento War started when the Ento launched a particularly violent attack on Imperial colonies on Menkar.

The Ento were unable to overcome the Empire's superior technology, and the Empire took their battle all the way to the Ento homeworld. The Empire has not decided what to do with the conquered Ento.

Government

The entire race of Ento was ruled by one leader referred to as the Gold Queen. She is the oldest of all the Ento, and is mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother to each individual Ento. The rule of a Gold Queen usually lasts for centuries, and she only relinquishes her title when she dies.

Ento colonies were ruled by "Young Queens", who are occasionally born to the Gold Queen or another Young Queen. After maturing, the young queen leaves her mother with several male workers and starts a colony on another world. Although all young queens ruled their own colonies independantly, they were required to obey orders from the Gold Queen.

Since the defeat of the Ento at the end of the Third Ento War, Ento space has been governed by the Empire; High Admiral Duke Kiirnanir of the House of Alesotep is the current military governor of the region.

Economy

The Ento produce few goods other than food and colonization technology. There is no money. All Ento receive a share of food based on their caste.

There is some importing and exporting between the Ento queens' colonies, but other than that, Ento do not trade with other worlds.

Physiology

Ento are exoskeletal insectoids. They have six appendages, and typically walk on the rear four, although the middle two have well-developed hands. Their exo-skeletons are hard to the touch and their bodies are sparsely covered with stiff hairs. Each caste has slightly different physical characteristics: worker Ento are brown, green or yellow, stand approximately 1.5 metres in height and weight approximately 80 kilograms; soldiers are red, black or brown, stand approximately 1.8m to 2.1m in height, and weigh approximately 100kg. Queens are believed to be much larger, but exact size is not known.

The Ento diet consists of fungi, fruits, vegetables and honey made from flowers native to the Ento worlds. They are known to possess very keen senses of smell, and smell plays a large role in their communication. Most Ento are incapable of reproduction; only Queens can reproduce. Comfortable Ento room temperature is approximately 23°C, and they are unable to last long in temperatures less than 5°C or greater than 35°C.

The average Ento lifespan is 8 years, although the Queens are known to be considerably longer lived.