Verms

Selfless to their hive but highly isolationist to other races, the Verms are crablike aliens who put everyone else on the menu. They are much like an invasive species, but their cunning (particularly their queens) is far beyond any pack-hunting predator.
== Themes ==
Verms are quite similar to insectoids, although much less powerful. They aren't nearly as indestructible or strong, and will rely on massive swarms to make invasions into new biomes. They are perhaps more thematically similar to the Arachnids from Starship Troopers.
=== Key Distinctions ===
The Verms are also a slaver race, and will often use a combination of violence and telepathy to have a population do various work for them.
== Transportation ==
Verms don't seem to have any known ability to cross space on their own, but they are seemingly clever enough to recognize starships, and young queens (tiny and stealthy) will attempt to board starfaring vessels, getting to new planets like rats of the naval ships of old.
== Life Cycle ==
* Birth: A newborn Verm queen is about one foot long, and can conceal herself just about anywhere, even going into a hibernative state if the weather is poor (or if aboard a spaceship).
* First few weeks: After eating 200 lbs of organic materials--carrion, trash, tiny creatures--she goes into a cocoon and spends about three months transforming into a hefty 100-lb proto-queen. 
* Three months: In this proto-queen state, she's not very powerful, and relies on her first warrior to gather food--this is the most vulnerable state of the Verm life cycle. If she can remain fed, she can produce another egg in about a week.
* First year: The queen's psychic powers are fully developed, allowing the hive to expand its territory with an army of about 30+ warriors at various ages.
* Second year: The eldest warriors are fully grown. The hive will likely have several hundred individuals at this point, and can expand again.
* ??? Maximum: Queen is fully grown, now resembling a huge, round mass more than an armored crab. She can produce a dozen eggs a day, and can maintain a maximum of about 1,000 warriors under her control. New queens may part from here and begin their own hives. 
** There are tales of "Verm hive cities" where up to a dozen queens cooperate in a single place.
* Death: Queens live for about 100 years or less. Warriors live about 50 years. While warriors think individually, they're telepathically quite close to the queen, and become confused and sickly without her. Without a queen, a Verm hive's warriors die out a mere week or less after her death. However, it may be possible that lesser queens are ready to take up the mantle.
== Culture and Politics ==
Verm hives trade with one another, but the details are scant. Sometimes hives will even go to war with one another, which is a mystery to all but the most diligent of verm-studying scholars.Aliens, p.79
While many think the Verm lack culture entirely, it may be a series of "cargo cult" cultures built from the hollowed-out cities the Verm call their home. Verm may perform ceremonies or rituals based on a conquered realm, mirroring and twisting any patron deities to be their sovereign queen. There is a strange and gothic feeling to Verm pyramids, exquisite in their design, but with nothing left within, as the Verm are loathe to not consume or recycle anything left behind.fanon
== Species Interactions ==
Almost everyone hates the Verms, hence their name being analogous to "vermin". They have fought long against humans and the Kaa with little success, but their raids are always worrisome. They have yet to do battle with the Kronin (who would likely be quite ready for such a fight), and have either not encountered or deliberately avoided psionic races like the Banduch and Engai. It is unknown what would happen if a psionic entity "keyed up" on a Verm queen's transmission... 
=== Captured by Kaa ===
The Kaa are known to have captured verm hives (including their queens) and used them as shock troops by dropping them into enemy territory. Of course, this could easily backfire--a game of combat, stealth and espionage could emerge from the badlands between allied forces, the Kaa empire advance, and the crashed ships of verm warriors...
==References==
*Classic: Aliens p. 76-79
*GURPS Aliens (GURPSLand conversion)
Category:Racial Templates