Multari

## Appearance

Multari are humanoid like most other species in appearance. Their skin is slightly rubbery compared to a human's skin and surprisingly pliable. Multari have many ball-socket type joints where humans would have more typical hinge joints such as the knees; allowing them incredible flexibility and the ability to contort their bodies in a way that would break most other species' bones. Aside from these features, Multari develop physical characteristics of their 'father' race such as a human-Multari pairing resulting most commonly, though not always, having hair on the top of their head and breasts like a human female would. Or in the case of a Scrin-Multari pairing the individual may look far more muscular and 'ape-ish' in appearance.

## Culture

The Multari are a hive-mind race made up of dozens of hives spread throughout the cosmos. Many species view them with mistrust due to this since when one Multari knows anything their entire hive knows the same information: making them quite capable spies. In most governments, it has led to heavy regulation on reproductive freedoms for Multari in order to ensure that every member of their hive can be tracked at all times. Most notably, the United Systems Confederacy requires that any Multari offspring of the same hive wear identifying marks, a hefty topic with no clear solution in political matters. Any Multari in Scrin controlled space are either enslaved, rebels or are executed on the spot as 'abominations' in the words of most Scrin Chieftains.

In their own society, the Multari have a caste system made from individual hives that function together. Being born from a specific hive ensures that the new Multari Queen will almost certainly be given a predestined role in Multari society. Some hives are used solely for the purposes of labor, others for soldiers and others for research and development. There are specific hives that maintain power over others politically and often employ the use of Multari soldiers in order to maintain that power regularly. This willingness to engage in warfare so readily has marked them as barbaric savages to other races including the Scrin.

Waste is unacceptable in Multari culture. Everything has a purpose and even biological wastes from Multari are used in farming in addition to the corpses of their drones. Hive Queens are spared none of this inevitable fate either: decomposing alongside their drones in the event that they perish. Massive recycling centers dominate huge swathes of their extremely orderly and planned worlds where everything from starships to pets are processed and made into useable materials.

Genealogy is everything in Multari society and heritage plays a big factor in what a Multari Queen is allowed to do as well as what role she and her hive play in society. However, Multari hetero-species pairings are somewhat rare in modern Multari society and even, to a degree, frowned upon. Multari Queens are born when a Hive Queen mates either with a male drone of her species or a male of any other species, though female pairings are possible with sufficient technology. For any pairing to be successful all that is required is the donation of genetic samples; meaning that intercourse is entirely unnecessary. How and why a species developed this way is a matter of speculation for scientists everywhere though the most commonly accepted theory is that the Multari developed as a species to the point that their technology and themselves became interchangeable and inevitably their biomechanical technology became a part of their species.

Heritage is exceptionally important to most Multari. To disobey your caste's alignment (workers, soldiers, drones, etc.) is a fate punishable by not death but the eradication of the entire hive associated with a queen. Individual hives are assigned their roles immediately after the birth of their queen and most commonly the new queen inherits the same caste as her parent. Upward mobility is not expected in Multari society though downward mobility is not expected either (aside from the hive potentially being eradicated). The castes from highest ranking to lowest ranking are the Elector Council, the Soldiers, the Laborers which share their caste ranking with the Far-Seers (researchers) and finally the Drone caste.

The Elector Council caste live on a singular world together and largely manage the lower castes and settle internal disputes between lower castes and themselves. Their strength lies primarily in their queens who do not have many hive offspring. Those offspring that they do have are typically tasked with managing their day to day affairs rather than producing resources or manufacturing. Among their hive offspring, they will typically have a number of Praetorians; elite hive guards that are among the best warriors in the galaxy. This caste of hives does not typically seek out mates as those that have been in power have been in power for centuries. When an Elector Council member is no longer capable of serving her role, she instead seeks out a mate that would be deemed acceptable based on her judgement who she will have multiple daughters with. Those daughters will fight to the death over the course of years using treachery, economics and spycraft rather than outright violence. The last surviving daughter takes her place.

The Soldier caste is a number of hives dedicated to the production of soldiers to fight for the Multinari. Their drones are larger, more aggressive and more capable of acting somewhat as individuals than most other hive offspring. 'Individuals' is a loose term applied to soldiers as they appear to act entirely on instinct when their queen is killed or otherwise unable to maintain control over her hive. This caste most commonly seeks out Scrin, Kephrians and Dravin as mates though less commonly they will seek out Humans, Anubians and An'mauti.

The Labor caste makes up a large bulk of Multari population and is responsible for the production of their resources and the manufacturing of those resources as well as the construction of new Multari buildings. This caste sometimes has the unique honor of constructing a new home for newly born hive queens from the Soldier caste or from the Far-Seer caste. Most hive queens in this caste cohabitate the same dwellings and spend the majority of their lives together from birth to death. There are no days off in this caste either and queens of this caste work together to fill gaps in the day-night cycle so that one hive can rest while the other continues working right where they left off. Entertainment is sorely lacking and declining mental health among hive queens of this caste are notable and have been occurring for longer than the caste can remember. Very few queens are still in a state of mind to carry a conversation in this caste and most of their mental wellbeing comes from interacting with other hive queens that are awake during their production cycle. Rarely, a hive will be given a day of lax duties where the hive queen takes a break from producing new hive members and instead is sent away to spend time among other species to relax; most often in USC controlled space. This caste commonly seeks humans, Anubians, Lohneans and Kephrians to mate with.

As a caste, the Far-Seers are the least known about. What makes them different from other castes seems to be the division of labor and duties assigned to them rather than any particular physical or mental capabilities. Most of the Far-Seer caste have powerful psions as their hive queens. They are rarely seen out of Multari controlled space and are even rarely seen in their controlled space. While they share the ranking of the Labor caste, they report directly to the Elector Council rather than reporting to the Soldier caste. No one is quite sure of their mating habits though their mates tend to disappear shortly after without a trace. It is theorized that this caste keeps its mates securely contained for further study and many raids by the USC on Multari controlled worlds have backed this claim when several high-profile individuals went missing in the past.

The Drone caste makes up the most numerous caste of Multari. Their queens share their habitats not only with other Drone caste queens but also most often with their drones themselves. While a queen will not take part in the labor of her hive, she is almost constantly producing more drones to fill the gaps for this hive. Her drones perform dumb labor deemed either too hazardous or too monotonous for other hive castes. Though it is rare and has only happened a handful of times in Multari history, there have been hive queens demoted to this role before. This caste mates with whatever species it happens to have nearby, often through contractual agreements in order to meet their quota for production set by the hive castes above them.

Most Hive Queens are pushed to find a mate as quickly as possible in order to begin reproducing and bolster her hive's numbers. Hive Queens that are unable to find a mate are often scorned by others and given derogatory names such as 'Mateless' once they reach a certain age. Multari Queens are allowed romantic attraction as well as physical attraction though most mating is predetermined by the parent Hive Queen in advance. A Hive Queen that is incapable of having children on the contrary, while regarded as an anomaly and strange, are often hand-picked by the Elector Council to become diplomats, traders and similar peer-to-peer professions for other races. Doing one of these jobs is both a great honor and a foul curse to never be able to contribute to the continuation of the species.

### Mating

Selection of a mate is an extremely important concept in Multari society. Heavy emphasis is often placed on the new hive queen by her parent to select a mate that will help her accomplish whatever task her hive caste is dedicated to. For example, a member of the Drone caste has no need to worry about any particular strengths or weaknesses of any mate since their requirement as a caste is based on numbers. A hive queen of the Soldier caste by comparison is often pushed to find a stronger species to pair within order to produce stronger soldiers, better pilots or so on. Sometimes, a mated pair is done with romantic feelings involved and some queens do become attached to their mated partner. Most commonly, however, the process is closer to a transaction than emotion.

Multari as a species only need to mate once every decade in order to maintain their supply of genetic material to continue to produce offspring. Without this supply, the hive queen can continue to produce drones though eventually she will need more material in order to produce more specialized workers for her hive. Few Multari queens can even reproduce a sample of genetic material given to them and continue to produce it throughout their lifetime though this represents less than one percent of their hive queens.

Intercourse is entirely unnecessary for a hive queen to acquire genetic material though it is not unheard of. Instead, most Multari extract genetic materials from their chosen partners with the use of machines that they then use to synthesize it into a more robust compound. For example, if their selected partner happened to be colorblind then those genes would be removed and replaced with a genetic structure from the hive queen to complete the sequence. Because of this, hive queens tend to look for partners that are 'genetically perfect' or as close to it as they can obtain since it means less overall work for them to synthesize the material.

*"We? There is no 'we' here. 'We' are not a collective. 'We' are one. I am one. When you speak to my drones, you are speaking to me directly. When I speak to you with the voice of my drone, you are still talking to me directly. Your society seems to have forgotten that even a hive mind is but one individual with many bodies." - Labor Caste Telessa speaking to USC Ambassador Kien 2234*

## Religion

The common Multari religion is polytheistic. Yenif, their goddess of life and creation, stole the gift of fire from the heavens and brought it to the Multari on their homeworld along with the gift of order and peace. Enraged, her brother Pilf punished Yenif by forcing her head-first into the fires that she had gifted to the Multari. Yenif since then has been commonly referred to as 'the Maimed One'. Yenif has since retaliated against Pilf who brought the Multari the concepts of war, strife and chaos by dipping him into the lake of acid in the underworld until he perished. For her actions Uli, her mother, banished Yenif from the Divine Beyond into the mortal realm where she resides as the unity a hive queen exerts on her offspring and the love and kindness that they can feel towards one another.

Hive queens of any caste incapable of reproduction are considered to have been chosen by heaven to do the work and bidding of the gods themselves; unburdened by the necessity of caring for and providing for their own hive.

## Language

As a Multari you know three languages of your choosing. Additionally, you know how to use your Multari pheromones to communicate with other Multari. No other race is capable of this.