Locust

Locust is a race of creatures that live underground in stronghold and tunnels. They are a race of reptilian humanoids and their capital is known as 'The Hollow', a place deep underground and unknown by anyone but the Locust. They are an aggressive species that rarely come above ground, but when they do, they kill everyone in their path.

The Locust exists out of a lot of sub-races, ranging from tiny little creatures known as Tickers to big spider-like creature known as Corpsers. Their most common sub-race is the drone, which are nearly the only creatures seen by outsiders.

The existence of The Locust was nearly unknown by all creatures on Kierra. Only the Dwarves that dare to mine close enough to their strongholds, but now that they emerged to the surface, the entire realm knows of them and their danger.

## Origin

To the creatures of Kierra, the origin of the Locust is a mystery. It is believed that they have lived underground in their tunnels and strongholds since the beginning of time, some think they are mutated humans that were lost underground. What their exact origin is is unknown, but they are real, and they are here.

## Language

The Locust speak a language that is spoken by only them, a language known as Locust.

## Sub-races

### Drone

Drones are the most common species of Locust that can be found. They are completely loyal to their queen and willing to toss their lives away to kill a single enemy. They are born and bred for combat, fearless even when outnumbered.

A Drone actually looks very similar to a human. They have the same body posture as humans, two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. Just the features like the hands, face and skin colour are different. Locust drones have claws as hands, big enough the crush a human head with it, and their faces are more... monster like. They possess no hair at all and their skin is grey-ish. A locust Drone is on average 6'8" ft.

Their skin is thicker than human skin, making them tougher to fight, but they have a low-tolerance for bright lights, it will blind them. Locust Drones are known to carry big swords and and use brute force to fight their enemies.

### Kantus

Kantus are taller and leaner than drones and are Locust priests. They heal their wounded and would increase morale by chanting their religious chants. A Kantus in battle would keep screaming their chants to keep morale high or to heal injured soldiers.

A Locust Kantus looks exactly the same as a Locust Drone, only more slender and taller. An average Locust Kantus is 7 ft. tall.

A Kantus normally uses one or two hand axes as their primary weapons, but rarely use it unless needed to. They don't charge into battle like Drones do, instead they try to remain behind their lines to give morale support.

### Berserker

Besrerkers are female Locust Drones. They are blind but powerful. They rely on smell and sound to navigate and locate enemies. They posses an incredible amount of strength, have near indestructible bodies and have an extremely aggressive behavior to anyone, even other Berserkers.

A Berserker is quite large, having an average height of 10 ft. and being nearly all muscle. Their skin is thick enough to block small arms such as swords and crossbow bolts, but a cannonball would be able to harm a Berserker, not penetrate them, but hurt them. Their only known weakness is fire. Fire weakens their skin, making it vulnerable to small arms fire, but melee combat against these creature is during this not recommended since they tend the swing their arms around in a panic as they try to undo them of the fire.

A Berserker fights by rushing into the enemy and using her arms to kill and rip apart her enemies. They fight in an aggressive and brute way, and anyone who is near her would be in severe danger.

### Corpser

A Corpser is a huge spider-like creature that is mainly used by Locust to dig their tunnels, but they also help in combat. Corspers tend to be strategic creatures, wanting to ambush their targets by digging around them, popping up behind or underneath them.

A Corpser is probably one of the largest Locust creatures. They have an average height of 36 ft. and their head is normally covered by their claws. Their belly is made of soft skin, easily penetrable once you managed to reach it.

A Corpser normally fights by ambush, and kills by using either his weight or claws. They are slower compared to most Locust, making them easier to dodge, but their ambushes makes it harder to determine from where they attack.

### Ticker

A ticker is a small, cockroach-like creature. They are often used as pets by Locust drones, but are also used in combat, where lots of tickers are used to swarm their enemy.

A ticker is a small creature of roughly 2 ft. high. They have sharp nails on their claws and their teeth are extremely hard, hard enough to bite through metal even. Their small size makes them perfect to fit into small holes and their long legs would make them rather fast. They are silent, except for one thing: They make a constant ticking noise, hence the name.

A ticker fights by swarming his enemy with as much as possible. They use the nails on their claws to rip the skin of their victim and use their teeth to rip out his organs.

### Reaver

A Reaver is a creature tamed by the Locust as their steeds. As a Human or Elf would have a horse, a locust has a Reaver. A Reaver is known to be large. They are roughly 20 times the size of a Drone, so it happens often that multiple drones share a Reaver and ride it together.

The Reaver's body structure and resulting function is complex, especially in the matters of how it is able to fly. The Reaver's raptor-like head is small in comparison to its large body, which is tough with several tentacles in the back which probably act as the Reaver's flying limbs. There are also two small, hook-shaped limbs on the Reaver's "belly" that appear to be vestigial, though they may help the Reaver cling onto objects for easier landing. The tentacles are powerful, and Reavers can attack with them as well. How the Reavers fly is unknown.

### The Queen

The Locust Queen is a creature that is not entirely Locust. The Locust queen is human, or at least, that is what she appears to be. Her body structure and posture would be of a beautiful Human female, but Locust blood runs though her vanes.

The Locust Queen, currently known as Myrrah, is an highly intelligent human, but lacks the physical strength to fight herself.

The Locust Queen always has the strong urge to protect the Locust. That's why, when a settlement is build above one of their strongholds, the Locust Queen orders the Locust to destroy it. This probably being their only time they go above ground.

## Mating

The mating of Locust is done in quite the brutal way. For the Drones, they have to rape a Berserker and impregnate her with it. Most of the time, the males do not survive it, or most of it don't at least. Due to the Berserker's strength, several drones are needed to mate with a single Berserker, and the Berserker would always fight back due to her aggressive personality.

After the bird, the Locust children are brought to a nursery where Locust Kantus will take care of them till they have grown up enough to be able to fight and live on their own. This way, a Kantus, Drone or Berserker can be born.

The other species, the Corspers, Tickers and Reavers are created through breeding. Locust drones would make a male and a female breed with one another to create children, who they will then feed and let grow up.

The Queen will only mate once in her life, at the end of it. A group of elite Drones would fight to death till only one survives, proven himself strong enough to mate with the Queen. The Queen would after the pregnancy die, and the baby would take her place.

## Religion

The Locust Horde's religion revolved around the worship of worms. The Riftworms and Rockworms were viewed as highly significant creatures in the Locust's religious texts. The Trinity of Worms was the symbol and title of the Locust's religion, symbolizing and revering the Riftworms as Gods. The Kantus monks were the religious priests of the Locust, and were a caste level. The scrolls of the Kantus contained verses and mantras explaining how to communicate with rockworms, with the Rulers of Nexus Plates tablet being the Locust's main religious tome, which tells the history of the Hollows, explaining how the Riftworms burrowed underground and created the vast underground network, and left behind their waste which fertilized the soil of the surface of Sera. The leader of the Locust religious caste was High Priest Skorge.

## Notable Locust

There are few notable Locust, but those that are are considered extremely dangerous. Each of them has his or her own personal mount, or something that will aid them in a fight.

* Queen Myrrah
* General RAAM
* General Karn
* High Priest Skorge