Archipelago Ants

## Brief Overview

The **Archipelago Ants** is a species of humanoid Ant-like creatures native to the Ant Archipelago located near the Carpathian Mountains in a massive but shallow sea water lake, however, the origins of the Ants remains unknown, although it is widely speculated that they were created by the Old God in around 9825 BMMS (Before Magnetite Meteor Shower) of which is every year before ??? BM/BC (the start of BM/BC is widely discussed) and post-1 BOG (Before Old God) to serve him and all the other gods in the Archipelago that was created in around 9998 BMMS. There is currently 2 main types of ants, Outside/Jae Ants and Archipelago Ants being the main Ants of the Archipelago. The current rulers of the Archipelago is the Ant Queendom.

### Biology of the Ants

#### Brief Explanation of the Ants and their Language

The Archipelago Ants are Humanoid Creatures similar to real world Ants, though however unlike real world Ants they possess the ability to "speak", although they do not have any of the prerequisites needed to speak such as a tongue and muscles specifically for such action. They are also capable of creating noises through sliding, hitting and twisting their appendages with each other in a chewing manner of which would cause noise patterns that of which can be utilized as a form of communication/language by the ants. As expected, it is nearly impossible to understand what the Ants are speaking if you are not an Ant, however with the rapid development of Ant technology and Society in the hands of the carpenter ants, scripts have been developed by Ants that can allow other species to understand the Ant language.

#### The Ant Diet

The Ant Diet is simple, it mainly consists of leaves, wood (for carpenters), Dead Ants' Flesh, Giant Snail Meat, and more, though Leaf is the main source of food for the Ants. Raw leaves can provide enough nutrients to keep a small sized colony alive, overtime however, fungus processed leaves will need to be used due to the main fungus utilized, The Leech Fungus (Tuythpylhian Dastrhfuclius) as expected drains the nutrients from the Leaf, including nutrients that can not be acquired via raw leaves through Ants of which allows easier storing of food and harvesting of stronger nutrients as well as proteins required for survival and the rapid expansion of an Ant colony; though at a certain point, the Ants will have to rely on the hunting of Giant Snails of which has delayed the progress of Ant civilization due to other civilizations already utilizing farming, Copper, Bronze, as well as Iron tools, but farming has already begun for the ant civilization in certain locations especially in the surroundings of the Dnieper River.

#### Different Species

There are several species of ants that live in the Ant Archipelago as well as in the Ant Queendom, the main ones in the Queendom being:

Fire Ants - The Fire Ants are one of if not the largest ant species in terms of population, around 28% of the Ant Queendom's populus is made up of Fire Ants with the First Queen herself being a Fire Ant. Fire Ants are quite agile, relatively strong, as well as being capable of faster adaptation to a certain environment compared to regular Ants. Their appendages contain an acidic liquid that is injected into food like Giant Snail Meat and Fungus processed leaves to allow for greater efficiency while chewing, though if injected into a different creature and/or object of which is not Giant Snails or Fungus processed leaves the liquid will cause burns as well as extreme pain to the victim for around 30 minutes to 1 and a half hours. Scaling also will occur in the injected area depending on the amount of which has been injected. Following the previous events, the area will swell heavily as well as suffer the risk of an infection. High amounts of the liquid can be severely lethal, although infections and heavy bleeding are what cause most of the deaths.

Carpenter Ants - The Carpenter Ants although among the lower percentages of populus compared to Fire Ants and Weaver Ants as it makes up a mere 17% of the population, are one of the most important Ants for the survival and growth of the Ant Civilization. They do not possess any sort of unique biological developments unlike Weaver and Bullet ants allowing for an advantage in combat, though they do possess the intellectual as well as physical capabilities to be able to handle Wood and Timber easier allowing them to be able to construct special Ant Colonies of which are further structurally capable, easier to maintain and construct, and also allowing the construction of buildings in the surface. This would be the main cause for the recent rapid expansion of the Ant Civilization as well as the expansion towards most of Western Ukraine and Romania. They are also able to make better weaponry and tools, as they are able to bend and shape smaller pieces of wood more easily. Not only that, they also possess the ability to construct Siege Engines such as for instance Rammers and Siege Towers as well as Ships with great speed especially being used during the War of Junta's Claim to orchestrate a naval invasion into Mage Territory. They are also able to inject water through their appendages into wood to soften it during eating allowing it to be easily digested. No fungus have been discovered yet to improve it even further. To expand on it, the Ability is not used to soften up Wood for construction as their appendages would damage the Wood.

Bullet Ants - The Bullet Ants have a considerably smaller population than the other main 3 ant species, making up only around 10% of the population. This is mainly due to their chaotic, brutal and rogue nature, bullet ant nests are known to constantly raid other nests in the queendom and kingdom and even other nations like Nilgarf, Fantasia and Spore. Such was the case recently during the Bullet Ant Raids into Spore Territory. Bullet Ants are naturally and physically extremely good fighters, being around 3 times stronger than a Human. They can also inject poison into their enemies like the Fire Ants, though it is far more lethal as it is naturally made to kill. It can inflict unbearable pain, swelling, rupturing of blood vessels, substantial decrease in blood pressure and an almost immediate bacterial infection due to bacteria being attracted towards the poison chemical structure as well as death. This is not counting the unbelievable sharpness of their appendages that can easily pierce through bones and it's surface of which is covered with small spikes that can cause damaging cuts to the flesh of the Bullet Ant's enemy. Other than that, they are about one and a half times more agile than Fire Ants as well as being much more adapted and trained to utilizing weaponry like bows, swords, war scythes and more.

Weaver Ants - The Weaver Ants have the largest population of all the 4 main Ant species, making up 36% of the Ant population. Being one of the most interesting Ant species, they do not possess the ability to inject water or poison into anything unlike the other 3 main subspecies nor do they have great agility or strength. Now you might be thinking this will make them the least interesting, though they do possess a marginally deadly ability. Weaver Ants are capable of concentrating a deadly acid in their mouths and to then propel it with immense power thus transforming the acid into pretty much a bullet of which can do considerable damage to enemies of the Weaver Ant. Not only that, they also possess the ability to create nests and colonies utilizing leaves, vines, tree branches, and more in the deep forests in the North of the Ant Queendom's mainland. They are able to do so due to their incredibly low weight compared to the other main sub-species and their uniquely structured appendages that of which facilitate the construction of their nests and colonies, though that does not mean they do not create nests and colonies underground or in the surface.

### History of the Ants (~????/9800-9500 - 1 BMMS)

As said before the origins of the Archipelago Ants remain widely unknown, though there are several hypotheses on the origin of the Ants. The most famous and widely accepted one being made by Hyrtn'arh of Dstrén'nnarzh in 872 BMMS, where it is said that the Archipelago Ants were created by the Old God though it is already confirmed that Ants were created by the Old God, at around 9825 BMMS to serve him and the other Gods in the Ant Archipelago which was recently made to house the Gods. Moreover, it is a fact even if when the Ants were made remains to be unknown that the creation of the Ants shaped the future of civilization and Europe. Ants rapidly evolved in terms of technology and society, quickly becoming one of the first civilizations on Terra.

#### The Dawn of Ant Society (~????/9800-9500 - ~5300 BMMS)

Even if the date of the creation of the ants remains unknown it is known that the ants developed faster than any other civilizations of it's time, the ants mainly started as a mixture of nomad-sedentary hunter gatherer tribes in the African continent where the Ant Archipelago was located during BMMS, their source of food were plants, something u could find nearly everywhere on Terra before the Great Magnetite Meteor Shower that caused the shift in temperature and climate that created modern deserts, although natural occurences like floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and seaons like the winter and fall would cause ants to move out of their current colony's location to find better places, however as the ant population grew and new technologies like ropes made out of natural fibres like hemp that could hold stones into sticks to create axes and spears appeared to the ants, made ants become more and more sedentary to the point where ants begun to shift from underground settlements to surface settlements, the appearence of pottery and fire to the ants in around 8700 BMMS also contributed to the rapidly growing ant society, as they now were able to construct ovens to cook animal flesh (more specifically giant snail flesh) and pots to carry water and store resources like rocks, wood and fish made the ants even more sedentary and further developed their social structure, but none of these compare to the impact that the introduction of copper smelting in around 7900 BMMS had to the ant society and civilization, copper was strong, resistant and easy to transform into nearly anything that the ants could imagine from small pieces of "luxury" to swords, axes and totems, the introduction of copper smelting caused a massive shift in ant society and futher developed their governmental and social structures, it also allowed the introduction of irigation and proto-writing systems to ant societies, although the introduction of copper did not create grand ant civilizations in Africa, the ants would need to wait for the introduction of large scale trading between civilizations in around 5300 BMMS to be able to advance further.

#### The Introduction of Large Scale Trading and Bronze (~5300 BMMS)

The Introduction of Large Scale Trading between civilizations and societies in around 5300 BMMS in the fertile crescent would take an while to reach Ant Society, reaching Ants in around 5100 BMMS, however it's introduction would still cause an impact to ant society, the introduction of large scale trading would cause tribes to unite into small civilization-like groups that traded with themselves or other surrounding and distant civilizations, however the trading with distant civilizations in areas like egypt and the fertile crescent was the most important and significant one, it introduced resources like bread, papyrus, and bronze that were highly utilized by the ants, however no other resource was most utilized than bronze. Made out of 9 parts Copper and 1 part Tin, Bronze was a lot more complicated to make than copper, however the difficulty to make bronze paid off well, it was way stronger, resistant and effective than copper, copper was quickly replaced with bronze tools, specially due to it being an replaceble/recyclable resource unlike stone or wood, if an copper tool broke into pieces, it's pieces could be re-smelted and used to produce a new copper tool, that mean't a copper tool could be used to produce a bronze tool by smelting it with tin ore. The Introduction of Bronze Tools to Ant Civilization had an similar impact to the impact that the introduction of bronze tools had to IRL's Civilizations, it's introduction caused the rise and development of the first empires in Ant History like the Yhyrun´sk and Bullet Ant Empires, it also allowed a faster development of governmental and social structures and writing.