Apeis

The Apeis are a species of bee-like creatures native to the planet Bombus, a planet about the size of Neptune lush and green with a thick nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, filled with various plants and wildlife orbited by 3 moons: Vespa a moon with a toxic sulfur gas atmosphere and the largest, Diptera a barren low gravity moon much like earth's moon, and Culex the smallest moon with a crystal and ice surface.

## Anatomy & Physiology

The Apeis are a moderately small species compared to humans typically 3"- 4" foot tall. They are commonly yellow and/or black on most of their body parts, with black stripes on their thorax. Hands have three fingers with a larger middle knuckle, and the abdomen of an Apeis is fluffy and soft to the touch like alpaca fur and usually black or brown in color. Their eyes are the most amazing feature about them not only are they compounded like regular insect eyes giving them multiple view points and perspectives, but they can detect movement in 1/300th of a second making their reaction time extremely fast and can see ultraviolet light, these are usually either black, dark blue, red or green in color. Unlike an earth bee colony, the Apeis are agendered and address themselves as they, or we as a collective. They aren't an particularly strong race physically, relying on their natural agility, intelligence and wits to solve problems. Each Apeis has a dream self in a spiritual plane of existence and when they die, they have to a small chance to reconnect to their dream self every hundred years or so to their deceased body. Like a spiritual awakening of sorts, these awakenings are tied to the aspects Life, Breath, Hope and Heart. This doesn't happen very often and its extremely rare to find two or more reconnect at a time. When a Apeis god tiers, they lose their wings, but they double in size (The Average Mellifera is 6-7 feet tall) and they gain the ability to use psychic powers like telekinesis and read minds.

## Society & Culture

Their culture is extremely friendly, are extremely social creatures and love to share; generally they find conflict repulsive but are not afraid to display feats of military might as each Apeis is already a moderately well-trained soldiers by the time they reach adulthood. Their society is reminiscent of american industrial revolution steam punkesk, advanced technology in the study of honey has given the ability to convert honey into energy for machines and various gizmos. They live in giant hivecities made of honeycombs and augmented with the latest Honeysteam™ technology. Apeis farming and agriculture is the biggest export and most Apeis cooking is very sweet but some dishes can even be very spicy. Their government structure is an Autocratic Monarchy and the monarch who is addressed as the Mellifera; is chosen from potential god tiers chosen every 100 years. In the extremely rare event of two or more godtiers they would play the popular and traditional game called Combi, a game played with honeycombs like Reversi and the godtier(s) that loses will become a royal knights for the new monarch for their entire reign. Common god tier aspects are Life, Breath, Hope and Heart and their religious views are tied to those aspects in a sort of shamanism or druidic type religion, with rituals and rites. Most of these rituals involve a mushroom found only natively on Bombus called Zzin, which gives hallucinogenic properties and can give the user a glimpse into the spiritual plane.

## Naming Conventions

Apeis naming conventions use Z, B, and I mostly with common combinations like BZ, IZ, ZI; Names usually end in -I but uncommonly can end in O. Pronunciation for names commonly have oos, and zzs,  Example names: Izzi, Bzoni, Cozzi, Tioo.

## Etymology & Inspiration

The name for the Apeis come from the Latin word for "Bee", spelled "Apis", Mellifera is Greek for "honey-bearing". Inspiration came from The Hive from Hollow Knight