#archin

[pt ;; archeren, hoploen, saguren, garroten terminology. end pt.]

ARCHIN ;; an in-nature term for when ones gender (or identity) is archeren-in-nature.

HOPLIN ;; an in-nature term for when ones gender (or identity) is hoploen-in-nature.

SAGUIN ;; an in-nature term for when ones gender (or identity) is saguren-in-nature.

GARTIN ;; an in-nature term for when ones gender (or identity) is garroten-in-nature.

archerine / archerinity ;; an ARCHIN/archeren gender quality.

hopleutral / hopleutrality ;; a HOPLIN/hoploen gender quality.

sagurenous / sagurenousity ;; a SAGUIN/saguren gender quality.

garrotenine / garroteninity ;; a GARTIN/garroten gender quality.

important links ;; archeren, hoploen, saguren, garroten (link).

notes ;; neoumbrellas originally coined by @liomogai.

I haven't entirely thought about this notion before..

'Adoption'-esque events are unlikely because a colony of archin is entirely self-sustaining (it may form wider allyships but does not require external support to continue existing)

The closest thing would be a single unit of archin surviving the destruction of the rest of their colony + the queen. An archin colony can rebuild itself from virtually nothing so long as they have their queen (though any units who die in the meantime will not be reformed, this is a unique 'person' that will never truly exist again), but without their 'womb' they will slowly die. In most cases where units are severed from their queen, the unit will be absorbed into an allied colony, or possibly killed by a hostile one.

If an archin colony that has reached the mainland ends up in this situation, finding another colony to merge into its unlikely, so that's a circumstance where an adoption-esque event could occur. If they managed to establish mutual communication with a sophont individual, they could become attached and treat them as a surrogate for a colony.

The unit would look for a sense of purpose in working towards a shared goal of themselves and their individual colony surrogate, in this case likely placing their ally's priorities above their own (archin units have personalities and can be highly opinionated, but will usually defer to group consensus in their colony- if their 'colony' is them and one individual person, they would still conceptualize that person as a group majority- they are not psychologically equipped to truly understand being simultaneously individual and sapient). They would seem very needy, wanting to remain in near constant communication and contact. Their ally would be basically covered in ants.

This dynamic would be 'unhealthy' by the standards of both species. I'd compare it to a parrot forming a mate bond with its human owner, it's using a human as a surrogate for social needs that they cannot truly provide, and at best merely approximate.

Units are an emergent property of a shifting group of 50+ individual archin who are constantly being replenished by new births, so this partnership would not last long, and within a year or two all members of the unit will have died. They would also slowly grow less communicative as their numbers drop (the lower number of individuals would simplify the computational power of their collective 'brain') until it's just a dwindling handful non-sapient ants, still bonded to their non-ant ally by scent.

A much likelier and less sad variant would be a colony (or an individual unit still attached to a colony) bonding with an individual person as an ally. I HAVE thought of this sort of thing before and it definitely happens.

This isn't like an adoption, more just an allyship and friendship. The bond would likely form as one mutually beneficial towards shared goals. The unit/colony involved would see this as a partnership between equals, and would not automatically defer to their ally (and may be very argumentative), but would be quite 'fair' in distribution of resources, and predisposed towards compromise and teamwork, so long as they remain convinced you share mutual goals and good intentions.

this is VERY subject to change bc "what if inch long ants had Gun's" is a difficult task to design but heres the general idea

(this gun is effectively the sniper rifle of archin firearms, most are smaller and stouter with a wider spread)

Most guns are designed to spray shot in the direction of much larger animals- their practical purpose is primarily to kill or scare off dangerous wild animals trespassing in a colony's home territory, or to kill the reinbird mounts of enemy archin colonies.

They are mounted semi-permanently in strategic locations, usually on mounds built along a colony's boundaries. They swivel on a ball and socket joint. It can be aimed at a fixed height by a team on the ground, or actively pointed in any direction by use of a sniper nest positioned behind the gun (a mound perforated with a grid of holes, with each ant stationed in its own hole and passing the gun's steering handle to her neighbor). The chamber holds multiple rounds (depending on the gun's size) but reloading is a slow and strenuous process.

Archin firearms are built for a much closer range than would be practical for users who can see great distances and are more than an inch long, which has disincentivized their wider adoption by other sophonts on the mainland. However, the internal mechanism of archin firearms is significantly more efficient than those of the mainland flint muskets (being roughly comparable to a contemporary shotgun).

vertebrate megafauna of the red rock archipelago

A selection of the megafaunal birds and rodents endemic to the Red Rock archipelago, homeland of the sole remaining archin people.

The Red Rock archipelago is a tropical volcanic island chain, isolated from the supercontinent by great distance, and even further isolated due to rising sea levels over the past couple thousand years.

Most vertebrate niches are filled by birds and rodents, with a few unique families developing here seen nowhere else. Two of these translate to “groundbirds” and “hoofrats”, the former being flightless birds with vestigial/absent wings, the latter being large rodents who have developed hooves.

Archin are now the sapient ant colonies they always should have been. They are about an inch long, with strong jaws capable of deft tool manipulation, and communicate/form a consciousness through a combination of chemical senses and touch based language.

Rather than an individual animal, archin consciousness and personhood exists in the collective.