#torix

Life is competitive for a noble Torix with many rival siblings. Only a few will inherit estates and thus become capable of (legitimately) starting a brood of their own, and those that don't still squabble among themselves for influential leadership positions. This was especially true of Charis, who had nearly twenty other noble sisters and brothers all gunning for power. The odds were stacked against her, but young Charis was ambitious and bright. Through intrigue, bullying and some other underhanded actions she has admitted to very few even years after the fact, she eventually secured herself two good husbands and a small but fertile uninhabited demense near the edge of Daktylis territory.

As she underwent preparations to establish her colony, a serious complication revealed itself: her pheromones were critically weak. All Torix have pheromone glands to aid in subtler forms of communication (usually indications of emotion or the general state of a colony), and the pheromones of breeding queens and fertile princesses are strong enough to be detected by their antennae for miles. While it is not actually mind control as many other races mistakenly believe, these pheromones do allow queens to keep colonies of even thousands of worker daughters well organized and informed. Worker Torix do not need to hold any leadership positions so long as the queen and the other ruling nobility have pheromones to communicate with them. Charis expected her pheromone glands to grow to their expected state when she reached maturity, but it became apparent that this would never be the case. Torix culture does not look highly upon queens who cannot control their brood, and with this defect Charis feared she would lose everything she worked so hard for.

She went to numerous Torix healers, and they all told her the same thing: this is not something that could be fixed. Refusing to accept her fate, she set forth from the lands of her House with her husbands and a few attendants to search the lands of other races for something that could help.  Her intention was to locate either sorcery or surgery that could repair her body, visiting grand universities and isolated experts alike. While she originally had hoped she would find what she sought before long, the journey kept going on and took her farther from home than she ever expected. She and her often got caught up in some manner of local conflict, or were waylaid by misfortune or their own mistakes, or simply ran out of money and had to find ways to support themselves as the adventure dragged on. She saw world full of cultures vastly different to her own; even foreign Torix seemed to behave oddly. They were totally alien at first, though as time went on and she began to know the other peoples of the world more personally, she began to see how people built societies that worked (more or less) without the rules and rituals she once that were absolutely necessary. While she never gave up on the core ideals that were instilled in her by her upbringing, she saw saw parts of her tradition being unnecessary or even counterproductive to what she imagined was a good society.

And so, eventually she made the decision to return home with her band, its ranks now having been swelled with some new friends she made along the way.  Years on the road with no results made her give up on restoring her body, but with the knowledge she gained abroad gave her hope that she could perhaps run her colony in a way that didn't necessitate such direct control over her brood. While it was an exciting, hopeful prospect, she was still worried. She was unsure how her House would take this unorthodox behavior, and she was haunted by the myraid ways her engineered society could possibly fall apart. Still, she pushed onwards, as she always had during her travels. She made her preparations and started her brood.

Her brood is still relatively young and small, numbering only a little over 200 workers, though her demense does contain denizens of other species and a number of transient residents like traders and specialists. Without her pheromones, her workers need to be more independent, and authority is much less centralized than in other colonies. She hopes that the cultural difference between worker and noble will eventually disappear over time, though some old habits die hard. The rest of the House view her colony with suspicion, though for now they seem to tolerate her. She rules with a gentle hand, though there is much work she does away from the public eye of her brood in ensuring the independence and stability of her lands.

Basil was born in the colony of Kamos of House Koneion, near the heart of the Torix Empire.

Basil’s upbringing is fairly typical of his caste and species. All young Torix are examined early in their youth to determine what course of life would be chosen for them. For males, this typically means either training as a bodyguard or betrothal to a valid queen, a decision based almost entirely on genetics and convenience rather than personal preference of the individuals involved. As a member of the traditionalist House Koneion, Basil would be expected to mostly assist in domestic tasks alongside his queen's other consorts. His life would be a comfortable one, though one arguably even more restrictive than the lower caste Torix.

What set Basil's destiny apart from other princes was his apparent lack of self control. Despite his carefully constructed pedigree and standard education, he was a restless youth. He was curious, emotional and sensitive. While not outright rebellious by any degree, it was clear that he chafed in the confines of his upbringing. The problems became exacerbated when he demonstrated late-blooming signs of one gifted with magic. Rather than deal with the hassle and risk he would likely burden the House with for the rest of his life, the rulers of Koneion decided to ship him away to another House, wedding him to another house in return for a political favors.

His queen-mother met and discussed with queens of other foreign colonies while he himself spent some time traveling, until he finally wound up in the small harem of Baroness Charis Phytaea of House Daktylis. Compared to the strict, fairly ascetic life he lived in Koneion, the colony of Charis was chaotic in comparison. The Baroness ruled her court with a velvet glove, and the colony in general seemed much more independent than most of the others he has visited in the past. His wife supported his education in magic and encouraged him to take an active role in assisting her govern the colony. He gained friendships with some of her other husbands, though a few instead grew to become somewhat uncivil rivals. Currently he dutifully seeks to assist the Baronesses enigmatic plans in whatever way he can while improving his own skill as a mage.