[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CatDIhj.png[/img] Artifex, and the legend of the first bug [/center] At first there was an ant. Just one. None could say where it had come from, but ants do have a tendency to get anywhere and everywhere if you let them. And so because no one had decided to ant proof existence yet here it was. This particular ant found itself in a sea of green in the shade of the greatest tree in existence. Now ants are simple things, and are not known for their great wisdom or intelligence, but this ant did know two things. First, that it was utterly alone and second, that this should not be the case. And so it wasn't. The lifeblood bubbled, simmered and then boiled across the realm of nature, forming first into more ants and then into all other insects in the blink of an eye. Bees, bettles, butterflies and more burst into existence and then tumbled to the ground as the roiling sea of lifeblood washed out from the ant and over the land that the Tree of Genesis had blessed. Insect kind shared a singular brief beautiful glorious moment of unity as they marveled at their suden miraculous genesis before they immediately turned on one-another and began competing for resources in a deadly war for dominance and survival. Only a few retained a fraction of the first unity. Greatest among them were the ants, who together built their home at the base of the greatest tree, digging tunnels around its roots where they tended to gardens of mushrooms, raised their young and sent out foraging parties. Out in the wilds they found the termites who gnawed at the flesh of lesser trees. The ants were abhorred by this sacreligious destruction of the genesis tree’s lesser kin and so the first war began. As below, so to did this story play out above as bee found the wasps and in so doing began the war of a thousand stings. Soon these conflicts spilled over into one-another and the land and skies around the Tree of Genesis were filled with death as millions of slaughtered each other in battle after battle, much to the first ant’s dismay. All it had wanted was to not be alone. It had not wanted this, this death, this destruction, this misery and torment such as bugs could know such things. Aging and decrepit it raced to the center of a battle where the four sides were all locked in eternal struggle beneath the great tree and cried out for peace. Had they not all once been one, it cried, had they not all once had unity. Where they are not the last vestiges of civilised bugs. Could they not all work together to build their homes and shelters instead of tearing each other apart! Miraculously, they did. For just long enough to tare the first ant to bits instead. Truly, it seemed , nothing would bring the bugs together once more and yet, from that death, from the death of the first ant, nay, the first bug, something bloomed in defiance of all that had been wrought. They met in secret for the first time on that very day. The first council of bugs made of those who had seen, or heard, of the first ant’s death and saw not the death of a fool, but the martyrdom of a hero! Ants wasps, bees and termites. Workers, soldiers, princes and princesses. All came in defiance of their kind to build something in the first ant’s name. But what they asked, could they do together to honor their memory. They could build a home in secret where all could live in harmony! And yet all new that they would never be able to hide forever. They could fight in the name of all bug kind. And yet then they would only be another side in the war. Small, hated, and soon crushed. What then could be done? All they could do was remember, and, perhaps, spread the word. Spread the first ant’s vision so that others may know of it and join the bugs of unity. Soon carvings began to appear across the realm, then small statues of splinter and grass. Then, as their numbers grew they too grew bolder, carving greater works until their number grew so great and their members so proud that they swarmed together one day on the site of the first bugs death, forging a monument that towered over all. A titan of stone, an embellished image of the martyr with the face of an ant, great horns like the jaws of a termite, the eyes of a wasp and the wings of a bee. Look, the bugs of unity cried, look upon the statue of a hero and witness what their vision can achieve! Come to us, they cried as every one of their kind gathered around the statue. Come they did by the thousands and yet even as their ranks swelled the angry and hateful bugs drew closer, come to tare down the first bug once more. They died there, fighting side by side. Ant beside termite, bee beside wasp. They died in droves, sure that they were right, sure that the first bug fought with them and that sure they would survive, sure that this time it would be different, and yet die they did, til the final bug drew its last breath, the name of its hero on its manables as it fell. And when that last bug fell the armies that had slain them, the armies of ant, wasp, bee and termite, continued to fight one-another, trampling the corpses of the bugs of unity as their endless war raged on over the stone body of the one who had tried to unite tuem. And then the statue opened its eyes. With eyes full of contempt it gazed down upon the murderous bugs and said, [color=GreenYellow]”If division is all you desire, then division is all you shall have”[/color] With a wave of one of its colossal hand ants ceased being simply ants. They become fire ants, leaf cutter ants, black ants, brown ants and so many other kinds of ants. So to where the termites, wasps and bees sundered, becoming a thousand species of insect where but a moment ago they had been four. The bugs recoiled as friends suddenly became foreign creatures worthy of hat. Then with a wave of his other hand the giant bug sent the insects to the for winds, scattering them across the world so that their wars many never ravage the Tree of Genisis’s lands to such a scale ever again. The first bug, joined now in perfect unity with a billion faithful souls, looked out upon what remained of the battlefields of and ruins of now abandoned super hives. It sharply raised one of its massive forearms skywards in a fist pump, causing stone cubes to rise from the earth, and then thrust its final unused arm forwards, shattering stone and revealing a field of statues commemorating the fallen who had given their lives in the name of peace and unity. Finally, it was done. The great bug rested its arms by its side and looked up at the Tree of Genesis that had towered above all this time. Now they, like it, were a god. [color=GreenYellow]”We… I am Artifex,”[/color] the construct told the tree, before giving the colossus of nature a polite bow, [color=GreenYellow]”You have borne witness to my fist folly, but know that this time, this time things will be different.”[/color] [hider=summary] First there was an ant who did not wish to be alone and so it wasn't. Every species of insect spawns out of the lifeblood in the area around the tree of genesis. The bugs share brief hive mind style unity before falling into disarray and survival of the fittest. The ants, bees, wasps and termites maintain a connection, specifically to their own species, which only means that their conflict results in a massive endless war four way war. The first and implores them to consider peace and is killed for it’s efforts. A clut gorws up around the first ant in secret, commemorating them as the first bug and martyr to all insect kind. The cultists begin to scatter images of the first ant’s likeness across the realm to spread the word and gather more faithful. Then they grow bold and arrogant, building a mighty statue that towers above all bug kind on the site of the first bug’s death. There they make a glorious stand against the unbelievers, but are torn to pieces by the superior numbers of the ununified bugs. The statue then awakens, the souls of the dead and the soul of the first bug having become one within it. It splits the ants, bees, wasps and termites into all the subspecies found on earth and then tosses them all across the world. There are now ants, wasps, bees and termites absolutely everywhere where they can survive, generally with adaptations suitable to their location. The living statue of the first bug then carves millions of smaller states in the image of the bugs that died to give to life. Finally the statuie introduces itself to the Tree of genesis under whose canopy all this had taken place, and in so doing so names himself Artifex and promises that the next time things will be different. [/hider] [hider=mp summary] 0mp. Empowered. Make an ecosystem consisting entirely of insects. Around the tree of Gensisis. 0m landscaping: make an absolute ton of statues of ants, termites, bees and wasps around the tree of genesis to commemorate the fallen. 0mp empowered by insects x alot. Make/add many specialized species of ant, termite, bee and wasps to ecosystems all across the planet. New echo systems will also get their own social insects delivered via wind. Exceptions include places that explicitly reject them, are stated to not contain them or the environment would be considered inhospitable to them. [/hider]