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Drifting Pollen
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VitaVitaAR
Artifex and the journey to Kylsar
The oceans teemed with life around Artifex as the god stomped across the sea floor. After it had cast its former kin to the winds it had seen a perfect place to begin again. Islands full of a vast number of squalid swamps. It was the perfect place for insect kind to swarm and multiply. But first it had to push through the seemingly endless salty sea. It was antithesis to the god of insects, a toxic realm where one might grow, but surely, the god thought, it was not a place anything like him could live.
Yet no sooner had Artifex than had thought that he slowed to a halt on the seafloor and placed a hand to their chin contemplatively. For an age he stood and thought, simply part of the stone floor, until he drew the curiosity of a sea serpent. The great wyrm of the sea dove down towards the foolish intruder into it’s territory, and in an instant snatched the god from the ground, for though the god was large the serpent was truly enormous, a titan of its kind. Artifex was utterly shocked by this event. Him. a god. Assailed. Though the jaws of the beast could not hope to crush his divine chitinous exterior and its flailing him against great stones could not smash him the snake refused to let go. When the god regained his wits he raised his fist to obliterate it from existence, and then paused, having an idea. Here, he thought, was an opportunity. A challenge. A test. With a snap of his fingers a hundred massive aquatic insects were made with only one goal in their minds. To slay the titan of the sea and free their progenitor.
The swarm threw itself at the serpent, only to be annihilated by its might. The god snapped his fingers again and the dead rose and took on new forms while the serpent's wounds were healed. The creatures took on the forms of great diving beetles, bizarre aquatic moths, nymphs of every shape and size and other insects besides. They hurled themselves at the beast only to be beaten back again and again until, at last, one found victory.
Humble Oceants, who’s workers were the size of tuna fish, where ants that had the tails of fish and fins on their forelimbs that allowed them to launch themselves from the seafloor at high speed they spawned upon. The workers swarmed the serpent with greater coordination than the other forms had shown. They had learned through death and rebirth,learned how the titan of the sea moved, how it fought, where it was vulnerable and now the workers swarmed the serpent as one mass while deftly avoiding its blows. At last, together, they ended its life. Then they tore into its body stripping flesh from bone and devouring it greedily in their first great feast leaving only bones behind.
Artifex prided himself from the jawbones of the sea serpent, proud of his creations' success. And yet, so many had died to bring down the beast, their shattered bodies littering the ocean floor. As he raised them once more he knew they would need a way to be replaced if the species wishes to flourish. He placed his hand against the sea serpent's skull and turned it to chitin covering flesh. Chiten burst from the back of the skull, absorbing the serpent’s body until the former enemy became the Oceant’s new queen. The workers clustered around their new queen defensively and reverently as her pheromones flooded the water, confusing nearby fish and making them easy prey for the worker ants.
”Good. Now come.” the god commanded and continued his march. The swarm of ants swam or crawled along beside him and the queen as she lumbered her way through the ocean towards the shores of the Kylsar isles.
Together they ascended the sandy banks of its shallows, passing though the new coastal ecosystem that had sprouted up since Artifex entered the sea. The Oceants spread out, beginning to hunt and forage within the rich waters while their queen sought out somewhere to dig and build her hive. Artifex meanwhile ascended still further onto dry land. Or, well, wet land.
Swamps and marshes flooded much of the islands and where the wetland did not dominate rocky crags could be found, including two great curved stones like horns or mandibles erupting from the earth. Others might have seen a miserable wasteland, but Artifax saw only potential for insect life to thrive. Indeed, some of the shattered remnants of bug kind were already found, with small nests of termites infesting some of the waterlogged trees growing in the mash. In the distance he could also see ants and bees nesting in the drier regions while wasps prayed on them all. It was a crude and poor excuse for an insectile ecosystem in Artifex’s opinion, and so as a result he spent some time squatting in the bog and improving upon it.
In the water he spawned a host of nymphs and caterpillars that fed on the submerged plant matter and each other until they pupate and took to the mist filled skies. In rapid order the swamp was infested with insect life. Dragonflies, moths and lacewings buzzed and fluttered around him. Water striders skimmed across the surface while below water beetles and other fully aquatic bugs competed with the nymphs for resources. Then across the spined forests he created beetles, grasshoppers and other terrestrial bugs.
And, of course, everywhere there were flies. Omnivorous, adaptable and a tasty snack for any carnivorous bug.
Satisfied with the ecosystem of small insects Artifiex decided to take a break and check on his Oceans, only to find them locked in a constant battle with the tides. The Oceans had borrowed and build their castles in the sand, but the endless ebb and flow wore them down, forcing constant construction work that was preventing the hive from growing or expanding.Artifex watched them thoughtfully for a while and then made a slight adjustment to his creation by letting them make natural cement from heir saliva, which they could use in combination with sand and gravel to make crude concrete and mortar to fortify their coastal hives.
Under Artifex’s watchful eye and armed with their new talent a dome of sand and stone was erected upon the coast of one of the greater Kylsar islands. It hugged the shore, its top going in and out of the water as the tides rose and fell, keeping it and the precious eggs, grubs and their great mother safe from the beasts that could roam the deeper waters. The Oceants ranged out from this base, overwhelming the ocean’s many species with their numbers and dragging their butchered carcasses back to the hive for consumption by the young, particularly the young princess that the queen at least felt secure enough to spawn.
Artifex, satisfied with their progress turned his attention back to the islands and decided to add some larger creatures to his burgeoning echo system. To the waters he added giant scorpilurkur ambush predators, stealthy tree devouring Mud Creepers, and heavily armored bloodsucking Hexonaughts.
To the surface he added caterpillars that could grow as big as bison, nimble Madhoppers and stealthy treeinsects who grazed upon the terrestrial foliage. The madhooppers, true to their name, could enter a berserker state when threatened or starving, but for the most part rely on evasion and speed to stay clear of predators. Tree insects resembled the thorny trees upon which they feast and only use their wicked claws for self defense or to ambush anyone approaching their broods. Finally the caterpillars, prey to almost everything, would eventual pupate into Cloud Moths, elephant sized fliers covered in silky fluff capable of traveling from island to island in search of their rare mates and the choicest grazing spots.
Hunting them where the armored omnivorous Drake Beetle and the terrifying acid spitting Hydra fly
Once he had finished adding to the ecosystem Artifex sat down atop a small hill to watch his additions to the ecosystem play out in perfect harmony. Initial results were pleasing to the god up until Artifex saw a swarm of Oceants launch themselves out of the water at a passing Hydra Fly. The aerial apex predator of the swamp gnashed at them with its many heads, but it was no match for the sheer numbers of Oceants now flooding up into the swamps. Through sheet weight of bodies they brought it down and then began to tear into it and everything around, the tide of black shelled raiders ravaging the carefully built ecosystem where none of the monsters of the ocean could keep them in check.
”No No No” Artifiex said as he stood and moved to shoo the ants away ”Back to the ocean with you. This place was not made for you”
The ants paused their invasion with confusion. Surely this was what they were made to do, they seemed to ask as they milled around indecisively, gradually pushed back by the gods rather gentle insistence. It was not their fault after all, Artifex thought, he simply had failed to clarify and enforce their place in his designs. Eventually Artifex pushed the Oceants back into the sea and paused on the beaches of the island.
”Hmmm. You need to stay wet inorder to breathe. And you cannot use freshwater to do so. Freshwater will, in fact, be painful to you in-order to ensure you know not to go in there.” He told the Oceants, and so this was the case.
”There. Now all things are in order.” Artifex declared. He had done what he intended to do and the island teemed with insect life. Without a second though he dissipated into a cloud of bugs, which flew in all directions seeking a new place where the god could set to work.
The Oceants, denied the ability to spread inland, instead spread outwards, establishing more hives on the shores of the many islands and then, after scouts discovered more land to the west, sent out colonizing parties towards the larger continents of the world.
The Black tide would spread, grow and devour all it could till the Galbar’s oceans were all theirs.
