Badass Bookworm
Hellwasp
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To build on a recent and unsavoury experience with real life wasps, and to make Tephrike even more unpleasant to live on!
To torment
John Locke
a bit more. - Image Credit: Here. I imagine them as patterned more with yellow or orange bodies like real wasps.
- Canon: Several variants exist in canon. This one is closest, though very different.
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Republican Guard, Tephrike, Lands and Features of Tephrike,
- Name: Hellwasp. Since everything on Tephrike has a fancy name it is also known as "Swarm of the Hellfire Sting".
- Designation: Non-sentient.
- Origins: Tephrike.
- Average Lifespan: 1-2 years for drones/workers and 3-4 years for queens.
- Estimated Population: Planetary. Found extensively over the warmer jungle and forest mainland of Tephrike. Due to the planet's remoteness, they are not found elsewhere in the galaxy with one exception. During Firemane's incursion to the planet, they took on some crates provided by the Republican Guard containing some local goods. Unfortunately, a clutch of eggs had been laid inside, and hatched once the planet reached the Arx. Whereupon a minor infestation grew up on the giant station's gardens until being exterminated.
- Description: The Hellwasp worker is a roughly 30cm long flying insect. It has the traditional six legs, antennae, head, thorax and abdomen of an insect. It also possesses a 4cm sting which it can use to attack or defend itself. The mandibles of the wasp are not venomous, but can grip a target so it can use its sting. They are primarily used to tear or rasp wood and leaf fibres for nest building.
The most commonly seen is the workers which are sterile females.
The drones, which are males which mate with the queen, are slightly smaller and thinner than the workers. Their coloration is also less bright and a dull orange rather than bright yellow.
The queens are the largest, being 5-10cm larger than the workers, with an elongated and larger abdomen.
- Breathes: Type 1
- Average Height of Adults: 5cm
- Average Length of Adults: 30cm for drones and workers, 35-40cm for queens.
- Skin color: The Hellwasp has a traditional wasp coloration of bright yellow or orange along with black and tan.
- Hair color: N/A, they have little tufts of white fuzz, but this is not hair.
- Distinctions: See description for breakdown of the three common types.
- Races: N/A
- Force Sensitivity: Non-Sensitive
- Hellsting. Being stung by a Hellwasp is a uniquely unfortunate experience. Survivors have described it as feeling like being injected with boiling acid. A single sting can bring even the strongest individual to near incapacitation through the pain. The stinger is not barbed, and the Hellwasp has plenty of venom for repeat stings.
- Fun Sized. Wasps are worrying enough at the best of times, but the Hellwasp is around 30cm long. This makes it something more than a simple nuisance, especially in numbers.
- Quick Breeding. A queen and a few drones can establish a nest and start producing eggs, then workers, within a week. This allows Hellwasps to expand aggressively.
- Swarm. When the nest is disturbed, Hellwasps will aggressively attack and sting anything they perceive as a threat. Unfortunately, they perceive any living creature to be a threat. They will chase targets for up to a kilometre if sufficiently roused.
- Instinctual. Fortunately, Hellwasps are not intelligent. They will follow their instincts and attack with ferocity anything nearby, but they have no strategy or concept of planning.
- Armour. The stings of the Hellwasps cannot penetrate even light armour. Even a heavy jacket with clothing beneath might be enough. An enclosed trooper in the equivalent of stormtrooper armour is immune…unless one crawls into a vulnerable joint.
- Cold. Hellwasps are tropical and subtropical insects. The cold of winter sends them to sleep outside of the equatorial areas, and extreme cold outright kills them. Destroying a nest with Cryonic weapons therefore is a sound strategy.
- Weapons. Hellwasps are big insects, but are no match for weapons, or even stepping on with an armoured boot.
- Diet: Omnivore. Hellwasps eat nectar, fruit, seeds and leaves. They also eat other insects, and invertebrates. Despite the effectiveness of their stings against mammals and bigger creatures, the Hellwasp does not eat large creatures as it cannot break them into bits and digest them.
- Communication: Pheromones, tactile communication, instinct. Audibly, the Hellwasp's wings emit a low buzz when they fly. When angered, the Hellwasps rub their forelegs together, emitting a saw-like rasping. This is a good cue to leave the area quickly!
- Technology level: N/A they are an insect.
- Religion/Beliefs: N/A they are an insect.
- General behaviour: Hellwasps build large colonies, often either concealed in hollow tree trunks, within caves, or hanging from trees. These colonies typically consist of anywhere between 20-40 workers, some drones depending on the season, and one queen. The colonies can be vast in size, sometimes two or three metres high, but usually a bit smaller. These nests form a conical shape when free hanging and are made of wood or leaf fibres, though sometimes mud is used instead for inside trunks.
The wasps centre around a queen who lays the eggs. The queen mates with several males each season, and then lays eggs. These eggs are tended to by the workers, who also defend the colony, and forages for food.
Workers are not necessarily aggressive when foraging, and will not attack creatures unless provoked. However, in defence of the nest, the Hellwasps are singularly aggressive, spiteful, and vengeful. They will attack anything they perceive as a threat, often chasing it up to a kilometre away. Sometimes a creature or person might dive into a pool or lake, only to find the wasps waiting for them to surface! When attacking, the Hellwasps will sting multiple times in a swarm. A target incapacitated or which cannot move is eventually left alone, but any movement is a sign to attack more.
During the spring, special workers are sent to investigate sites for a new nest. Once they find it, they mark it with a trail of pheromones and return to the nest. The queen lays special eggs on their return, and then departs for this new location with some of the colony. The new eggs hatch as new queens. A rather brutal battle soon develops until only one queen remains, and they inherit the nest. The workers generally do not intervene, except to finish off and eat defeated queens.
Tephrike is a planet of many natural wonders and treasures. Many locations, creatures and plants would be famous were the planet known more. However, there are also some more infamous parts of the planet. Aside from the endless 400-year war which has been raging across the planet, the wastelands of irradiated ground, and the brutality of dictatorship there are also natural horrors.
One such horror is the Hellwasp, an insect of prodigious size and ferocity, which lives in the jungles and forests of Tephrike. Evolving over millions of years, the Hellwasp is the largest venomous insect on the planet, and is well spread over much of the main continent. With their vicious stings, and aggressive temperament one might be excused for wondering why they had not spread like a plague over the planet! The answer is multi-fold; a high mortality rate amongst queens which are the only breeding members of the species limits their spread, a hibernation during winter during which time they are more vulnerable, and finally predators.
The predators of the Hellwasp are not many, but they are very important. First, several of the native tree mammals dig out the nests during winter nights when the wasps are less active and devour the eggs and insects. Then there is the 'Hundred-Legged Stalker' or 'Nightworm', a creature as horrific as the Hellwasp. The Nightworm is an extremely large centipede like creature, jet black, and with a carapace and biology immune to Hellwasp stings. It will raid nests and can consume anything it finds in minutes.
All of these factors provide a natural break on the progress of the Hellwasp.
The Hellwasp was known to early explorers and settlers of Tephrike. From the start it had a grim reputation as a hazard of the woodlands. Indeed, as settlements developed in the days of the Old Republic, a project to downsize their population was implemented. This was actually so successful that the species became threatened for a long period of time.
The Hellwasp has played little direct role in the centuries of war between Jedi, Sith and Guard, but any expedition into the jungles and deep forests needs to account for them. Abandoned houses or vehicles can quickly become nesting grounds, and some they have even been weaponised at times by the Republican Guard.
One favoured tactic is to cultivate Hellwasp nests near to a strategic location or base. If intruders approach, the Guard soldiers deliberately anger the nest by throwing rocks or other means, then submerge themselves in water. As they often contain species which can breathe underwater or hold their breaths for hours, they can let the wasps drive off their enemies, only to emerge later.
As is to be expected, the Hellwasp has been 'claimed' by all factions on the planet for propaganda purposes. To the Dominion of Light, the Hellwasp is an inspiration because it is a dutiful and organised society which defends itself against evil attacks. To the Disciples of Vader, the Hellwasp represents the ferocity and aggressive attitude of a true Sith. Several military units have the Hellwasp as their mascot. Finally, to the Republican Guard, the Hellwasp is a symbol of their struggle against the Force and its adepts, their desire to defeat hearth and home against intruders.
The Republican Guard have also been known to interrogate…or torture…captives by tying them to a tree near to a nest. If they do not like the answers they get (or sometimes even if they do) they will smear pheromones on the captive and disturb the nest, leaving the helpless victim to be attacked. Sometimes they will simply use captured Hellwasps to sting a prisoner by holding it onto them and poking it until it stings.
The Republican Guard have also spread rumours that Hellwasp queens lay eggs inside paralysed victims, the young then eat their victim from inside. This isn't true…probably.
The sting of the Hellwasp is one of the worst in the entire galaxy. Descriptions of the pain usually involve burning comparatives like boiling acid, lava, molten metal, etc. What's worse, the pain can remain for hours before decreasing slowly. The area around the wound also frequently gets infected. Easily treated with modern medicine, but in the jungles such aid might not be forthcoming. There are certain plants in the jungles which provide some relief, including the sap of a particular creeper which has a powerful numbing effect, even better than medicines.
The Hellwasp is a potent hazard to the unwary, but is also a vital part of the ecosystem of Tephrike. Attempts by any groups to get rid of them from areas can be successful with due vigilance, but as soon as sentients leave, the wasps return.
