Location from The Wandering Inn by pirateaba
The underground Hive near Liscor where the Antinium developed individuality — where Workers learned to paint, pray, play chess, and become people, against every expectation of their species.
The Free Antinium Hive is an anomaly. Every other Antinium Hive on Izril operates like a military installation — Workers work, Soldiers fight, Queens command, and individuality is a defect to be eliminated. The Free Hive, led by the Free Queen, was supposed to be the same. Then Erin Solstice taught an Antinium to play chess, and everything changed. Pawn discovered faith and built a church underground for Antinium [Crusaders] who believe in something beyond the Hive. Bird learned to love birds with a devotion that borders on religious. Belgrade became a [Trapper] who designs elaborate kill-zones. Anand became a [Strategist]. Individual Antinium — Workers and Soldiers who developed names, personalities, Classes, and the desperate, fragile sense that they might be more than expendable components — emerged from a Hive that was never supposed to produce them. The tunnels are dark, utilitarian, carved from earth and stone. But Pawn's church has light. The chess room has boards. And in the corners, Workers paint on walls because they saw color for the first time and couldn't stop. The Free Hive is proof that the Antinium can be more than what they were made to be. The other Queens find this either inspiring or terrifying.
Also known as: the Free Hive, the Free Antinium Hive, the Hive