Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

==Vespid==

Like the Tau, Kroot, and Poctroon, the Vespid are native to the Tau cluster, and were the fourth race to join the Tau Empire. Once effective communication was established the Vespid eagerly converted to the Greater Good, because as a eusocial species the validity of the ideas of the Tau’va seemed self-evident and the idea of designated roles in society meshed well with their philosophies. Given the only other races the Tau had encountered at the time were the Kroot (whose stance on the Tau’va was something like “yeah, sure, whatever”), the Poctroon (who they never were completely sure signed on out of genuine faith or a mix of desperation and gratitude), and a passing AdBio team, this gave the Tau a huge boost confidence  in the viability of the Greater Good on a galactic scale (and really, in retrospect probably made them think that spreading the Tau’va across the galaxy was going to be a lot easier than it really was).

However, the Tau initially had a lot of trouble communicating with the Vespid at first due to their alien methods of communication and immensely complex language. Their brains are crazy looking with a huge portion devoted to sensory perception. Vespid primarily communicate through pheromones. Effective communication wasn’t achieved with the Vespid until the Tau developed communion helms that picked up pheromonal signals and translated them into electronic speech. Even today, Vespid primarily talk to other species through a designated speaker with a communion helm, the vespid talk to the speaker who translates what they are saying to non-vespid and vice versa. However, even then the helm tends to translate inapplicable concepts with the closest possible word. Vespid have three pairs of eyes which are thought to have developed through duplication of an original single pair, each set has become secondarily attuned to a particular peak in the light spectrum, giving them great vision. They also have some sort of pseudo-stridulation ability which they use most famously to stabilize their neutron weaponry. Vespid writing works through each pair of eyes focusing on three lines of text at the same time which interact with each other when interpreted as information/sound analogue, with occasional use of pheromonal ink. Music and poetry also has a coloured component which is further complicated by their much wider spectral range than every other sapient race.

Poetry and song are typically between one hive/nation and another as each nation is best to be thought of as a single entity. 

This is why the Vespid had a lot of trouble recognizing the other species as sentient at first. By the Vespid’s standards, the languages of other species were too simple to be considered evidence of sentience. They looked at other species and thought "oh, they can't be sentient, look at how simple their communication is. Gas-floaters have more complex communication than them." Even the Tau, who can speak to the Vespid much better than any other non-psychic species, seemed like barking dogs by their standards.

It also would be that if the Vespid are interchangeable within their nation then their language would be different at a very fundamental level. For one thing they aren’t interested in discussing feelings. The have them but in any particular set of circumstances and environment every Vespid would feel the exact same. This isn't typical of native lifeforms on their homeworld so they assumed it was a prerequisite for sapience. The Tau confused them a lot as each seemed a nation unto themselves and only allied with their companions.

It is possible to speak with a Vespid, but it’s not a very enjoyable experience. They would defer any hard decision to a higher authority if at all possible and once you have spoken to one you have spoken to all others of their nation in effect. It's not that they don't have a personality it's just that they all have the exact same personality unless something horrifically traumatic has happened.

Funnily enough this makes them consider Chaos worshippers to be insane to the point where they are no longer considered sapient.

As Vespid see themselves as individually interchangeable, their names tend to be nicknames based on their role in society or the few distinguishing features they have. For example a Vespid might be known as "drone-that-tends-the-driftyfish-shoals" that for shorthand ease of use often gets abbreviated or combined with another distinctive trait and then abbreviated. If drone-that-tends-the-driftyfish-shoals had one antenna he could be known as Unbalanced-Fisherman or Lopside-Fish. All Vespid of a nation are by their own admission interchangeable with others of their function. they are quite happy about this so long as the nation prospers.

As a eusocial species, there are a variety of morphologically different vespid for different tasks. The big hulking forms everyone thinks of are the soldiers. There is the breeder and child raising form that are rare and highly valued and seen only by the most trusted of water caste in high pressure suits as they never leave their homeworld. The leadership and diplomat form that administrate and go on state visits. The worker and technician type who form the backbone of society. And so on.

The Vespid don't make sense to the Bio-Druids at some deep and fundamental level. Their biology is all wrong. It looks like they should be just some sort of giant invertebrate plain and simple but they don't work that way once you get the shell off. And they have gotten the shell off, Vespid don't hold much sentimental value for dead bodies compared to most other sapients and sentients.

Their native environment is the sort of atmosphere so dense that it's closer to soup than air and before the Tau visited them they hadn't even bothered going to the surface of their own atmosphere, there is no reason for them to be able to survive at the low pressure of an Earth type of atmosphere. And they can breathe it as well with little difficulty.

There is also no reason for them to be able to perceive light in the human range either as their world is shrouded in what is to humans perpetual darkness. But despite their islands being so deep in the pitch black soup they can see unaided just fine on the surface they had until a few centuries ago never visited.

Add to this that they have both an endo and exoskeleton, a combination that doesn't arise in nature as well as actual lungs and the AdBio are absolutely convinced that the Vespid are someone's creation. The Eldar don't have records of it so it's either not their responsibility or it was someone's pet project and any knowledge of it wasn't spread far and was lost in The Fall. They might be Old One creations but then they would have had to stay hidden and totally stagnant for 65 million years and they weren't stagnating socially or technologically when the Tau found them. Some fringe nutters try to claim that they were made by the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion to explore the insides of gas giants. This is possible and would explain why they can also survive quite happily in Earth-like environments, but although the GaBHD did have the capability they also preferred to use robots for such things.

They don't share anything but a passing genetic familiarity with anything else in their ecosystem, what little of it has been prodded by outsiders, their endoskeleton is some sort of diamond derivative rather than bone which is not shared with any other animal of their homeworld and they are freakishly strong compared to everything else around them despite being almost total pacifists without a sense of competition and with no history of ever having had a natural predator.

Of all this the Vespid at least claim ignorance. Historically they didn't realize it was not meant to be so and so never questioned it. Maybe they are artificial. Maybe they are not. It does not bother them. Very little bothers them.

Vespid are omnivores and eat just about whatever they want. They can eat the flesh of the other creatures floating around in their soup of a planet, and there are a lot of them especially in the places where there is an upwelling of krill and plankton analogues from the lower levels. Their favourite food is the nectar of the giant fucking huge lily pads that float on the layers just above where their islands typically bob around. They just drift around some of the largest almost a mile wide casting great shadows into the briny deeps. At regular intervals they develop great flowers on their undersides where the drifting creatures swarm to get that delicious syrupy goodness and the pads can spread pollen.

The nectar has an effect on the vespid not entirely unlike getting mildly drunk. It makes them happy but slightly stupid and less responsive. It's banned outside of their homeworld as to humans and anything that works similar to humans the vapours that it emits in an Earth-like atmosphere at room temperature are classed as a form of nerve gas. It is speculated that the nectar has other effects on their biology that are needed to maintain a healthy and functional population, some speculate that it triggers the breeding cycle in their queens and their attendants. Others claim that it is only consumed in religious ceremonies, a subject that the vespid have always been remarkably tight lipped about. The vespid are not forthcoming on the subject although the end goal of terraforming similar worlds to their homeworld seems to be the cultivation of more of the lilies rather than environmental needs of their own.

Other than that their diet seems to be varied. They can eat anything from cabbage to red meat, though they prefer anything with a lot of sugar in it.

It paints them with the image of a gentle giant type of creature. They can each and all get into a boxing match with a space marine and have a realistic possibility of winning. They look like the bastard children of a wasp and a gorilla. They carry weapons that can punch through tanks. They are the stuff of nightmares. Then you meet one.

There is no malice in those strange eyes. They step around ants.