Maurakappi

Maurakappi (Ant-folk) The Maurakappi dwell in the deep recesses of the great forest. After early hostility with the wood elves, they found a way to peace; The queen can create larva and insert them in a humanoid host. These hosts served as translators; they were in a 'fog' lessened by the presence of the larvae. After a century of back and forth, the Maurakappi made a pact - they would provide for the emerald throne, and their lands would be Sancrosact.
Ant-folk warriors are the most frequently encountered outside the colony borders, which is why maurakappi—ant warrior—came to be used as the name for the entire species.

Physiology and Appearance

Ant-folk are close to human-sized, standing upright between four and nine feet tall. Their bodies have the same basic segments as ants: head, thorax and abdomen. The head is starkly ant-like, with compound eyes, large grasping mandibles, and antennae. Four arms with dexterous four fingered hands and two (bowlegged) walking legs emerge from the vertical thorax.
The relatively small abdomen is nearly perpendicular to the thorax, angled slightly downward. The joint between these segments is called the petiole, and is vulnerable, effectively a second location equivalent to a human’s neck (cutting damage to the petiole has a ×2 wounding multiplier). It is protected by armor that covers the maurakappi’s thorax.
Maurakappi favor simple, uniform clothing, and wellcrafted functional arts. While their colony-cities differ as much in the output of such crafts as does any civilization, they often include giant spider silk, chitin armor and goods, and metalwork: Unlike the coleopterans, they often use armor worn over their carapaces.
Their own language is pheromone based. They speak without moving their mandibles: Many mistakenly believe it to be eerie mental communication.

Caste-Based Culture

Their societal roles are determined at birth. Dissent within the colony is practically unheard of, and they find other folk to be chaotic, confusing, and bafflingly disordered. Most colony-cities only allow outsiders into segregated trading quarters and not within its tunnels.

Queens

The matriarchs of the colony-cities, and the only truly free-thinking caste, queens rule as absolute autarchs. Maurakappi custom holds that everything within a colony domain, including all who dwell within it, are her personal property. These customs—mostly relevant in interactions between colonies—also presume that she acts in the best interests of her lineage. Queens with declining or failing colonies become pariahs, their demesnes quickly conquered by an alliance of her neighbors.

She fully controls the caste of any offspring she produces based her assessment of the colony needs. The longest lived of the maurakappi, queens live nearly as long as as true elves, and reign for centuries.

Princesses

At any given time, a queen has a small cohort of princesses, always with a sole designated heir—a title that rotates based on a queen’s current favor (which can be capricious by design). The rest are assigned to tasks that the queen feels needs more sensitive supervision. They command troops, negotiate, or manage hired delvers.
When deemed ready, she will be sent with a modest harem of consorts from allied colonies to establish her own demesne. Over the course of a year, she morphs into a queen, her magical abilities fully develop, and her abdomen expands, ready to produce the first generation of her new realm. Norðlond is a dangerous place: Very few survive.

Consorts

The only males, and the only members of the colony that aren’t the queen’s daughters, are the queen’s consorts. Queens produce consorts in order to trade them with other queens to cement marriage alliances. They compete to produce the most beautiful, erudite, and wise mates. Second only to queens in free will and independent thought, the treacherous consort is a staple trope in maurakappi morality plays.

Spellcasters

Galdramaur average about four feet tall, with proportionately larger heads and smaller mandibles. Though more independent than warriors and thralls, they still lack personal ambition. They are rare, being biologically taxing to produce and costly to train and maintain. Some colonies only keep a few as court wizards, though others produce enough to post routinely in military units. It’s not unheard of for them to exceed a century in lifespan.
Maurakappi honor the Lawgiver, depicted as the ant-folk queen of the Aesir, but to them, all queens are equally divine rulers. They have spellcasters, but not priests.

Warriors

Fanatically devoted to their queen, but as intelligent as the average human. There is usually one soldier for every nine workers in a colony.

Thralls/Workers

The vast majority of maurakappi are the worker-caste mauraþræll. They are the most servile, possessing very little free will, and live the shortest span, only 15 years.