The Rek'Chitis

The Detached, Player Character Option

Perhaps you were detached from the hive at an early age, and the distance to the greater mind grew too large for you to be fully ingrained. Or maybe you fought against the overwhelming draw of its magnitude. There may even be reasons beyond that. Whatever the case may be, you are an outcast amongst outcasts - all alone, without a people or a home. A Detached.

Detached Rek'Chitis

Ability Scores: Int +2; Choose any other one unique +1
Size: medium
Speed: 30 ft.

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Age: Rek'Chitis mature at the same rate humans do and reach adolescence around the age of 16 and generally live into the middle of their second century.
Alignment: While every attached Rek'Chitis is of a neutral alignment, your unique situation allows for free-willed deviance from the norm.
Size: The Rek'Chitis vary from being 5 to 7 ft. tall, and their weight can vary from 100 to 375 lbs, depending on their born-caste. Warriors, for example, grow up to be much larger.
Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Limited flight: While the Rek'Chitis have wings on their back, they're only suitable for short bursts of flight. You may fly up to 30 ft. throughout your turn, though you will always land at the end of it. If you end your turn mid-air, you fall. Additionally, if you are not incapacitated, you may use your reaction to halve the amount of damage you take from falling.
Multi-armed: You have four arms. As a bonus action, you may make up to two additional object interactions, as long as you are not holding anything in two of your hands. In addition, these hands can be used to hold items (such as extra weapons or ammunition), though they do not grant you additional bonuses or attacks.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common, you can speak Rek'Chitis. The Rek'Chitis language is one of clicks, chirps and buzzes.

Rek'Chitis Worker Statblock

Rek'Chitis Worker CR: 1/2

Medium humanoid (rek'chitis), neutral

Armor Class: 13 (natural armor)

Hit Points: 18 3d8+3

Speed: 30 ft

STR

12 +1

DEX

13 +1

CON

13 +1

INT

15 +2

WIS

12 +1

CHA

8 -1

Skills: Perception +3, Insight +3

Senses: darkvision 60ft., passive Perception 13

Languages: Common, Rek'Chitis

Challenge Rating: 1/2

Limited flight: While the Rek'Chitis have wings on their back, they're only suitable for short bursts of flight. You may fly up to 30 ft. throughout your turn, though you will always land at the end of it. If you end your turn mid-air, you fall. Additionally, if you are not incapacitated, you may use your reaction to halve the amount of damage you take from falling.
Multi-armed: You have four arms. As a bonus action, you may make up to two additional object interactions, as long as you are not holding anything in two of your hands. In addition, these hands can be used to hold items (such as extra weapons or ammunition), though they do not grant you additional bonuses or attacks.
Hivemind: If within 50 miles of the queen, you can spend 5 minutes to recall a piece of lore or memory, 15 minutes to gain or swap out any one proficiency (up to a number of your intelligence modifier plus your base ones), 30 minutes to change or acquire class levels (up to a number of your hit dice). The time it takes to perform these activities doubles for every 50 miles you are away from the queen. If you gain Wizard class levels, you know all spells up to level 5 but can still memorize in accordance to the class rules.

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The Rek'Chitis, also known as The Hive or Ant-Folk, is a hivemind organism, the individuals of which are spread all throughout the land. While not a common encounter, you wouldn't be particularly surprised to find any one of them in a bustling city or a recluse wizard's tower. However, whenever you start seeing more than one in close proximity, it's almost certain that their queen - the Siltan'Xanim - is near. Near is a relative term, however, as her true location may be a hundred miles away. There are few accounts of what the queen or her residence truly look like, though they each share one detail - a city of stone, like an inward mountain, moving, crawling through the land. While they are in a constant state of migration, they do have sentries placed in lands all across - to keep an eye out for the world at large or perhaps to survey their next destination.
It is told that they once lived in a great city, which housed an unimaginable number of their kin, though no such location had been discovered. Whatever tragedy may have struck, left them homeless and dwindling. Loremasters theorise of a rival hive who had sought to wipe them out, however, there is no knowledge of any other such collective. The hivemind does not seem keen on sharing their history.
Their society appears to be split into castes. While the hierarchy is shrouded in mistery, a few certain archetypes can be picked out. There are the workers or "grunts", who trade and work in various professions, then send their earnings or wares towards heart of the hive. Then there are the scouts or surveyors, who venture to distant lands and perhaps even settle, maintaining a wider sphere of influence. There are, of course, the warriors, who protect their kin and make sure that no one would find their precious queen. And finally, the sages - those whose sole purpose is the expansion of the mind. They are revered scholars and practitioners of various arts and crafts, trading the hive's knowledge for that of others, so that it would not fall behind all the other nations. It should be noted, that when need be, any one Rek'Chitis could take up another role - some just take a longer time to "port" into their minds (e.g. spellcasting).
The word "individual" is foreign to the Ant-Folk - they all share a singular mind, memory and purpose. However, it seems that each particular Rek'Chitis is reserved a portion of the mind, with the ability to tap in to the consciousness at large when need be. This length of this process seems to corellate with their current distance from their queen. As such, a form of individualism may exist, formed by personal experiences that have not entered the greater mind, for they were not deemed worthy.
There is, however, one great exception to the rule. Before a Rek'Chitis reaches adolescence, they retain a separate mind from the hive. It is only gradually intertwined as they age. If, for any reason, they choose to fight back against the process of attachment, or if they are separated from the hive over a vast distance, they would grow up to become an individual. It is not known whether these Detached Ant-Folk retain the ability to join the hivemind, as most never seek it out.