Natives

The natives are a race of humanoid insects native to Sakaar in the Fornax galaxy. Of all of the races on the world it is most likely that they are the only actual native race.

Biology
The natives are four armed insects, standing roughly 5'4" and weighing roughly 120 lbs. There exists various color varieties, grey, red, black, and yellow being the known varieties. They are able to communicate through "chemming" a chemical process of sharing memory and thought, an ability they share with The Brood, and The Spikes.



Life Cycle
The typical native lifespan consists of four main phases, although a select few enter into a fifth stage. All native life begins with the translucent egg. Up to a hundred of which are laid at one time during the course of a mating ritual between a Native king and queen. The king then departs with the male eggs to establish a hive of his own.

Single-handedly the king digs a large tunnel which serves as his new hive's nursery once a suitable location is found. Once the tunnel is dug, the male eggs are carefully implanted within the tunnel's walls to gestate. It is then the king's sole duty to guard and nourish the eggs until the brood hatches. After the brood hatched and matures into their adult stage they are tasked with expanding the hive beyond its original nursery tunnel.

Once the Native eggs hatch, the young are in their larval stage, worm-like grubs concerned with nothing more than satisfying their enormous appetites. Virtually defenseless in this stage with only limited chem-bonding ability, the Native larvae are confined to the dark safety of the nursery tunnels where they are tended by adult members of the hive who bring them large amounts of vegetation for nourishment. When first hatched larvae basically consists of large mandibles and maxillae for eating, an elongated thorax and abdomen, and underdeveloped sensory organs such as antennae and eyes. The larval stage typically lasts for four to six months.

At the end of the Native larval stage, glands located in the Native brain begin to secrete a steroid that prompts the larvae to enter the pupae stage. Climbing to the top of the nursery tunnel, the Native larvae use decaying wood and dead planet matter, chewing it while mixing with saliva, to construct water resistant cocoons that suspend them upside down from the tunnel's ceiling. This pupae stage lasts approximately six months, during which many of the larvae's cells change their function.

At the end of the six month pupae stage, young Natives emerge from their cocoons in their adult stage, these "nymphs" (or hivelings) are anatomically identical to their older native brethren, only on a smaller scale. Each adult nymph possesses two fully formed antennae, two compound eyes, six limbs, and postpharyngeal glands necessary for the chemical communication that is central to hive society (chemming). The nymphs are almost immediately put to work foraging the local area for food and picking the hive's crops. Most natives become full grown within three years. The chitinous insectivorid shells of native adults contain high numbers of pigment-rich melanophore cells that allow Natives to adapt the color of their surroundings over a period of time. This has resulted in the various native "races" that have evolved throughout Sakaar.

Reproduction
Although the adult stage is the final stage in life for the vast majority of Native males, a select few advance to a fifth stage in life - the king stage. Each Native hive contains one king. In a normally functioning hive, upon a king's death, one of his sons enters a second pupae stage (although significantly shorter than the first) creating a protective cocoon that houses his body as his cells undergo another extreme change in function. The glands within the transforming adults brain begins to produce steroids on a much larger scale as he develops a spiky, armor-like chitinous carapace, longer mandibles, clawed phalanges, and a much greater overall body mass. When he emerges from the cocoon, he is automatically recognized as the hive's new king. It is unknown what exactly triggers the transformation, although most agree that the Native's chem-bonding capabilities must play a significant role.

Only male Natives inhabit the hives. Ever since the Natives first evolved from lesser insectoid species, Native females (or "queens") are rumored to have lived in distant, densely forested regions of Sakaar where the protective foliage protects their sensitive flesh from the deleterious rays of the sun. They are giant solitary creatures barely able to move under their own power. In order to reproduce, a native king must make a sojourn into these mythical forests in search of a queen. After an ancient mating ritual, the queen lays eggs in the king's carapace, keeping the few female eggs produced from their union to be raised separately in the forests.

The king and queen then part ways, typically never to see each other again. Carrying the fertilized male eggs on his carapace, the king nurtures them and cares for them until he eventually creates a hive where the eggs are stored until they hatch. Only a select number of eggs hatch every year, allowing for diversity in the ages of the hive members.

Reproductive Oddities
It should be noted that the Natives are biologically compatible with The Brood, the resulting hybrids having six limbs, no wings, and dangerous uncontrollable instincts.

It has also been shown that in extreme circumstances the gender of the natives can change. Miek who was isolated with the knowledge that no females remained of his species biologically changed and began laying eggs, these eggs failed to produce viable offspring though. At Least two of Mieks offspring have survived by feeding on the blood of the Hulk, and Skaar. It is believed these offspring are now in the care of the Nameless Brood, who now watches over all that remains of the Native species.

Society
Native society is centered around the patriarchal hive. Although the Native hives of today are considerably smaller than the great hives that existed during the height of Native civilization, the basic social structure of the hive has remained unaltered. The hierarchy of hive life is relatively simple: the hive's king is the dominant authority figure and key decision maker while all of his "sons" live to work for the betterment of the hive. Within a well-functioning hive, the brothers live in peace their father, though there are isolated incidents where the ambitious sons have conspired to overthrow their king.

Upon hatching each Native larvae becomes "chem-bonded" with its hive, able to communicate via chemical pheromones with all its brothers, a phenomenon known as "chemming." Most Imperials regard the natives as "bugs" with no real sense of individuality, this is untrue however, each Native is an individual with his own personality, hopes, dreams, and fears. The chem-bond with the hive which creates a feeling of acceptance, security, and purpose is almost impossible for non-Natives to understand. The sense of community that the chem-bond instills is so powerful that a Native's greatest fear is not his own individual death, but rather his hive's death. Thus a native will typically be willing to die for his hive without any complaint.

Natives who are separated from their hives nearly always die within one or two years. However there have been a few instances where unhived Natives have been known to survive for decades, particularly when the Native is still young at the time of seperation. But unhived Natives (often derogatorily referred to as "unhivers") are usually looked down upon with scorn and loathing by hived Natives, who view them as unclean outcasts, and forced to lead solitary existences shunned by both imperial and Native alike.

History
The modern-day Native species is believed to have evolved from the ancient insect colonies that inhabited the Chaleen plains over 200 million years ago. Having the distinction of being Sakaar's only native sentient species, Native civilization developed largely uninterrupted by outside influences, the only threat to their security being the predatory great devil corkers that relied on Natives as their primary food source.

In approximately 2100 Pre, the Natives, who up until this point were hunters and gatherers, began developing agricultural techniques and domesticating small animals such as the lowly Jackworm, which they used as a food source. With the advent of agriculture the native civilization began to develop rapidly, ushering in the age of the great hive kingdoms of Chaleen. As Native civilization flourished, the various hives began expanding into other regions of Sakaar, and different native sub-species eventually began too emerge.

But the peaceful coexistence between the native hive kingdoms nad the other sapient races of Sakaar was not destined to last. In approximately 1150 Pre, the Imperials, a race of crimson-skinned humanoids who had first appeared at the outskirts of the Great Desert nearly 600 years earlier, began expanding wesward along the Vandro River. At first the Natives welcomed these strange, nomadic newcomers and taught them various agricultural techniques. In exchange, the Natives began learning the imperial language, although the structure of their chitinous mouth and mandibles, while perfectly suited to produce various clicks and chirps, made pronunciation of many Imperial words difficult.

But as the Imperial population began to proliferate and their small towns began to swell into expansive city-states, the Imperials and Natives began to compete for resources. The first major clash between the Native and Imperial civilization occurred in the year 28 Post when Imperial warlords razed an ancient Native spire in modern-day Upper Vandro Province. Without a centralized government or an organized military, the Natives gradually began losing ground to the Imperials, leading to the decline of the Age of the Great Hive Kingdoms around the year 100 Post.

In the year 500 Post, when various independent Imperial kingdoms organized into the First Sakaaran Empire, Native society remained largely unaware of this significant political development. It was not until 509 Post, when the Father Emperor sent delegates to the various Native hives with an offer of an alliance, that thet Natives finally took notice of the Empire. The Father Emperor's offer was simple: if natives agreed to fight alongside the Imperial Guard in the Spike Wars, the Father Emperor would grant them the land they inhabited by royal decree. Many of the Hive kings, weary from years of skirmishes with Imperials, readily accepted the offer and enlisted their hives. Although not technically members of the Imperial Guard, these special Native units (referred to by Imperials as "Bug Brigades") were instrumental in several key battles, culminating in the Spikes' ultimate defeat in the year 540 Post.

Although the Father Emperor detested the Natives, whom he considered to be an Inferior species, he nonetheless respected their service in the war and honored his deal with them for the most part. In the year 541, the Father Emperor decreed that all detritus which exited through the Great Portal shall go to its first fingers, even if those fingers happened to be natives. It was not until the Father Emperor's death in 552 Post, and his son's subsequent ascension to the Empire's throne, that Natives began to feel a change in the empires policies toward them.

The Red King began implementing new policies which seemed to be secretly designed to lead to the gradual genocide of the Native population. At some unknown point Native queens began being captured by the Imperials, their eggs being used to produce food.

Slavery of natives amongst the Empire was very common, approximately 65 percent of Sakaar's Native population served as slaves. Individual Natives usually sell for a single silver square a piece under normal conditions; but when sold in groups that are both chem-bonded (to prolong their lifespan) and neutered (to prevent metamorphosis into king form), the price per Native can reach three to five silver squares.

Their last known queen fell to the spikes, since then the native population began declining. Oddly the only ones that would survive would be those taken to war to earth by the Hulks invasion force, as Sakaar was destroyed by Galactus. The species stranded on earth with no queens would certainly die-out, if not for King Mieks sudden change in gender. Only two known offspring of King Miek are known to have survived, they represent a small hope for the civilization, with No-name gathering any other potential survivors in the Savage Lands.