The Free Hive is one of the six known Antinium hives and it is home to the Free Antinium and their leader, the Free Queen. It is located under Liscor.
Background[edit | edit source]
The hive below Liscor was established ten years before the story started, after the Second Antinium War ended with the Antinium forces under Klbkch's command saving the aforementioned city.
City-Hive treaty[edit | edit source]
The treaty between the city and the hive of Liscor allows the hive to only maintain 600 Soldiers at any one time, although Watch Captain Zevara has been well aware for years that the hive keeps a much larger number. The treaty also stipulates that Soldiers may only leave the confines of the hive in times of emergency or at the request of the Watch Captain.[1]
Layout[edit | edit source]
Entrances:[edit | edit source]
There are at least two entrances to the Hive. One is located within Liscor and another secret entrance just outside of it.[2]
From street level in Liscor, descending into the Antinium Hive looked ridiculously easy. There were no noticeable guards, and the dirt was sloped for easy entry. But that was an illusion.
About ten steps into the darkness below, there are silent Soldiers standing in alcoves, ready to step out as one to immediately trap and apprehending any intruder. Said intruder survival would have been contingent on how much of a fight he put up, as the Antinium had made many concessions to live in Liscor, but they did not suffer intrusion lightly.[3]
Tunnels:[edit | edit source]
The tunnels are extremely dark, but not fully, as glowing patches of moss and fungus lit up to light the way every twenty feet or so, and the Antinium (and Gnoll) could still see perfectly fine. Still they are far too dark for any Human to see.
The tunnels used solely by the Workers are barely large enough to accommodate them. They had only a foot of height as they marched through the cramped corridors built to accommodate exactly two Workers at a time.[4]
Trapped Hallways[edit | edit source]
The tunnels that connect the Hive to Liscor's Dungeon. They have been heavily trapped by Belgrade and made into killing zones, to deter incursions by dungeon monsters and significantly reduce Antinium casualties.
Rooms:[edit | edit source]
Klbkch's Quarters[edit | edit source]
Klbkch's personal quarters within the labyrinthine tunnels, is a hollowed-out room of stone and dirt near to the surface.[5] The room is filled with a table, two chairs, and a coatrack. The coatrack holds no coats, only a single scarf that Erin gifted him on Christmas.[6]
Queen’s Room[edit | edit source]
Storage Rooms[edit | edit source]
There are many storage rooms the Antinium of Liscor had built. True to their nature, each storage area had its own designated location and purpose depending on the value and need for each item contained within.
Some of the storage rooms that contained items not useful for Soldiers and Workers fighting in the Dungeon, will be located closer to the surface. But depending of the value of the items contained within, they will be relatively close to the Queen’s room.[7]
Chess Room[edit | edit source]
The Chess Room is a special room built near the surface of the Hive. It's a large room that instead of acting as another feeding room, it had been sectioned off and given a new purpose. The low-ceiling area had been filled with cushions, small rectangular wooden boards filled with pieces, and even odd chair. Antinium, all Workers, sat around these boards, playing chess.
In truth, the dirt ceiling was too low to really allow any Workers to sit on the chairs. They sat around the chess boards on the dirt instead, completely ignoring the cushions that had been piled neatly in one corner of the room and never been used. At the start of winter, the room could hold around sixty Workers.[8]
Treasury Rooms[edit | edit source]
The Antinium have rooms devoted specifically for funds, as some Workers had to pay for supplies or perform other exchanges with the citizens of Liscor. In a single room, there are tens of thousands of gold coins, the product of over ten years of hard work and little spending.
The Workers withdraw exact amounts from the carefully organized stacks of gold, silver and bronze coins, and recording the number on a piece of parchment.
The Antinium don’t post guards in the rooms, because there was no need for them to steal, and no [Thief] would ever make it this far into the hive.[9]
Promise of Memory[edit | edit source]
The Promise of Memory is the room in which the markings of dead Painted Antinium are painted on the wall. It serves as a memorial.[10]
Xrn's Room[edit | edit source]
Following her injury, Xrn was granted her own area. It is located far down, connected by barely-used tunnels. The area has been warped by her wild magic, turning parts of the walls blue, green, and violet, and inconsistent streaks of glass, among other effects.[11]
(False) Ancient Building Cellar[edit | edit source]
Klbkch had spent nearly a week overseeing the construction of the room, to act as the cellar of an ancient building that had been buried underground.
The walls of this building were crumbling; the stone looked as if it would fall apart at the touch. A beam slanted as it seemed to audibly groan under the pressures exerted on it from above. The door leading upwards was jammed open, and collapsed earth could be seen blocking the way upwards.
It was meant to be some lost building that had once been part of Liscor, or at least, part of some ancient city. Despite the precarious appearance of the room, there is no fear of anything collapsing. The stone may look weak, but it was as structurally sound as any part of the Hive.
Over one of the walls, Klbkch had some Workers drag in a wine rack and nearly fifty expensive vintages and then had the entire structure smashed before adding a coating of dust to the mix.[12]
Areas:[edit | edit source]
Sleeping Area[edit | edit source]
The Antinium sleep in small cubicles of dirt, in a huge barrack-like sleeping area. The Antinium do not lie down to sleep. It’s not that they can’t, but their backs do not curve like mammals as it resembled a beetle’s in many ways, and they disliked the rocking that occurred when they tried to lie down. Thus, both Workers and Soldiers alike slept while sitting. The Workers sleeping area can hold up to five hundred Workers.[13] The walls of the barracks the Soldiers lived in were dirt. Not loose dirt, but hard-packed, as good as stone and unbreakable in most circumstances.[14]
Food Consumption Area[edit | edit source]
When the Antinium receive their food, they go in the food consumption area and slowly ingested the muck they had been given. There were no seats for the Antinium to eat at; they simply collected their rations on earthenware bowls and ate as efficiently as possible before depositing the bowls to be used again by more Workers filing into the room.
Workers and Soldiers ate separately. This wasn’t because one group ate better quality food than the other—they all ate the same highly-caloric mush, but Soldiers just ate three times as much as Workers, and thus used different containers, necessitating a separate room to feed in.[15]
Waste Area[edit | edit source]
The Antinium have designated areas where their waste is accumulated, and than recycled within the Hive.[16]
Inhabitants[edit | edit source]
- see Free Antinium
Location[edit | edit source]
The chapters where the Antinium Hive was a chapter setting are detailed in Liscor's Antinium Hive/Appearances
Trivia[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Chapter 3.21 L
- ↑ Chapter 2.02
- ↑ Chapter 3.06 L
- ↑ Chapter 3.05 L
- ↑ Chapter 1.25
- ↑ Chapter 4.13 L
- ↑ Chapter 2.27
- ↑ Chapter 3.05 L
- ↑ Chapter 3.23 L
- ↑ Interlude - Hectval (Pt. 2)
- ↑ Chapter 9.13
- ↑ Chapter 2.27
- ↑ Chapter 3.05 L
- ↑ Chapter 13 L
- ↑ Chapter 3.05 L
- ↑ Chapter 1.33
- ↑ Chapter 3.06 L
- ↑ Chapter 3.05 L