Vex

Marcus and his Drones (Book 1)

The Vex are a Hive Mind run by Queens who birth the entirety of the swarm. They are recognisable by the purple glowing eyes, purple chitin, greyish purple skin and a single horn. These features are shared across all Vex be they drone or Queen. Drones appear to have limitations on how much they can be altered needing to have at least 6 legs and a horn but this has been suggested to simply be a result of Marcus' inexperience.

They all look like a mix between insects and lizards but their general shape changes greatly from type to type (Ch 29). They are warm blooded (Ch 13).

Vex will eat almost everything organic and not be bothered by it (the worst quality animal food is good enough for them). The Queens turn this up to eleven, since they literally have bio-nanodrones in their stomach which will decompose and digest pretty much anything, along with reading any DNA present. Poison, acid and even metal would be digested without any ill effect. Marcus could eat a block of lead and follow it up with a glass of mercury and the worst that will happen to him would be a mild stomach ache.

Origin

"Seeding" Queens are just yeeted through random portals with minimal help, and then are expected to "mutate" into a form suitable for the place they are sent into. If they are unlucky, they can be sent to places where they just can't survive long enough to adapt... like a lake of lava.

Seeding Queens

Basically, a "Seeding Queen" is a Queen egg encased in a really tough protective shell/exoskeleton, which would protect the egg against most environments. The shell also works like some sort of "proto-queen", analysing the environment and modifying the Queen's embryo to survive in said environment. When the Queen is actually born, it can't mutate further, but it should be able to at least survive the environment.

Eggs

Vex Eggs

All Vex are hatched from Eggs and new drones have to be hatched by the Queen. Existing models can be hatched by designated Brood Mothers. Eggs are generally similar to the egg of a fish or a frog than that of a reptile or a bird. They are oval in shape but of varying size depending on the Drone and they are semi-translucent so you can see the shape inside.

Hive Queens

Our Hive Queen

They are the mind that controls the Vex Hive.

Most Vex Queens are single-mindedly dedicated to caring about their hives and spend most of their time commanding drones, laying eggs and trying to find new valuable DNA. Despite being very intelligent, the Queens are still eminently instinctive creatures. However, one of the instinctive activities of Queens is experimenting with the DNA they have acquired and learning about the world they're in. Vex Queens can be incredibly curious, and have an innate desire to know more.

Marcus surmises that Vex are instinctually fairly territorial and aggressive (Ch 34).

The Hive Mind

Marcus is not aware that the hive itself has a gestalt consciousness, mostly because said consciousness mostly act as an extension of his own. The Hive Mind and Marcus are not separate entities... let's just say that they are both part of the same system. Marcus is usually in charge of major decisions while the gestalt Hive Mind deals with subroutines but occasionally, when the central decisional unit is out of order (Marcus is unconscious) she can also work as the main consciousness. (Ch 45)

Relations to other Hive Queens

"... the relationship between Marcus and the Mother Vex Queen is actually a rather standard one. Vex Queens do create other Queens and then send them away to create a new Hive and spread the Vex infestation in the world. Usually Queens are much stronger than Marcus, but their will is much weaker, so much so that the mother Queen can still command them. However, once the new Queen have made a new hive, she is considered a "rival" by her mother. If two hives are close to each other they would instinctively try to absorb one another, making an exception only if there is a serious external threat. The only case in which multiple Vex Queens can live together is if there is a Vex Empress ruling over them... though in that case, they would essentially all share the Empress' will (like the drones share the Queen's will)."

Unique attributes

It's hard to permanently injure Marcus, by the way. Anything that doesn't kill him would eventually heal completely, given enough time.

It's also one of the reasons he doesn't get more muscles from his training. Sadly, as Vex Queens are not meant to become stronger with training, the microtears heals incredibly fast but the muscles become exactly as they were before. On the plus side, Marcus would never lose muscles due to a sedentary lifestyle.

Maturity

Technically speaking, he was mature even before that... but there are some minor adjustment and changes during the first year of life of a Vex Queen. After a year, they stabilize completely though.

Drones

" ... the bug-creatures opposing him here were not only better organized and absolutely fearless but also possessed many more different units, each seemingly made for a specific role. Hell, they even had flying units and freaking living artillery. That was some shit straight out of a tactical sci-fi game that felt horribly out of place in a fantasy setting like this one!" - Blueskin when facing the main Vex army in Ch 115

Drones possess minds but no will other than that of the Hive Queen. Should the Hive Queen be injured or incapacitated they follow the instincts of the Queen rather than her conscious will. Marcus and thus presumably all Queens do not not dream rather their “dreams” are filled by the collective consciousness of their minions. They grow at a greatly accelerated rate but this can be further boosted by prolonging the gestation period. Names are based on those Marcus himself came up with.

An actual nervous system is necessary for a drone to be fully integrated into the Hivemind.

Vex drones are considered unpalatable even to Orcs.

Vex/Drones

Mold-Wax

A gray opaque wax like substance created by Builder Drones thanks to a special gland that is inherent to Vex and not a result of the DNA of consumed creatures. It grows at an amazing pace with just some light and humidity.

The mold-wax is technically made of microscopic Vex drones already. Even microscopic drones have a rudimental mental connection to the Hive Queen, but they are incapable of processing complex information and orders (and they are also pretty slow anyway). Marcus could, for example, order the mold-wax to not grow in a certain spot.

Mold-Wax works as an insulator as far as aura is concerned. This is why the Dragon couldn't control the region, and Felix always failed to use the Twinstone while inside a Mold-Wax cave. However, Mold-Wax only inhibit the passage of aura, it doesn't actually make someone's aura weaker. So Felix, whose powers are completely inside of him, is fine.

The Mold-Wax doesn't let other people's aura pass through, but it actually catalyze the passage of Marcus's (the queen) aura. The Vex Mound (which contained a LOT of drones and thus had a LOT of Marcus aura going through it) was basically chocked full of Vex aura, to the point of overwhelming anyone capable of sensing Aura.

Uses

• Excellent coating material that acts as a thermal insulator.
• Edible and highly nutritious. Marcus describes its taste as kind of like grass and stale bread. Described by Felix as quite hard to chew, with an almost wood-like texture tasting like rotten eggs and spoiled milk.
• It also seems to have the effect of helping the eggs hatch faster.
• Vex drones could be given the command to go into hibernation and if they were surrounded by a cocoon of mold-wax they could remain in that state almost indefinitely.
• Bioluminescent variant that glows blue
• Water purification
• In order to thrive in the greatest spectrum of environmental conditions, mold-wax will generate heat in cold weathers and refract it in hot ones. Ch 127

Public perception

There have been rumors of a previously unknown race of insectoid creatures that appeared out of nowhere and absolutely destroyed the orc horde in the fields in front of Treval. And, still according to these rumors, these creatures are alien, devoid of any human emotion and absolutely deadly, and led by a Queen so powerful her sheer presence is enough to make people faint. And now, they have made their nest in a remote region right at our border. As you might have guessed, these rumors are making a few people quite nervous, as they wonder what would happen should these so-called Vex decide to turn against us. Ch 129