Krik'Ix

Krik'Ix is a character in The Calamitous Campaign

Description:
Krik'Ix resembles something a bit like an upright beetle, though his anatomy is obviously rather diverged from that of Earth-dwelling species. He has more limbs to start with, standing on four legs arraged in a square around his base with two pairs of arms ending in rather humanoid hands (placed on his body roughly where you would expect them to be) and a final pair of elongated limbs ending in serrated scythes extending over his shoulders and reaching down to the floor in front of him, occasionally used as a third pair of supports for his legs. His chest is covered in shiny, dark purple plates of chitin, as is most of the rest of his body. His back is covered in a very durable wingcase, tougher than any other part of his body, concealing his wings. The wings themselves are translucent and a good two and a half feet in length. His head is roughly dome shaped and sports two pairs of long, overhanging antenna. He has three pairs of eyes arrayed at either side of his head (lacking pupils but not compound) and a large set of sharp mandibles.

Personality-wise, Krik'Ix is a rather self centered individual, though always polite and courteous. This is not to say he is unwilling to work with others (in fact it his preferred means of operation), although perhaps "manipulate" would be a better word. He likes to be in control of every situation and if not granted a leadership position will use deceit and manipulation to get people to do what he wants instead. He doesn't really care whether or not he is acknowledged as an official leader as long as things are always going his way. This is made easier for him by his insect face's lack of visible emotion and his ability to change the tone of his voice however he wishes, with complete disregard to how he actually feels, meaning he can be very convincing even as he lies outright. He will not want to die in this competition and if he can remove all other obstacles without getting his hands dirty in any way, that's the way he'll want things to go. While he will try to protect anyone in his group from unecessary harm, he puts himself much higher in his list of priorities.

There's no point throwing away good tools, but you don't die for them either.

Abilities:
While Krik'Ix's mandibles are clearly unsuitable for speech, his wings (which at this stage of his species' life cycle are too small to provide lift for flight) can create extremely complex vibrations. The wing cases have also been adapted into large sound catching dishes giving him amplified hearing while they are unfurled. This gives him both exceptional hearing and the ability to imitate virtually any sound, including speech and voices, though only while his wings are unfurled. While folded inside their case on his back he is both unable to speak and has somewhat subdued hearing. He is generally forced to do this in corridors and other small spaces as they simply aren't wide enough to accomodate his wingspan.

His chitinous body is more protected from attack than most flesh and will turn even steel blades, though a determined attacker could force a point between his plates, into joints, into his eyes or (worst of all perhaps) through one of his very delicate wings. His scythe-limbs have excellent reach and cutting power however as he was a nobleman in his pre-battle life rather than a warrior he isn't exceptionally well trained in actually using them as anything other than an extra pair of sharp feet.

Biography:
Krik'Ix's kind are the dominant species on their home planet, and the only ones with what humans would call higher intelligence. Their technology is around the age of industrial revolution, which may leave him a little overwhelmed by the more advanced machinery he is likely to find at the start of the contest, and the population mainly live in very large familial groups within tall spire-hives, something like a mostly vertical castle. Circles of land around the hives are given over to agriculture and nesting sites for the young, which far outnumber the adults. Their species goes through several stages of metamorphosis, doubling in size every time, growing from roughly the size of your thumb to slightly taller than the average human male. Each form also becomes substantially more intelligent and more humanoid (they first hatch looking not dissimlar to locusts). The stage immediately before the final one is when they gain the ability to talk and lose the ability to fly, and these are mainly employed as craftsmen and in other skilled labourers. All forms younger than this perform hunting and act as guards (the larger varieties) and soldiers (the smaller). The adults organise and mate. It is difficult for any metamorphosis to happen without the consumption of many of any individual's siblings, meaning that each tier of development is rarer and more calculating than the last and that those that reach adulthood are generally the most devious and least trustworthy, locking even the smallest houses into a constant war of intrigue for the top position. Positions of power are almost exclusively held by males as not only as they less common, females die during pregnancy 100% of the time.

That said, the general state of politics is not as war-ridden as you might expect. Males and females are regularly exchanged between houses once they are old enough to speak, in order to cement bonds of peace through marriage. As each house controls a small army of ravenous children and any of them would jump at the chance to grow up without having to eat their own siblings it is unwise for any house to annoy any other house, as the family of any victor will inevitably double in size causing far more competition for the leadership position, one that is already generally filled by stepping into your dead brother's shoes while they're still warm and a few dregs of your poison are left at the bottom of his wineglass. Not that they wear shoes.

Krik'Ix himself was lord of his own rather large house, with wide, fertile holdings and several wives. When one evening he suddenly disappeared, his poor and apparently now widowed Chir'Kah (who had been reading to him at the time) was shocked into early labour and quickly died as thousands of larvae ate their way through her organs and pupated for the first time inside the husk, as was customary. Several days later, when his brother Jal'Ix broke through the door to find this unfortunate scene, he declared his brother dead ("A terrible sight, his daughters ate even his exoskeleton! Such a shame.") and immediately began making arrangements to move into his quarters.