A Chunk of Fantasy 1.10 – Aerons [Race/Species]

“When we first encountered the Aerons, it was not hard to see where the old legends of the angels came from. They were very similar to us, we thought they were out lost cousins, so to speak. t was not long before we realised that the fact they looked like us may have been a coincidence, or possibly by design. Yes, design. You see, until recently, the Aerons did not exist. There are no records, no artefacts, no stories that can be confirmed nothing. Plus their minds are so unlike ours. They feel more like….insects…”

Species type – Humanoid-looking Insect
Main traits – Humanoid, wings, hive mind
Major disadvantage – Short lifespan

The creation of a new life is no trivial task, even though it occurs regularly. The creation of a new species is even more difficult. This is what makes the sudden and unexpected appearance of the Aerons more puzzling. Until 17 years ago, the Aerons (pronounced air-ons) did not exist. Although they resemble the angelic beings of old tales, they different in many ways. This angelic insectoid appearance is what lead them to be called Aerons by the locals, the word meaning “angelic” in the local dialect and the name the town near which there was first encountered. Their home was sealed behind what could be classed as a fold in the fabric of space.

They have clear wings, like a dragonfly, that they can fold up and place into a carapace on their back. Judging by the size of the wings they should not be able to fly, yet they can. Their features resemble a mixture of elven, human and insect. Their eyes are larger, ears are thinner, jaws are more pronounced and their overall appearance reminds you of a dragonfly or beetle or other similar insects. It appears that within the species there are several subspecies, each haveing a close resemblance to a type of insect.

So far, 4 main branches of the Aeron race have been noted, with hints that there are much more variations. They also appear to have a hive mind, but it works more like an organisation than the traditional hive mind where every individual is connected to each other. With the Aerons, each “reports” to their superior and others from the same hatching, as long as they are within range, which seems to be 20 meters or so. These leaders in turn report to their superiors and so on and so on. From talking to the Aeron representative, who are mostly friendly but a bit hard to communicate with, it seems that each sub-group is led by three individuals, a male, a female and a third unspecified gender. It is believed that breeding rights within the sub-type are controlled by the ruling three. As a species the Aerons are surprisingly open and are willing to share what they know with anyone who can communicate with them, which is hard, but not impossible. One fact that turned up early in conversations with them was their short lifespan – they tend to live a third as long as a typical humanoid, if they are lucky.

There is a theory that the Aerons are a possible form given to insects if their evolution was sped up and forced along a path to make them humanoid. There is some credence to this idea due to the nature of their discovery. From their own records, such that exist for the Aerons, they had been locked away for, from their pov, several thousand years and have stories of a Creator that had no wings, could live for generations and seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to what others refer to as a dwarf.