Even more than other Chitins, they favour the use of biologically engineered organisms over any other sort of technology. Their palatial home, the Neke-Ovon, is a prime example: its chambers and corridors are grown rather than built, a endless maze of rootlike warrens that seem to extend for miles, perhaps extradimensionally.
Some notable organisms that the Neke have bred for their use:
The Neke have also found uses for mammals, as producers of silk, honeydew and other substances.
Outside the clan itself, the biology of the Neke themselves is largely a mystery. They apparently live in "brood-cycles" of up to several years in length, being active for part of the cycle and spending the balance of the time dormant (some have even suggested that they spend this time dead or nonexistent). The Neke are known to shift their form during the re-awakening, by shedding their skins or reverting to a larval state.
Decades ago, the Neke quietly vanished. After many years, a new brood has begun to awaken in the Ovon (see Return Of The Neke), and is hurrying to restore the traditional order within the hive. Each generation traditionally receives a unique name from the reigning High Queen, but as none has yet been enthroned, this new brood is currently nameless.
The Neke have offered no explanation of how or why they disappeared in the first place. A compelling but unverifiable theory concerns an ancient conflict with the Victorian enclave of Elysium (see Elysium and the Neke).
High Neke is a dialect of Chitin (see Language) with a fiendishly complicated [inflected grammar], with dozens of cases to reflect the relative social status of speaker, listener and subject - not to mention their countless gender categories. Even roles during physical intimacy are assigned grammatical cases.
Linguistic nuances play a pivotal role in Neke theatre, such as Ciîu-tkel'lxi ittc` iàqtc ("The honourable lady's egg chamber"), the most celebrated farce in the Neke tradition. One tciux (outsider) wag dubbed it "the most long-winded in-joke in the Mess".
The only thing more convoluted and incomprehensible than a Neke play may be a complete Neke high tea ceremony. Entire clutch-groups have found their lives recast due to one slip in the delicate dance of manners and tea mixtures.
Literature among the Neke is known for its tortuously long family sagas, though there is a long tradition of lighter reading (and a few have even reached Chitinophile audiences elsewhere in the Mess in translation, such as The Seventeen Bad Broods and their Tiny Little Comeuppances, an illustrated collection of darkly-comedic poetry).
Now you're too close to the pain
Let all the rain go further
Come back and kiss me in vain
Mother oh do not bother
Hear the chorus of pain
Taking you back to proper ways
It's so easy to find
If you could remind me
Now you are lost in your way
Deep in an awesome story
So I will find you again
Kiss you for lonesome folly
-- Yuki Kajiura, "A Stray Child"
Encounter between Neke and a Bottomer? [[1]]