Factions/Neke

The hatching of their new brood, and the crowning of a new High Queen, is currently being played out on this wiki: see Hatching Day.

Biology

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:

• lantern vines, with bioluminescent flowers to provide light
• binding vines, for restraint and related purposes
• wasps, for the delivery of chemicals, microorganisms and other agents, and for corrective purposes
• guardians, usually large beetle species, up to three meters in height with hardened carapaces
• countless species of smaller servitors for cleaning, gardening, nursing young

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.

Disappearance and return

In the 8th summer of the Balsam Virtue Brood, the Neke quietly and mysteriously vanished, and their palace lay abandoned for a generation. At last, a new brood has awakened in the Ovon (see Return Of The Neke), and is settling back into something resembling normal life. Each generation traditionally receives a unique name from the reigning High Queen; this one is known as the Dawnflower Brood.

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).

Language and culture

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.

• RP aid: Neke Word Generator in MPI

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).

Known Members

• Sevaîmttn (Dawnflower Brood) - High Queen Juldzita apxnn Okyno (Juldzita is Queen; Okyno is her symbiotic host)
  • Atcinna
  • Pri'yath
  • Amanita, Twin (at large)

• Iict-çt'nv-aí (Balsam Virtue Brood) - High Queen Avs'iⁱmtiûx
  • Seaya (encrypted)

• Evviátnx (Radiance Brood) - High Queen Tànmviaqc
  • Kiemo (dormant?)

• Outcasts and impostors
  • Sessitucitt (lover of Inhatti; supposedly from "Green Boughs" Brood)
  • Th'thsthn (according to rumour, vehemently denied by the Neke; xe does speak the language fluently, much to their outrage)

OOC notes:

Inspirations:

• the Imperial Japanese court
• Bruce Sterling's short story "Swarm" (and other ideas from the Shaper/Mechanist series)
• Gormenghast (the labyrinthine, ritual-bound, generations-old castle from Mervyn Peake's novels)
• the Spider Garden (the decadent biotechnological pleasure palace of the Sacred Androgyne, from Michael Manning's graphic novels - natch, the Chitins are very Manning-inspired)
• Christopher Alexander's writings on building (A Pattern Language et al)

[Encounter between Neke and a Bottomer?] (Link: Zoe)