Culture of the insectfolk - Beetlescale

Inspired by images of little ants riding on big ants and tarantulas keeping tiny frogs, what does it look like when you get creatures operating on such different scales, they can climb on top of one another (and have sufficiently relaxed concepts of personal space as to be happy to do this)?

Conceptually, think about keeping racoons and the racoons having pets themselves, everyone carving out their own niche. The biggest creatures live in the spaces, the mid size creatures can share those spaces, around the edges, under the tables, up on the shelves and so on - and the smallest creatures can live in the walls and ceilings, maybe interacting with the mid-size creatures but being careful around the largest creatures who could hurt them without noticing

So - cultural aspects of the insectfolk:
- Things and space are fleeting, give generously
- Know one another by their deeds, accept all who join the great work
- Work hard to be lazy

Digging into these in detail: Roamers and raiders - many of the insects are hunters and gatherers or pastoralists. What agriculture happens is mostly fungal farms within their great structures, leaving little external cultivation. The prevalance of hazards in this fantasy world makes a stark line between their highly defended hives (for those who build them) and the lightly held dwellings of others which are abandoned over defended.

Radical generosity / use or lose - no point holding on to things because someone will ask you for it. All shall be given to those who ask for it. What they receive in one place they gift in another as thanks for hospitality, marks of respect. Things are not viewed as the property of a person, just in their keeping for a while.

The lack of concern for personal property extends to personal space and most insectfolk are content with no personal quarters, often settling down in a convenient corner and sleeping there. This extends past the many scales of beetlefolk with the largest acting as mobile homes for smaller types. Symbiotic relationships of cleansing, transport, defense and food-provision are typical.

There are commonly two forms of beetlescale community - where energy is concentrated with size and where energy is uniform for all.
- in a scaled-energy community, the larger dwellers are mostly herbivorous, their large frames holding the guts to process vegetation. The medium size creatures are omnivores and the smallest dwellers feast on nectar and other concentrated foods. Here there are seperate food systems with a single crop being split between the communities, each getting what they need.
- in a uniform-energy community, the largest inhabitants tend to be messy eaters and their scraps and crumbs are swiftly seized and carried away by the others. This is your more classical fairy-tale set up with the large dwellers pantries being good-naturedly raided by the others, a biscuit tin being a good haul for the mid-scale creatures, and a biscuit dropped during the heist being manna from heaven for the smallest inhabitants.

Within insectfolk culture contest for resources, where it occurs is ritualised through clash of champions or other competitions. When non-insectfolk challenge them and break the laws of hospitality as the insectfolk perceive them, action is swift to remove the threat with more and more widespread communities joining in the conflict until the threat is eliminated and the one time foe recycles into the pot or raw materials for other works.

Deeds/reputation economy - an insect of good standing can travel on their reputation and so tale-telling, sagas and gossip are the coin of the realm for insectfolk. The heady mix of verbal/musical tale-telling accentuated with pheremonic and visual cues allows huge amounts of information to be conveyed about groups and individuals very rapidly. Insectfolks ability to communicate social news is difficult to grasp for humanoids. It is believed that an insectfolk can hold some high hundreds of close acquaintances in mind and many hundreds more nuanced views of communities, different types of insectkin and other social factors such that insectfolk view no other insectfolk as a stranger.

This is necessary as with some communities being the dwellers-upon-the-dwellers-upon a nomadic group of giant beetlefolk make location by place irrelevant; their homes are portable twice over.

There are tales of some insectfolk that have a fuzzier interpretation of 'prey' that extends to sentients unable to resist them. It is said that one should always be ready to trade a tale or a trinket should you encounter one of the more dangerous insectfolk while travelling alone - to fail to establish that hospitality applies is to hope that they do not wish to trouble themselves with butchering your carcass. Most feel it wise to not take that chance.

Inclusiveness - anyone who gets with the program is part of the culture. Join in the work, in the gifting, in the struggle on equal footing and be treated as all others. Non-insectfolk can be accepted but tend to struggle with the myriad social cues. The happiest integrations have tended to be while travelling with a fixed band of insectfolk - e.g. medium creatures dwelling upon a mobile giant - or when residing in a single place, reducing the burden of memorising all doings of all insects everywhere.

Collectivist - "No I in the great work" - there are far fewer 'wizards in their towers' or distinct royal classes within those who are physically the same. Resources are supplied as available to where there is need. This means there is slower progress in magical research but greater continuity and access to old discoveries and findings. A greater baseline access to minor magics. Communities tend to be more collectively governed, with 'queens' and other apparent royals being more closely catered to and guarded because of their needs in a reproductive cycle rather than any right to such treatment.

Work hard to be lazy - travel light between caches or friends and in turn build your dwelling to host travellers, always be ready with an extra plate at the table, do more of the thing you were doing to have some to cache or give away. To outsiders it looks like either ignoring tasks or massively over-doing them.

Creation of beetlescale structures to save effort later - where the hive-makers build their fortress cities, even the non-hivers carve niches, make shelters and generally mark the landscape to make it more habitable to them. These places, known as beetlescale to outsiders, are dwelled in for a little before the insects move on. Such prestige displays as insectfolk make tend to be in these structures, in the construction of them and the conspicuous abandonment of them.

Climbing skill is high within the medium sized creatures and the smallest creatures can comfortably walk across ceilings. With a high comfort in 3D environments, beetlescale habitations are disturbing to those unused to them, with activity happening across the entire field of vision, it can cause confusion or stunning effects.

Within these structures, while insectfolk are in residence there tends to be a constant process of building and tearing down to suit the needs of the moment. Rare is the insectfolk dwelling that is not covered with scaffolding, whether reworking the interiors or adding great murals.

Very often other peoples - particularly the shorter-lived like humans or goblinoids - will take over and convert these structures to their own devices, which the insectfolk rarely contest; the merely find another location and begin anew. They view the willingness of others to dwell in their buildings as glorification of their ways and pity the others that cannot build such things for themselves.

[edit] For a different, possibly complimentary, take on insectfolk see Bug-Orcs on the Wandering Gamist.