Silithid



Silithid are an intelligent insectoid race that have grown in strength and power in recent years. They first appeared in the region called Silithus, but have since founded colonies in neighboring areas, usually far from native settlements. They sometimes prove impartial to travelers, but defend their territory ferociously from invaders.

History
Scholars disagree on the origins of the Silithid. Some believe they are an offshoot of the arachnoid Nerubians, an insect race that mostly dwells in the northern regions of Azeroth. Others believe they are a new race heretofore unknown on Azeroth, possibly having arrived from another world elsewhere in the Twisting Nether, much as the orcs once did. Still others posit that they are servants of the qiraji, and that their presence in Southern Kalimdor is a harbinger of the qiraji invasion.

Before the Great Sundering, Kalimdor, the ancient continent of eternal starlight, was a nurturing mother to all of its creatures. At the continent's center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies, the Well of Eternity. It was the true heart of the world's magic and natural power. From this magical ether the Silithid were born. As the fallen Old God C'Thun recognized their appearance, he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its merciless grasp. The Old God created avatars from the Silithid in its own image. These avatars were eventually known as Qiraji. Sapient and with thousands of years the Qiraji worked feverishly to build a force capable of laying waste to the world that would betray their god with the Silithids as their minions.

Biology
To a humanoid's eyes, silithid are enormous bugs, most of man-size or larger, with powerful natural weapons at their disposal. They do not seem to use tools, although they do build structures out of natural materials using their bodily secretions.

Silithid are capable of communicating by touching antennae to one another. They can also send simple messages to larger groups by sending out chemical signals in the air. Individual silithid possess a certain level of animal cunning, but are unintelligent. They exist to serve the hive, and are specialized in their roles. Wasps attack, tunnelers dig, reavers defend, swarmers train, queens lay eggs, and so on. A silithid instinctively gives its life for the colony.

Silithid can range in size from a normal insect to gigantic. Size seems to depend on how long the Silithid are allowed to develop in their egg stage. It appears that size is also directly correlated with colony size.

In the wake of the Shattering, a submerged colony of silthid can be found at the Rustmaul Dive Site, suggesting they are capable of living underwater for long periods or indefinitely. In addition, a silthid with a protruding brain-type feature, Hive Controller can be found here.

Castes
Most scholars agree that a silithid begins life by hatching from an egg. At this point the young silithid is a broodling — a larval state as yet unspecialized for any role in the hive. Eventually, the broodling encases itself in a cocoon and changes into its new form — a wasp, reaver, swarmer, or possibly some other as-yet unknown type of silithid. While silithid haven’t been a visible part of the world long enough for anyone to accurately gauge their lifespans, some researchers think that after achieving adulthood, a common silithid can live for up to 5 years, although queens can survive for decades.

Locations


The Silithids burrow their underground hives all over southern Kalimdor. All of Silithus is under their control, and they have hives in Feralas, Tanaris, Un'Goro Crater, and the Shimmering Flats. They've even been sighted in small numbers in The Barrens. Most of these locations are deprived of water, and Silithid have been spotted at water posts in Tanaris. Perhaps their survival or nutrition relies heavily on water.

Hives


The silithids build structures out of natural materials using their bodily secretions. Silithid hives are immense, alien affairs with towering antenna-like spires jutting out of the earth. In the maze of tunnels below, the creatures raise their young, tend to their wounded, manage food storage, and fend off invaders.

Each of the three hives in Silithus has a crystalline prism in it. They are apparently a means for the Qiraji and other unknown entities to communicate various messages to the Silithid.

Major hives

 * Hive'Zora — Silithus
 * Hive'Ashi — Silithus
 * Hive'Regal — Silithus
 * Hive'Zara — Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj

Minor hives

 * Gorishi — Un'Goro Crater
 * Zukk'ash — Feralas
 * Centipaar — Tanaris
 * Hazzali — Tanaris
 * Swarming Pillar Hive — Silithus
 * Rustmaul Digsite — Thousand Needles
 * Field of Giants Hives — The Barrens
 * Vekniss — Temple of Ahn'Qiraj

As a mount
Qiraji battle tank mounts rare drops in the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. They come in several colors:, , , and and can only be used inside the instance.

There is also a, which can only be obtained during the War of the Shifting Sands. It is usable outside the instances, thus rare sightings of these mounts outside Ahn'Qiraj are possible.

As A hunter pet
Only Hunters with the 51 talent point Beast Mastery will be able to tame these exotic beasts. As with most exotic pets, they amount to a juiced-up version of a more common pet. In the Silithid's case, this common pet would be the Spider.

Origin
One theory is that the avatars C'Thun created from the Silithid were the Aqir, with the Qiraji and Nerubians later splitting off and evolving differently. Another is that the Silithid and Aqir are in fact one in the same, and C'Thun directly created the Qiraji from the Aqir. But despite evidence to support it, the latter is often dismissed due to an argument of intelligence and its controversy.

Inspiration
Some believe the Silithid's insect-like appearance is derived from the movie Starship Troopers (1997), where a group of insectoids do battle with humans in space. Similar suggestions have been put forth about the Zerg from Blizzard's Starcraft series. Blizzard has also claimed that they derived some inspiration from Starship Troopers for Starcraft (most likely the book given that the movie and Starcraft were in production at the same time). However, it has also been suggested that both Warcraft and Starcraft were derived from the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k franchises (which are themselves derived from Lord of the Rings and Starship Troopers respectively), making the tyranids another potential source for inspiration.

The silithids' hives show similarities to the works of surrealist artist H.R. Giger, possibly being inspired by his work.