#i have no idea how much i’ve said before about talpaedan headcanons and how much has been in my head until now i hope ths isnt confusing

[whatudottu]

Thinking about talpaedans again, how I’ve gone ahead and given them (among direct inspiration from armadillos) that alien element in ant genes, and how in the blazes Andreas survived getting crushed by a castle-

As stated previously, I gave talpaedans that ant-based edge because of the desire to have a whole construction/deconstruction site within one ‘family’, or to the extent of ant biology plus civil engineer lingo, a ‘colony’ or ‘union’ which would include smaller groups more akin to family even if most anyone in any given city is related to their ‘queen’ (haplodiplody is an interesting beast). And ant gender doesn’t directly translate to ant sex because of some sleeper genes that, when activated in a certain species series of events, give an ant on the individual level a specialisation. Some specialisations are general but some are sex locked, and in talpaedans I’ve been thinking of making that split between construction and deconstruction.

This would mean that Andreas specifically would have a gendered specialisation, jackhammers so to say, and so indeed lives up to that by being a being in castle crashing. An example of a gendered counterpart would be a set of cement mixers, except with a little more techno organic ingredients, which can in a carbon-based lifeform be a self-produced tar (since tar is made from wood, coal, bones and other organic substances, a few ingredients here and there plus canonically black blood, you get fucked up ant biology just like the ants that explode themselves) and kinda serve to glue stuff together if sealing the cracks isn’t enough. A gender neutral specialisation would be a ‘used everywhere’ adaptation like forklift or scaffolding tools which kinda translate to ‘has big claws’ on one end or ‘has long hammed’ on the other.

And these are just only a few examples, this does not even include drills (it was Omniverse to make Armodrillo a jackhammer and drill), bolt guns and more.

Okay but why am I - a gender apathetic lad - trying to make the talpaedan equivalent for male a deconstruction tool and the talpaedan equivalent for female a construction tool? Well because I recently learnt about specific techniques of home defence that certain colonies of ants perform!

Inspired by the ants that collapse the entrance to the colony (and causing casualties in the process), wouldn’t it make sense for the male-ish deconstruction equipment to stay and turn a little corner retreat into a full on bubble of air in a sea of dirt, entirely defensible and difficult to get in (thanks to the rubble of actual genuine architecture because if you’ve got a whole city of civil engineers you’ve got a whole lot of actual underground city planning). For the predominately female-ish warrior force (especially my wonderful passing mention of a ‘bolt gun’ specialisation), the backlines and really the only thing for a colony deems worthy of fighting for - the literal fucking colony - and collapsing tunnels, trapping choke points and being 100% certain that any young, elder or otherwise non-combatant is kept safe between layers and layers of controlled rubble.

And so with this I bring to you, how did Andreas survive a castle collapse? That’s because no matter how good someone is at sealing off tunnels, the actual destruction of the passage isn’t entirely controlled and can indeed BACKFIRE to those unprepared or unused to the responsibility. Regardless of Andreas’ own experience with tunnel closing (a precaution done during wartimes which, given that [my headcanon] Andreas was in one of the first few generations of peacetimes, is not as necessary a task to do so much as just keep in mind), there’s a reason why talpaedans are so heavily armoured. Being buried in rubble is no easy thing - hurts like a bitch - but with the collapsing of tunnels being a rather purposeful if still variable defence, having crush resistance helps keep more folk alive. And I suppose, the best way to survive being buried would be to have collapsible armour oneself, the metal having room to cave and potentially have internal cushioning (such as techno-organic fur) just to prevent sharp shell pieces from stabbing vitals.

And hey that’s the end of the post, which was total not inspired by me rereading Kariachi’s necromancer Argit reviving Andreas fic no no it was the Casual Geographic video on ants yeet-