A Study of Locust History (Super Theory)

[Anthony*Carmine]

lots of good points there i read the whole thing and it was enjoyable

[Leather Lumberjack]

that was a great read!

Although, i do have to point out that the New hope facility was created to study immulsion mutations of the miners and that an Epic Dev already leaked to us that Myrrah is a human immune to Immulsion, not a hybrid.

WOAH that...changed my view on the whole world. I don't know what to do now!!

[SeranSpartan]

that was a great read!

Although, i do have to point out that the New hope facility was created to study immulsion mutations of the miners and that an Epic Dev already leaked to us that Myrrah is a human immune to Immulsion, not a hybrid.

Wow, TAO Devil's here! Thanks for reading!

Well, this is a cause for concern to me because this pokes a significant hole in my theory. Though I've never heard of it nor have I seen an Epic dev say it, you did say it was deleted so I can't refute you.

However, what are the implications of this? Why is the Queen accepted by the Locust? If she wanted to cure her people, why didn't she just use her own immune genes?

[viperousamoeba]

I read the whole thing..

And it is the most convincing thing ive ever read.

I'm with until further notice.

This ^^ unless its an official release from Epic saying its wrong. I like your version. Kudos.
I still dont think the Locust are as old as you. But I have no proof to discredit your theory. Everything seems plausible to me.

[TAO Devil]

Wow, TAO Devil's here! Thanks for reading!

Well, this is a cause for concern to me because this pokes a significant hole in my theory. Though I've never heard of it nor have I seen an Epic dev say it, you did say it was deleted so I can't refute you.

However, what are the implications of this? Why is the Queen accepted by the Locust? If she wanted to cure her people, why didn't she just use her own immune genes?

We don't know all that. We only know the children and all the scientists went to Mt Kadar, and the Queen is the only surviving, non-mutated person from the New Hope facility left.

Also, whether the dev was being truthful or not remains to be seen. Hopefully Karen Traviss finishes the story in the novels.

[CHAOS SPLASH 33]

great stuff man. i read it all and i like it all. Myrrah and everything. If you could have written the books and story for this game i would have loved it forever. HEY write about a speculative ending where some locust survive the cure. (i love locust! Stupid COG...)

[Loosestrife]

I like this very much as an exercise in world-building, but it leaves unanswered (for me) how the Locust had a societal (or biological) model that would let them integrate into a eusocial super-species with Myrrah effectively controlling all reproduction. (Which is, I assume, what Epic was intending with her as Queen, mimicking Earth's eusocial insect species like bees, termites, and ants.) The existence of in-game artifacts like the calendar point at a preexisting expectation of a queen's presence as the leader of the Locust, and we're not given an example of a monarchy among the governments on Sera--which is not to say that one didn't exist in the past that we're not told about, though--so I find it a little strange that Myrrah should be the first Queen of the Locust, and should have brought the "idea" of being the Queen with her.

Also I'd like to see the references for this, not because I'm dubious but because of curiosity. (Specifically the reference for the Kantus being the "oldest" species in the Locust Horde.)

[SeranSpartan]

I like this very much as an exercise in world-building, but it leaves unanswered (for me) how the Locust had a societal (or biological) model that would let them integrate into a eusocial super-species with Myrrah effectively controlling all reproduction. (Which is, I assume, what Epic was intending with her as Queen, mimicking Earth's eusocial insect species like bees, termites, and ants.) The existence of in-game artifacts like the calendar point at a preexisting expectation of a queen's presence as the leader of the Locust, and we're not given an example of a monarchy among the governments on Sera--which is not to say that one didn't exist in the past that we're not told about, though--so I find it a little strange that Myrrah should be the first Queen of the Locust, and should have brought the "idea" of being the Queen with her.

Also I'd like to see the references for this, not because I'm dubious but because of curiosity. (Specifically the reference for the Kantus being the "oldest" species in the Locust Horde.)

Thank you for reading and taking the time to reply! There are many unanswered questions and countless holes in the evidence and implications. I'm just trying my best to string them all together using deduction, inference, and speculation. I tried to eliminate as many 'impossible' scenarios as I could.

To answer your question about the Queen being the first queen, we have to examine the Queen and her traits.

First and foremost, Queen Myrrah looks and sounds predominantly human. She is well educated and is respected and feared by all Locust.

The first question to ask is 'Why does she look human?' If the Queen is a naturally-occurring periodic monarch, this would imply that all Locust carry human DNA somehow. This leads us to New Hope. I don't believe that the Locust were an artificial product. They span too far and too wide and are too many to be less than a century old. Therefore, this Queen looks human for a specific reason; she is special. I am led to believe that all female Drones are Berserkers in a male-dominated society. The concept of a supremely educated human-looking Queen seems very foreign from this perspective, and so I believe that the concept of the Queen is new and Myrrah is the first and last Queen.

The next question to ask is "Why do the Locust worship the Queen?" I believe that the Queen helped the Locust in a way that only she could. She is human and educated in the Tyran language. One thing that she could have given the Locust that would have benefited them greatly is technology. Drones and even the Kantus don't look like they would be able to invent computers and electronic databases that we see in Gears 2. They don't even seem to have the most basic concepts of electrical circuitry. It is likely that Myrrah 'enlightened' them and provided them with the extent of technology that they have at their disposal in the games. The only things that seem to be 'electrical' or 'computerized' in nature in Locust civilization are electronic databases, terminal computers, and the control mechanisms attached to beasts.

The third question to ask is "If the Queen isn't natural, then what is she?" She looks like a human and sounds like a human but is accepted by the Locust. The Locust hate humans. If Myrrah is fully human, surely the Locust would start questioning their Queen. What if she is both? New Hope suggests that Human-Drone hybrids were being produced at some point. The failures were kept as Sires. Perhaps the perfect specimens shared Myrrah's characteristics. (Disproportionately strong, supreme intellect, human appearance, and maybe Drone pheromones) She would use the technology salvaged from the scientists' equipment to prove her power to the Locust and wrote herself off as a goddess. In the years that followed, she quickly gathered influence across the horde. The Kantus would later modify their religion to include her as a goddess, hence, the calendar.

As for the Kantus being the oldest: that is simply an inference. The Kantus appear to be a scholarly pious race compared to the brutish primitive Drones. It simply would seem logical to say that the older civilization that evolved sentience first would be the more cultured. The old tunnels with great intricate designs seem to be the work of patient and forgiving hands. A Drone trying to carve something of that scale would likely break the rock out of frustration and sheer clumsiness.

I await your reply.

[Loosestrife]

Oh, I understand what you mean by Myrrah being a New Hope child and having taken over the Horde--I'm sorry I didn't express myself more clearly.

What I meant is that the Locust Horde itself, from the various artifacts you find, seems to have existed in its current eusocial state, "ruled" by a Queen, much longer than Myrrah's been around. That doesn't necessarily mean that all Locust Queens are humanoid like she is (in fact, my own assumption circa Gears 2 was that she was a New Hope child who'd superseded a much more monstrous, "true Locust" queen who may have been dying of natural or artificial causes around the time Myrrah appeared in the Hollow). The "every season has its opposite" belief, with the calendar that includes the paired Queen-Imulsion runes as opposites, point at this in my mind. Similarly the Locust tablets ("Rulers of Nexus" plates), Kantus scrolls, and Trinity of Worms emblem point at that religion integrating the Horde and Queen idea long before Myrrah showed up.

[SeranSpartan]

Oh, I understand what you mean by Myrrah being a New Hope child and having taken over the Horde--I'm sorry I didn't express myself more clearly.

What I meant is that the Locust Horde itself, from the various artifacts you find, seems to have existed in its current eusocial state, "ruled" by a Queen, much longer than Myrrah's been around. That doesn't necessarily mean that all Locust Queens are humanoid like she is (in fact, my own assumption circa Gears 2 was that she was a New Hope child who'd superseded a much more monstrous, "true Locust" queen who may have been dying of natural or artificial causes around the time Myrrah appeared in the Hollow). The "every season has its opposite" belief, with the calendar that includes the paired Queen-Imulsion runes as opposites, point at this in my mind. Similarly the Locust tablets ("Rulers of Nexus" plates), Kantus scrolls, and Trinity of Worms emblem point at that religion integrating the Horde and Queen idea long before Myrrah showed up.

Ah...an interesting idea. It is definitely possible.

However, I have a few qualms about the concept.

Firstly, it would interfere slightly with my idea of a Kantus-Drone War. I don't think that the Kantus would be very faithful to the leader of the Drones. The Queen would have to be an entity that has traits that both species respect and could jointly worship.

To play Devil's Advocate, it would be a good explanation to why the Berserkers are so aggressive, as they simply never served a reproductive role in the first place. It would make more sense than my flawed speculative theory of the Kantus's mission of artificially selecting only the most irrational and untamable Berserkers through espionage and assassination.

My second problem is that some Drones have navals...or Savage Grenadiers to be specific. In biology, reproductive matriarchs exist to lay eggs. A naval would imply that they are born live, much like mammals. Obviously, in the world of Sera, conventional rules of biology don't apply. But it is still irrational, in my opinion, to think that one central being could give live birth to hundreds and thousands of Drones in a small time period like Queens do.

Lastly, I call the age of the calendar into question. It includes humans as opposites to Drones. If the calendar is as old and traditional as you say it could be, this would mean that Drones have known about humans and cared about them enough to include them in their runes and calendars long before Myrrah's campaign against the surface. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say that the Trinity of Worms artifact and the calendar are relatively new. They are retelling old stories and religions but are including their newly descended God Queen into pre-existing dogma. This would fit perfectly with my theory in the original topic.

This is definitely interesting and you are adding some new possibilities into the equation. Such civil arguments are always welcome. Thanks for replying and good debate!

[Loosestrife]

Ah...an interesting idea. It is definitely possible.

However, I have a few qualms about the concept.

Firstly, it would interfere slightly with my idea of a Kantus-Drone War. I don't think that the Kantus would be very faithful to the leader of the Drones. The Queen would have to be an entity that has traits that both species respect and could jointly worship.

Yes, that's why I brought it up, since it would seem to point at the Kantus and the Drones being members of the same species rather than two separate species that were originally at war in the Hollow as you've surmised. The fact that Wretches kind of have physiological features of both Drones and Kantus had, back when Gears 2 was current, made me wonder if they weren't a juvenile stage that was capable of differentiating into either Drones or Kantus depending on the needs of the Horde. (With 9/10ths of Wretches simply remaining as Wretches, because it's costly in terms of resources to raise every Wretch into a Drone or Kantus or Berserker.)

To play Devil's Advocate, it would be a good explanation to why the Berserkers are so aggressive, as they simply never served a reproductive role in the first place. It would make more sense than my flawed speculative theory of the Kantus's mission of artificially selecting only the most irrational and untamable Berserkers through espionage and assassination.

To be fair, I really liked that theory! It was an interesting use of artificial selection.

My second problem is that some Drones have navals...or Savage Grenadiers to be specific. In biology, reproductive matriarchs exist to lay eggs. A naval would imply that they are born live, much like mammals. Obviously, in the world of Sera, conventional rules of biology don't apply. But it is still irrational, in my opinion, to think that one central being could give live birth to hundreds and thousands of Drones in a small time period like Queens do.

Actually, naked mole-rats are a good example of a mammalian species that has the same kind of eusocial caste structure that hive-living species that bees, ants, and termites do--so the fact that Locust clearly give live birth to their young is not necessarily an argument against them being organized in that fashion. (Although naked mole-rats have their castes enforced by pheromones rather than genetics, which means that non-breeding females can "graduate" to being queens of the community if the queen ceases to breed or dies. This is similar to how wasp hives are structured, though there's more initial competition involved in determining who the queen is in a wasp hive--the female who is able to lay the most eggs and consume most of her competitor's eggs establishes herself as the queen and forces other females in the hive into worker roles.)

Personally it's been my thought, since we know the Berserkers are breeders, that while the Queen herself might also breed and bear offspring, her primary role is to act as a dominant pheromone source that controls the quality, quantity, and frequency of offspring the other females of the Horde are breeding. (Thus "the queen makes strong drones, drones build Nexus, Nexus covers the queen". A Queen may not be the genetic mother of all the Drones who serve her, but a strong Queen with good pheromones improves the quality of the Horde, while a weak or dying Queen will have few offspring born under her reign.)

Lastly, I call the age of the calendar into question. It includes humans as opposites to Drones. If the calendar is as old and traditional as you say it could be, this would mean that Drones have known about humans and cared about them enough to include them in their runes and calendars long before Myrrah's campaign against the surface. If I were to make a suggestion, I would say that the Trinity of Worms artifact and the calendar are relatively new. They are retelling old stories and religions but are including their newly descended God Queen into pre-existing dogma. This would fit perfectly with my theory in the original topic.

It is possible that they're newly made to take Myrrah's presence into account; that's one thing I thought of when bringing them up, actually. One line I question though (aside from the ones I brought up in my previous comment) is "Queen makes strong drones, drones build Nexus, Nexus covers the queen". If the Kantus built Nexus, as your theory surmises, why would they give the Drones credit for having done so in this piece of doctrine? And since we know that Nexus is old enough to predate Myrrah's arrival in the Hollow, who else would the Drones have built it to "cover"?

Also I do not find it strange that the Locust would be more aware of the humans than the humans are of the Locust, nor that they'd incorporate them into the calendar under their philosophy of every season having its opposite. I actually have a Locust creation myth I've been toying with for years that I may post at some point that basically explains how they'd have had "ground-walkers" in their mythology the same way Seran humans had the Romily myth, only the Locust were very aware that humans existed. Especially after Immulsion mining started and the humans began tossing their junk into the Hollow.

This is definitely interesting and you are adding some new possibilities into the equation. Such civil arguments are always welcome. Thanks for replying and good debate!

You are welcome! I always enjoy a lively discussion. I think what you've got here is a really fascinating possible origin story and while it's not the one I'm carrying around in my head for the Locust and Myrrah, it's definitely a very well-thought-out and thoroughly researched one. I really like a lot of the ideas you've come up with, too.

[SeranSpartan]

Yes, that's why I brought it up, since it would seem to point at the Kantus and the Drones being members of the same species rather than two separate species that were originally at war in the Hollow as you've surmised. The fact that Wretches kind of have physiological features of both Drones and Kantus had, back when Gears 2 was current, made me wonder if they weren't a juvenile stage that was capable of differentiating into either Drones or Kantus depending on the needs of the Horde. (With 9/10ths of Wretches simply remaining as Wretches, because it's costly in terms of resources to raise every Wretch into a Drone or Kantus or Berserker.)

It is possible... However, in my opinion, it is unlikely. Wretches look too different to develop into a Drone or a Kantus in a reasonable time. To me, Wretches just seem to be carnivorous primates that were bred for war by the Locust. Kanti are also an issue. They just seem too different to be the same species as Drones. Their traits are completely unalike. For the Berserker, they are large, bulky, fierce, and hard-shelled. They are essentially exaggerated versions of their male counterparts. Kanti are tall, skinny, more reptilian, and have their vocal abilities. And even then, how would Wretches evolve naturally to be able to grow into 4 completely different forms?

To be fair, I really liked that theory! It was an interesting use of artificial selection.

Thanks. Considering that we don't see Berserkers very often on the battlefield implies that there may still be many viable ones. The Berserkers deployed on the front lines might be completely unrestrainable or infertile ones. The acceptable Berserkers are hidden deep in the Hollow to breed.

Actually, naked mole-rats are a good example of a mammalian species that has the same kind of eusocial caste structure that hive-living species that bees, ants, and termites do--so the fact that Locust clearly give live birth to their young is not necessarily an argument against them being organized in that fashion. (Although naked mole-rats have their castes enforced by pheromones rather than genetics, which means that non-breeding females can "graduate" to being queens of the community if the queen ceases to breed or dies. This is similar to how wasp hives are structured, though there's more initial competition involved in determining who the queen is in a wasp hive--the female who is able to lay the most eggs and consume most of her competitor's eggs establishes herself as the queen and forces other females in the hive into worker roles.)

Personally it's been my thought, since we know the Berserkers are breeders, that while the Queen herself might also breed and bear offspring, her primary role is to act as a dominant pheromone source that controls the quality, quantity, and frequency of offspring the other females of the Horde are breeding. (Thus "the queen makes strong drones, drones build Nexus, Nexus covers the queen". A Queen may not be the genetic mother of all the Drones who serve her, but a strong Queen with good pheromones improves the quality of the Horde, while a weak or dying Queen will have few offspring born under her reign.)

That is a good point. A Queen could regulate reproduction and serve as the matriarch of Drones so to speak. She could also be the answer to aggressive Berserkers and would be able to calm the Berserkers with pheromones.

Allow me to ask one question: Would the Queen's role pertain only to reproduction?

The reason I bring that up is because the Drone culture implies that there is always a strong authority to rally around. They are a warrior culture by nature. Berserkers don't seem to be as intelligent leaders as a veteran Theron would. Would these Queen Berserkers simply remain indifferent to politics and leadership and focus only on its job of regulating reproduction?


It is possible that they're newly made to take Myrrah's presence into account; that's one thing I thought of when bringing them up, actually. One line I question though (aside from the ones I brought up in my previous comment) is "Queen makes strong drones, drones build Nexus, Nexus covers the queen". If the Kantus built Nexus, as your theory surmises, why would they give the Drones credit for having done so in this piece of doctrine? And since we know that Nexus is old enough to predate Myrrah's arrival in the Hollow, who else would the Drones have built it to "cover"?[/QUOTE]

If you look closer at the Trinity of Worms artifact, it actually says "Queen makes strong Drones. Drones secure Nexus. Nexus covers Queen. This is very important as it says only that Drones protect Nexus and nothing of who built it. This means that it is still very possible for the Kantus to have built it thousands of years ago and happily abdicated their capital building for their new Goddess.

Also I do not find it strange that the Locust would be more aware of the humans than the humans are of the Locust, nor that they'd incorporate them into the calendar under their philosophy of every season having its opposite. I actually have a Locust creation myth I've been toying with for years that I may post at some point that basically explains how they'd have had "ground-walkers" in their mythology the same way Seran humans had the Romily myth, only the Locust were very aware that humans existed. Especially after Immulsion mining started and the humans began tossing their junk into the Hollow.

By all means, post it! This forum could always use more Locust stories and theories.

You are welcome! I always enjoy a lively discussion. I think what you've got here is a really fascinating possible origin story and while it's not the one I'm carrying around in my head for the Locust and Myrrah, it's definitely a very well-thought-out and thoroughly researched one. I really like a lot of the ideas you've come up with, too.

Thanks! New contributions are always welcome!

[Loosestrife]

It is possible... However, in my opinion, it is unlikely. Wretches look too different to develop into a Drone or a Kantus in a reasonable time. To me, Wretches just seem to be carnivorous primates that were bred for war by the Locust. Kanti are also an issue. They just seem too different to be the same species as Drones. Their traits are completely unalike. For the Berserker, they are large, bulky, fierce, and hard-shelled. They are essentially exaggerated versions of their male counterparts. Kanti are tall, skinny, more reptilian, and have their vocal abilities. And even then, how would Wretches evolve naturally to be able to grow into 4 completely different forms?

When we're dealing with a species that can bioengineer something like the Tempest or the Gas Barges, I am not going to rule out the possibility that they already have enough genetic variability themselves to have several different adult forms that all stem from one immature one. The notable (and noted) absence of Locust children and civilians makes it worth thinking about. Additionally, while the Kantus have significant variation from Drones and Drones from Wretches and Wretches from Kantus and all of them from Berserkers (and so on), they've also got similarities across the classes. Berserkers develop the same kind of epidermal spurs that the Kantus do on their joints; Wretches have a primitive form of the Kantus screech; Drones, Boomers, and Kantus all have well-developed claws; Kantus and Wretches adopt a more digitigrade stance versus the plantigrade stance of Drones, Berserkers, and Boomers; Wretches, Berserkers, and Kantus all have a more pronounced jaw and skull structure versus the more flattened facial structure of Boomers and Drones. I'd actually question the idea that Kantus are more reptilian, given they show much less scaling on their exposed skin versus the pronounced pebbly texture the Drones have, unless you're referring to their jaw structure, stance, and forked tongues. (Which, with the double row of teeth, is the only unique trait they have--the only other Hollow creature we see that recapitulated in is the Leviathans, which appear to have two entire sets of jaws, versus the Kantus' double row in a single jaw. Although that gives me more interesting ideas for origin myths.)

Additionally, it's not unknown for both cases of extreme sexual dimorphism (which we already have with the Drone/Berserker split) and caste specialization to exist in the same species. Ants are a good example; ant larvae begin life in a form completely different from adult ants, and male ants and virgin queens are both winged, in contrast to the various sterile worker female castes, which can vary morphologically from each other to a great degree depending on their role (soldier, worker, nursery ant, etc.). If the Kantus represent a separate biological caste of Locust, there's no reason why they wouldn't be morphologically different as adults.

Thanks. Considering that we don't see Berserkers very often on the battlefield implies that there may still be many viable ones. The Berserkers deployed on the front lines might be completely unrestrainable or infertile ones. The acceptable Berserkers are hidden deep in the Hollow to breed.

That's my thought, too. There's no point in putting your childbearers in the line of fire. (Which the COG has a similar stance on, even.)

That is a good point. A Queen could regulate reproduction and serve as the matriarch of Drones so to speak. She could also be the answer to aggressive Berserkers and would be able to calm the Berserkers with pheromones.

Allow me to ask one question: Would the Queen's role pertain only to reproduction?

The reason I bring that up is because the Drone culture implies that there is always a strong authority to rally around. They are a warrior culture by nature. Berserkers don't seem to be as intelligent leaders as a veteran Theron would. Would these Queen Berserkers simply remain indifferent to politics and leadership and focus only on its job of regulating reproduction?

That's actually the more typical role of a queen in a eusocial insect society. She isn't there to direct the group so much as she's there to manage its reproduction. The idea of "insect queen = supreme leader" is something that's been mapped on by human writers; the reverse is actually true, in that queens are actually very strictly managed by their hive or colony to ensure continuing reproduction and the entire group's health. A queen who's become reproductively incompetent triggers the colony to begin rearing virgin queens, and once a successful young queen is present, they'll kill or exile the old queen. (This is how it typically works in honeybee and ant communities, anyway. Wasps are a little different and tend to be more aggressive, with succession events happening more frequently as the current queen becomes unable to continue suppressing her rivals and is forced into a worker role.)

However this doesn't take the possibility of human-level intelligence/sociability into account. I imagine (and this dips into my unwritten backstory stuff on the Locust) that Queen Berserkers (and virgin Queen Berserkers) have several times the lifespan of their regular counterparts and tend to concern themselves with not just the reproductive success of the Horde but its survival and expansion as a whole. They're exceptional delegators (since their Kantus and Therons are much better at getting out and about the Hollow than they are) and good at long-term planning around the "seasons" of the Hollow and recurring threats like the Imulsion tides and the breeding seasons of the kryll and heart leeches; they're also the ones who deal with culling the Horde during food shortages and dictating who passes on their genes due to exemplary service. They don't, however, directly manage the disciplines of animal husbandry or technological advances or those brief military campaigns against human/feral Locust/Lambent incursions into the Hollow. Myrrah is exceptional in that she's the first Queen to do so--but they also needed a queen who could do that (and I have an unwritten-but-planned short called "Queenright" that addresses the old queen of the Horde handing them over to Myrrah on that premise, because she--the old Queen Berserker--knows that she can't fight a war against the Lambent).

But this is all from my conjecture (and also my fascination with insect colonies in the real world, ha ha). I don't expect you to necessarily adopt it into your history, they're just questions I've asked about the Locust since I come from a different background when approaching them.

If you look closer at the Trinity of Worms artifact, it actually says "Queen makes strong Drones. Drones secure Nexus. Nexus covers Queen. This is very important as it says only that Drones protect Nexus and nothing of who built it. This means that it is still very possible for the Kantus to have built it thousands of years ago and happily abdicated their capital building for their new Goddess.

Oops! You're right; I misread that. :blush: In that case, it's perfectly true that Nexus could have been built by anyone and later inhabited by the Drones.

By all means, post it! This forum could always use more Locust stories and theories.

Thanks! New contributions are always welcome!

I will certainly get on that. Gears 3 has brought me back with a vengeance and I am quite excited about writing up all the ideas I had circa Gears 2 and sharing them.

[Wisdom Thumbs]

I must say, the theory presented in the original post of this thread is exceptionally well thought out. In fact, I agree with a great deal of it, having spent years building up very similar theories of my own.

Unfortunately, much of the theory (most, in fact) is pure speculation, little more than fanfiction. This isn't much of a problem, it just means you can't call it a "theory" and stay straight-faced. The bits that are speculative fanfiction are even believable, in parts. But your ideas truly stand out when you back them up with what we know from the games.

One stand-out example would be the idea of the Therons being trained by the Kantus. That's actually a fairly cool idea, and one that not only makes a bit of sense, but could actually work within the game's lore.

And the idea that Grenadiers voluntarily remove their armor because they're molting? Frigging genius!

Your theory on Queen Myrrah fits perfectly with my own, as do your thoughts on the aging of Drones. I've always considered the majority of the Drones in the games to be little more than children, in age if not in body. And since the Drones are reptilian in nature, they grow throughout their life. Hence, General RAAM.

I maintain my own separate views on most of this thread, however. But when you make good points, I find that I agree with them. I would wholeheartedly recommend this thread to anybody seeking to reconcile canon-errors in the Gears lore. And furthermore, this is some cool ****.

(love your thoughts on the Boomers, btw - in a failed fanfiction idea of mine about a young General RAAM, the Boomers were the "soldier ants" of the ant-like tribal Locust society)

EDIT:

Also, no way are Wretches related to Drones or the Kantus. At least, not closely. The Wretches appear to be Mammalian, and even if they aren't, they're treated as dogs by the other Locust. The fact that Wretches wear armor proves that they aren't growing, at least not very fast. And if they were baby Drones, they'd need to grow pretty damn fast.

As for why they all have claws and similar skin, that would be because the Hollow is a very restrictive environment that requires a lot of digging. All the species of the Hollow would be capable of tunneling in some form or another, considering they live underground. At the very least, the claws make for good natural weapons, and for gripping surfaces in caves.

The Kantus' extra set of teeth prove that they aren't Drones, I might add. Though it's still possible they're all born from Berserkers just the same. Vaguely possible. But possible.

[Loosestrife]

Also, no way are Wretches related to Drones or the Kantus. At least, not closely. The Wretches appear to be Mammalian, and even if they aren't, they're treated as dogs by the other Locust. The fact that Wretches wear armor proves that they aren't growing, at least not very fast. And if they were baby Drones, they'd need to grow pretty damn fast.

No more or less mammalian than the other Locust on close inspection. They've got tail-stubs, though, which is unusual.

The ones we encounter in-game are indeed fitted with armor, but I suspect that's because they're the Wretches that would never mature into Drones or Kantus or Berserkers--so they're always going to be stuck at the "stupid Wretch" state. Remember we're dealing with a totally different culture here; there is no reason why they wouldn't use "children" that failed to mature into full intelligence or usefulness as shock troopers simply because there's no other use for them. (The same as they use Berserkers as heavy infantry.) The Locust don't demonstrate an awful lot of tender sentiment for the same things that humans would, because theirs is a group-oriented society. The Queen and the Horde are all, and they're not going to get emotional about Wretches that were never going to become intelligent in the first place. Wretches that will grow into adulthood probably show some sign of it at some point in their development and are pulled from the front lines so they can grow up into Drones/Kantus/Berserkers/whatever without being at risk in combat. (Alternately, combat provides a form of natural selection--the only Wretches that never see combat are those slated to become Virgin Queens, while all the rest are "proved" through combat. Wretches that survive demonstrate their worthiness to continue as [whatever they eventually grow into].)

As for why they all have claws and similar skin, that would be because the Hollow is a very restrictive environment that requires a lot of digging. All the species of the Hollow would be capable of tunneling in some form or another, considering they live underground. At the very least, the claws make for good natural weapons, and for gripping surfaces in caves.

The claws might be a form of convergent evolution, but the Locust (taken as a whole) are the only biped lineage we've encountered in the Hollow (aside Brumaks, but they've been subject to artificial selection to take the form they have now). Additionally, the claws aren't the only points of similarity--as I pointed out, both the Kantus and the Berserkers have the unusual spur formations on their joints, along with similarities in head and jaw development to Wretches. It's very easy to construct a plausible developmental tree that has the Wretches as an immature form with the other forms of Locust as mature forms, if you want to look at it from an expanded evo/devo standpoint.

Additionally, of all the other subterranean wildlife on Sera--rockworms, Serapedes, Reavers, tickers, the Riftworm, the gas barges, the bloodmounts, the Brumaks, the Leviathans, the manglers, the Siege Beasts--the ones that show superficial similarity in appearance to the sentient Locust are those that have been specifically bioengineered by the Locust. (The manglers are the exception here; they don't have the same pale skin and dark pebbling.) This could point at some aesthetic leaning on the Locust part, or a specific desire to select for genes more desirable for survival in the Hollow, or--and I think this is simultaneously the most interesting but ugliest possibility--the Locust used their own genetic stock for bioengineering. (We are told the Brumaks came from primate stock. Up to anyone's guess whether or not the Locust themselves count as primates; being humanoid and obviously viviparous they've got pretty much all the developmental earmarks of brachiating primates, same as humans, save for any trace of body hair and no evidence they ever lactated to feed their young.)

The Kantus' extra set of teeth prove that they aren't Drones, I might add. Though it's still possible they're all born from Berserkers just the same. Vaguely possible. But possible.

Well, yes. I'm pretty sure I've said all along that Kantus are a biologically distinct caste from Drones. That doesn't mean that they can't be genetically related to Drones, nor that a Wretch or Berserker wouldn't have the genetic material to become or breed a Kantus, respectively, if you take this particular theory as the correct one. Again, see what I said about ants concerning morphological diversity in the same species along both sex and caste lines.

Or if you want a more fantastic representation, Warhammer 40K's tyrannid and Starcraft's Zerg are both species where all the members are genetically the same species, but extremely morphologically diverse. Of course, in both those cases, reproduction is much more centrally controlled than with the Locust and there's even more extreme specialization across the castes.

I think I need to doodle up something to explain what I'm thinking about here.

[NFI]

Wisdom, Nice post. I follow what you are saying ( I teach ap anatomy as well as genetics and have a medical backround in my education). However one thing to add- Brumaks were bred from Apes.

[Ghost10251]

It was a fascinating read, and even if it's only a theory it was very convincing. Know thy enemy.

[SeranSpartan]

Wow, Wisdom Thumbs is here.

Thank you so much for your positive feedback. You're right; it is actually mostly speculation. It was the best I could do though due to the little amount of information we are given.

I really appreciate your kind words.

Hopefully, Epic will do something involving the Locust again like RAAM's Shadow but delves even deeper into Locust society.

[The Gubbler]

I know of course that this thread is about locust origins but what about human origins on Sera. Do we know when Sera was colonized from Earth or is it in a sort of imaginary parallel universe (if so why then is society there so American?) All the wars between the Locust and Kantus and the development of llocust society in the Hollow must have been obvious to human settlers long before e-day - and not just to a handful of scientists like Adam Fenix? What did they think of this potential threat beneath their feet?

[Mysterion Rises]

I have read so many theory's online and I must say that this is the strongest one yet !!! Well done what a great read that was and the way you put together all the intel you had from the three games was fantastic !!! If this was the real story then this would be totally believable for me personally. I loved your theory on the drones boomers and therons and how you explained the age difference between drones and grenadiers! For me this is right the locust can't be some bull crap imulsion infected miners the quantity of drones is far greater than just a bunch of sick miners! I loved reading your story the only thing I don't know if i can believe or not is the war with drones n kantus but what u made up was absolutely brilliant so I have nothing bad to say about this just I don't know if I can believe it but I know I couldn't come up with anything even close to what u have so I have no reason to slate it!

Absolutely brilliant theory you should be proud well done by far the most believable theory and I hope this is actually the truth about the locust and the queen! I'm off to read your theory on Raam

[Shotchipmunk77]

5 stars dude Felt like i was reading a book

[bleeding pepper]

I approve.

[Shotchipmunk77]

Dude i keep coming back to this cause i was playing as the kantus and theron and GOD YOUR AMAZING!!

[Some geez]

this is sooooo believable i love it!

[SeranSpartan]

Wow, I just came back to the forums from a little break and I'm getting a flood of positive feedback.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Sorry to those who I didn't get a chance to reply to earlier, you know who you are.

To add something on topic to the discussion, I'd ask if Epic would ever really let us know the truth behind the Locust or at least give us a few more clues to feast on with DLC or books. If they do, I'll be sure to change these theories up to suit the facts in whatever way I can.

Cheers everyone!

[Dutchmaster Guru]

Great read. I also enjoyed the raam follow up. Very well written

[DeRobertC]

i will read this at somepoint 8|

[seasoned gear head]

I read the raams life theroy first..could not read that without reading this haha

only one think i dare to question is the end where the queen deceids to rise due to imulsion i knew that was a contributing factor but i thought the humans tried going underground this caused the locust to rise up..im just putting it out there would love to hear your thoughts.. i may very well be wrong and when the locust rised from the lambent the humans retaleated this seems more likely with your theroy

thanks for giving us some insight to the locust

peace

[Savage Stranded]

It's a shame the Kantus had to turn savage and die because of the stupidity of the drones and the queen. If they(Myrrah and Fenix went public with the Cog Government They could have worked together to stop the Lambent. Such tragedy they couldn't live in peace.

[Chubster25]

i loved it great read.

[Tysodie]

Very nice work, was very interesting to read, great work

[osowanted]

Good read. It's sound very convincing to me

[are8900]

This is a really good theroy, but I would hate to be a theron because of the voice changing ritual.

[HyperOnyx]

Interesting theory...

[Born_Brothers]

really good ill be reading ur others

[MinhFTW]

Awesome read! I especially enjoyed the description as to how the locust horde rose to power. Even though this theory is full of speculation, I'd rather it reign true as official lore more so than any other locust origin theory I've heard.

[JMysterial]

Amazing, convinving. Simply amazing.
Read every single word. Keep up the good work.

[A FEARED NINJA]

very interesting

[HennessyROB]

It would be a dream come true if they'd release an animated Blu-ray with the backstory.

[Golden Locust]

Amazing work! I Readead every wrote. Keep it up! Not it makes alot more sense.