Species

Appearance

They are hooved animals that have a lot of insect features, looking like a combination of pony and bugs.

Dark Changelings

Dark changelings are often black or a dark grey, with carapace-like, furless exteriors, webbed manes and tails, blue non-reflective eyes (unlike their queen's), fangs, bent horns, jagged ears, insect-like wings, and holes in their legs.

They feed with love whcih they suck out of their victims. They reproduce through eggs laid by their Queen, Chrysalis.

Reformed Changelings

Following their metamorphosis, changelings have varied coat colors and insect characteristics, such as Thorax and Pharynx's horns, and they no longer have fangs or holes in their bodies. They also have more physical differences among them: some possess longer, more jagged horns, and others no longer have horns at all. Others still no longer have tails. Some also have a trio of gemstone-like objects in their chests.

They no longer need to feed on love.

Kirinaria Changelings

Changelings from the Kirinaria Mercenary group don't need to feed on love, but they sometimes choose the appearance of dark changelings. For them, whether they look like a dark or reformed changeling is a choice. They can still suck the love out of someone if they want to, but they usually use this only in combat.

Bases

See on Discord

localization

before the great cataclysm

Settlement: The Changeling Kingdom, in the proximity of the Forest of Leota.

Relationship with grifix: They interacted with the grifix before the First Great Migration, but since they had no grifix interactions. While their Queen is aware of the grifix's existence, they take no interest on grifix.

After their metamorphosis they most probably don't even know that grifix exist.

Relationship with other species: They interact a lot with ponies after their metamorphosis.

Clothing and accessories: None

After the great cataclysm

Settlement: The Kirinaria Mercenary Camp

Relationship with grifix: Mostly interactions with grifix scholars from the Frozen Empire, that come to the mercenary group for knowledge gathering, or herbalists that come to gather exotic plants.

Relationship with other species: they are on good terms with zebras, kelpies, abada and hippogriffs. They live together with kirin in the camp.

Clothing and accessories: Unrestricted

Reproduction

Queens are pretty much the only changelings that lay eggs in the swarm, and therefore they are the mothers of every changeling. Young Queens are future queens that have not yet reached maturity and can't reproduce yet. During Queen Chrysalis's reign, she would imprison the young queens so that they could not reproduce or leave the hive, therefore keeping them as mere emergency solutions if something were to happen to herself. If Queen Chrysalis were to die without any spare queens, the changeling race would come to an end.

During Thorax's reign, the queens became merely a different kind of changeling. Being set free, they made many queens and they became more common. Still, they were the only kind of changeling that could produce eggs.

After the great cataclysm, things changed. The big population of the hive could not be maintained, and yet they freaked out and decided that all queens must be protected. Laying queen eggs seemed to be draining for queens, and leave them unable to lay other eggs for long period of times, so they agreed that queens would only be allowed to lay queen eggs when they wanted to retire.

Now, there are just 4 queens left in the hive. They are highly protected. When one decides to retire, she must at all costs lay a queen egg, for a new queen to take her place. They do not hold much power, the name of "queen" is merely honorary. The lifespan of a queen is much longer than that of a regular changeling. They only fall in love once in their lifetime, and they will produce hundreds of eggs throughout their life.

The hive is mostly made up of the children of just four queens.

Rarely, regular changelings are able to lay a 1 to 3 eggs but those have a much lower chance of survival and hatching successfully.