Arachnoax possessed long lifespans. Naturally, they could live for over a hundred years before their bodies began to weaken with age. Yet, in the entire history of Eukaryota… almost no Arachnoax truly reached such an advanced age.
The official reason taught in royal schools was simple: the planet's resources were never enough to sustain all their offspring. However, Kristo knew a truth that was far simpler and far more cruel.
Since the earliest eras when sentient beings first set foot on the soil of Eukaryota, the Arachnoax had been divided into ten great tribes. Ten tribes that later evolved into ten kingdoms:
Kata, Vamrah, Myrthea, Scaraba, Mravij, Maurr, Myra, Miere, Mymrex, and Moirb.
Those ten kingdoms had existed since the time their ancestors hunted wild creatures in ancient mushroom fields. They endured through the age of metals, the age of monarchies, and finally entered the industrial era of today. Throughout that long history, one thing never changed. There were always ten major groups ruling the lands of Eukaryota.
Never more.
Never less.
For nearly ten thousands years, no one truly questioned it. To most Arachnoax, the existence of ten kingdoms felt like a law of nature—something that had always been and would always be. But about two hundred years ago, that question finally surfaced.
And when it emerged, it spread like a storm.
Philosophers, researchers, and thinkers from various kingdoms began to trace the history of their species. They dug through ancient archives, studied old artifacts, and examined patterns previously dismissed as coincidence. Their species had lived for ten millennia. Yet, for the first time, they began to ask: Who are the Arachnoax, truly?
Various theories arose. Some claimed the ten tribes were a legacy of legendary ancestors. Others argued the division was merely the result of a forgotten ancient war. Yet many of these theories vanished just as quickly as they appeared—along with their creators.
One did not need to think deeply to know who was responsible for the disappearance of those thinkers. The Queens and their families, who had held power for thousands of years, never liked the idea of common beings questioning the foundation of their rule.
It was only about a hundred years ago that the hunt for these thinkers ceased. Not because the Queens had a change of heart, but because the truth had become too massive to hide.
The answer was finally found—not in historical records, but in the very origins of Arachnoax birth. Arachnoax were not born through fertilization between two individuals of different sexes like most living things. They were born from psychic energy. Energy emitted by the Queens. The ten queens now known in historical records as Matriarchs.
Every Matriarch possessed extraordinary psychic abilities—the power to open a path to another dimension beyond the physical world. That dimension was known as the Realm of Thought.
The Realm of Thought was not a place in the conventional sense. It was an ocean of consciousness formed by the thoughts of living beings—a ceaseless flow of ideas, emotions, instincts, and wills.
The eggs produced by Arachnoax females would be brought before the Matriarch. Then the Matriarch, with her psychic power, would open a path between the Realm of Thought and the physical world, connecting it to the eggs until they finally hatched.
Naturally, the eggs were actually capable of hatching without anyone's help. However, the psychic power of the Matriarchs was so immense that it had sealed the path between the Realm of Thought and the physical world for their entire species. Like a giant, seamless umbrella holding back a torrential rain.
Only through the Matriarchs could that path be opened. And when the path was opened, the Matriarchs did not simply let life be born at random.
They chose.
The thoughts of a fighter would be infused into an egg, birthing a warrior Arachnoax who knew only war. The thoughts of an inventor would birth a researcher Arachnoax who lived only to create knowledge. The thoughts of a laborer would birth an Arachnoax who understood only toil and devotion throughout their life.
Free will—if it ever existed—had been erased before they were even born. An Arachnoax did not choose their path in life. That path was determined before their eggshell ever cracked. Throughout their lives, they had only one unchanging purpose: to serve the Matriarch who created them.
But the Matriarchs' psychic umbrella began to leak.
At first, it was just small, nearly invisible cracks. A few eggs hatched without truly being touched by the psychic will of the Queens. These Arachnoax children were born without a predetermined purpose, without thoughts implanted from the start. They were born… free.
Their numbers were initially very few, almost insignificant. But as time passed, the cracks in the Matriarchs' psychic umbrella widened. More and more eggs hatched beyond their control. And with the birth of this new generation, something long lost from the world of the Arachnoax slowly reappeared.
Questions.
Arachnoax began to ask about themselves. About their origins. About the purpose of their lives. From these questions, things previously almost unknown in their world were born: new ideas, art, philosophy, and culture.
Cities began to fill with thinkers, artists, and inventors. A world that for thousands of years moved like a colony machine slowly transformed into a civilization filled with diverse thought. But along with the advancement of thought… something far more dangerous was born.
Individualism.
It is true that the era when every Arachnoax lived only to serve the Matriarch sounds horrific to the current generation. In those days, there was no personal will, no dreams, and no life choices. But the world in those days was also far simpler.
The entirety of Eukaryota consisted of only ten great colonies. Ten wills ruling billions of bodies. Ten purposes driving the world. The needs of ten wills—no matter how great—would never be larger than the desires of billions of individuals, each pursuing their own goals.
When free will was reborn, the old equilibrium collapsed. Wars that previously only occurred between colonies now turned into endless conflicts. Struggles for territory, resources, and power became rampant across every corner of the world.