The Arachmen have developed a highly specialized agricultural system tailored to their unique genetic needs. Their diet is primarily insectivorous, but it is deeply intertwined with their geological environment:
• Primary Food Sources: The staple diet consists of high-mineral and high protein subterranean insects, including various species of crystalline or metallic larvae, grubs and centipedes.
• Mineral-based Feed: To maintain their biological stability—which requires rare metals like gallium, tungsten, copper, and titanium—the Kh’tuk farm specialized insects.Economy and industry are centered around the extraction and processing of deep-earth materials within their cities:
• Active Mining Operations: The Kh’tuk are industrious miners who actively extract shimmering ores from the earth.
• Logistics: Workers frequently haul large boulders of ore into durable silken bags within their central hubs for processing or trade.
• Environmental Cooling: Their physiology is so tied to their mineral intake that they utilize elemental gallium as a biological coolant, expelling it through their sweat follicles during intense physical labor.
Financial System: The Tantalum Standard
The Arachmen economy is backed extensively by copper, which is their most important commodity.
• Sacred Currency: however, the official currency of the Arachmen consists of flat, tantalum discs. Which act like their gold, experiencing price fluctuations and having a flexible value.
Za’yitik: The Spectrum of Thought
Za’yitik is the primary linguistic framework of the Arachmen. It is a dual-layered language that exists in both the visual and auditory realms.
• Visual Component (Spectral Lines): The language utilizes coloured lines and symbolic photon packets that shift across the vision of the listener. These spectrographic sequences function like a biological binary code, allowing for the transmission of complex technical or emotional data at the speed of light.
• Verbal Component (Acoustic Vibration): When spoken aloud, Za’yitik is a haunting mechanical symphony. It is produced through abdominal buzzing—using the beating and shaking of hollow, chitinous chambers—and fang stridulation, where they rub their chelicerae together to create precise, high-frequency clicks and hisses, which can be altered in pitch by their specialized tongue, which can catch the sound and either elevate or lower its pitch.Hex-Sign: The Geometry of Motion
For situations where silence is mandatory or speed is of the essence, the Arachmen use Hex-sign.
• Geometric Precision: This rapid sign language utilizes all six arms to form complex, interlocking geometric shapes. Each shape represents a concept.
• Stealth & Night-Cycle: Hex-sign is the primary mode of communication during the quiet hours of the night, allowing the colony to remain coordinated without the heat generation of verbal buzzing.
• Dancing: Dancing and singing is their most popular recreational activity, and uses Hex-sign as a form of high-speed lyrical combat where the speaker signs at such a velocity that the shapes blur into a continuous flow of geometric poetry.
• Communal Hatcheries: Egg sacs are placed in specialized polymer incubators, containing two to five hatchlings per sac. Older young are raised in mineral controlled nurseries and fed via automated dispensers to ensure proper exoskeleton hardening.• The Ce'puq: Their primary pet and tool is a dog sized, environmentally altered frog that sees in infrared and sees the tiniest chemical changes in the air. These creatures are jet black, and milky eyed, and are used for heavy excavation using their powerful legs, as well as living thermometers to detect dangerous lava heat that can kill a Kh’tuk from several meters away, as they are naturally immune to it. They are also used as family pets and for child protection and play.