Insect User

About
Insect Users, sometimes also called Insect Tamers, are a special tribe of people that can fuse Insects into their own body and use them as weapons for combat. The process fuses the Soul of the User with the Insect that is introduced, allowing the latter to develop a personality and emotions as if it had a Soul of its own. They are typically very versatile due to the skills they can borrow from many different insects can be used for different purposes, in and out of combat. Cricket is apparently a very common family name for an Insect Tamer. Because of the unappealing nature of the tribe, they're generally seen negatively by other people, as they're considered dirty or even disgusting. This prejudiced thinking also brings a lot of misconceptions about them, as it is believed that they're prone to carry diseases or to be insanitary. This is actually extremely false as they're very attentive to their own personal hygiene and they infact develop stronger immune systems that even makes them resistant to many poisons.

In order to be considered a fully fledged Insect User, you need to have at least 4 Insects kept within your body. However, Insect Users must know their own limits. If they absorb far too many insects their mind will be dominated by the will of the insects and they will lose their sense of self, becoming not too different from mindless monsters. In addition to that, an Insect User must eat to sustain not only himself, but all the other Insects kept within his body, developing an abnormal appetite as a result. Most Insect Users can house four inside their body, and while it is generally impossible to achieve, there have been particularly rare and powerful insect users that could host over 10. A legendary Insect User from the past managed to carry over 20 Insects inside his body, with his tale getting passed on within the tribe as one of their traditions ever since.

Insect Users also have the tradition of inscribing tattoos all over their bodies. These might look as nothing more than simple lines and circles to outsiders but they all carry a different meaning to them and they show great pride in showcasing them. Because of it, they usually wear an established set of robes that exposes some of their most important sections. Their lifestyle is rather humble and simplistic, living in simple tents with only basic necessities or even replacing human commodities with their own abilities, like sleeping in a cocoon instead of a regular bed. The tribe lived in the Kingdom of Zeth in village of their own where all insect users coexisted, following their own customs and traditions. After getting an approval by an Elder of the Village, they undergo a ritual where they introduce an Insect inside their bodies. The more experienced Elders could tell the limits of each User and/or determine if they were ready to host a new insect inside them, and their approval was required to formally carry out the ritual. It takes place in the Altar in the center of the village, where an Insect Egg is selected from one of the pots and introduced somewhere on the body after a small incision. The process is initially painful, and it can last several days before the Insect becomes settled inside and goes under its host's control. Sometimes there can be problems of incompatibility between Insects, as certain species are prone to developing certain personalities and might not get along with the other Insects inhabiting the body of the User. This often maniphests as an intense physical pain for the User, and can bring severe consequences if the compatibility is not somehow solved. However, the personalities of the Insects can develop differently depending on its host so species that are considered incompatible might work well together depending on the personality of the User or their own talent as a Tamer.

At present, Insect Users are extremely uncommon on The Continent due to the "Extermination of Foreign Cultures" that took place in Zeth in the year GI1011, where their village was destroyed and all the Insect Users were persecuted and killed. Because of this, there is only a selected few remaining Insect Users who have managed to run away from the massacre.