From the introduction: Ages ago, the formians of Castrovel were a species divided by hive affiliation. Such was the formians’ internal division at this time, that their many hives were in a constant state of war against one another. The continent of the Colonies was an ongoing battleground between opposing hives, and the formians rarely had time to focus on elements beyond warfare. Their queens focused on breeding new generations of soldiers one after another to fuel the unceasing conflict. All of this changed when several of the largest hives agreed to a conference known as the Meeting of Queens. During this historic gathering, the formian hives banded together and agreed to set aside their differences to work in the service of the “Overqueen,” a purely theoretical concept that simply gave the queens an ultimate authority figure without actually ceding any authority.