Elith
The Elith are a type of semi-sapient Autobion from Inferno.
Design
Elith are modular, with several different body parts which can be arranged around each other. The only uniting part is the Head, which contains a single glowing eye and several different sensory prostheses. Each Head has its own memory base and processors, and can be attached to any body.
Different types of Elith use different bodies, such as the snake-like form which enables them to travel through small cracks. Sentries have two large projectile launchers coming from an armoured torso.
List of Elith Castes
- Factory-Mother (See below)
- Forger (See below)
- Commander (acts as a hub for soldier drones)
- Soldier (armed with cannons and engines)
- Sentry Drone (stationary, armed with canons)
- Supplier Drone (supplies the factory-mother with raw materials)
- Snake Drone (reconnaissance)
- Miner Drone (mines for metal lodes)
- Scavenger Drone (finds scrap or small Autobions, then returns them to the hive. Armed with small cannon and crushing claws)
- Medic Drone (rebuilds damaged Elith)
Hives
Elith are social Autobions. Within their enormous, burrowed hives many thousands of Heads are kept, and then transferred by the Body-Distributor Elith into appropriate bodies for the situation. As all Elith are wirelessly connected, they can choose the correct forms to deal with detected threats.
At the centre of the Hive is the Mother-Factory, an enormous Elith with a specially designed head which is incapable of separation. Raw materials are placed in the Mother-Factory's great grinders, and from the rear emerge and great number of heads and modules.
Forger-Eliths produce bodies from the modules produced by the Mother-Factory. As with the Mother-Factory, they are non-modular. They are only produced every year, whereas Heads are produced all the time.
Intelligence
Elith are individually not particularly intelligent, about as clever as a crocodile or possum, though Factory-Mothers are able to effectively model potential designs. However, they combined intelligence of a Hive is often enough to create processing power far better than that of a human.
Contact with Daemons
The Daemons on Inferno often send out Goblin raiding parties to take Elith technology. In almost every case, the Goblins come back empty handed and much reduced in number, but the Elith nest is also badly damaged.
