Chimera Ants
Chimera Ants are a race of insects that feature in Hunter x Hunter.
Contents |
History
Chimera Ants (Japanese: キメラ゠アント or キメラ 蟻 アント, Hepburn: Kimera Anto) were a species of originally diminutive insect that populated the Dark Continent. Due to their nature, they were classed as a class-1 quarantine threat and ordinary people were not allowed near such dangerous insects. At some point, a Chimera Ant Queen evolved to the height of two meters in length and was washed away into the ocean where she emerged on human islands. Upon arriving on the island, the Queen remained in hiding where she consumed animals such as fish to build her strength as she sought to birth a Chimera Ant King. Typically, the Hunter Kite studied larger animals but began to look into the Chimera Ants after they were seen on the human mainland. His team aided in conducting a biological survey where they found a broken Chimera Ant Queen claw. Meanwhile, the Queen sought larger prey instead of the small animals she had consumed. She eventually consumed a pair of human children and began producing offspring with human DNA as well as intelligence. The Queen then commanded her offspring to bring her more humans to devour and later settled at a site that became her castle home. This territory was situated in the Mitene Union at a Neo-Green Life (NGL) Autonomous Region that were areas whose inhabitants abandoned all forms of technology and lived a primitively agrarian existence. Due to their societal setup, the attacks that captured scores of citizens could not be communicated from the area and thus the ants were never discovered allowing the Chimera Ants to grow without being discovered. By this point, the Ants began to experience armed resistance from human soldiers where they first encountered technology such as guns that were used to repel them. More ants were birthed that demonstrated increasing levels of individuality that saw them act on their own desires. Around this time, they managed to kill NGLs King and shadowy Don Gyro effectively controlling the interior of the region. It was during this time that the ants began to encounter Hunters and sought their genes to add to their own traits. In time, the Chimera Ants began to gain the potential to make use of Nen.
From the biological survey team, the Hunters Association learnt of the Chimera Ants and waited on the decision of the world's leaders on how to handle this matter. It was decided that a complete extermination of the Ants and wanted a quick as well as swift elimination of these dangerous creatures. It was determined that the only way to stop s Chimera Ant explosion was to eliminate the Queen. Around this time, the Ants began to develop their own means of utilising Nen. The Hunters higher ranked members then begin eliminating Chimera Ant squadrons one by one as part of a strategy to diminish their numbers. Despite the Hunters efforts, the King was born early with his early brutal emergence mortally wounding the Queen. The King Meruem immediately set off on his own with the Royal Guard that left behind the rest of the Chimera Ants. With the Queen fatally injured and losing her ability to reproduce, the various Squadron Leaders decided to abandon the nest and form their own kingdoms to rule. It was predicted that if allowed to be free that these Squadron Leaders would attempt to reproduce and devastate the ecosystem. As the Ants began to spread, they began preying on humans in the cities leading to the media first encountering them who referred to the creatures as Unidentified Mysterious Animals (UMAs) that were thought of different groups of Magical Beasts. They began to start killing more humans that came to know the existence of the Chimera Ants.
By this point, the scattered Chimera Ant Squadron Leaders had sought their own interests and held no fealty to the King. Only a few Chimera Ants remained loyal to the Queen as she died with the Squadron Leader Colt agreeing to provide intelligence to the Hunters Association to stop the rest of his kind. Meanwhile, Meruem and his Royal Guard managed to take control over the kingdom of East Gorteau where they controlled it's ruler as a puppet to make it appear as under human rule. Elsewhere, the female Ant Zazan established herself as a Queen at her own castle nest at Meteor City where she used her powers to mutate humans into Ants that followed her. She along with her followers were ultimately killed by the Hunters of the Phantom Troupe. This caused a number of Ants to join forces with the Chimera Ant King in order to get shelter from the Hunters. By this point, the Hunters Association had captured three hundred and nineteen Chimera Ants outside of NGL but none were Squadron Leaders. There were by this point eight Squadron Leaders that were aggressive with Cheetu being among their number who sought to join the Chimera Ant King to increase his power. Whilst the Squadron Leaders held no fealty to the King, they began to join with him as their interests aligned with him making them temporary allies which was the reason why the Royal Guard kept them at a distance as they were deemed untrustworthy.
Chairman Netero and his task force of Hunters began their plan to eliminate the King. This saw Hunters engage his Royal Guard whilst he himself drew out the King to engage him at an isolated location. The Royal Guard were thus unable to aid him as Netero engaged Meruem in one-on-one combat with the Chairman failing to defeat the Chimera Ant. This engagement proved to had been a trap as the Chairman detonated a Miniature Rose nuclear weapon in close quarters to the King. As a result, Netero was killed whilst the King was mortally wounded though he as recovered by Royal Guards Pouf and Youpi recovered him where they sacrificed much of their bodies to feed him to recover completely. Muruem had briefly suffered from amnesia but managed to recover his memories whereupon he wanted to re-unite himself with the human Gungi player Komugi who he had developed feelings for during their time together. Furthermore, the Chimera Ant King had suffered from a fatally dose of radiation from the Miniature Rose which spread to his Royal Guard killing the. As a result, Meruem died in the arms of Komugi who similarly perished from the radiation. As a result, the conflict between the Chimera Ants and mankind had ended with the remaining Ants seeking a peaceful resolution. Some sought to reconnect with their human lives whilst others sought simple peaceful isolation. The Hunters Association covered the events of the Chimera Ant conflict and reclassified them as Magical Beasts to prevent them from being targeted in the future.
Overview
Due to their unique nature, the appearance of Chimera Ants varied widely among their species. Originally, they were simple small insects with the Queens able to grow to 10 centimetres in length. However, as a result of their evolution, a Chimera Ant Queen was born that was measured to 2 meters in length and were the size of grown humans. Furthermore, they incorporated the traits of other species which meant Chimera Ants could hold various different animal traits. It was this trait that led to them also being known as Gourmet Ants (グルメアント, Gurume Anto) on account for their voracious appeties and them carefully selecting their food to eat. Despite that, they were considered insects and had sharp claws, tough skin and sometimes had wings allowing some of their breeds to fly. Certain types were able to deploy a tail with a poisonous stinger that could paralyse prey. Alternatively, they could inject their venom through a bite in their prey. When poisoned by their nerve toxin, ordinary humans could not move around by three days and were paralysed for at least a month. During their evolution, latter breed Ants had tough hard shells of insects that were combined with human agility. Even after being dismembered, an Ant was able to survive an entire day after being separated. The only exact means of killing a Chimera Ant was by crushing the head. They were deemed as class-1 quarantined insects and held as aggressive insatiable carnivores who even in their original state could swarm their harms in order to consume any prey nearby. After evolving to beyond two meters in length they were seen as a danger to human beings. By this point, they were able to eat large animals such as horses or devour humans. Chimera Ants from different generations were effectively different organisms which prevented any way for them to make use of organ transplants from their own kind. For communication, the Ants made use of telepathy allowing them to speak to another of their kind. However, members of the Royal Guard breed were incapable of using telepathy. During their evolution, they began to learn to make use of Nen allowing their kind to make use of the unique abilities generated from this power.
They were stated to be unique creatures more do due to their nature rather than their environment. This was due to their unique method of reproduction that was unlike any other organism. Reproduction was achieved by the Chimera Ant Queen through a special process called Phagogenesis (摂食交配 (Sesshoku Kouhai?) whereby they ate another organism and passed on those species traits to the next generation of offspring. By consuming multiple organisms, a Queen was able to pass on a mix of genes to her offspring. With each feeding, a Chimera Ant Queen laid one to five eggs that were able to green sacs which could stick to ceilings. These were the first generation of births having no reproductive capability with these becoming worker or soldier ants. These ants worked in service to the Queen and her eventual successors. Those successors eventually consisted of the Chimera Ant King and another Queen that served as her successor. As a result, Queens were always searching to consume the genes of strong organisms so that she could pass these on to her offspring. Through this process, Chimera Ant Queens were capable of consuming any species they desired to extinction. This was because of their voracious appetites that allowed them to consume their own weight many times over in a single day. To birth the King, the Queen ordered to be fed with 50 humans a day with this later growing to 100 humans a day. Their capacity to grow to at a minimum of 2 meters allowing them to devour a human in no time. Chimera Ant soldiers were capable of reproduction by copulating with females of other species. However, soldiers belonging to a colony led by a Queen did not reproduce but there were reports of Ants attempting to reproduce after her death.
Typically, only the Queen demonstrated any intelligence or capacity to speak. They had no concept of culture and did not initially make use of individual names. However, after consuming humans, her offspring were born as the result of the incorporation of human genes. It surprised her by being able to speak as the early Queen lacked the ability to speak as human beings. These ants stated that it was to better understand and execute the orders of the Queen. An aspect of their genetic inheritance from consumed prey meant that Chimera Ants similarly developed personality traits of the devoured prey. Thus, humans devoured that showed intense loyalty led to an ant being born with similar personality traits. As such, they had memories of when they were human though naturally some remembered more than others with these personalities strongly influencing an Ants current behaviour. In fact, many could remember their human names and it was this ability that made it easy for them to learn to speak. They could also have flashes of memories from the consumed prey of loved ones causing them to avoid harming such individuals. This led to a growing amount of individuality among the ants such as making requests from the Queen to asking for names or competing for glory. In time, the ants were able to develop greater intelligence allowing them to read books and learn about the workings of technology such as guns. Though gaining names was deemed useful, growing individual was seen a threat to their command structure as they lost the unity of their ant forebears. This saw more ants act rogue and defy orders as they sought their own wishes rather than the collective goal of the nest. Some were shown to get a perverse pleasure in killing and devouring humans. Whilst always aggressive it was believed that the consumption of malicious humans made some ants even more evil. Eventually, the Chimera Ants began unlocking the power of Nen. Furthermore, as they evolved from wild animals, the Ants were adept on hiding and ambushing their prey.
Prey such as humans were deemed as food with a Queen requiring large quantities of thus highly nutritious food. A Queen stated that humans were delicious and commanded that more of the species was caught to consume. It was deemed that fully grown adult humans were the most nutritious which was why they were abducted. Nen users were stated to hold enormous life potential with a single member being the equivalent of a thousand regular humans. As such, Nen users became prized prey for the Chimera Ants though they were rare to find. In larger nests, prey such as humans had their bodies dumped into large puts to hold them and make them ready for consumption. As they evolved, they began to make use of freezers to store humans in to prevent the food from going rotten. Certain kind of Ants even served as chefs that were responsible for preparing the human meat for consumption. Chimera Ants during their evolution also gained a perverse pleasure in hunting prey and found a great deal of enjoyment in doing so. As an aggressive species, it was said that the human evolved Chimera Ants gained the more villainous human traits from their prey that shaped their psyche.
The ants demonstrated a colony based hierarchy that was similar to other hive insects and were divided into five rankings. At the top was the Queen that commanded a nest and produced more members of their kind. After birthing a large number of Ants, the Queen's attention was freed of any disturbances whilst she focused on the birth of the King with her consuming a large amount of food for the birthing. Queens moved repeatedly until they found a place they liked whereupon she birthed a large number of carpenter ants that constructed get castle at incredible speed. From that point onwards, the Queen remained her castle until her eventual death. In this time, she remained in the castle whilst she periodically gave birth to more Kings. He Kings travelled and mates with different organisms in order to breed new Queens. Thus served as the reason for their fast reproduction that led population explosions. Beneath the Queen was numerous of her offspring that operated as soldiers and workers. The next ranking present were the royal guard with their purpose being the service and protection of the eventual King. Royal guard ants served the Queen until the birth of the King whereupon the hierarchy shifted. At that point, the royal guard moved into service towards the king with the next chain of the ladder directly making contact with the Queen. The next rank were the squadron leaders that led forays of the soldiers and commanded missions such as the acquisition of more food. As the nest grew, it could hold multiple squadron leaders that commanded a squadron composed of numerous soldier ants. When meeting the squadron leaders, the Queen made use of a telepathic summons that manifested as a ringing sensation in the ears. After the departure of the royal guard to the King, the Squadron Leaders reported directly to the Queen who began to oversee her soldiers. Each Squadron Leader had four or five officers beneath them who in turn commanded ten to fifteen soldiers. Beneath the squadron leaders were the captains that oversaw the soldiers and other grunts. Soldiers were dispatched to search for the best food that they could find for their queen. For the purpose of birthing a strong King, a Queen often sought strong soldiers and thus produced more soldier ants so that her army could grow in size. They were divided between the rank and file soldiers to stronger command breeds that served as officers. Officers had the potential to actually see Nen whereas the lower ranking foot soldiers were incapable of seeing or responding to such attacks. Foot soldiers form of communication was stated to be simplistic and to the point. Only the more evolved ants of higher rank such as officers had the capacity to manipulate complex weaponry. Such Chimera Ant were able to see the life force aura of humans that utilize this power to perform superhuman feats. Such higher ranked Ants were able to conceal their presence from others including from the senses of some Hunters. Some groupings of ants were organized for specific goals such as killing prey with these called feeding squadrons. Each squadron was different as some operated under tight control whilst others freely wandered. Beyond the soldiers, there were the carpenter ants that were tasked with the goal of constructing the Chimera Ant nests.
The Ants had other means of generating members of their colony that involved converting other races into soldiers. One method was through injecting a venom into other species and converting them into hybrid soldiers to serve them. Another option was by cocooning humans whereupon they underwent a transformation process that turned them into hybrids. Chimera Ants did not make their nests in holes but used mud and faeces to build them.
Foot soldiers form of communication was said to be simplistic and to the point. Newer generations of chimera ants are capable of using both human speech and a form of telepathy to communicate. In contrast, the earliest generation ants and the Queen may only use telepathy, while the Royal Guards are wholly incapable of telepathy. Chimera ants are also capable of surviving wounds that would be fatal to a human and can regenerate damage to their body within a day if their heads are not destroyed.[6] The later generation of ants produced possess a great degree of individuality, as a result of the Queen's mostly human diet (shown when the ants request permission from the queen to give themselves names.[7]) Several of these ants also possess memories from the lives of the humans eaten by the queen, in the form of personality or knowledge of language and other subjects.
Members
- Meruem : a male humanoid Chimera Ant born as a royal king from the Chimera Ant Queen after consuming scores of humans from her den at the Neo-Green Life (NGL) Autonomous Region. The birth of her powerful offspring was so traumatic for the queen that she died in the process with her son departing with the royal guard to establish a new nest. Born with the ability to control Nen, Mereum was shown to be incredibly powerful and initially indulged in his ferocious instincts.
- Shaiapouf : a humanoid Chimera Ant born of the royal guard set to protect the newly born king Meruem.
- Neferpitou : a humanoid Chimera Ant born of the royal guard set to protect the newly born king Meruem.
- Menthuthuyoupi : a humanoid Chimera Ant born of the royal guard set to protect the newly born king Meruem.
- Colt :
- Leol :
- Cheetu :
- Zazan :
- Yunju :
- Hagya :
- Meleoron :
- Peggy :
- Pike : a spider-like minion to Zazan who could shoot out webs to capture prey and sought to constantly please her.
- Rammot :
- Neferpitou : a female Ant that was the first of the Royal Guards to be born who had a human child-like appearance but with cat-like features such as ears and a tail.
- Ikalgo : a parasitic Chimera Ant Captain that resembled an octopus and used humans as hosts with him having an organ that acted as a sniper rifle allowing him to shoot living projectiles that were fleas that secreted a toxin that prevented blood from clotting causing his prey to weaken from blood loss from multiple wounds.
- Kite :
- Palm Siberia :
Notes
- Chimera Ants were created by Yoshihiro Togashi where they appeared as antagonists in the Japanese manga series Hunter × Hunter.
- Chimera were mythological creatures that had the traits of various different animals which referred to the Ants ability to hold the genetic traits of various different species.
Appearances
- Hunter x Hunter:
External Links
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