Which Hive should you choose?

Hive Language: Spanish
Form of Government: Flexible Constitution Democracy
The Humanists focus on human excellence, especially competition and celebrity. Members tend to be athletes, performers, artists, orators, chess whizzes, and also enthusiastic fans; people who really enjoy sports, bonding over competition, going to concerts, and socializing around outstanding human feats. Humanists take pride in all Hive members working to be their best in some way, and celebrating a billion different kinds of excellence. Their laws tend to be permissive, valuing independence and self-determination. Their government changes form depending on how much unanimity there is in an election—when one candidate wins by a landslide there is a very powerful executive presidency balanced by a senate; when it’s close there are co-Consuls or triumvirs; when there are many frontrunners there is a parliament. That way outstanding leaders wield great power, but checks are put on power in times of doubt.

Hive Language: English
Form of Government: Board of Trustees and Suggestion Box
Cousins are the constructive nurturers of this world, valuing cooperation and kindness. They run schools and hospitals, caring for orphans, making sure prisons are humane, workplaces safe, and playgrounds delightful. The Cousins evolved out of a social club for people who had to travel alone, who would meet up with a volunteer “Cousin” who would show them around a new place, and offer hospitality; in the beginning they were just run by a volunteer board and a suggestion box. For their own members their laws are the most restrictive of all Hives in terms of behavior—banning prostitution and most recreational drugs, mandating many aspects of education and medicine—but their courts are the gentlest in terms of punishment, always thinking in terms of rehabilitation, never retribution. The Cousins are the most beloved Hive in the eyes of others, and all Hives depend on them for social services.

Hive Language: Latin
Form of Government: Absolute Monarchy
People who value strength, authority, and power join the Masons. Legends claim that the Masons are descended from Masonic lodges, and before that from an ancient secret empire that has been pulling history’s strings from the shadows since the birth of civilization. While many people think that is just propaganda, the claim of ancient power gives the Empire an air of awe and authority. The Masonic Emperor exercises absolute power, but since it’s as easy to leave a Hive as it is to join it, the Emperor is kept in check by the fact that any tyranny would instantly cause members to leave and join other Hives. Forced to rule well in order to attract members, the Emperors have traditionally been severe but fair. Masons learn and speak Latin—part of the Hive’s mystique of antiquity—and MASON is generally recognized as the most powerful person in the world. Masonic law is strict, and severe, but many find this strength attractive.

Hive Language: German
Form of Government: Brain Bash
Gordian is administered by a think tank called its “Brain bash’” selected by the Adolf Riktor Brill Institute of Psychotaxonomic Science. Founded by a psychologist who made great leaps in cognitive analysis, Brill’s Institute probes the mysteries of the human brain, hoping to find ways to maximize, not only productivity and intelligence, but originality and dynamism. Brillists use an elaborate rating system to measure people’s psychological development on many different scales, assigning each individual a string of numbers (9-3-3-11-10-4-3-10 or 7-5-13-9-3-9-3-11) which are incomprehensible to outsiders but let Brillists predict enormous amounts about people’s behavior, unique skills, and potentials. Gordian used to be the largest Hive, but when one of its Chairman became excited by Brill’s psychological research decided to hand governance of the Hive over to Brill’s institute, many people left, so it is now the second-smallest Hive.

Hive Language: French
Form of Government: National Parliamentary Democracy
From its foundation, the European Union was designed to evolve over time, which has helped it survive even the dissolution of geographic nations. The European Union is the favorite Hive of people who care deeply about their national or ethnic heritages and identities, and want those identities to have a voice in their government. This future EU is still run by a parliament of representatives from all its member nations, which has expanded to include a huge range of groups and identities, from Canada to Madagascar. Members tend to take great pride in their languages, cultures, and histories, aligning strongly with their heritages no matter where in the world they live. Since the European Union predates all the other Hives, the other Hives used it as the model for how to regulate large, mixing populations over huge distances, and members take pride in the EU as a forefather and mentor for all Hives.

Hive Language: None
Form of Government: Shareholder Democracy
The Mitsubishi value land and nature, both in the sense of hiking, strolling through gardens, and caring for the environment, and in the sense of considering land the most valuable economic asset, the best route to power. Many Mitsubishi are of East Asian ancestry, since the focus on land and celebrating the Earth resonates with many aspects of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and other East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. The Hive developed out of the current multinational Mitsubishi corporate group, and all Mitsubishi members are considered shareholders, holding one share for being a member, and additional shares for owning property—gaining more votes for more property encourages members to acquire land, and thus bring more wealth to the Mitsubishi as a whole. The Mitsubishi own the majority of land on Earth, including valuable urban properties which they develop, and vast swathes of wilderness which they protect.

Hive Language: None (English)
Form of Government: Shareholder Democracy
Greenpeace is a subset of the Mitsubishi which focuses on environmentalism and wildlife preservation. Most, though certainly not all, Mitsubishi are of East Asian ancestry, since the focus on land and celebrating the Earth resonates with many aspects of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and other East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. The Mitsubishi own the majority of land on Earth, including valuable urban properties which they develop, and vast swathes of wilderness which they protect and study. The Mitsubishi flag is based on the old Mitsubishi group’s logo representing “three red water caltrops” which is what the characters 三菱 mean, but with the addition of smaller leaf-green central diamonds commemorating the future Mitsubishi’s historic merger with the environmentalist Greenpeace Hive.

Hive Language: English U-speak
Form of Government: Constellation
The smallest Hive is dedicated the future. Many Utopians work on space exploration, running the Mars terraforming project and having their capital on the Moon. Others focus on extending and protecting human life, doing medical research, or improving safety. Every time a Utopian dies, they work to find the cause, and keep working until they solve it—whether it means an hour repairing a broken safety rail or generations researching a disease—and so they “slowly, blade-by-blade, disarm Death.” Other Utopians are inventors, experimental researchers, or social scientists, while still others are artists, authors, or teachers, working to inspire people to aim for a better future, speculating about other ways the world might be, or making this world more beautiful. In a world of plenty, where most people only work 20 hours a week, all Utopians are required to dedicate themselves to work, giving most of their lives to the future.

Form of Government: Senatorial Alliance
There is another option for those who don’t identify with any of the seven Hives. The balance among the seven Hives is kept by an organization called the Universal Free Alliance, often referred to be the name of its capital city, Romanova. Romanova cares for the Hiveless, people who choose not to join any Hive but are protected by Romanova directly through a set of carefully-crafted neutral laws. Romanova offers three sets of laws which people can choose among, including a more restrictive White Law for those who (like the Cousins) feel that more restrictive social legislation is better for society. While some Hiveless are Hiveless simply because no Hive feels like them, others take great pride in being citizens of the world, answering to no authority other than the Tribunes they elect to veto movements in the Senate that endanger Hiveless liberty. Hiveless use their own variants on Romanova’s flag, focused on black, white, or gray.

Form of Government: Senatorial Alliance
There is another option for those who don’t identify with any of the seven Hives. The balance among the seven Hives is kept by an organization called the Universal Free Alliance, often referred to be the name of its capital city, Romanova. Romanova cares for the Hiveless, people who choose not to join any Hive but are protected by Romanova directly through a set of carefully-crafted neutral laws. Romanova offers three sets of laws which people can choose among, including a standard moderate Gray Law. While some Hiveless are Hiveless simply because no Hive feels like them, others take great pride in being citizens of the world, answering to no authority other than the Tribunes they elect to veto movements in the Senate that endanger Hiveless liberty. Hiveless use their own variants on Romanova’s flag, focused on black, white, or gray.

Form of Government: Senatorial Alliance
There is another option for those who don’t identify with any of the seven Hives. The balance among the seven Hives is kept by an organization called the Universal Free Alliance, often referred to be the name of its capital city, Romanova. Romanova cares for the Hiveless, people who choose not to join any Hive but are protected by Romanova directly through a set of carefully-crafted neutral laws. Romanova offers three sets of laws which people can choose among, including a minimal Black Law for those who don’t want to be bound by any law. For Blacklaws even murder is legal (though only of other Blacklaws), and they live in self-selected anarchistic territories, governed only the “Eight Universal Laws” which Romanova requires of all members of the Hives and Hiveless, and which ban only very basic things such as torturing children, or unleashing mass destruction endangering tens of thousands of lives.