OneMind

Stupidity is the only sin in nature.
Judgement is swift; the punishment harsh.
And there is no appeal. You live and you learn, or you don't live long.

History

     Psi Hives had their origins in the Psi Unions. In the late 1990s, an uncontrolled Psi Union shifted into one of the first continuous Hives. This heralded a new form of humanity, one that some felt promised immortality and power in the face of coming catastrophe.
     The only price was ones humanity.

     Psi Hives established links with other covert groups, such as the Fate and the Machine Intelligence Association.

     By the 2040s the Hives provided various services to the USO, a very successful bid to increase their powerbase. Hives provide valuable Elder tech manufacturing for the USO who, in turn, overlooked Hive activities. As part of the Elder manufacturing process, many Hives have access to Melt, as well as Melted reservoirs of MP and Pow. The Psi Unions, though outraged at Hive actions, did not have enough political leverage to combat the Hives directly.
     All was not simple for the Hives, however. The USO kept a close eye on them, stepping in when a Hive's sanity and abusive behavior became too much of a liability. The USO used Delta Green and Strazh Pryectn as prime actors in these tasks. These groups had ties with the Psi Unions and could call on them to assist. USO top politicos could maintain a degree of plausible deniability, both to the populus and to angered Hives.

     Many of the larger Hives were increasingly concerned over the Coherence issue. Although their main goal was survival, they understood that the prevalence of insanity and incoherence in Hives was a significant threat to the survival of all Hives. This threat was a danger to their basic ability to make functional decisions, and risked their relationships with other groups. By 2026 their powerbases had grown sufficiently to allow them the energy to consider more than immediate survival. The Hives began the Coherence project. Through connections with enemies and allies alike, the Hives searched for ways to maintain their sanity.
     As a result of issues brought up in the Coherence project, the larger Hives started taking steps to ensure their survival after the end of human civilization. They had, with MI assistance, planted various agents on Mars and worked to assist the efforts there.
     By 2030 the larger Hives became fiercely divided between Assimilators and Symbiotes. Assimilators believed that human survival depended on complete absorption of humanity into Hives. They also believed that humanity would never accept Hives in a survival-oriented future, and would destroy the Hives if not assimilated.
     Symbiotes believed that survival depended on diversity. Symbiotes were unsure whether Hives could remain viable without a pool of individuals to draw from. They also calculated that the surviving population would be low, and that large numbers of individuals would be required for race survival. If the population was absorbed into Hives, diversity would become limited to a point below race survival.
     The argument was fiercely argued and became increasingly complex. The two camps fought over it until 2054. By that point, matters had become acute. The Assimilators, seeing value in some of the Symbiotes' arguments, agreed to set up colonies in safe regions of the Belt, leaving Mars to the Symbiotes. The two groups cooperated, from a distance, on various matters into the future, including funding and accelerating the Exodus project.

Hive Dynamics

     Small Hives normally Commune infrequently. A Hiving can only last ten minutes or so before magic points are depleted. Taking members out and replacing them to continue a Communing is dangerous, due to mental strain and SAN loss.
     Larger Hives create or acquire mana batteries, as soon as they can.

     Mana Batteries
     Psi Hives sell mana batteries to others, or create them for themselves. This is a spell that must be learned.
     A mana battery is 1 weight rating per 10 Pow stored. It costs 1 Pow to create and will only work for the caster, storing up to the caster's new Pow rating in MP. To create a mana battery for another, the other person must be psionically linked to the Hive as the spell being cast through the person, but the item costs one of the Hive's points of Power.
     Only one battery can be accessed at a time.
     Hives, or other psychic characters, will typically charge $1000 for mana batteries.

     A Hive can create a large mana battery for the Hive. A mana battery is locked to a Pow level and Hive identity. The Pow of the Communing group must be high enough. Hive skill is rolled to draw on or charge a battery, but the skill used is the total Hive skill of joined members. Restructuring will cause the mana battery to be inaccessible.
     Commonly, Hives gather a number of batteries, each with Pow level low enough to be chargeable by a single individual. This allows batteries to be charged without resorting to Communing. These batteries can then extend the lifetime of a Communing.

     The largest Hives can maintain a Communing indefinately. A pool of 240 members can charge batteries as fast as two Communing members drain to maintain the link. The small number of Hives that maintain constant Communing generally have 10-20 core members, several thousand active members, and vast numbers of staff. The central group occasionally shuts down to rest, to recover from growing strains, and to swap group members. Active members rotate charging duties and perform other vital tasks. More conventional work is maintained via front organizations.
     Hives grow through a combination of accretion, growth of power, and raising Hive skill levels. Large Hives cannot afford to succumb to strain. If a Hive grows too rapidly, other Hives will pressure the Hive to slow, or to spawn a new Hive. Spawning causes one of the members of a Hive to become a Queen and split off. This process sometimes happens due to internal pressures.

Mechanics

     Psi Hives have a Queen, a person who is always the focus of psionic union and dominates the group. This person may be male or female of any age, though is normally no younger than 10. The Queen is passionate and should have a high Pow, though usually is or becomes insane. Via mental contact, the Hive members are conditioned to serve. Although it is possible for a Hive to be somewhat benign, most suffer from infectious insanity. Hives are mercenary in their attitudes towards others, oriented for survival rather than human values.
     Most Hive activity consists of gathering security, power, and more 'food' for the Hive. Magic points is the operating energy of a Hive, it's sustenance. To this end, most Hives maintain large pools of members, only a few of which link to the Queen at one time. Ideally, a Hive has enough members so that it's Queen is linked to a group all the time. Small Hives cannot afford this luxury and link only to think out strategies, condition new members, maintain unity, or for emergencies.
     Each active member of the Hive has the Commune psychic ability. The Queen uses Commune to start the process, linking with the first Active person. The Active then uses Commune to maintain the link with the Queen while the Queen connects to another person, and the process repeats. The organization is very centralized, though sometimes subgroups form. If someone lacks the ability to Commune, an extra connection must be maintained, incurring additional cost.

     To connect costs, like all psychic abilities, 1 MP or SAN, +1 per minute of maintaining a connection. That means with a group of N people, N MP or SAN is spent to connect, with N-1 spent per minute thereafter.
     In some Hives, new members are drained of SAN, driving them indefinately insane. Over time, the members regain sanity within the fold of the Hive.
     The Queen's mental stats, while Hiving, is +1 per person linked in. MP are shared through the linked group, effective Pow at any one point is Queen's Pow (which is boosted by number of people linked in). Memory of thoughts while in the link is complete for the Queen, Int x2 test for others unless effort is taken by the Queen for the person to remember. Any powers or skills possessed by anyone in the link may be used by the Queen.

     After a link is through, each member involved must make a SAN check, 1/DN. N is the total number of different individuals in the link, whether briefly or the entire time.
     Over time, Hive skill may be learned. This is a skill to accept identity in a particular Hive. For every full 10% of skill, SAN loss when link is finished is reduced by 1. This skill is set to 0% if the Hive is dramatically restructured. Restructuring may be due to a new Queen or loss of half of the active members of a Hive.

Character options

     Hive PCs are probably a bad idea. Queens seek to gather followers and control utterly those around them. As PCs, the Queen would seek to turn PCs into followers. If this proved impossible, the Queen would then attempt to manipulate them. Psi Unionists would be a rather more playable character type.
     If a Keeper really wishes to have PC Hives, it is recommended that extra members be handled as clones. The Queen is designed with the psychic ability of Commune and the Hive skill. Both are considered hobby skills. Members should allocate hobby skill points to Commune and Hive skills, as well. Members with Pow, Commune, and Hive skills above the Queen could threaten the Queen's rule.