The Centre

The Centre

Location: Mechanus

The Heart of the Formian Empire

Right in the middle of Mechanus—if the formian are to be believed at least—lies a vast, teeming metropolis known as The Centre. This is no ordinary bug-burg, but the heart of a vast formian empire, a gargantuan colony that spans many miles across many hundreds of colossal cogs. Here, the relentless order of Mechanus meets the tireless, regimented hierarchy of the formians, creating a place where the principles of absolute law and collective unity are melded into one seamless philosophy.

A Burg Built on Hierarchy

The Centre is less a burg and more a living, breathing organism; a hive that (quite unlike that more famous ward in Sigil) operates with the precision of a well-oiled machine. The main cog that the Centre rests upon is covered on both sides by the formian hive-city. The architecture is a marvel of order and efficiency, every structure exists for a particular purpose in some grand and inscrutable design. From a distance, the city appears as a complex, interwoven of tunnels, towers, and chambers, all perfectly symmetrical, all perfectly aligned.

At the core of the city lies the Formicarium, the palace of the Scion Queen Mother, a colossal edifice that dwarfs all others. Here, in the heart of the hive, the Queen Mother rules with the authority of a power, although whether she really is divine is dark. Her presence though, is overwhelming, a living embodiment of the formian philosophy: That all must serve the Greater Good (of Law, that is), and that individuality is sacrificed for the unity of the colony. She is attended by thirty-three gargantuan formian queens, each themselves a paragon of formian evolution, yet even they are as mere attendants in her presence. They say you can’t walk a block in the burg without spying a huge portrait of the Queen Mother looming over you from the side of a termite-cogscraper building. Whether or not she is truly a power, the formian drones certainly venerate her as such, and in the Centre her presence is ubiquitous.

The Philosophy of the Centre

The formians of the Centre embody the ideals of Mechanus in a way that few other beings can. To them, the concept of individual freedom is anathema; they believe that true order and perfection of society can only be achieved through absolute unity and an unwavering obedience to the hierarchy. Every formian knows their place, their role, their function, and they carry out their duties with unflinching dedication. At least, that’s the vision. The Centre itself is this philosophy writ large, a place where every insectoid inhabitant is part of a much greater whole.

In the Centre, time is marked by the rhythmic pulse of the hive, a heartbeat that resonates throughout the city. There is no chaos here, no disorder, only the relentless march of progress, and the unceasing drive to maintain and expand the hive. The formians here see themselves as the ultimate expression of Mechanus’s ideals, and hence claim their burg is at the very heart of the plane’s great machine. The modrons do not concur.

Speaking of Modrons

The relationship between the formians of the Centre and the modrons of Regulus is generally one of mutual respect, albeit with a degree of tension. Both races are embodiments of law and order for sure, but their approaches to this differ. The modrons, at least the members of the higher orders who have more self-awareness, with their rigid, mechanical adherence to hierarchy and protocol, see the formians as admirably efficient but overly zealous in their collectivism, their worship of their Scion Queen Mother, and particularly in their expansionism. The formians, in turn, respect the modrons for their precision but view them as lacking the unity and purpose that drives the formian hive, lacking the ambition to expand their collective, and lacking the self-awareness of how they contribute to their society as a whole.

Despite these differences, the two races coexist largely peacefully within Mechanus, their formal interactions governed by their shared commitment to order. The formians see the modrons as trustworthy allies in Mechanus, fellow cogs in the great machine of the plane. However, there is little interaction between the two empires beyond what is necessary—each race is content to focus on its own tasks and goals.

Other inhabitants of Mechanus, such as the inevitables, often find themselves drawn to the Centre, intrigued by the formians’ unique interpretation of law. The Centre, however, is not really a place that welcomes outsiders. Those who visit are closely monitored, their moves observed by and intentions scrutinised by the ever-watchful formians. This hive is a place of order, and any disruption, no matter how small, is swiftly dealt with.

The Hive-City in Detail

The city of Centre is a marvel of architectural design. The upper side of the cog is covered in vast fields where the formians cultivate enormous fungi gardens, orchards and crops, to feed the insatiable requirements of the hive. The architecture here is organic, with buildings that seem to grow out of the ground, their surfaces smooth and covered in intricate patterns that pulse with a soft, inner light.

On the underside of the cog, where the gravity holds sway in the opposite direction, the city takes on a more industrial character. Here, vast forges and workshops churn out the tools and weapons the formians need to defend their realm and expand their influence. The air is thick with the scent of molten metal and the sound of hammer on anvil.

The streets of the Centre are wide and orderly, filled with lines formians going about their duties in perfect synchrony. Patrols of formian warriors march in unison, their compound eyes ever watchful for any sign of danger, or disorder. In the deeper levels of the city, the tunnels grow narrow and winding, leading to the birthing chambers where new formians are constantly being hatched, raised, and trained for their roles in the hive.

The Scion Queen Mother’s Influence

At the heart of every aspect of the Centre is the Scion Queen Mother, whose formidable will shapes the fabric of the city. You’d better believe she’s more than just a ruler—she is the very soul of the hive, a stream of her thoughts resonating through every formian while they’re within the Centre. Her influence here is absolute, and her word is Law. It is said that the Queen Mother can sense every movement within the hive, that she can communicate with any formian instantly, no matter where they are within the city. The formians believe that the Centre is not just the heart of their empire, but the very crux of Mechanus itself. Whether these beliefs are true or merely a tale is irrelevant to the formians. To them, the Scion Queen’s word is truth, and her vision is their purpose. One does suspect the formians like to exaggerate the might of their Queen Mother to outsiders, however.

The Future of the Centre

The Centre is not a static place. It is constantly growing, expanding, and evolving, as the formians seek to bend ever more of Mechanus under their iron control. The Queen Mother’s influence spreads with each cycle, and her dream of unifying all of Mechanus under her rule creeps ever closer. As the formian empire grows, it expands to take in cogs inhabited by mammals (as the formians tend to genericise non-formian humanoids). There are many benefits to peaceful assimilation into the empire—plentiful food, vigorous defence and relative safety. Provided the mammals don’t rock the cogs, they’re largely left alone by the formians. This far, the Scion Queen’s expansionist attitude has focussed only on uncontested cogs or ones inhabited by small and independent group. Mechanical petitioners particularly are happy to join the collective. The formians know better than to threaten the modrons or axiomites; in an infinite plane there’s plenty of space for everyone.

Yet, even within this bastion of order, there are whispers of dissent—as well as mammals who aren’t so keen on welcoming their new insect overlords, there are also formians who question the path the hive is taking, who wonder if the Queen Mother’s vision is truly in line with the will of Mechanus itself. And more fearfully, what will happen when the modrons realise this is her goal?

But such whispers are few and far between, and formians who dissent openly are shunned by the colony and kicked out to wander tha planes on their own. In fact, this is the origin story of many formians who take up lives of adventuring. The Centre is a place of unwavering order, of absolute unity, and the formians are dedicated to their cause with a fanatical fervour. For them, there’s no greater purpose than to serve the hive, to keep chaos at bay, and to play a part in realising the vision of the Scion Queen Mother.

Canonical Source: Manual of the Planes [3e] p128-129

Source: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The Centre is described in the Manual of the Planes [3e], and rather makes it sound that Mechanus is the home of the formians. This contradicts with Planescape [2e] which places them in Arcadia—and frankly Arcadia is quite short on lore. I suggest a blend of both—keeping the Great Empire in Mechanus as this seems quite suitable, and making it a more militant group keen on expanding and assimilation. The Arcadia formians I imagine to be more like the country bumpkin variety, at least in the eyes of the Mechanical formians. The name Formicarium for the Scion Queen Mother’s palace is from the medieval Latin for ‘ant colony’.