Palamok

"When you look upon the homeworld, you realise damn well how God has created all that strength and flight control into a nice, convenient package"

- Anonymous Agent

The Yanme'e homeworld has always been a mystery for the, with the complex language developed by the native Yanme'e and their superhuman abilities only making it harder to fully describe and understand the environment that they evolved in. This, coupled with location deep within former Covenant territory, a chaotic orbit, dense atmosphere (compared to other planets) and the rarity the Covenant talk about their homeworlds meant that even the most basic information - its size, terrain, even its name - were locked away outside of Humanity's grasp. Yet all that did was amplify the awe given off by it when it was finally discovered. While only slightly less than twice the size of, its gravity was more than double. Four moons orbit the planet, causing tidal chaos among the oceans, yet the planet itself was incredibly stable, experiencing only a small handful of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes every year. Coupled with the natives on the surface, there is nothing that won't shock even the most prepared visitor.

Formation
Palamok was theorised to have been created over 5.4 BYA (Billions of Years Ago), only slightly younger than its host star, Napret. As normal for planetary formation, the early Palamok more resembled a free-flying asteroid than any spherical planet. Colliding with other asteroids in the system's Nebula, the asteroid, astronomical-speaking, rapidly grew in size, and by 500 MYA (Millions of Years Ago) it was already the size of Earth. It was at this time its growth apparently stalled, and its crust began to harden. The surface of early Palamok could somewhat be compared to moon ; covered with craters and active volcanoes which spewed millions of tonnes of Nitrogen and other gases into the early atmosphere, with oceans of lava and, much later, water. Because of its size and roughly standard formation, Palamok seemed destined to appear like Earth, or, or any number of 'normal' life-sustaining worlds.

Geographical evidence of Palamok's lithosphere suggest a major change in rock layers about 750 million years after it ceased growing (4.15 BYA). Because the Yanme'e remained ignorant of their planet's geographical history, nothing is confirmed about what happened. A popular theory beginning to take wind on both Sangheili and Human scientists is that Palamok was hit by two major objects in quick succession around this time, almost completely shattering the early planet altogether. Over time, the fragments combined together to give shape to Palamok, and at least two of its moons. Evidence which supports this is the Great By'ron'di Crater on the least hospital of Palamok's moons, Naxook, and its massive distance to the next planet. Shared rock layers, atmospheric mix and even the age of craters on a number of other planets such as Napret II all point to a common event, all those billions of years ago.

After this, very little major events impacted Palamok. It continued to harden and cool, and while it was still continuously struck by meteorites from the dual asteroid belts, none of these hit with the strength nor the frequency as that in its early history. Like all other life-bearing worlds, nothing is certain about how life came on this planet - whenever it was naturally-occurring, or if it was brought externally by a meteorite or comet cannot be tested for.

Early Biological History
"Now, I know what you're thinking - its just a giant planet, shouldn't it follow the rules that so many other worlds did? What makes it so special? Well, it only had two major eras - the Age of Cells, and then the Age of Arachnids and Insects"

- Leading xeno-archaeologist George V. Falter, who attempts to explain why Palamok is historically unique

While it is not known when, life did eventually flourish here. According to the earliest fossils uncovered, Palamok had already formed its trademarked land-dominate surface, and a few super-continents (listed as GC-01, GC-02, and GC-03 respective of believed size) were formed, with arguably only one major ocean. In direct opposition to how it is today, igneous rocks indicate it had several huge super-volcanoes cross the surface, gradually spreading across the land as the planet began to tear them apart, and ancient faults of rock seem to describe a large frequency of earthquakes. Judging by the amount of mountain ranges during its early history, it didn't seem to have a dense atmosphere; in fact it appeared to have a lower-than-average density in its atmosphere. Given these extremes, life struggled to thrive at first, as the huge gravity and low water-places made it hard for cells to survive. Fortunately, Ultraviolet (UV) radiation was in abundance, and mutations in the early cell's DNA meant they went from being huge - the largest being over 3cm across - to smaller than those on Earth and Sangheilios to reduce the impact of the high gravity.

Around 4 BYA, after Palamok's moons and lithosphere chaos had torn GC-01 and GC-03 apart, and GC-02 was almost gone as well. At this time, the first evidence of predatory cells appeared; strangely, none of the 'prey' cells had chloroplasts, the organelle which powered photosynthesis in plants. Perhaps they were still feasting on cells which harvested Sulfur Dioxide from volcanic vents. Whatever the case, life swarmed across the ever-increasing ocean, which had now tripled in size. Fortunately (at least for human geologists), life began following a similar path as their cousins on Earth about 4.1 BYA, and soon began taking in water instead of hydrogen. Coupled with the inevitable 'rusting' of the oceans, the atmosphere quickly changed, becoming incredibly dense and forming a thick ozone layer, slowing down all DNA mutations. Soon after, despite its massive amount of volcanoes, Palamok entered a planet-wide ice age - something which has puzzled many experts, who initially believed Palamok had more than enough volcanoes to maintain a viable surface temperature. Studies are still going into this to find out why it happened.

Over 2.9 BYA, Palamok's ice age finally ended, believed to have been caused by a massive global volcanic eruption from multiple super-volcanoes. Once the ice melted, the first plants and multi-cellular organisms appeared - invertebrates, of course. They evolved quickly into insects and other similar creatures, growing several times larger than those found on many other worlds. They dominated the landscape, and as such failed to evolve into more complex forms, such as amphibians and reptiles. The only vertebrates that evolved were fish, and they dominated the only place insects couldn't reach - the oceans and vast rivers.

The Age of Insects
"If you compare Yanme'e specimens, you'll see they are only distantly related to the other bugs found across the planet, in fact they're more closely related to reptiles. Perhaps they're not insects as we previously thought"

- George V. Falter

Life continued to flourish this way, keeping to the age-old body design of the arachnids and insects. The Comet Bombardment in 2.7 BYA, the Great Heating by multiple super-volcanoes which occurred both 2.5 and 1.7 BYA and the Ice Ages which occur naturally every 1.3 Million years did nothing to change it. Though a number of new types of animals evolved to test their hold, including the reptilian, yet warm-blooded Diligenter Subrupisus, the diversified invertebrates already had the necessary weapons and tools to drive them to the brink of extinction. Despite what Natural Selection tried to achieve, the residents were too well rooted and diversified to change, and for the next billion years, nothing really changed to contest that fact.

Around 500 MYA, Palamok's lithosphere began to enter an age of stabilisation, where its continents began to fuse together. This process, still continuing today, had a number of side-effects on the planet, including the reduction of volcanic activity and natural disasters. This eventually effected life as well, as new nutrients stopped entering the soil. Initially, it had the advantage that both plants and animals could now inhabit places where they couldn't before due to high temperatures. Over time, as the soil's nutrients began degrading, the flora had to adapt, evolving additional ways to replenish that, such as Nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Insects still retained dominance over the planet, however.

That all began to change, however, after a species of semi-amphibious reptile evolved into a insect-like form, the fossil dating from about 300 MYA. Appearing very similar to insects at the time (including the multi-stage life cycle), when it was discovered it appeared to be a step backwards. Further exploration of the skull structure revealed one important change which all other animals lacked - a sophisticated brain. This new insect-like vertebrate group, dubbed the Chronialians (named after the discoverer Professor V. Chronia), would slowly start to take the planet from the grasp of the insects, evolving basic wings and even more sophisticated brains.

One of the most-recent members of this group was the semi-sentient Imminous Rex, which lived from about 3 MYA and up until 500,000 years ago. It was believed to inhabit dry, dusty plains that backed onto an ocean, where predators are scarce yet food is even rarer. They might've fed on fish in the ocean, maybe trading with more inland groups. Because of their mostly-fish diet, they had a strong source of Omega-3 Acids entering their bodies, developing their brains for their final stage. Strangely, Imminous appeared to live solitary or at least in very small family groups - something which conflicted with their successors. The researchers couldn't have known that the mysterious themselves influenced its final stage; they were the ones which experimented on the Imminous Rex populations, giving them their hive-minded nature. Thus, they slowly became a new species, a species which would dominate Palamok, its moons and the entire Napret System: the Yanme'e.

Despite its size and richness of natural resources, Palamok was largely dismissed by the for some reason; perhaps they were content with the resources gathered across many other worlds. It could also be due to the fact they were observing the formation of a new sentient species, potentially granting a great amount of knowledge for their civilisation. Whatever the reason, the Yanme'e was largely left to their own devices, receiving no alien influence since the Precursors hid one of their artifacts there - unknown to the Forerunners. They quickly spread across the planet, clearing the forests of their homeworld and dominating the surface.

Later, towards the end of the Forerunner-Flood War, the herself came to Palamok to pick up specimens of the Yanme'e; their intelligence was questioned by her subordinates, however, since their society appeared to have more common in ants than it did with other species of the same age. That was put to rest soon after, when a number of Queens came together and voted to destroy the 'aliens' who invaded their home. The subsequent attack on the Librarian's life led to a full Forerunner naval fleet retaliating against the natives, decimating the primitive military forces and destroying their population centres. Though the damage was supposed to leave them rebuilding for decades, the Yanme'e recovered quickly and rebuilt their society in only mere years - something which delighted the observing.

The planet fell to the by the end of the war; its native species enslaved to the will of the. Luckily for Palamok's wildlife, the fired soon after, killing off all the flood's food and, as a result, they starved to death. Regrettably, it also destroyed the hidden precursor artifact as well. The forests and native animals resumed control over the planet, initially without the influence of the native sentient races or the forerunners.

Reseeding and Later History
Palamok was uninhabited by any major life forms for decades after the first firing of the Halos, as its lifeforms rebuilt its ecosystems destroyed by the flood. Eventually, the forerunners embarked on the, with the  authorising the request. About 98,000 years ago, the Measure was complete, with the indexed Grangore and Yanme'e populations successfully reintroduced to their homeworld. Faced with the likelihood that some species that some species would go extinct, measures were put into place for the most likely to get close to extinction. The Yanme'e, with several large carnivores such as the intelligent Grangores which naturally preyed on them, were placed on the watch list and countermeasures prepared should they veer close to extinction - ironic, since the Halos actually saved the Grangore subspecies from extinction. Fortunately, Yanme'e adapted quite well to their natural environment, never requiring the use of the countermeasures.

Unlike the events in pre-history, the native Yanme'e and Grangore populations took a very long time to advance to their technology, and the environment remained intact for much of its later history. They also remained largely ignorant of each other, with the Grangore specimens adopting a isolationist civilisation. Perhaps the Precursor artifact controlled the queens, allowing them to adapt much more effectively to changing circumstances and ruthlessly destroy their surroundings and enemies. Whatever the case, like all species they recovered far longer than predictions suggested. And like many species, the ancient structures they found on their homeworld led to them being declared sacred places, with the queens building their religions around them, unknown that they themselves built them.

Civil Wars
Palamok was to play host to multiple civil wars between rival hives. The varied terrain of the planet gave rise to very different cultural aesthetics and slightly different beliefs. It was this reason, and the natural inclination for unity and consistent culture, sadly meant that battles and massacres were not uncommon, and from their first days they fought not only their natural predators, but also each other.

The first of these were mostly small-scaled fighting, intended to grab as much land as possible from each other. As they got more advanced, the violence stepped up to meet it. The Conquest Wars on the super-continent of Ta'voki were one of the largest and worst of these early battles, involving over 25 different hives at its height. Spanning over three centuries, by the time they ended only 9 hives remained - the rest crushed and burnt, their territories absorbed in that of the victors. But even after seeing the consequences caused by such widespread destruction, it proved it was not the end to all wars...

The Generous Division Conflict, the Ta'voki-Paxua Invasion, the Beach Crisis, the Harbour Wars, the list is almost endless. Each was even more destructive than the last, since new weapons such as flamethrowers were developed to turn the tide of the wars. The forests burned, and the igniters of some of the wars were meaningless. The Beach Crisis, for example, was sparked because one of the Queens wanted to 'keep her soldiers' skills sharp'. After tens of thousands of years going through the cycle constant warfare, eventually one of the queens knew her race must be united against the even more dangerous predators who regularly raid their hives. This queen, believed to be named Vipra of Hive Chij-Me'e embarked on a highly successful conquest to unite her species under one ruler, and thus became the first Master Queen of Palamok. Under her orders, they began clearing their environment for crops and mining, as well as simply to give the predators no places to hide. The forced peace was strained from time-to-time, almost breaking out into civil war on many occasions. Clearly the combined might of the queens needed a new focus to stop another civil war from breaking out.

Yanme'e-Grangore Dominion Wars
"We are the Yanme'e! We are the masters of Palamok! From the sky to the forests to the rivers all around, nothing matched the might of the Yanme'e"

- A Yanme'e soldier's chant

The isolationist Grangores were wary of their insectoid neighbours - the destructive weapons programs were a clear example they shouldn't be trusted. As such, they kept moving their villages, adopting a nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of the forest's fringes. They frequently destroyed their former homes, and took any evidence of their existence along with them. When they finally did meet, civil tensions in the Yanme'e led to them immediately firing the first shots in the most destructive and notable war Palamok has ever seen: the Yanme'e-Grangore Dominion Wars.

Originally beginning sometime in 415 CE, the Dominion Wars were the answer the queens have been searching for such a very, very long time. They didn't care about the environmental destruction; they saw the intelligence and strength of the Grangores as a significant threat to their civilisation. At first, the Yanme'e's expertise in combat, their technology and their numbers led to them winning the early battles - they could be described more like massacres than battles. However, the Grangore population were far from stupid, and began reverse-engineering the technology of the 'racist bugs' as they were mockingly called; how it worked, how to make it and where they were being produced. The natural superior size and strength of the Grangores allowed them to attack the weapons factories, and their sheer size and strength meant that these asymmetrical operations were frighteningly successful. The war was only in its early days, however.

The conflict spanned centuries, with permanent divisions created between the two races. The Grangores eventually united together under the banner of Palamok Protectors. While the Yanme'e had the initial technological advantage, using cavalry from domesticated bugs, the Grangores had domesticated much larger predators, and utilised them in their struggle. The forest-clearing progress was permanently stalled. Any technological superiority the Yanme'e displayed was quickly analysed and reproduced by the Protectors, and to the Queens surprise they found they were evenly matched. The Protector's advantage in stealth and overall stronger soldiers overwhelmed the Yanme'e's troops, while their numbers in turn overwhelmed the Protectors in open conflicts. Eventually, the Yanme'e would prove to gain the final advantage only industrialised civilisations could achieve; aerial bombardment. Without the need for ground-based guerrilla tactics, and without being on the ground, they finally broke the stalemate. The Protectors couldn't find any grounded vessels to reverse-engineer, or any effective weapons to counter them, and sadly by 835 CE the Protectors was largely dissolved, with their divided commanders surrendering only a year later.

The remaining troops either formed extremely-isolated family clans with low blood differences, or were captured and tortured by the Yanme'e, and used as slaves. The Yanme'e were now utterly convinced that they were the greatest force that ever existed, and the doubt that existed between the Queens and their hives before the Dominion Wars was now united in a well-equipped force. Using the newly-discovered technology of aerial flight, they eventually entered their own space age, colonising the entire System by 1070 CE. For a time, it seemed nothing could come between the warlike Yanme'e and galactic conquest.

Yanme'e-Covenant War
"The natives of Neprat were initially highly hostile, and the Queens sort to exercise their will over all the Covenant. Their military forces were highly structured, and their military force had superior numbers and cohesion. Once a means to communicate with them appeared, however, they disarmed themselves quickly, and were quickly assigned into a caste in the Covenant..."

- From the

That changed when the Yanme'e intercepted an unidentified ship entering their system at the turn of the new century. Killing and capturing the aliens aboard, the Yanme'e queens and the Master Queen herself personally studied the ship themselves, and were surprised discovered that some other race - or races - have mastered much more advanced technology than even they have achieved. Arrogant and vengeful, the queens agreed to quickly built up a powerful military force, and by the time the Covenant retaliation battlegroup arrived in 1112 CE, they were ready.

The earliest shots were fired during the Skirmish of Napret's Boundary, a void in space which had no real value, save that it was near the orbit of Chij'Erzo. Despite Palamok being used in later texts as the main source of the conflict, Palamok was actually invaded about 2-3 years since the conflict began. By then, the Covenant glassed Chij'Erzo, Tivro and Niklonix (Napret VI, Napret V and Napret IV respectively), bypassing literally hundreds of inhabited asteroids in both Napret's asteroid belts. By then, the Covenant's casualties were already high - at least double than what the Yanme'e sustained. That, and the confusing reports given off by the luminaries around their homeworld of possible forerunner relics, meant the political leaders ordered full-scale research into communicating with the Yanme'e - against the advise of the  fleetmasters to glass the planet. To combat the technology gap on borrowed time, several thousand Grangores were kidnapped and reluctantly pressed into the military, and forced to reverse-engineer the superior technology - very few attempts succeeded, however. Some of those few advances made the Yanme'e slowly better at space combat, and several large naval battles were fought above the skies of Palamok - most were large losses, but the tiny few which were naval victories proved to the majority of the population they could be defeated under the current Master Queen.

It was in 1116, 4 years after the war's beginning, did success with communicating to captured prisoners begin to signal the end of the war. A number of messages demanding surrender, falsified documents of naval strength, and even the benefits of joining the religious collective, were finally enough to convince the Yanme'e queens to cease the fighting by rebelling against the Master Queen. By then, over 1.6 million Yanme'e and 4.1 million Covenant Soldiers perished (not including wounded personnel), three colonies glassed and one of the moons were almost captured by the Covenant. Parts of Palamok itself was glassed, but this was only a very tiny portion of the surface, and hundreds of hives were decimated - something not seen since before the Dominion Wars.

Covenant Occupation
With the removal of the Master Queen, the Covenant's, which was responsible for ending the war, made major changes to the Yanme'e Society. A new Government called the Assembly of Queens was established, which resorted to voting instead of obeying a dictatorial individual. While assassinations were down by 45% in its reign, it was far, far slower in its decision making, rapidly passing what the High Council desired under the threat of imminent invasion. The Worker Caste was also dissolved, and instead absorbed straight into the Protector Caste - reconstruction efforts were down for a long time until the Slave numbers raised to compensate for their loss. The largest hit to their pride was when they were ordered to give a set portion of the Yanme'e protector caste to the Covenant military, permanently keeping the military small enough to be easily destroyed should an uprising occurred.

Palamok didn't fair much better either. Early Covenant plasma bombardment and downed ship wreckage destroyed large sections of forests on its surface, despite only a handful of its surface actually being glassed. The sudden heatwave and the huge Carbon Dioxide release from the trees threw even more energy into the atmosphere, and while it raised the global temperatures higher to more comfortable temperature, it raised sea levels and violent tropical storms became surprisingly more frequent, and even volcanic eruption frequency peaked. Because of the new environmental chaos experienced by their homeworld, the Assembly of Queens established a pro-environmental stance to bring their home system to a more habitable state. After centuries of slow decision-making and slow labor, Palamok eventually returned to be as green and stable as in its early history, with the hives adopting a huge focus on subterranean expansion. To help reestablished their previous worlds, large amounts of slaves, flora and fauna were exported to glassed planets to make them more inhabitable - Chij'Erzo was only finally stabilised in the 2100s.

After it was rebuilt, it went quiet up until the. It became a major trading world, beginning to exploit its mineral richness, much which was still maintained centuries later. Though several Grangore uprisings occurred on both Palamok and the moons, none of these were even half as destructive or as long as the Dominion Wars. It also became a well-known producer of food, as its moons Kami and Oquiu showed, and those moons were famous among the Covenant's elite for its well-maintained hunting reserves - something which was mimicked by some of the Covenant's for their internal hunting reserves.

Yanme'e Culture
Because of the native Yanme'e hive structuring, any individuality is strongly resisted, with the members of individual hives taking on the traits carried by their sole ruler, the hive's queen. The queen has the authority to uphold control in the hive, and all who serve it must follow the rules and regulations at all times - failure to do so is usually instant death. Meanwhile, the penalties and strictness of the rules are largely up to the queen herself, so whenever or not death is the first and final punish changes from hive-to-hive. The severe punishments are enough for most hive individuals to abandon any-and-all cultural developments, meaning food and cuisine are based on what's available and not what the individual wants. Nevertheless, to some extent the Queen has influence, and the hive sometimes consumes what she herself decides to eat - if there aren't punishments involved, of course.

Beliefs
Because of their utter indoctrination, the Yanme'e have little beliefs to hold onto - something comparable to machines. Nevertheless, there are a few to note. Their Queens are known to keep the Hive's unity strong, so efficiency in many areas is greatly improved upon. They look down on many 'inefficient' traits displayed by other beings, such as individual preference and relaxation, instead focusing on achieving the bare minimum. The only thing individuals are allowed to have is spiritual religion, and they rarely adopt even that, unless it is imposed by the Queen herself.

Grangore Culture
The secretive Grangores are looked-down by Covenant society, and many doubt they are intelligent. In fact, despite their massive size, Grangores are highly intelligent, but their development has been stunted due to the Covenant's influence. They managed to build a farming system, but sometimes that isn't enough, and they raid Yanme'e hives for additional resources - which usually results in extreme consequences. As a result of both Covenant and Yanme'e attacks, they despise them, and always seek to distance themselves from their culture. They developed a violent and aggressive outlook on life, trusting no-one but themselves. After the Dominion Wars, they sort to abandon their hold on technology, instead choosing to live off what the environment provides for them. Ironically, their emphasis on combat makes them similar to how the Sangheili view life, with cowards being punished if they choose to linger without action.

Food and Cuisine
Unlike the Yanme'e, who try and stomp out individuality as soon as possible, the Grangores embrace it, and encourage abilities displayed in their offspring. Because of the distance between clans, thanks to Yanme'e intervention, food often changes with style and ingredients from clan-to-clan. However, there are some similarities. They rarely include plant matter, despite being omnivorous and widely available, instead only using it as garnish. Fruit juice, leaves, etc. are only there to make the dish more presentable. A large piece of meat, usually one of the larger native insects, serves as the main meal. Having stolen grain from  traders and sharing it with the rest of their race, it often serves as a side-dish, or as the entree to the main dish. The ingredients are placed in such a way so they can be eaten with just your hands, with only bowls or large leaves serving as any kind of container.

Beliefs
"I do not doubt you, they are certainly mindless beasts when enraged. But they also have merits, and somehow... I believe they indeed are honourable, in a way"

- Sev 'Ikavowattinrzo, after rescuing a slave Grangore on a station

While maintaining strong connections to their parents and clan, each youngster is encouraged from an early age to make their own path in the world. They believe each talent given to one is a gift that shouldn't be abandoned, and don't particularly care if their child becomes an artist or chef - in fact, they actively encourage it. While fully knowing unity is key to success, they also try and become self-sufficient as quickly as possible; that is the greatest skill they can get. However, they despise traitors, and show no mercy when one of their own turns on them.

Politics
"Government? Hardly. Dictatorial? Definitely. There is no freedom, no voice of the people, only what the Queen desires. I gotta admit though, it gets things done, and somehow it keeps everyone in check"

- UEG Senator, asked on his opinions of the Yanme'e political system

Unlike the UEG and other similar governments, the political landscape is very different to democratic political structure. Similar to a dictatorial government, a lone queen is in complete control of her hive and its territories, from military operations to civil lawmaking and non-Yanme'e slavery; nothing that is part of the hive can disobey her commands. Despite most of the hive's personnel being born from the queen herself, she confines them into specific castes based on the hive's needs; thus, most of her 'children' are seen as resources to be used. She normally doesn't have any ministers or advisers to persuade her on any matters, though the few that do have a system in place that ensures that theres a way to rise through the castes - often with intervention from the queen herself. With so much control over the hive, one might question the chaos which forms after she passes away. Surprisingly little is created, since they normally select a successor and train them personally, getting the hive used to their new ruler - by the time she rises onto the throne, the hive already knows much about her interests and beliefs.

There are only two things where the queen must obey others. The first is temporary Alliance formed between two or more hives where a common enemy is detected. One of the queen is voted to the title of 'Master Queen', and oversees all military operations - civil functions are still handled by the other individual queens. Unlike normal functions, veteran high-ranking soldier drones are permitted to operate as military advisers, and as generals of armies if permitted - only the Queens have higher power. When these alliances are created, all Queens must swear allegiance to each other, promising to defend against all threats. Because of the personal arrogance of the Queens, these are very rarely utilised, only created if an external foe threatens their very existence.

The other, more often exercising its power over the Queens is the system's government, the Napret Debating Hive. Given its long history, it is rarely utilised, usually only to stop individual hives from getting too powerful. Despite this, it is never dissolved or disorganised, with queens themselves representing their interests here or placing a specifically trained individual in her stead, and the number of representatives number tens of thousands. It is almost-impossible to form a voting block, with manipulation frowned upon and usually opposed by rival hives. This government is the only power which Master Queens must obey - even the Covenant cannot tell individual queens what to do. Failure to obey the orders sent results in an immediate deployment of the Napret Army - a military force consisting of a set amount of conscripted soldier drones from each hive, outnumbering anything. Unlike similar establishments such as the UEG, personal reasons are kept out - usually only hive land size and army numbers of a given threat are allowed, and decisions are swift. While it was kept in check by the even larger Covenant military, now it is able to expand and if let unchecked, it could prove to be a major power to rival the combined might of the Sangheili and Human alliance.

Society
The society of Palamok was widely seen to be the same as that of the Yanme'e hives - a highly structured caste system which fulfilled all the necessary functions for an efficient civilisation. Given this state, there is a lot of stigma and hatred surrounding the lower 2 castes. There are 4 main castes in their society, each which fulfills unique functions to drive their society forward.

Slave Caste
The largest caste in their society, the slave caste is also the lowest ranking, since they only consist of other species. They are seen more as robots and possessions than lives, and are used extensively in areas too dangerous even for the worker caste - occupations such as mine sweeping and checking the structural capacity of underground mines. As they are permitted to be owned by Yanme'e in the Protector Caste, they are often used as servants - the rank of that individual is expressed by how many servants he owns. If there are no workers around, as was the case under the Covenant's 'membership', they perform the same tasks undertaken by them.

Because they have no rights, and because they are owned by members of the military, they are frequently beaten and tortured. Punishments for even stealing food is very severe - often death is the final decision. However, these are considered to be a blessing compared to those in the sports division. Very often, these members tend to be Grangores, and they must to death, often the loser dying a very painful death. These 'slave-fights' are one of the most popular sports on Palamok, and it often draws in other slave-masters who seek to draw a profit from the gambling here. Because of this, and the planet's high gravity, slaves are condemned to a very short life of only a few years.

More of a title than a caste, the Unmutuals are Yanme'e who have broken the strict laws established by their queen, such as egg-smashing. Indeed, they are often Yanme'e were teased and harassed by their peers due to either a mental or physical disorder, and are unable to conform to their society. They are banded, and treated slightly worse than slaves by their own kind. More often than not, they are sentenced to be exiled from the hives, where they fall victim to one of the larger predators - Grangores consider them a delicacy. However, they are also sold to other non-Yanme'e slavers, becoming one of the rarer species there.

Worker Caste
Originally one of the largest groups in society before the Covenant's arrival, the Worker Caste are basically civilians. While their queens care little for their lives, they undertake substantially safer tasks, such as tunnel construction, hive expansion and agricultural harvesting. They are, however, clumsy in flight, combat and slow to adapt to new orders due to most of their work involving simple work on the ground. With little individuality besides delight in serving their queen, they are incredibly reliable in their field.

When the Covenant defeated the Yanme'e, part of their terms was to utterly dissolve the Worker Caste, replacing the many soldier drones who went on to serve the Covenant's military - not a popular decision among them, but their indoctrination stopped them from rebelling against the covenant. This wasn't an accident, since while it supercharged their military forces, they were undermanned in the areas of agriculture - they couldn't feed the majority of the population.

Protector Caste
The protector caste is perhaps the most important in Yanme'e society - the queens can make all the decisions, but if they didn't have any soldier drones to enforce their will, then the Unmutuals could conspire and rebel against them. Previously armed with primitive projectile bullets and guns, the soldier drones have an array of equipment to assist them on the battlefield, and not just the plasma weapons given to them by the Covenant. They are given many, many more rights to support their duties, including the right of holding possessions and the right of owning slaves. Importantly, they also have a very important right to establish so-called Minor Hives, which are small hives constructed on the frontlines of war. These rights were the primary reason of their effectiveness as well - because they are given those, the Yanme'e are indoctrinated to believe that they owe the queens their very lives.

When the Yanme'e surrendered in 1116 CE, the High Council demanded to conscript the entire Yanme'e army into their services - once they were taught Yanme'e Basic, they were sent off. This left a major gap in their social structure, and were forced to bring the entire Worker Caste population into their service. This of course led to a major famine in their early years, and kept the Assembly weak in the most likely time for rebellion - the Yanme'e-Covenant Post-War period.

Queens
The pinnacle of Yanme'e society, the queens are of course the most powerful and influencial members on Palamok, surpassed only by the system's government. While many assume they are only responsible for the logistics and planning of military operations, their contributions run deeper than that. Like the primitive queen in an insects hive, only she is allowed to breed, creating a strong bond between both her and her children - even the Unmutuals rarely attack their hives. While her tastes in detail and decoration are usually influenced by their ancestors, the differences are significant enough for the hive's structural and fashion values to be recognisable according to the queen's reign.

Languages
Thanks to the very culture of the hives and in part to the arrogance of the Queens, very few share any common language, with some operating sped-up sonics or others utilise an exotic 'accent'. To combat this, the earliest Master Queen created a new language commonly called Yanme'e Basic. This language consists exclusively of low-pitch lengthened sonics - so low it can actually be heard by some non-insect species. The lengthened nature allows it to be easily learnt and understood to even the most exotic accent and language. It is not only required by law for Queens, but also conscripted individuals in both the Covenant Empire and the Napret Army.

Individual languages are named after the hive of origin. Because the accents and language are so interlinked, it is often assumed for even slight accent changes to be completely different languages.

Religion
Thanks to the Covenant's conquest, many of the native religions on many inhabited worlds were annexed, with the very few remaining forced to change their beliefs and practices. On Palamok, there are only two major religions which exist, both which are somewhat comparable to each other.

The main religion introduced by the Covenant Empire is simply called the Covenant Religion, though many refer to it as the Path. Like many of its client species, very few Yanme'e actually believe and actively follow the religion. This can easily be justified given the lack of forerunner objects in their system. Often adopted by some who are fearful of death, the Path specifically says those who believe in it will achieve eternal life alongside the Forerunners when the Rings are fired. The 'Mantle' concept also seems to justify their complete control over the Galaxies, a part which seemingly guaranteed a greater increase in power for the Queens, so it is sometimes adopted by them. There is no 'in-between' ground for believers, with Queens who adopt it regularly punishing those who do not believe in the Path, leading to huge rises and drops in converts for the Yanme'e population.

Church of the Old Ones
The only surviving native religion which wasn't wiped out, the Church of the Old Ones is similar to the Path because they both dictated the worship of inanimate structures - it was later expanded to include forerunner structures as well. However, unlike the Path, which said transcendence was achieved with the firing of the rings, the Church believed in several gods and each could destroy the entire galaxy if they are displeased with the living beings. When they die, all the converts join in what is called 'the Assembly', where they essentially become demigods and voted on all matters in the Physical World.

This religion was originally created by the Grangores of Kami, but was modified by the Yanme'e civilisation to including the 'unity' aspect they were trying to push.

Surface Features
The largest-known planet that supports life, Palamok's ocean tides are some of the most chaotic in Covenant Space. The gravitational chaos created by its four moons means its oceans are hugely unpredictable, being calm at one moment before creating tsunamis the next to batter the coast. The worst cases are when the moons cross paths to create even larger tidal ranges, flooding forests and insect hives, drowning untold amounts of living beings, both intelligent and not so. Unfortunately, it is not infrequent. Because of this, despite its many islands, very few beaches exist on the surface, becoming in turn a symbol of status for hives which establish themselves there.

Because of the tidal and gravitation influences on Palamok, coupled with a dense atmosphere, Palamok has a distinctly smooth surface, with very few mountains and craters left, but several large canyons and trenches dot the surface. Such as these, numerous cave systems can be found, with most collapsing about 1km from its entrance. There are only two true saltwater oceans on the planet, with the largest, Poqui, occupying over 7,000 kilometres square - not that much, really. The rest is spread evenly across the planet, with few lakes and many large rivers that run from pole-to-pole, thanks to the orbits of Naxook and Oquiu.

Because of its stable lithosphere, two super-continents have formed on the surface. These hold a wide variety of environments and terrains, from small deserts and smooth salt flats, to the life-rich rainforests in the tropics, and even glaciers close to the temperate zones, though they are mostly covered with dense forests and jungles. The adaptive Yanme'e hives build their culture and aesthetics around them, with the desert varieties having either sink-hole-inspired hives or towering monuments which closely resemble natural rock formations, rather than the 'standard' biomass variants that transported populations tend to make. Unfortunately, this cultural diversity is also a curse, and the Yanme'e fell into civil war countless times before the Covenant discovered them, leaving behind ghostly ruins of a past era across the planet.

Atmospheric Conditions
"Don't trust what the brochure tells you; it might end up being a dense giant that doesn't seem to like you very much"

- Anonymous E-5 Serviceman

The atmosphere of Palamok can be described as a cross between Gas Giants and Earth-like. The atmosphere is highly energised and chaotic, thanks to receiving a good amount of Gravitation Potential Energy from the orbiting moons above. The numerous long-lived low pressure systems mixed with high pressure systems that brought violent storms and very strong winds, usually fueled by the energy in the tropical zones. Tornadoes, Cyclones, even the dreaded Supercanes were frightening frequent, ironically diversifying the environment further. Because of its lack of oceans, the planetary temperature circulation is handled by the atmosphere, giving it a variable temperature wherever you go. The planet has a slow rotation speed caused by its moons, adding to the variation.

When the Yanme'e entered the Industrial Age, at first the planet's many forests were able to suck up all the painful emissions and stop most of it from entering the atmosphere. As the forests shrunk and the emissions increased hundred-fold, the atmosphere began to warm, decreasing the temperature divergence and increasing temperature. This worked well for the Yanme'e, since it allowed to colonise places which were previously inaccessible to them before - places where ice receded in the lower Polar Zones. It was only when the frequency of Supercanes and, on one occasion, a Megacane, increased did the Yanme'e begin to act. Nowdays, the forests have greatly increased close to their original size, pulling the atmosphere into a more manageable state.

Lithosphere and Inner Layers
Unlike many planets with a hot interior core, Palamok is relatively stable, with massive continents spread across the surface. Volcanoes are extremely rare, only found on isolated islands and perhaps under underwater trenches and oceans. Strangely, earthquakes are almost none-existent, with a very small number that are of notice. It appears that Palamok has stopped following the system where continents are depleted and created continuously - unlike Earth, where the formation of a supercontinent is well-underway. This left geologists scratching their heads, when it clearly has a hot, pressurized core. One theory is that Palamok doesn't actually have any continents, and instead from time-to-time the entire surface melts and is reformed when it cools down, similar to Sol's. However, no clear evidence supports it, so it is assumed to be false.

While Palamok itself is a no-land zone for any non-natives, both by the Yanme'e Independence Treaty and its inhospitable atmosphere, ONI conducted a thorough, but secret investigation of the planet from 2590-2630. According to a seismic study in 2624, Palamok has a similar layered structure to Earth: a thin, outer crust, a semi-liquid mantle, an outer core of liquid metal and an inner solid core. However, there are two thin layers that divide the Mantle into two parts, which as of yet aren't identifiable.

Natural Resources and Wildlife
"Its a biologist's paradise, with trees as tall as skyscrapers and hundreds of species not even the native population knows about. If it wasn't so hostile, I'd bet my entire life's savings that the mining corporations like would have a hand in its resources too"

- Anonymous ONI Agent, after a thorough investigation on its resources

Because of its huge amounts of forests, Palamok is easily one of the most untouched of all the planets occupied by the Covenant. Because of its huge forests, there are a wide variety of large insects on the planet, from small, semi-aquatic Visbu which are on the evolutionary cusp of amphibians, to the massive intelligent Grangores. With the Yanme'e disregard of cataloging their native species, there are likely to be hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of undiscovered species occupying the tropical rainforests alone, without including the even higher numbers living in the canyons and deserts across Palamok's surface.

However, that isn't the only treasure that hides beneath the dense atmosphere. While the Yanme'e aren't very interested in their planet's resources, ONI's 7th Undetected Expeditionary Group, codenamed the 'NEW HORIZONs', discovered vast deposits of minerals far below the surface - mostly coal, but iron, gold and even diamonds can be found, potentially superpowering the trading power of Palamok several times what it is now. Dotting the surface are numerous ruins from pre-history found across the surface as well, believing to be from pre-history Yanme'e civilisations. These are declared sacred places, and while not exactly places of worship, they are very important - fighting is not allowed in these places, and so aren't non-natives. Also called sacred places are the very, very rare crystal caves and stalagmite ice caves, gems which are beautiful in all aspects.

Planetside
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