This relatively small mod creates the Termitefolk, an intelligent and playable race of termite-like humanoids.

Termites generally play in a similar way to stock dwarves, with three significant differences.

First, termitefolk are carnivores. I am aware that this is directly contrary to the diet of actual termites, but I figure it's not unreasonable that whatever caused them to develop to a human size and shape could also have changed what they eat. The actual reason, however, is to give players a motivation to use the included custom workshop ("Wood Processing Mound") to convert wood into food. Note that this means termite civilizations starve to death during world generation; see the installation instructions at the end for effects and solutions.

Secondly, termitefolk are insects. One result of this is that they have six limbs, For most termitefolk, this means four arms; losing one or two of them will barely slow them down, and they are capible of wielding multiple weapons or shields. In addition, instead of skin they have chitin exoskeletons. Chitin is rigid, which means even the victims of relatively minor injuries will require the services of a bonesetter--although it does make unarmed termitefolk considerably more offensively powerful than soft, fleshy tetrapods.

Finally, they are divided into a caste system:

Workers: Roughly a third of all termitefolk are workers, making them the most common caste. Workers are extremely fragile, intellectually uninspiring, and not particularly strong or agile. They're also not very big (smaller than a dog) and rarely live longer than a decade. On the upside, workers are tireless, with high endurance and no need for sleep. They also have an instinctual affinity for civilian labor (particularly less complicated tasks) learning them quickly and rarely forgetting them.

Soldiers: One out of five termitefolk are born as soldiers. Soldiers are nearly as large as dwarves, and possess natural armor and weapons that civilian termitefolk lack. They are stronger and tougher than average, easy to train quickly, and while they don't have the endurance of a worker, they do not sleep. The similarity to workers also extends to their low mental attributes and very short lifespans, however, and they have no affinity for civilian labors.

Royals: The fertile kings and queens are the only termitefolk able to reproduce, and together make up slightly less than a third of the average colony. As they live only slightly longer than workers, and are generally deficient in physical attributes (although kings are quicker than average and queens have high endurance), said reproduction is their usually their primary role. Once married, a queen can give birth to 5-6 termites a year. They have both some innate social skills and a general affinity for socializing, as well as highly defined personalities which facilitate their pairing-off (and can often lead to grudges with members of the other castes).

Nurses: Nurses are a rarer variation of the worker, comprising approximately 6 percent of the average colony. Like the worker, they are small and fragile, and while they have a lot of endurance, they do need to sleep. Young nurses are faster than the average worker, but they tend to slow down with age. While nurses share some affinity towards civilian labors with workers, it is far less pronounced. Unlike the worker, however, nurses live for decades and, as their name suggests, have innate medical skills and high disease resistance.

Minister: Less than one out of twenty termitefolk are born as ministers. Ministers do not derive their name from any religious role, but rather as advisers to royals and the colony as a whole--being by far the longest lived caste, they have ample time to gain experience and skills. While they have impressive mental attributes and a knack for remembering complicated skills, they are otherwise comparable to other civilized races in terms of size and physical attributes; this makes them the most flexible and adaptable of all the termitefolk castes.

Elite: Roughly as common as the minister, the elite is its military counterpart. Like the soldier, it possess thicker chitin than other termitefolk, large mandibles and a natural affinity for military skills that, unlike the soldier, extends to exotic weapons (it is also better suited for leadership and teaching roles). It is the largest humanoid termiteperson, standing as tall as a human. While not as long-lived as the minister or nurse, its lifespan can nonetheless span more than half a century and unlike the other longer-lived termitefolk, it does not require sleep.

Brute: One in fifty termitefolk births will result in a brute. Like elites, brutes have lifespans of medium-length uninterrupted by sleep, as well as thicker exoskeletons and powerful mandibles. However, the similarity between them, and between brutes and all other termitefolk, end there. Brutes do not speak and are not intelligent in the normal sense of the word. Although they can learn and perform skills, they are slow to do so with anything not associated with melee combat. They walk with four legs instead of two, and have large, deadly pinchers in the place of hands on their two arms--although this does not prevent them from wielding weapons. Most importantly, they are huge, only slightly smaller than the average rhinoceros. A fully equiped brute makes for a deadly and nearly unstopable defender of the colony.

INSTALLATION

To install, unzip the attached folder and put the five text files contained within in your raw/objects folder. Players may wish to remove the [CARNIVORE] tag from the termitefolks' creature RAWs before worldgen, adding it back into the save file RAWs after completion; failing to do so will cause termitefolk civilizations to die out during worldgen. During an extended play-through this appeared to have no repercussions beyond limited availability of materials at embark and during trade, but this was unexpected and may have been an outlier.

For both balance and role-playing reasons, is also recommended that you replace the [INTELLIGENT] tag in the elf creature raw with [CAN_LEARN] or add [BABYSNATCHER] to their entity file. This will make them automatically seige your colony--a sensible relationship for wood-eaters and treehuggers to share. If you do so, it may be a good idea to also modify the progress triggers in the elves' entity entry to avoid unduly early sieges.