Drones are general-purpose light Facades produced by False Archons. They make up the backbone of a Facade force, not specializing particularly in anything, but being capable at most tasks. A group of drones is known as a swarm or a thrum.

Manipulators - Tricksters - Drones

Drones are modestly-sized Facades, standing at a rather nondescript 3' 3" (99cm) with an equally moderate build. While their chitinous bodies, horns, and translucent wings heavily differentiate them from any kind of regular puppet, among other Facades they are unique only in that they have a fifth leg that protrudes from their torso. In their default configuration, this gives them minimal benefit, but allows the Drone an extra limb with which to map nerve movements to when shapeshifted.

Like all Facades, Drones are capable of effective shapeshifting to either camouflage or better adapt their bodies for work, and are unable to receive psionic signals without translation from a host False Archon. When disguising is necessary, they most commonly mimic Manipulators or Tricksters.

Drones tend to practice the behaviours of the puppets they typically mimic, even when mimicking them is unnecessary. As such, Drones tend to have broadly social, collaborative personalities, attempting to join in spell circles or Manipulator work crews when possible. This can cause complications in high intensity situations, as they do not have the truly inherent sense of coordination that most small puppets have with one another, but for typical work is seldom a noticeable flaw in their disguise.

When forced to fight, Drones can fulfill a wide variety of roles, though they tend to prefer middle-line roles where their slightly limited magic is most effective. Their magic is relatively simple in nature, responsible for either firing off bolts of green energy at their targets, or creating a rapidly-expanding foamy substance that can harden into temporary cover. Their inability to recreate strong elemental magic seems to be the worst flaw in their disguise as Tricksters.

Drones are about as bog-standard as it gets when Facades are concerned, sharing epigenetic triggers with all of their siblings in the way that most of their triggers are for a standard body plan. They do boast greater neural plasticity than most Facades, however, allowing them to adapt to the relative diversity of roles afforded to the puppets they mimic.

Drones are the "basic" caste for Facades, taking direct inspiration from Changelings (vs. Puppets being inspired by Ponies). Originally, they didn't have the fifth leg at all, but I then realized that they basically just looked like regular Changelings with white eyes. So, the fifth leg was added, giving Drones a more distinctive silhouette (and also adding some flavour to how they disguise themselves).