Swarmlings are superlight Facades produced by False Archons. Like Drones, they act as bulk workers in a Facade gestalt, able to fulfill a variety of roles with their mix of physical dexterity, magical ability, and shapeshifting. A group of Swarmlings is known as a knot.

Variants

Imps - Arrays - Pustules - Swarmlings

Swarmlings are rather small Facades, standing at just 1' 5" (43cm), though sporting a fairly robust build for their size. They are notable for the numerous bristles that take the form of spikes or quills in their unshapeshifted forms; these quills host the roots of nerve and muscle fibres, allowing a Swarmling to map a startling number of potential extra limbs when shapeshifted. This pairs with a rather significant morphological strength for the Swarmlings' size, allowing them to support a multitude of complex forms.

Swarmlings are capable of a wide variety of shapeshifting thanks to their highly flexible limb mapping abilities, and they are the Facade that most frequently shapeshift for practical purpose besides disguising, with their main limits being structural ones due to their small size. When disguising is necessary, most commonly mimic Imps or Serfs, though very rarely a well-fed Swarmling will instead attempt to mimic a Pustule.

Swarmlings, despite their name and nature as plentiful swarmers that tend to coordinate in groups, display a particular form of behavioural dynamism in which members of a swarm will generally try to act unalike one another. For example, if a knot of Swarmlings is largely comprised of joyful and mopey individuals, a Swarmling looking to join may put on a grouchy or surly act, even if the Swarmling itself isn't particularly prone to that behaviour.

Swarmlings' small size and considerable morphological flexibility makes them uniquely suited to building interlocking "systems" of shapeshifted figures. They display unparalleled cohesion when working in such forms, and are capable of a startling variety of configurations, even forming into working heavy machinery like cranes or large beasts like dragons. When formed into cohesive figures, their personalities seem to be exaggerated.

When in combat, Swarmlings will either attempt to group up into a significantly-sized form for battling, or will sit near the protective figure of a Palisade to fire off small magical bolts from cover. They may also assist Serfs in supplying Analogues with needed haetin, even if the Swarmlings have been outed to the puppet clan.

Swarmlings are notable in that they are spawned in plurality from a single pupa. When False Archons spawn Swarmlings, they typically hatch two or three to a pupa, though this rate is reduced to the more expected one to one ratio when Swarmlings are spawned by Palisades.

Swarmlings have fairly simple epigenetic structures, with much of their peculiarity being attributed to their displayed behaviours rather than their trigger profiles. They are notable for coming from two distinct sources, a trait only shared in spirit by Serf puppets.

Swarmlings are a fairly basic concept (the little guys who come from everywhere and everyone), but with a particular spin on it. They're kind of counterparts to how other small (sub)puppets behave, with a focus on actually shifting into different forms to get things done.