Insectus Empire (Battle for Earth Revised)

The Insectus Empire is a fairly new race, formed in the 1960s but with roots stretching very far back.

Evolution
The evolutionary history of the Insectus Empire is unclear. They come from the planet Talloke, a world smaller than Earth with a very dense atmosphere. At the time, the planet was recovering from a global "sand age", when deserts expanded and water became very scarse. This event caused the Oulmaak Extinction Event, which wiped out 57% of all life on the planet. As life recovered and jungles expanded, somewhere in the chaos one of the large insect-like life forms populating the world started to become smarter. These creatures were as big as a table at the time, and thanks to the influx of water and oxygen in the wake of the extinction event they were starting to grow larger. It is unclear when, but at most 3 million years ago, the proto-Insectus started to use tools. However, as desert-like conditions temporarily returned (it is unclear whether this was a distinct extinction event or the end of the Oulmaak event), they had to rely on brainpower or die out. The only Insectus ancestors we know of are Insectus habilis and Insectus gigantis in human scientific terms. The Insectus names for them are unknown, but "Falkop" seems to be the word for I. gigantis and is considered a derogatory term, much like "Neanderthal" in human terms. It is suspected that the Insectus themselves know far more about their evolution but usually don't talk about it to outsiders. Some believe that there was another species called the Insectus aerialus but the claims are uncertain. However, their history becomes more clear by about 25,000 years ago. Apparenty, by that time, there was only Insectus intellectus zenithus, the modern-day Insectus race, and Insectus intellectus proeliator, a species quite similar to the modern-day Insectus. Both evolved, or at least lived on, the continent of Akkata, the most desert-like existing Insectus continent. Apparently, the Insectus take pride in the little-known Race Wars between the two races, which ended in the destruction of I. i. proeliator and modern Insectus taking control of the world. However, it is unclear if the Race Wars actually happened or if they were just an Insectus legend. In any sense, if the Race Wars did happen, the details are unclear outside the empire, and we will probably never know the whole story, like how many wars occured or the battles, the heroes and the stories that the Insectus celebrate. We only know one tale about a certain "king", a status now, of course, nonexistent, known as Agabal, who apparently led the Insectus of a city to freedom against the proeliator that had conquered them years before and formed a city-state before the proeliator killed him and captured the city again. This seems to prove that civilization had formed even in those ancient times. However, as the Race Wars may have been fictitious, we cannot be sure. We can, however, say that I. i. proeliator was real, as their exoskeletons are displayed at several Insectus museums. And we do know that by 18,000 years ago, the last of the proeliator had been wiped out. Thus, the evolutionary past of the Insectus now turns into the ancient history, if not the prehistory.

Prehistory
The prehistory of the Insectus is pretty much totally unknown. We aren't even sure if it actually occured. Supposing that the legends of the Race Wars above are true, then the Insectus already had a civilization around the time usually called prehistory. All we know is that between around 18,000 and 7,000 years ago, the Insectus may have been a hunter-gatherer society who then came to rule all of Talloke. After 7,000 years ago, if the Race Wars are fictitious, then the first city-state was formed on the continent of Andbarra in what is known as 5300 B.H. (Before Horus) and was ruled by King Aball, a celebrated character in Insectus history. He lived for 70 years and was eventualy mummified and buried in a fashion similar to that of the Ancient Egyptians. The mummy is on display at the Imperial Museum of Galactic History in Andbar. Hunter-gatherer societies persisted up to about 3,000 BH. The last confirmed tribe was conquered by the Queendom of Attarak by 2974 BH. Insectus legend states that tribes lasted until the creation of the Galactic Queendom itself at 47 GH (Galactic History)