Queen Larvirus is a stubborn changeling, as is typical of the rulers of the northern hive, a collection of brutes and warmongers. So when a plague robs her and her hive of their fertility, she refuses to join the new united hive and submit to queen Locestris, a long dead ancestor of queen Chrysalis, to seek help for her diseased hive. Fortunately, a benefactor comes with a bargain "Be cured and become my instruments of war, or have your hive rot away."