Thread:The Creature Slayer/@comment-35876453-20200216003437

Hello again, I've seen your new blog on Xenopaedia about the Raven xenomorph, now I don't know if this is purely a coincidence but I've also used the word 'Lictor', but instead in renaming the Royal Guard variety (juvenile Praetorians) in my personal headcanon xenomorph classification system, this is because Lictors were in use during the time of the Roman Kingdom, before the Roman Republic when the Praetorian Guard were used, so it follows that 'Lictor' becomes 'Praetorian Guard'.

Now here I'm applying the word 'Lictor' to a preexisting standard variety (Royal Guard) which is the juvenile stage of the Praetorian caste, instead of using it to rename a xenomorph variety of dubious origins that has so far only been encountered once and which currently has no specified place within the official canon, standard hive/caste structure, and which was not observed protecting the Queen, but instead only seen patrolling the depths beneath the hive and also its outer perimeter, which is why I renamed the Raven as the 'Vanguard', due to it likely being the first xenomorph one would encounter when approaching a hive because of its observed behavour in patrolling both underneath the hive, as well as its outer perimeter.

The Raven has also been noted as making a snarling noise like that of the Lurker caste (which I have renamed as Venators (hunters) due to them being an ambush caste) leading one to believe that it moults from Lurkers instead of Warriors, despite its ridged cranium which may simply function as transient segmentation (in the case of the Raven, not Warriors etc. with which it has a differing structure and function) allowing for rapid cranium growth and moulting from a lesser caste such as a Lurker, or into a more mature caste, such as the Palatine with which it shares its tusk-like protrusions and saggital cranium spines, despite the.Palatine featuring a smooth cranium like that of a Lurker, which adds credence to my theory of transient cranial segmentation allowing for rapid growth whilst maintaining structural strength, within the Vanguard caste. 