It's been the tradition for longer than most ants, or even their leaders remember, that the first born Princess, when reaching the age of maturity (typically in their early 20's) leave their homes to establish colonies of their own. And as well illustrated in the movie, ‘A Bug's Life' simply learning the skills, patience, and self confidence in leading an established colony can be a difficult situation at best. So imagine being sent out into the world, with only a handful of your friends and other trusted individuals to create your own place of residency. Not only is the organization difficult, but also are the myriad of steps required to create and maintain a thriving ant colony. Many colonies have been known to fail due to the lack of good leadership skills, poor locations and some times just unfortunate circumstances can lead to a colones demise. Numerous princess's spend a good portion of their young lives planning on their future colonies, some even before they know for sure that they'll have a younger sister, so as to be sure their new homes will be a success. Holding the lives of so many others in your hands takes tremendous responsibility Others have a very difficult time simply struggling in their own personal lives, to spend time on such planning and personal skills. There are some who will simply ignore the situation, not wanting to put in so much time and effort. Then there are the princesses who have so little confidence that a few have or nearly have sent a colony into ruin. So, as one might wonder, if one sibling was more apt to create and lead a new colony, then why wouldn't that procedure be followed through. One word. Tradition. But in one particular colony's history, an example has been shown where one Queen, when faced with this problem herself, decided to go against tradition and chose her younger daughter to be the one who would go out into the world. Princess Carnelian was a fairly well balanced individual, but had a number of weaknesses in leadership, and it had a tendency to show. Her sister, Princess Gale, on the other hand had been planning ‘the perfect colony' to build and lead. Okay, so she herself wouldn't call it ‘perfect' but for her, that was a goal to strive for. These two sisters had spoken many times in their youth about hopes in persuade their mother's mind in altering her decision when Carnelian reached the age of maturity. And they had a good list of arguments to support their views, but it was to no avail. Tradition could not be broken, for a fear held commonly amongst ants of that time period was that the mother and her colony would fall into ruin if the tradition was not upheld. But, it wasn't beyond the rules of the colony for the one sister to help the other in whatever way she could. Thus was the situation. Princess Saffronhelped her sister, by patterning her ‘perfect colony' into the one her older sister would eventually lead. A prime location was located, and with the help of her younger sister and group of well trained colonists whom would assume the position of counselors, Queen Carnelian developed and lead West River colony into a thriving community. Once her colony was established, Queen Carnelian lead her colony with a tight but loving hand, and rarely did the colonists go without. There was the seasons of poor crops or too much rain, but her sisters plan included such situations so that when these difficulties did occur, the hardest problems were minimized. Eventually the time came that Queen Carnelian had a daughter, Princess Caranda, and from that point on decided that she would change tradition to a more sensible arrangement. That being; if she had two daughters, the one who was most able to lead would be the one to go, rather than the oldest. She had no intention of putting her children what she went through. Five years later, the second daughter was born, Princess Saffron. The two princesses never really got along too well while growing up. At earlier ages, there situation of ‘fairness' came into debate more often than their mom could care to remember, but things were handled for the most part fairly. When Caranda was 7, she became largely responsible for her sisters needs and she resented that deeply. Her mom was quite busy with leadership responsibilities, but wanted a family member to take care of her youngest daughter. As the sisters grew, the dislike for each other grew dramatically, to the point that their mother had to keep them in separate areas of the colony. With same sized rooms at the same level so neither was getting prefered treatment. Eventually they began to grow out of this phase, and just before Caranda reached 23, they became good friends. But Caranda began to wonder when her mom was going to send her out to create her own colony. This was despite the fact that she had little more than meager plans to establish a new home, while her sister had much more thoroughly developed plans, plus was more mature, over all. It wasn't uncommon for people to mistake the older for the younger sister and vice versa. When Princess Saffron reached 22, her mom gave her the charge to go out into the world and create her own colony. Princess Caranda was furious. She was the oldest and she felt that the old tradition should be upheld. Not out of fear of a failing colony. No, she couldn't hold a phosphorescent mushroom to that idea. But she was the oldest and felt that ‘she had that right' as first born. Unable to persuade her mother, she spoke to Saffron to see if they could persuade their mother together. But Princess Saffronchose to support her mothers decision. This was not out of ego, but out of practicality. She had the better plans and skills. Princess Caranda then secretly put together her own group of friends and followers, and a few days before they planned to leave, she copied all of her sisters plans for her colony. Without so much as a word, Caranda left one night with her group of followers, never to return. Caranda's group didn't get far before they had to settle upon an location to establish their colony. With bad weather hampered their progress, they chose a location along the river to the East, which joined with the west portion to the north. Thus were the foundations laid for ‘East River Colony'. Despite a few less than noteworthy struggles, East River became a thriving colony, much like West River. And it's no wonder. Princess Saffron borrowed a number of her mom's colony plans which were from their aunt, who planned ‘the perfect colony' With her sisters departure, Princess Saffron eventually took the crown and leadership of East River Colony. She felt betrayed by her sister, but soon accepted her situation and maintained many of her mom's ideals and procedures. Some she changed as the colonies needs changed, which is simply the actions of good leadership. Feelings of angst between the two colonies, despite their physical separation grew steadily. It began with members of each colony feeling that they were wronged and that the other colonies leader was selfish despite the fact that Queen Caranda was the oldest daughter and established her own colony anyway, as the tradition dictated. Eventually the conflict grew to the point of physical conflict where many ants lost their lives in numerous battles. Thus hatred for each other came to a full boil, and peace would never be seen between each other to this day. There were ants who at one time attempted to visit old friends in East River, but they never returned. Rumor then began that they were either enslaved or outright killed. So it became ‘common knowledge' that to journey from West to East River would bring on slavery or death. No attempted visits ever occurred again. There were times that peace was sought after, but there would always seem to be some event that destroyed any attempts. A misunderstanding of where to meet ended peace talks. Another was a trade that went sour when a couple of West River colonists attempted to cheat the other colony by providing bad and hollowed out grain. One battle that lasted well over a year began due to a stray aphid. A pet that some ant from East River was assumed to be sick with a deadly illness, then sent by West River to wipe out the entire colony. It turns out that the aphid belonged to a East River colonists who's kids fed her too much. Thus East and West River colonies, to this day, have never seen peace between each other. However, it's been nearly ten years since either has seen antenna or abdomen of the other, which frequently causes both rumors and the occasional panic to ensue. While on the other had, a few colonists hope and feel that the conflict is finally over, and that the other side has grown tired of all the many generations of war and conflict. One could only hope.

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