Ok, so you know how a young bovine is a calf, a grown adult male is a bull and an adult female is a cow? What about the creatures in the Clockworks?
So it's...
A pack of Wolvers, a swarm of Greavers/Silkwings, a horde of anything undead, a ??? for constructs/Chromalisks/Gremlins, a colony of lichens, and a blob(?) of slimes, right?
Also, are knights biological or robotic, and if biological, are their genders physically-derived or mentally-derived? The Treasure Vault seems undecided about this.
Hmm...
If your first question isn't rhetorical, the only thing I can think of is a wolver pup.
I'd say it's an Army of Constructs/Gremlins and possibly a Nest of Chromalisks. Lizards/amphibians aren't really group oriented so the only place I could think of with a large group of them would be a nest. And may I also add an office of fiends? XD
I don't think knights are either biological or robotic... they seem to be more like sentient entities. The genders are probably mentally-derived given that you can see a Spiral Tailed Helm, complete with pigtails, in the Arsenal -- making it so that they can literally dress their gender part.
I like to believe Spiral knights are an advanced genderless race of biobotic warriors, using heat to sustain their existences and energy to develop new technology.
The "correct" answers (according to a combination of Wikipedia and the D&D v3.5 Monster Manual) aren't actually very fun, basically being fox terms for Wolvers, crocodile terms for Chromalisks, groups for constructs and undead, teams or squads for Devilites and gremlins, and colonies for Greavers and slimes. Interestingly, a group of Lumbers is called a grove, but that's about it.
Personally, I think calling a group of Gun Puppies a bunker, a group of Devilites a department, and a group of Zombies a scourge is more appropriate.
On biology:
In the IMF Recon module, Rulen says of Grantz that "Sometimes I think that beneath his iron suit is a body of equally heavy iron. It wouldn't surprise me." I suppose it's open to interpretation, but if knights can literally have metal bodies, then that comment doesn't make sense to me. You wouldn't say "He's so strong, sometimes I think he has a body made of skin." If he's not being metaphorical, then knights are usually made of a substance less durable than iron.
On gender:
We know from the recon modules that knights use gendered nouns- there are (at least) two genders of knights represented in the Spiral Order, and they have the cultural idea of a distinction between them. On the other hand, the Spiral Order are an egalitarian lot, and they don't appear to have anything resembling gender roles. Every single member of the Order knows how to swing a sword and fire a gun, and is expected to take up arms to defend the innocent. And every single member of the Order can wear a frilly dress and floral bonnet and be taken perfectly seriously by their commanding officers. ("He killed Lord Vanaduke and fought the Swarm; he can wear whatever he wants"). So, if there's a distinction between genders and it's not cultural, it follows that there's some sort of inherent, possibly biological, difference between genders. And the Spiral Order doesn't care about it.
How do monster spontaneously appear?
If shock is an abnormal spurt of energy, why don't we regenerate energy when shocked?
Why can't we take the Core Terminal elevator back down to the Core Terminal?
How many times does it take to kill Lord Vanaduke before he is really dead?
How many Roarmulus are there, and why can we only fight two?
Why did Feron in Operation Crimson Hammer get nearly killed and stay away from combat because he's hurt while health panels are right there?
How does a Jelly Token (or an actual Jelly) taste like?
If we can pierce Jello with a fork, why are Jellies resistant to piercing?
How exactly does "shadow" hurt a Gremlin and Jelly more than a Beast or Construct?
If Seerus self destructed his arsenal, which him inside it, does this game support suicide?
How can Snipes fly as they do?
How are there so many crash landings, and so little craters?
Where can you get Bechamel's Love Puppy accessory?
Why won't Gun Puppies or Wolvers attack Kats?
If we bought 9999999999999 Energy, can we reactivate the Skylark? Where does that energy come from anyway if we haven't reached the Core?
Why don't all Shadow Lairs deal solely Shadow?
Can you hijack Gremlin machinery?
What if we are Gremlins, but we just don't know it?
Why can't a Trojan spam the smash attack?
Can Spiral Knights jump?
Is an Impostocube just outdated gelatin?
What makes different Tiers have different powers of monsters?
What if a Spookat Hat is just another GM exclusive armor?
Why don't we use the Slime Slasher as an actual shovel and dig our way through the Clockworks?
Can a Gremlin Thwacker just wear a bunch of Shields to become invincible?
What if someone from the Spiral order mistakened one of us for a Gremlin, if we wore armor that looks like one?
@Heavy-Duty:
1. Magic. *snort snort*
2. It's too much energy in too little time. Same reason a human body can receive a shock, even though your heart runs on electricity (sort of)
3. As part of an ancient money making scheme, the creators of the terminals designed them to only be able to hold limited amounts of energy at a time before an additional charge is incurred. That's why you have to pay crowns to jump down a tier or two. Jumping to the Core terminal itself was designed to be a fantastically expensive endeavor, and required contacting a terminal executive via an intercom button on the terminal to wire him the large fee. But sadly, as we all know, the original creators of the Clockworks (and terminals) have long since disappeared, and therefore contacting a terminal executive is impossible. Pressing the ancient intercom buttons on the terminal yields only a harsh static, with the faint strains of Rick Astley playing in the background.
4. He's undead. His burning hatred keeps bringing him back. Therefore, he will never die.
5. Gremlins keep rebuilding the Twins. There's only room on the platform to deploy two at a time.
6. He's secretly afraid of fighting, despite his demeanor. Think of Odessa Cubbage from Half-Life 2. Same type of guy.
7. Berry flavored
8. Stabbing jello may be easy, but really it doesn't do that much damage to the jello. Jellies, being living creatures, are smart enough to simply reform themselves when pierced.
9. "Shadow" damage is actually purely psychological. Gremlins and jellies are very superstitious creatures, whereas constructs are more scientifically-minded (being advanced AI creatures and all) and beasts are, well, beasts.
10. Only when you fail, as Seerus did. If your knight ever screws up that badly, OOO will mail you a samurai sword and a hara-kiri handbook.
11. Like helicopters do.
12. Strangers clean up fast.
13. Because he's fabulous, and you're not. At least, you're not as fabulous as Bechamel.
14. Gun puppies' target identification systems run on heartbeat sensors. Kats, being undead, have no such heartbeat. Wolvers don't attack Kats because of the great Canine-Feline Cradle Treaty of 1034 B.V. (Before Vanaduke), in which the Kats and Wolvers ended their ages-long war.
15. Energy comes from the Core - it leaks, even though we haven't opened it yet. Crystal energy is merely solidified mist energy. The process for doing this is known only to the Strangers. And it's unsure whether crystal energy can actually reboot the Skylark - remember, SKHQ is just kind of running on the desperate hope that it does.
16. Because the "Shadow" in "Shadow Lair" does not, in this case, apply specifically to the damage type. Rather, it refers to the absence of the Cradle's light.
17. No, we knights can't read the user manuals.
18. We aren't, we know it. Wrong body shape.
19. The Trojan, being a corrupted knight, has the remnants of a sense of "honor" that prevent him from being overly cheap in combat.
20. Yes, but it's annoying to do so with the armor and all.
21. True style never goes out of date.
22. Closer you get to the Core, the more energy affects the monsters, which alters their abilities.
23. You know that "What dark ritual?" spookat in Moorcroft Manor? Well, the dark ritual he's referring to is the summoning of the Spookat Hat. It takes lots of time and energy to perform the ritual, and thus the Spookat hat will most likely remain exclusive.
24. If you haven't noticed, the Clockwork levels are kind of like floating islands most of the time. It'd be like digging your way out of an airplane. Also, the clockworks are made out of metal, and the shovel is made to cut slime. Not exactly top-notch material.
25. Thwackers are issued one, and only one, shield. Remember, gremlins have outsourced management and administrative duties to the devilites, and those guys are picky about resource management.
26. They won't. All Spiral Knight helmets have built-in friendly identification systems. (These same systems are also what enables auto-aim)
I think our knight are knights are bio-mechanical, maybe they have a cellular structure that is rich in iron and other metals, the knight are shown to have a beating heart when doing revives. Are knights are capable of eating and every thing that goes in must come out, so in other word they are capable of eating and using the restroom.
Admins use to try avoiding the idea of gender in spiral knight but as you can see mission mode exercises the words he and she. Also you can now easily tell the difference between the male and female npcs (after the current update of there models). So in other words npcs have gender and so do are knights but we have the choice to choose are knights gender.
However i did notice that the new lore added with the missions makes the game a lot more flexible since it is said that the clock works has pieces of other worlds meaning that cradle can grown new shells and maybe even a whole new tier.
This also make me think about the the spiral order and almire. Could it be that almire used to be part of the same world which the spiral order came?
Is there still knights left on the knight home planet?
"Are knights are capable of eating and every thing that goes in must come out, so in other word they are capable of eating and using the restroom."
You... Are... A... GENIUS! This has concluded my research.
Seeing there are missions with actual DEAD knights, I assume the damage incurred was of catastrophic proportions if they couldn't be revived with mist.
Personally, I would call a group of Spookats a haunt. Looking up, apparently some people like to talk of a fraid of ghosts, but that's way too punny. Also, a group of Constructs of any kind could be called an array. :D Also, for the other turrets, a mass of Polyps and a battery of Howlitzers. I would call a young Gremlin a wrenchling, just as there are Wolver pups and Chromalisk hatchlings.
@Sodaaddict: Holy crap, you ARE indeed on a roll. O_o
So, summing up all the group term suggestions in the thread:
Might have missed a few, if so, I apologize ;P
2. The same process is why being set on fire doesn't level all your equipment to level 10.
5. You can see more Twins on an assembly line on the way to the arena. Constructing a fully-powered Twin takes a massive amount of labor, and even at emergency full capacity the gremlins can't get the final quality control tests done until about 15 minutes after the latest model has gone online.
7. A poll covered this. However, as Jelly Shields are berry-flavored, and I voted for strawberry, the same is probably true for Jellies.
12. The planet has limited self-repair capacity even when the gremlins can't reach the surface. Besides, Spiral Order drop pods, under normal circumstances, don't leave that large a hole. An impact like that would seriously injure the knight inside.
14. I laughed at the treaty part.
17. Neither do the gremlins. They're like Orks, they weld things together and see if they work.
20. It's actually possible for a knight wearing a Striker pack to field-modify the booster, giving them several seconds of airtime. Allegedly this was used frequently in assaults elsewhere in the galaxy, but after an unfortunate incident in which a Striker landed poorly and impaled himself with his own BTB the practice fell out of use.
I should have done that myself, I love these kinds of questions.
Personally, I'd like to know what the insides of a knight looks like (Skeleton frame, muscle mass, etc) because that would really help in designing a new monster type I'm working on.
I searched on Tumblr for it. This is what turned up.
http://monster-bait.tumblr.com/post/19721803870/so-i-started-playing-spi...
Kind of disturbing, really.
Its one of those things thats up to the player. I've heard arguments for both, and its a tough call. However, I believe biological because they talk about the "energy" being the their armor and not necessarily their bodies. Also, if you look closely at an opened face helm you can kinda make out a nose-like-shape.