Geonosians, the last hope of the galaxy!

Religion

Historically, Geonosian rival hives often declared war on one another and clashed in vast underground battles. Millions of soldier drones tore each other apart with sonic cannons and choked the catacombs with their corpses. According to Geonosian myth, the hive overlords--towering Geonosian giants of great strength and wisdom--grew angry with the bloodshed and battled one another in open combat on the planet's surface in sight of their awed subjects. Thus began the spectacle of Geonosian gladiatorial combat, or petranaki.

Traditions
Geonosians live in a society immersed in tradition. Chief among these is the ritual arena fighting known as petranaki. Petranaki, the honored arena-fighting art, involves the use of ritual weapons that have changed little in the past few centuries. Arena fighters are permitted to select one of five traditional melee weapons to use against their opponents. The items in the "petranaki array" include:
Picador's Spear: This weapon, also known as a static pike, is identical to those carried by the arena's beast-wrangling picadors. A long-handled spear with a piercing tip, the picador's spear also delivers an electrical charge that can temporarily stun its target. Range: 4 meters.
Confessor's Whip: Featuring three barbed tails, the confessor's whip leaves traces of a debilitating nerve toxin in its wounds, which can temporarily slow a victim's reflexes. Furthermore, the whip can be used to attempt to trip an opponent or pull a weapon from an opponent's hands. Range: 6 meters.
Petranaki Scimitar: A well-balanced, curved sword with a razor edge, this is the most popular weapon among petranaki combatants.
Caster's Net: A fine-mesh circular net resembling a spider web, the caster's net is lined with electrified threads that are activated when the thrower lets go of the dead man's switch on the net's central control unit. The caster of the net can hang on to a trailing rope to prevent the entangled opponent from moving away. Though difficult to use, it can both stun and immobilize opponents.
Beastwarden's Shield: The beaswarden's shield is a bronze disc with sharp spikes along its rim. Although primarily used for defense, the spikes can be used in close combat, and Geonosian gladiators sometimes hurl the sheilds as ranged weapons.

Besides traditional petranaki, other arena spectacles are traditional among the Geonosians, including the execution of prisoners by arena beasts, fights between animals and gladiators or other animals (popularized by Hadiss the Vaulted), and droid demolition derbies that make sport out of malfunctioning products.

The Geonosian Caste System

Queen: Queens are the most important members of Geonosian society, responsible for birthing every member of a colony. A mature queen is gigantic and immobile, secreted away in the dark catacombs below a spire-hive and attended by legions of sightless drones. Her only function is to lay egg clusters, and the death of a queen can spell doom for an entire hive. Backup queen larvae are kept in jelly-filled cells, but raising one to maturity takes years.

Aristocrat: Aristocrats make up only 5% of the hive population but rule Geonosian society, including the queen. All members of the aristocrat caste have wings, and older aristocrats can be recognized by drooping facial wattles that resemble the beards sported by many mammalian species.

Drone: The vast majority of Geonosians are drones. Being born into the worker caste has doomed them to a life of unceasing toil. The drone caste is split into subcastes including service, labor, farmer, maker, overseer, pilot, and soldier. These subcastes are biologically distinct, with both mental and physical differences that are suited to their duties. All drones are permitted the opportunity of battling in the arena to win fame through combat; the arena's picadors (see the Picador caste) are actually former drones who proved themselves capable combatants and earned a marginally better life. Drones lack names since aristocrats consider their workers interchangeable.

Soldier Drone: The warrior caste of the Geonosian species, soldier drones mature quickly, capable of active service at the age of six. All soldier drones, unlike other drone castes, have wings. This distinction makes them similar to aristocrats, and, indeed, some soldier drones have risen to aristocratic positions (Poggle the Lesser being the most famous example). Soldier drones are generally not as intelligent as aristocrats, but are far less cowardly. Besides acting as the warriors of the Geonosian species, soldier drones make up the bulk of the species' technical staff, since lower caste drones (with the exception of pilots and overseers) are not trusted by aristocrats for anything other than menial labor.

Labor Drone: By far the most numerous subcaste, labor drones do almost all of their hive's physical work. Labor drones work in factories, construct new hives, excavate minerals, create tunnels, and do practically much anything else that the other castes do not want to do.

Service Drone: Not quite as lowly as the labor drone subcaste, service drones act as servants to the aristocrats. The service drones prepare food, fashion jewelry, memorize and relay messages. Service drones are also the subcaste that manages the Geonosian nurseries, responsible for raising and training larvae and pupae.

Farmer Drones: Farmer drones are similar to labor drones, but their specialized minds make them excellent cultivaters of edible fungi, oolle roots, arch grubs, and parasitic phidnas. Farmer drones are simple, patient, and unlike their labor drone cousins, not very communicative.

Maker Drone: Legions of blind maker drones attend the queen in the deepest levels of the catacombs. Never seen far from the queen, these drones bring her sustenance and take newly laid eggs to service drones who relocate them to their respective nurseries. Because of their blindness, maker drones rely heavily on their overdeveloped hearing and olfactory nerves.

Overseer Drone: Less skittish and more intelligent than labor drones, overseer drones manage the operations of everything from factories and asteroid mining facilities to nurseries and cultivation pits. Overseer drones are given the authority to send other drones to deal with minor problems, but they are usually under orders to contact a superior whenever a major threat occurs (such as a factory fusion core meltdown or a merdeth attack).

Pilot Drone: One of the most recent subcastes, pilot drones are highly focused, highly specialized beings. They require no sleep, not even the semi-conscious dormancy state of the labor drones, allowing them to remain conscious and alert while waiting in the cockpit of a Geonosian starfighter, ready to strike at a moments notice should Geonosis be attacked, or a merdeth maraud a hive. Geonosian pilots, in their pupa stage, are each paired with a flight computer with which they develop an idiosyncratic coordination enhancing rapport. They are considered by some to be the best pilots in the galaxy.

Elite: The Geonosian elite is another recent development for the Geonosians. Geonosian elites are monstrous, nearly twice as large as a n average labor drone, and considerably intelligent. Elites have two pairs of wings capable of sustained flight, two large, powerful arms, and two sets of legs (two very strong ones, and two smaller ones for stability). Their thick exoskeletons protect them from nearly any physical blow, and their long mandibles can pierce even plasteel. Though adept at unarmed and melee combat, elites usually sport a unique beam weapon that has organic components which draw energy from the elite's own body.