Giant Spider: Difference between revisions

Giant Spider
Fauna
Official Name	Giant Spider
Common Nicknames	Fender Spider, Nightmarach
Classification	Arthropod
Habitat	Fendarfelle and Drowda
Domesticated	No
Current Status	Uncommon

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Revision as of 20:00, 19 December 2021

The Giant Spider has terrified many people for decades and was originally widespread across the north and west of Aloria until the Cataclysm, which isolated them to only two continents. They are certainly not an ideal creature to encounter for arachnophobes, well-known for their venom and varied dens, living in web-dense trees, tunnels beneath the earth, and mountain cave systems. They are also the feature of many horror stories among the Colonial Charters of Fendarfelle, but with the rise of Bone Horrors, many Giant Spider populations close to the coastline have seen a drastic reduction as they suffer at the hands of these undead beasts.

History

Giant Spiders are attested to frequently as the bane of life in records of the Allorn Empire. It is unknown how or when they spread out from Fendarfelle to Daenn, but for centuries, they plagued Daendroc’s jungles and marshes in particular, their great nests elevated in the treetops out of reach or discovery by those who were unfamiliar with what to look for. They were also known to the Drovv, who supposedly had the power to tame them, but if this learned skill ever existed, it has not survived into the modern day. Surprisingly, it was the decay of the Allorn Empire which spelled the end for the Giant Spider in Daen as with more and more jungles being chopped down to feed the needs of the nation, the Giant Spiders lost their habitats. Some attempted to dwell in ruins, commonly those of the Meraic, or neglected Altalar sites, but these groups rarely lasted long. By 500 BC, they were eradicated from Daen, and only remained to exist in northern lands which included Drowda, or in Fendarfelle.

The Fifth Void Invasion signaled another change for the large arachnids. Those of their number in Drowda were mutated into a more compact but lethal variant and marched with the Void south. However, when the Cataclysm tore apart the world, thousands of them died as northern lands became drastically altered, if not outright disappeared, leaving only those on Fendarfelle and Drowda to survive. Over the coming two centuries, they did. Later, the Giant Spider was one of the more horrific discoveries by the Ithanians who now called Fendarfelle home. However, the Giant Spider has been forced to contend with a new foe on the jungle continent in recent years: the Bone Horrors. Risen during the Bone Horror Crisis, these amalgamations devastated the Giant Spider’s numbers as the arachnid’s main weapon, a paralyzing venom, did nothing to the creatures. Most have since learned to avoid Bone Horrors, using their greater maneuverability to their advantage, but their damage and continued assaults will likely keep the Spiders from generating the sprawling, nightmarish dens they once did.

Physical Appearance

The Giant Spider resembles a mega-sized tarantula, reaching a body length of three to five feet, with their limbs adding to their apparent size, and heavily varying in weights due to different factors. Giant Spider heads feature a set of six large bright-green eyes, four being located on the front of the face and two are located laterally on both sides of the head. This head is also home to their mouths, which feature a pair of prominent black fangs that allow them to dispense their paralyzing venom. The head is directly attached to the cephalothorax, the central part of the body which features the connection points for the four pairs of legs, each of which are striped. Lastly, there is the abdomen, thick and bulbous, and responsible for holding silk glands and spinnerets. Giant Spiders are naturally shades of brown, with the striping on their legs featuring a shift between two tones of brown, while the rest of their bodies are covered in small, thin hairs.

Diversity

Giant Spiders have a stark gender dimorphism, males of the species always being smaller than females. Males are also more aggressive and move to quickly spray their webbing or rush a foe to spear them with venom when confronted. There is also a ratio of birth that favors males, which is generally three for every one female.

Drow Giant Spider: While highly divergent from an external point of view, the Drow Giant Spider is simply a Void-based corrupted sub-species of the Giant Spider. Their bodies are a deep, gleaming blue, with a dark turquoise stripping on their legs, which are also narrower, and with harsher curves in the body segments. They are also in the smallest range of the Giant Spider sizes. They also have a great fondness for underground tunnels and mountain caves rather than the open-air constructs usually employed by Fendarfelle Giant Spiders. They also have not just paralyzing venom, but also acid venom, spat out rather than injected.

Life Span and Development

Giant Spiders are laid in egg sacs formed of webbing around anywhere from ten to twenty individual eggs, which are themselves pale orange. They are then left to develop, and hatch alone in and around Giant Spider nests, and upon hatching, they will compete with one another for survival and for consumption of nearby prey. During this process, up to half the egg sac brood will die, and this process of internal competition lasts over two to three months, the timespan it takes for the adolescents to mature into adults. While emerging almost identical to adults, except much smaller, Giant Spider adolescents are known for possessing minor, tertiary rings of pale brown along their legs which eventually fade with age. Adults will also shun adolescents, if not outright attack them, if they approach a nest before they are old enough. Males are capable of living around 100 years, though often rarely reach such heights, while females have been known to reach 200, though similarly will rarely reach such ages.

Mental Overview

Giant Spiders are commonly in possession of the same mental ability as other species of arachnid, though with a few alterations. Their hunting methods are varied based on their prey, with some groups having learned to “fish” local streams or rivers by understanding where to shoot their water-resistant webbing into the water to grab the most fish. Others rely on more conventional means, with an expanse of webbing laid out across an area, before reacting to their webs being broken, trodden on, or a victim getting stuck. The majority of Giant Spiders eat other animals, never hunting the Races of Aloria, but those groups closest to the Fendarfelle coastline have been known to hunt Asha slaves in the fields, or attack groups traveling without much defense or torchlight at night. Beyond these traits, Giant Spiders are an enigma. There are some claims that females are more intelligent than males, and elders of the species, those who have lived for decades, are often noted for these traits as well, but there is nothing to confirm these rumors. What is known is that they hate fire and heat, as well as thunderstorms, weaknesses often exploited by others.

Territory and Groupings

Giant Spiders live in nests of anywhere from 100 to 300 individuals and have a range of nesting options. While most exist in the treetops, their webbing forming great networks of travel and blotting out the sun on the ground, others form their nests in tunnels or cave systems under the ground. They are a very territorial species, especially to those they find within their nests.

Trivia

Giant Spider venom is prized for its wide variety of uses but is incredibly hard to come by for obvious reasons.
There are tales passed around the settlements of Fendarfelle about a hyper-intelligent female Giant Spider who lives in the deepest part of the Fendarfelle jungles, nicknamed “Reine de la Forêt.” She is said to patrol a large section of the Fendarfelle forest that is purely dead trees bound together by dense webs. Another version says that she can speak and possesses magical powers.
Dryder Bone Horrors are one of the most common types in Fendarfelle due to the copious corpses of Giant Spiders risen during the initial, and later stages, of the Bone Horror Crisis.

Accreditation

Writers	HydraLana
Processors	Acosmism, WaterDruppel, BillyTheScruffy, MantaRey

Last Editor	HydraLana on 12/19/2021.

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 {{Info fauna
 |officialname =  Giant Spider
-|nicknames = Eight Legs, Fender Spider
+|nicknames = Fender Spider, Nightmarach
-|classification = Arthropod
+|classification = [[Arthropod]]
-|habitat = Fendarfelle, Some Major Port Cities
+|habitat = [[Fendarfelle]] and [[Drowda]]
 |domesticated = No
-|status = Rare
+|status = Uncommon
 |}}
-The Giant Spider is considered one of the most terrifying creatures on the continent of [[Fendarfelle]]. This fact has baffled scholars, since this is true merely because of the fact that is a Giant Spider, and not really considerate of the fact that it is dangerous. Although creatures like [[Kyanprat]] and other, much larger, fauna are the source of many horror stories and tribulations, the Giant Spider is often the go-to for many novellas and tall tales. Even in comparison to the rest of Fendarfelle’s native fauna, the Giant Spider is a classically terrifying beast for most any Alorian.
+The Giant Spider has terrified many people for decades and was originally widespread across the north and west of [[Aloria]] until the [[Cataclysm]], which isolated them to only two continents. They are certainly not an ideal creature to encounter for arachnophobes, well-known for their venom and varied dens, living in web-dense trees, tunnels beneath the earth, and mountain cave systems. They are also the feature of many horror stories among the [[Colonial Charters]] of [[Fendarfelle]], but with the rise of [[Bone Horror]]s, many Giant Spider populations close to the coastline have seen a drastic reduction as they suffer at the hands of these undead beasts.
 ==History==
-The exact origins of the Giant Spider are unknown, though scholars theorize that a combination of competition with Fendarfelle’s other predators and magic assisted their predecessors in reaching the size that Giant Spiders are eponymous for today. They are known to have predated the Cataclysm, and were found in both [[Drowda]] and Fendarfelle before the devastating world event. When the [[Archdemon]] came to [[Aloria]], one of the first creatures it corrupted were these spiders, resulting in the [[Drow Giant Spider]], while on Fendarfelle the Giant Spider needed to adapt to compete with other species doing the same. They began to live deeper in the jungles in order to avoid the destruction caused between the Cataclysm and the new Fender Felle volcanoes and now are almost exclusively found there. Afterwards, they began having to compete with the larger and more intelligent [[Ithanian]] [[Ailor]] for their food in 200 AC. The Giant Spider underwent another growth spurt to match this.  Recently they have been popping up in places like Regalia and other major port cities, due to smuggling, and avid “collectors” taking an interest in trying to domesticate them.
+Giant Spiders are attested to frequently as the bane of life in records of the [[Allorn Empire]]. It is unknown how or when they spread out from Fendarfelle to [[Daen]]n, but for centuries, they plagued [[Daendroc]]’s jungles and marshes in particular, their great nests elevated in the treetops out of reach or discovery by those who were unfamiliar with what to look for. They were also known to the [[Drovv]], who supposedly had the power to tame them, but if this learned skill ever existed, it has not survived into the modern day. Surprisingly, it was the decay of the Allorn Empire which spelled the end for the Giant Spider in Daen as with more and more jungles being chopped down to feed the needs of the nation, the Giant Spiders lost their habitats. Some attempted to dwell in ruins, commonly those of the [[Meraic]], or neglected [[Altalar]] sites, but these groups rarely lasted long. By 500 BC, they were eradicated from Daen, and only remained to exist in northern lands which included [[Drowda]], or in Fendarfelle.
+The [[Fifth Void Invasion]] signaled another change for the large arachnids. Those of their number in Drowda were mutated into a more compact but lethal variant and marched with the [[Void]] south. However, when the Cataclysm tore apart the world, thousands of them died as northern lands became drastically altered, if not outright disappeared, leaving only those on Fendarfelle and Drowda to survive. Over the coming two centuries, they did. Later, the Giant Spider was one of the more horrific discoveries by the [[Ithanian]]s who now called Fendarfelle home. However, the Giant Spider has been forced to contend with a new foe on the jungle continent in recent years: the Bone Horrors. Risen during the [[Bone Horror Crisis]], these amalgamations devastated the Giant Spider’s numbers as the arachnid’s main weapon, a paralyzing venom, did nothing to the creatures. Most have since learned to avoid Bone Horrors, using their greater maneuverability to their advantage, but their damage and continued assaults will likely keep the Spiders from generating the sprawling, nightmarish dens they once did.
 ==Physical Appearance==
-The Giant Spider most closely resembles spiders like tarantulas, as they have larger, thicker bodies and more hair than those that are thin or sleek. Their abdomens make up a small portion of their total body, and is segmented into two sections. Giant Spiders can be up to eight feet tall and twelve feet long. The abdomen is responsible for holding most of the Giant Spiders reproductive and defensive organs, including silk glands and spinnerets, and is located at the back of the spider with no legs connected to it. The front part of the body, or the cephalothorax, is responsible for organs such as the heart, lungs, and other major organs, as well as connecting the legs to the rest of the body. The head is attached to the cephalothorax, and the Giant Spider has no distinguishable neck or division between the two. The head features a set of six eyes, four are located on the front and two are located laterally on both sides of the head. The head region of the cephalothorax contains the brain, the mouth, poison glands, and their fangs. Giant Spiders are most commonly shades of brown. Their legs are segmented into eight sections, and are capable of a wide range of motion.
+The Giant Spider resembles a mega-sized tarantula, reaching a body length of three to five feet, with their limbs adding to their apparent size, and heavily varying in weights due to different factors. Giant Spider heads feature a set of six large bright-green eyes, four being located on the front of the face and two are located laterally on both sides of the head. This head is also home to their mouths, which feature a pair of prominent black fangs that allow them to dispense their paralyzing venom. The head is directly attached to the cephalothorax, the central part of the body which features the connection points for the four pairs of legs, each of which are striped. Lastly, there is the abdomen, thick and bulbous, and responsible for holding silk glands and spinnerets. Giant Spiders are naturally shades of brown, with the striping on their legs featuring a shift between two tones of brown, while the rest of their bodies are covered in small, thin hairs.
 ===Diversity===
-Smaller Giant Spiders, like those that live near civilization, are exclusively male, while larger variants are exclusively female. Male Giant Spiders are much smaller than their female counterparts, and are usually unintelligent, while female Spiders are much larger and can be as intelligent as some Nelfin. Male Giant Spiders stand at around three feet tall and five feet long, and females can be up to eight feet tall and nearly twelve feet long. Male Giant Spiders are much faster and can spray or inject venom is strongly acidic and capable of melting through steel and flesh. Female Giant Spiders can produce venom that is either acidic or paralytic, and can spray this up to twice their body length. Female Giant Spiders also have six fangs, two sets of spinnerets capable of producing more durable webs, and four sets of silk glands. Male giant spiders have only two fangs, one set of spinnerets, and a small set of silk glands.
+Giant Spiders have a stark gender dimorphism, males of the species always being smaller than females. Males are also more aggressive and move to quickly spray their webbing or rush a foe to spear them with venom when confronted. There is also a ratio of birth that favors males, which is generally three for every one female.
+*'''Drow Giant Spider''': While highly divergent from an external point of view, the Drow Giant Spider is simply a Void-based corrupted sub-species of the Giant Spider. Their bodies are a deep, gleaming blue, with a dark turquoise stripping on their legs, which are also narrower, and with harsher curves in the body segments. They are also in the smallest range of the Giant Spider sizes. They also have a great fondness for underground tunnels and mountain caves rather than the open-air constructs usually employed by Fendarfelle Giant Spiders. They also have not just paralyzing venom, but also acid venom, spat out rather than injected.
 ===Life Span and Development===
-Male Giant Spiders venture into the jungle once a year to fertilize eggs laid by the Female spiders. Male Giant Spiders will compete in gladiator style combat to decide who will mate with the Female and continue to live, while the others will die and be used to feed the spider hatchlings. These eggs sacs contain anywhere between ten and twenty eggs, though only a quarter of the spiders will survive after they have hatched. The mother spider will abandon the egg sacs after she lays the eggs, and leave the new hatchlings to fight amongst themselves for food and survival. Spiders are mature, for the most part, from the time they hatch, which can take about two months. The only development they experience is an increase in size. Male Giant Spiders can live up to fifty years, though will often be killed or cannibalized well before then, and female Giant Spiders are capable of living up to two hundred years.
+Giant Spiders are laid in egg sacs formed of webbing around anywhere from ten to twenty individual eggs, which are themselves pale orange. They are then left to develop, and hatch alone in and around Giant Spider nests, and upon hatching, they will compete with one another for survival and for consumption of nearby prey. During this process, up to half the egg sac brood will die, and this process of internal competition lasts over two to three months, the timespan it takes for the adolescents to mature into adults. While emerging almost identical to adults, except much smaller, Giant Spider adolescents are known for possessing minor, tertiary rings of pale brown along their legs which eventually fade with age. Adults will also shun adolescents, if not outright attack them, if they approach a nest before they are old enough. Males are capable of living around 100 years, though often rarely reach such heights, while females have been known to reach 200, though similarly will rarely reach such ages.
 ==Mental Overview==
-Much like smaller spiders, they are reliant on building webs to catch their prey, which can be anything from an [[Eronidas]] to schools of fish. While male Spiders are hostile and aggressive, female Spiders are terrifyingly intelligent. Female Giant Spiders have shown that they are capable of advanced levels of communication and have developed their own language involving clicks of various pitches and other similar shrill noises. Female Spiders have also been shown to have vast memories and high levels of both crystallized and fluid intelligence, and have been shown to be able to plan ahead and create advanced traps. Male Spiders are much less intelligent and act based on necessity.
+Giant Spiders are commonly in possession of the same mental ability as other species of arachnid, though with a few alterations. Their hunting methods are varied based on their prey, with some groups having learned to “fish” local streams or rivers by understanding where to shoot their water-resistant webbing into the water to grab the most fish. Others rely on more conventional means, with an expanse of webbing laid out across an area, before reacting to their webs being broken, trodden on, or a victim getting stuck. The majority of Giant Spiders eat other animals, never hunting the [[Races]] of Aloria, but those groups closest to the Fendarfelle coastline have been known to hunt [[Asha]] slaves in the fields, or attack groups traveling without much defense or torchlight at night. Beyond these traits, Giant Spiders are an enigma. There are some claims that females are more intelligent than males, and elders of the species, those who have lived for decades, are often noted for these traits as well, but there is nothing to confirm these rumors. What is known is that they hate fire and heat, as well as thunderstorms, weaknesses often exploited by others.
 ===Territory and Groupings===
-Male Spiders can, and do, hunt in and live in packs, while females are only ever solitary creatures. Male Giant Spiders are not overly territorial, and will form groups called clutters. Female Giant Spiders are very territorial and have been known to hunt and kill other female Spiders to expand their territory. They both live on and arounds webs built into the treetops.
+Giant Spiders live in nests of anywhere from 100 to 300 individuals and have a range of nesting options. While most exist in the treetops, their webbing forming great networks of travel and blotting out the sun on the ground, others form their nests in tunnels or cave systems under the ground. They are a very territorial species, especially to those they find within their nests.
 ==Trivia==
-*Giant Spider venom is prized for its wide variety of uses, but is incredibly hard to come by for obvious reasons. It can be distilled and used to make an incredibly paralytic poison.
+*Giant Spider venom is prized for its wide variety of uses but is incredibly hard to come by for obvious reasons.
-*There are tales passed around the cities of Fendarfelle about a hyper intelligent Female Giant Spider who lives in the deepest part of the Fendarfelle jungles nicknamed Reine de la Forêt. She is said to patrol a large section of the Fendarfelle forest that is purely dead trees bound together by dense webs. Another version says that she can speak and possess magical powers.
+*There are tales passed around the settlements of Fendarfelle about a hyper-intelligent female Giant Spider who lives in the deepest part of the Fendarfelle jungles, nicknamed “Reine de la Forêt.” She is said to patrol a large section of the Fendarfelle forest that is purely dead trees bound together by dense webs. Another version says that she can speak and possesses magical powers.
-*Male Giant Spiders can respond to commands in various languages or even their own languages, and males can be herded. There are some of these ‘Spider Ranches’ that specialize in the breeding of spiders and extraction of venom for sale. These ranches always have one female and a host of males, and there are no exceptions.
+*Dryder Bone Horrors are one of the most common types in Fendarfelle due to the copious corpses of Giant Spiders risen during the initial, and later stages, of the Bone Horror Crisis.
-*Both Giant Spiders and Giant Spider venoms are illegal in most major ports.
 {{fauna}}
 {{Accreditation
-|Writers = Percuriam
+|Writers = HydraLana
-|Processors = HydraLana, Scribbe
+|Processors = Acosmism, WaterDruppel, BillyTheScruffy, MantaRey
 }}
-[[category:Fauna]] [[category:Arthropods]] [[category:Fendarfelle Fauna]] [[category:Ithania Fauna]] [[category:Daendroc Fauna]] [[category:Regalian Archipelago Fauna]]
+[[category:Fauna]] [[category:Arthropods]] [[category:Fendarfelle Fauna]] [[category:Drowda Fauna]]