The Spider Tribe

Introduction

Very little frightens the population of Isarshael like the giant War Spiders. These grotesque creatures wander out of their burrows occasionally to carry off livestock and even people to provide food for their ever-growing families.
Just as people fear the spiders, they also revile the Urdaggar who worship them. These Tribespeople live among and venerate the eight-legged monstrosities, using their chitin as armor, their venom on their weapons, and even fighting like them.
There are no Urdaggar Tribes that get more of the ire of both the Faelers and the Varkraalan, and no Tribe that is more frustrating to fight. Just as you think you have one Clan pinned down or chased out, two more come to take its place. Or worse, they show back up in the middle of the night with their arachnid friends to exact their revenge.
A raid by the Spider Tribe is terrifying to behold. Riding their giant spiders or goading smaller spiders into battle, pushing all before them in terror, only to run into the trap that the rest of the clan has set along the most likely route of retreat. The captives are then hauled back to the Clan’s den, never to be heard from again.

Where they Live

Like the Spiders they worship, the Spider Tribe is found anywhere and everywhere north of the Faeler Kingdoms. Unlike their Urdaggar kin, they have very little affiliation above the Clan level. They tend to live in isolated pockets wherever they find a brood mother that provides them with a connection to their Totem god Ulalim.
It has always been so with the Spider Tribe. Before the arrival of the Krai Jan, they were scattered throughout Isarshael, usually huddled around a den or cave where they had found one of the giant spiders that they venerated as a spawn of their Totem god.
Because they were so easily overlooked, they were the last of the Tribes to be rooted out and driven north by the invaders. Though the Spider Tribe decried the defeat, they are ultimately pragmatic and simply found new brood mothers living among the edges of the mountains and built their civilization again.
The Spider Tribe builds their village around the den of one of the large spiders of Faelon. Though they venerate all spiders, broods of the massive War Spiders are hard to find, and a Spider Tribe Clan will wander until they find such a place, specifically with an active brood mother, which they believe is a conduit to their Totem god Ulalim.
Because of this practice, the Spider Tribe is spread far and wide. Getting rid of them is much the same as trying to get spiders out of your house. You may not see them, but there’s always one never too far away, and it sees you.
There are only two exceptions to this practice. The first is Spider Pass, a narrow, dangerous pass between Haradel and the lands of the Urdaggar. In the pass live many War Spiders, hence its name, and with them are many Clans of the Spider Tribe that often raid into Haradel. Quests into the pass to deliver it of the horrifying creatures and Tribespeople that inhabit it have been largely unsuccessful, as even when Haradel sees victory the Clans slink further into the web-filled warren of tunnels in the mountains and stay there until the danger has passed.
The second exception is a large enclave of Spider Tribe Clans on the north side of the Dorsang Danar and east of Spider Pass. These Clans, which include the Dripping Fang Clan, the Darkvenom Clan, the Nightterror Clan, the Silent Scream Clan, and the Fearspinner Clan, live close to each other and seem to have a loose alliance.
Like the Clans of Spider Pass, these Clans also raid together, trade, and may even worship the same Brood Mother, though such a large and prolific creature that could hold the adoration of several Clans would surely be terrible to behold.

Religion

The Spider Tribe worships Ulalim - The Shackler. Ulalim is a goddess of traps, deceit, and guile. In Spider Tribe art, she is depicted as large and surrounded by her offspring. She is bloated with eggs and the full belly of her meals.
The Spider Tribe look for a War Spider brood mother and her nest in order to build their home. The brood mother is a focal point of the clan’s activity and the object of their worship.
They protect her and her spawn, raising them as beasts of war and bringing home captives from their raids to feed the distended beasts. And for all that, if they don’t feed her enough, she will still take from among them to slake her thirst.
Even the process of becoming a Mystic in the Spider Tribe involves the Gir Adash - War Spider - that the tribe venerates. The Vola - Mystics - of the Spider Tribe have a well-earned reputation for being mad. This probably starts when they go before the tribe for their Thuv Ayadlish - rebirth - meant as a spiritual death to their old life and awakening into the deeper mysteries.
For the Spider Tribe, a living Vola takes the candidate into the Brood Mother’s den. There, in the presence of the brood mother, the candidate must imbibe the spider’s venom. Only a true Vola will be able to survive the experience, and more than one failed initiate has been added to the Brood Mother’s larder.
The venom renders the victim unconscious almost immediately. In average victims, it paralyzes them and allows the spider to encase them in a web, where they are preserved until a meal is needed. During the experience, Ulalim comes to the candidate, expands their consciousness, and binds them to her. This is called the Fettering. When the initiate awakes they belong fully to Ulalim and are considered a Torek Vola - an initiate mystic, and they are officially trained to serve Ulalim and the Clan.
Spider Clan Vola divide themselves into different groups. Some fill a traditional role within the Clan, nurturing and guiding it by communing with Ulalim, which means imbibing even more venom from Balru Imath - The Brood Mother. Needless to say, Vola of the Spider Tribe die young and utterly insane.
The second role a Vola in the Spider Tribe plays is on the battlefield. These Vola are called Shacklers. They exist to confound and ensnare the Tribe’s enemies and ultimately take captives home to feed the Balru Imath. They are horrifying to fight against, and their presence is often enough to frighten an enemy away from confrontation, usually into a trap laid by the Clan.

Culture

The Spider Tribepeople have incredible loyalty to their clan, as their Tribe is scattered and tends to unify more around a clan chieftain and Bes Vola - High Mystic. Each Clan is also fanatically devoted to its Brood Mother, and will gladly lay down their life to ensure she and her spawn survive. Spider Tribe Clans have been known to be wiped out rather than let anything happen to their Brood Mother, and sharper minds in Haradel and Varkraal have noted this trend, using it when they try to clear Clans that are raiding into their territories.
The Spider Tribe tends towards Matriarchy, emulating their Balru Imath. Women are venerated for many reasons, but their ability to have children is high among them. Women are also regarded as being better warriors, more cunning, and protective of the Clan.
In many clans, their veneration of the Brood Mother has also given rise to the practice of a woman taking many partners at once, just as the brood mother has many attendant males. This is a clear departure from the practices of the other Urdaggar Tribes, where monogamy is almost always practiced, albeit with very simple rules for marriage and divorce.
It must also be noted that female spiders often eat the male after mating, and it is not unknown among the Spider Tribe that a male will be killed or fed to the Brood Mother because he wasn’t pulling his weight in the Tribe or in one of the extended families that contain several male partners.
Like most Tribes, the Spider Tribe takes its cues from the creatures that they believe embody their Totem god, and the War Spider Brood Mother is a very different creature from the other animals which are venerated.
The Brood Mother herself does not usually go to battle, nor does she often hunt for food. She relies on her attendants and the Clan to keep her well-supplied with sustenance, and she goes about the business of raising hundreds of skittering young spiders and extending her warren deep into whatever tunnels she has found as a home. When she does leave her den, it is taken as a sign for the clan, and they follow their Brood Mother wherever she goes whether that be to war or on raids for food - the Clan believes this is the will of Ulalim.
Entertainment for the Spider Tribe is also different than other Tribes, even among their Ruin brothers and sisters. The Spider Tribe venerates cunning, and when they aren’t employing traps in a battle to ensnare their foes, they are playing elaborate practical jokes on each other, the more clever and scheming the better.
There are still feats of strength and plenty of fighting, but on the whole, strength is less esteemed than cleverness. The Spider Tribe respects that brute force and cunning are both needed in battle, and they often employ them in a hammer-and-anvil situation where those fighters who prefer brute force will drive their prey into a trap laid by those who specialize in subterfuge.
These frightening tactics are employed by the War Spiders that haunt the mountain tunnels and dark warrens of the world, and the Spider Tribe has learned well from them.

Tattoos

Overall, the Spider Clan heavily tattoos themselves. It adds to the already horrifying experience of fighting a group of people who bring along large spiders to the fight.
Spider Tribe Tattoos vary wildly but are almost always horrific and spider-like. Spider Tribe Tattoos are both a way for the wearer to identify with the spiders they worship, and to frighten and disgust their enemy.
Many Tattoos take the form of fangs that jut from the lower lips toward the chin of the wearer. This is worn by a Tribesperson who has set a clever trap that their prey has fallen for.
A common Tattoo is the addition of eyes to the forehead of a wearer. These are often just personal decorations, but they can also signify a raid the wearer has participated in. A Tribesperson with many eyes on their forehead can sometimes signify a seasoned fighter or a warrior of some ranking within the Clan.
Another common tattoo, especially worn as cuffs around the arms or legs is a web design. This can be simple or elaborate, and each Clan seems to assign different meanings to the designs. Some find them merely decorative, and others fill in a piece of webbing for every capture they make, as the Spider Tribe puts more importance on capturing than they do killing. Their spiders will not accept a dead body as food; they must be alive.

Economy

The Spider Tribe’s economy is based mostly on raiding and pillaging. They don’t have much, eking out a living near the caves of their Brood Mothers, but what they don’t have they are happy to pilfer in one of their many raids.
The Spider Tribe are mostly hunter-gatherers, hunting small game across the rocky mountains they live near. They forage berries and other useful herbs and vegetables from the rocky soil as well. Unlike their brothers and sisters, they don’t herd creatures for food and leather. If times get rough they have been known to eat captives, though taking from the Brood Mother’s larder is a grave decision and only done with “permission,” sought by the Bes Vola - High Mystic - of the Clan from Ulalim herself.
Many things, such as their armor, they make from the chitin that is so often molted by the large spiders they venerate. This armor is more protective than most of the leather armor worn by other Urdaggar Tribespeople, but a step below the mail that is sometimes worn after being captured in a raid or battle.
The Spider Tribe will trade with other Tribes and in-between Clans, especially goods they have pilfered and have no need of. They are generally unwelcome in non-Urdaggar spaces, and even other Urdaggar Tribes keep a wary eye on them.
They will pay large amounts of gold and other goods they spurn for captives from other Urdaggar Tribes, making capturing people in raids a constant threat along the frontiers of northern Falkaar, Haradel, Trilias, and Varkraal.
One thing the Spider Tribe does have in abundance is venom. They collect venom from many different spiders and have become well-known for making toxins that produce a wide variety of effects on their victims. Their venomists work with their Mystics to create concoctions that mix the venom of their revered spiders and the magics of their Totem god Ulalim. The final products have horrifying effects.
Though the Spider Tribe is reviled almost everywhere, there are those who will bring them whatever they want for the poisons they concoct. Many of these end up on black markets all over Faelon, but some are purchased directly and discreetly by Assassin organizations or those that supply them. Trader Xinvu and her associates are frequent customers of the Spider Tribe and are more than happy to hand over captives to pay for the poisons they purchase.

War

War is a way of life for the Spider Tribe, just as it is for the other Tribes of Ruin. The Spider Tribe is constantly raiding for captives and loot, and they will occasionally go to all-out war, though not as often as some of the other Tribes.
Although the Spider Tribe is every bit as militaristic and aggressive as the other Tribes, they have very different ideas about when to go to war and why. Similar to other Tribes, they constantly raid their neighbors to carry off captives to feed the spider broods they live with.
War, however, is a different matter, and the Spider Tribe takes its cues from their War Spiders. It does not happen often, but there are times when the Spiders of a Brood will simply leave their nests and go in search of food. The Spider Tribe Clan that resides with this brood will almost always take this as a sign that Ulalim demands more captives and follow suit.
Few things are more frightening than an Urdaggar raid accompanied by massive, venomous spiders. And the large spiders aren’t the only eight-legged critters that trek off to war with the Spider Tribe. Smaller swarms of spiders also travel with them, following their larger kin. Though such a war party is completely unnatural to everyone else, it is considered pedestrian by the Spider Tribe who believes that a part of Ulalim lives in each and every spider in Faelon and that she guides them to where they need to go.
There are several martial philosophies used by the Spider Tribe, and each warrior plays a specific part in their warfare. The Spider Tribe will often attack headlong with their Spider Riders, Spider Swarms, and warriors whose job it is to crush any opposition and send the rest running, where they meet a second group of Spider Tribespeople who have laid a trap and will capture as many of those fleeing, usually civilians, as they can.
The Spider Tribe’s ability to wage war in different ways makes them a far more dangerous enemy than most of the Tribes of Ruin, who if nothing else are at least predictable when they attack. With the Spider Tribe, a foe never knows what they will face.
They could stumble into an ambush where Tanglers net them and beat them senseless, then haul them off to a fate far worse than captivity. Other times they could face an overwhelming charge from riders mounted on horrifying giant spiders. When you consider the kinds of dark magic that Spider Tribe Mystics employ, these attacks are rightly dreaded, and the expulsion of Spider Tribe Clans from anywhere near their borders takes up considerable resources for Haradel and Varkraal.