The Brood of the Eight-legged Watcher
None are entirely sure where this cult has come from, but there are some theories. Some believe that when the Drow were forced onto the surface, some of their artifacts were left behind, only to wash up in separate cave systems. Some of these cave systems lead to the Forbidden Lands, where tribals found these strange artifacts and suffered visions from them. Others believe a horde of giant spiders that died in the Forbidden Lands manifested into one great being before contacting local tribes. Whatever the case, this small tribe was wracked with visions and whispers of the Eight-legged Watcher. He demanded that they worship his great multi-legged form, and they would comply. Thus they became the first broodmates, and would begin to spread their hateful web across the Forbidden Lands. They now have been observed mining for valuable magical minerals in the Forbidden Lands, and regularly war with other tribes wanting to take these minerals. They have also been said to begin to make moves into the civilized lands, where their skittering warriors can be heard only when it is too late.
Structure
The cult sees the Watcher as their true leader, and under him are those called Broodmasters. They are particularly fanatic cultists gifted some of the greatest mutations in their gods image, and are the ones who lead the raiding parties and warbands of this cult into battle. Under them are Dire-Weaver, who are seen as the warrior elite amongst the cult. They have proven themselves worthy of getting some of the best equipment and blessings the cult has to offer. Under them are the Broodlings, the cults youngest acolytes who are still eager to serve the god. They regularly allow spiders to bite them, leaving wounds all over their bodies and face, and rush into combat to prove their worthiness to the Watcher.
Culture
Strangely, the Brood share an almost telepathic bond with one another, sometimes described as a sort of swarm consciousnesses. This also allows some control over swarms of spiders they can use to enact unnatural tactics to overwhelm enemies. However some cultists become so completely absorbed into this hive mind that they lose all sense of themselves as individuals, referring to themselves in the plural most notably.
Members of this cult are extremely calm, analytical, and lack anything resembling empathy. When they fight, it is without any trace of honor or respect for combat, and have no problem with withdrawing from a fight. The cult is also obsessed with looking like their great god, and so use the blood of mutated spiders as well as other ingridents to induce mutation. They wish for all people to have eight eyes and eight limbs, as it is only right. They altar the natural law of flesh into horrifying degrees, and they see this as the only goal worth pursing rather than the struggle for power and glory the other Hell Tribes seek out. They also tend to make their homes in web filled caverns where they keep their cocoon wrapped victims and preform secret rituals.
Cosmological Views
The Brood of the Eight-legged Watcher believe that there is a great shadowy spider like entity known as the Eight-egged Watcher. It binds all of life and existence within a web of pain. They believe that they must honor the Watcher by bringing about the next evolution for mortals, that being to become more spiderlike in appearance and eventually ascend up into the loving embrace of the great web. This god also impales the realms of reality and injects its venom into them, causing pain, war, and death.
In reality, this Watcher is some type of spider like demon that seemed to have capitalized on the disappearance of Lolth, and now runs amok in the Deamonweb Pits, with those few who know this fact thinking it was perhaps this Watcher who orchestrated everything. Regardless, this Brood worships hell in the form of the great web, and are utterly fanatical to the Watcher
Tenets of Faith
- Work to embrace the spider
- Inact mutation to turn yourself to look like our glorious god
- Honor spiders as they are the superior lifeform
- Take mortal kind onto the next level of existence
- Kill those who would deny the rightful path to glory
Priesthood
Generally, the Brood tends to keep to its own tribe, however they have been known to recruit people outside the tribe. This is acomplished sometimes when they capture victims to experiment on them with vile mutation rituals and experiments, with some being so mentally broken that they willingly join the cult. Others they birth by letting a special type of magic ritual occur where the victim is tied up in spider silk, and a spider burrows into their flesh where it grows for a time, causing agonizing pain all along the way. Then the spider sort of diffuses itself throughout the victims body, filling it with the voice of the Eight-legged Watcher as it drives them mad from its voices till they rip themselves out of the cocoon reborn a member of the cult.
