Chitine

“There are spiders whose bite can cause the place bitten to rot and to die, sometimes more than a year after it was bitten. As to why spiders do this, the answer is simple. It's because spiders think this is funny, and they don't want you ever to forget them.” -- Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys





Arachnid bandits spill from the canyon's sheer rock walls, demanding tribute at arrowpoint from those who cross its swaying silk bridge. The city's kingpin is a four-armed exile from the depths, who rules his underworld from a warren of sewers. A small town eagerly awaits the autumn bazaar, when stalls spill nightly from a cave mouth to offer fine silks, strange fungi, and other fruits of the dark.

Many Hands Make Light Work

In the damp and lightless belly of the world, wicked elves once labored to create new breeds of slave. They wove together hopeless captives and nocturnal beasts, seeking a servant adapted to the lightless caves they called home.

With the blessing of their fell goddess, these experiments gave birth to a hybrid of elf and spider, a race of weavers and crawlers named the chitine. Piercing the dark with faceted eyes and navigating cramped tunnels with four-armed agility, the chitine spread throughout the empire that created them as messengers, miners, and menials.

This slavery was not to last. Discontent brewed in anarchistic arachnid cells and isolated bursts of violence, culminating in a violent uprising that left cities aflame and chains broken.

Some chitine liberated elven forts for themselves, while others fled retaliation, weaving silk-coated homes in any dark crag or shadowed forest that would house them. Now their origins are a dark memory, fuel for grudges and a fable for hatchlings. Now the chitine are free.

Tangled Web

The spiderfolk's hybrid origins provide a great variety of features. Some have hairless, oily skin, while others are coated in short and bristly fur. Some have two large, faceted eyes, while others bear multiple pairs of black beads.

Only a few aspects remain consistent: four long arms, sharp mandible fangs, and a short, wiry build. Those chitine that enjoy the wealth of civilization develop a paunch, but fat seldom spreads across the rest of their body.

Each chitine can naturally weave silk, working spinnerets and silk-glands hidden in its mouth. This is the material from which the spiderfolk make clothes, homes, and so much else. Even young chitine are practiced weavers.

Welcome to my Parlor

Each chitine is capable of creating its own shelter, and their culture is no less individualistic. Once slaves, now free, the chitine are deeply suspicious of even the most benevolent central authority, and prize self-sufficiency above all.

The spiderfolk take pride in the quality of their homes, clothes, and tools. To borrow from another is an expression of trust and (usually private) intimacy. Only fresh hatchlings are exempt, for chitine do not raise their own young.

Most chitine are thoroughly devout, in their own way. They regard the propiation of vengeful, malevolent gods to be a matter of daily survival, as natural as foraging, and consider deities of compassion or charity to be tricksters.

The goddess-mother who sponsored the birth of the chitine has the most universal sway over the spiderfolk. Her chosen messengers are monstrous half-spirits called choldrith, far more spider than elf, born rarely into an ordinary clutch.

Most chitine raise these creatures as prophets, but those who fear her gaze burn the eggs before they can hatch.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Chitine adventurers are most often found in common cause against the drow, helping slaves escape or striking against strongholds. Others strike out on their own, seeking to establish a grander legacy than mere independence.

Chitine Names

The chitine (pronounced "kie-tin") language has long diverged from elven into its own spidery dialect, but still employs the flowery, syllable-laden names of that fey tongue. One notable difference: long vowels are replaced by mandible clicks, approximated by translators with a clucked tongue.

Chitine traditionally have neither family nor clan names, but instead bear a calendar name derived from the events of the year they hatched. All chitine born that year are "siblings", and bear the weight of its tidings for good or ill.

Chitine Male Names: Elaj'on, Craw'rin, Ilig'lor, Kelk's, Luh'ce, Na'ven, Olon'lis, Petz'ros, Sylj'on, Zinyd'rk

Chitine Female Names: Aral'na, Caiqir'lle, Faec'ne, Heles'tra, Iars'tra, Presh'na, Qiz'rwyn, Ulaban'se

Clutch Names: Kery'n (Bloodshed), Ghaat'il (Exodus), Usk'che (Firedeep), Durm'sta (Junglefell), Ahnv'e (Longnight), Blal'tha (Sporebloom), Alud'la (Tiderise)