What kinds of cultures do different species of spider-people have? How do they interact?

Do they also have a goddess that turns some of them into half-spider, half-elf creatures (be it as a punishment or a reward)?

I don't think I ever developed them enough to give them a religion, but I doubt they would have one. Insect people as a whole in this setting (there were several varieties) were more about philosophy as a means of spiritualism than actual religion.

viking spiders with huge swords would be cool

Those Assassin motherfuckers with the giant necks wouldn't look out of place in Star Wars. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw one of them in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene. Pic related.

thought this was a /soc/ vag rate thread when I glanced at OP's pic

resulting comparison unwelcome

I don't know user. Spiders tend to be solitary and cannibalistic. Not sure a race based on them would really have a culture in they way humans normally think of it. They could have ritualized behaviors when they meet or something like that, but I would not expect spiders to be the bug-people to make cities.

hey, I'm brewing some spider-based societies for a world I'm building.

The first one are the spider clans: theese ones aren't spider people, they are people-people. They live inside a tropical jungle and their tribes are structured around a "covenant" they had with some giant spiders, their cosmology goes beyond spider gods but they belive that their caves connect to the underwolrd where demons and hateful spirits made flesh. so they pay a flesh tithe to the spiders that live inside thoses caves in order for them protect the clans from the demons. most of the people used as tithes are captives or criminals. their shamans are said to be able to speak to 'the great weaver' who's not necesarily the creator deity but a kind of middle manager of the gods.

(do you guys want me to continue?)

Yes.

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OK then. Most of the other civilizations belive that the spider clans are cannibals because they rarely kill other people in combat and allways have a hunting party or two in the jungle getting ambushes ready. the Clanpeople themselves aren't the happiest about the covenant but they understand that is a price to pay for their well being. they have a certain degree of fearful respect when it comes to spiders so they don't adorn themselves with spider motives and don't have them carved on totems unless said totems are infront of the caves. to see a spider is a sign of bad luck.

which leads us to the the other civ
based it off pic in basically it was a prosperous city tha was part of a larger empire. The city housed a strong mage guild. they started worshiping a pider god that would promise them more power and elevation from their mortal coil, they overthrow the authority and since the city was far from the imperial capital the army was to late to respond and they managed to secure their power. now they live to worship their living god and experiemnt with their newly found power (the spider god taught them a new kind of magic that would warp their bodies to a more perfect form). one of their main activiteis is to experiemnt on their slaves (before they were more trade based but since the coup they became more and more reclusive) and they usually get their slaves by kidnapping tribespeople from the jungle.

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How does a regular process of moulting effect a society?

As usual it depends heavily on the details. Starting with anatomy
-How does each variety of spiderfolk manipulate matter and objects around them? Mandibles as they were sized up for larger scales? Did they develop hands? Secondary or even tertiary manipulator appendages? Are they still using arachnid-exclusive locomotion or did some of their legs become arms with hands or narrow down to individual fingered limbs?

These difference can drastically change how they interact with each other and their environment. Spiderfolk who've no means to pick up and wield tools as we do would need to develop something of their own to get by in the world. Perhaps they've grown into their spiderfolk state from baseline spiders because their world is particularly dangerous, unusually inconsistent, or some quirk of their environment caused their brains to mutate. In any of those cases, if they don't also develop a means to create tools or work with objects beyond themselves everything they do is likely based off of how their own bodies work, such as web-spinning and picking an environment to live in that makes the most of that, or even developing some kind of communication with another species to form symbiosis, like a smaller, poisonous insectoid critter that they don't like to eat but will eat smaller pests and create nests that strengthen the spiderfolk community's webbing structures.

In Exile 3 (some spoilers but it's an ancient game you can download for free now) there's a race of these sapient spiders with hide in these ruins inside woods. They hunt the giant cockroaches infesting an island that hates, but are pretty cool as they're somewhat cute while requiring you to help them hunt until they'll trust you enough to show you to the Super Friendly Small Roaches (annoying antipricks).

In battle they're crazy effective if you're playing the game as a solo character (as I did for the last 80% of the game). They'd fling webs until you basically had no turns left, at which point you would get mopped up. So I suppose they'd be the reclusive warrior monks of SpiderLand. Small and respectful at first glance, but smarter than they seem and deadly due to techniques.

You should read Mother of Learning (a web novel). It features sentient spiders very prominently, along with their various cultures and societies. It's also just a great read.

I swear if that spider didn't talk like Krombopulos Michael I'd be really disappointed

Correct, they are wee kitties. And slasher movie villains to prey, but even if they were developed enough to hunt you they'd be more like some charming ass Hannibal types.

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Velvet's and Jumpers are cuties.

It comes from the term Saltation, which means the act of jumping
Hence why the mode of movement for kangaroos and rabbits is known as saltatorial locomotion

They're pedipalps. Used to pin down prey, and sometimes to inject sperm into the female since a traditional spider dick is inefficient when the mating ritual is like a rodeo.

My bad, I was thinking you meant the other disgusting moustache things.

I actually thought of that when making my spider-people civilizations.
Most spider-people are loners without much of a culture despite having the cognitive capacities for it, living quite like their giant spiders ancestors.
There is however a not nerubian empire, where their solitary tendencies are constrained by a strong and rigid class society.
Though the different social classes doesn't exactly cover species variations, they are still tightly linked. Everyone is assigned a role to follow for the empire, though individuals sometime manage to give themselves some space. For example there is a caste for people than handle non sapient spiders, which may be equerry, animal tamer or livestock farmer with various degree of standing. One who raise small common non sapient spiders is probably a low rank individual, but another of the same caste attending a just as non-sapient titanic spider, considered as living gods by the ancestor cult many spider-people still follow, has a highly revered status.

There is also a strangely lawful old god cult that somehow help ties things together in a sinister but efficient manner. And I may make the foundation of the empire built on social spiders since they also are a thing.

Eating the dead is definitively a thing. Though eating the living is generally considered wasteful, but titanic living-god spiders do whatever they want.

Those are probably soldiers, secret services, executioner or something like that.

What need could a spider possibly have for a walking stick?

You never know when you might need a lever or a good thumping stick.

they're called chelicerae.

spiders don't have mandibles so the way they eat prey is by injecting venom that liquefies the prey's insides and then they suck out the juices through their mouth, which like said is just a hole in their face.

they also have another pair of "legs" on their face called pedipalps like said which are used to manipulate stuff.

Bump

I don't know enough about spiders to answer this question, OP.

One of the most important rituals surrounding molting is the destruction of the molted exoskeleton, usually by burning but tearing the exoskeleton apart before burying it will also do. If the exoskeleton is left intact, Spider-kin believe it will animate into a sort of vengeful spirit, haunting its owner with the goal of forcing them back into itself and reclaiming their old life.

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How good can spiders see with all those eyes? I heard somewhere that bugs actually have soe kind of decent hearing.

Depend, but strangely enough they often have a bad sight. That's because most of them sit in their web traps and don't need seeing things to hunt, the vibrations of their web, the ground or even the air is a much better sense for them.

Though, if some are pretty much blind, other have a pretty good sight. Mostly hunter spiders. Some of those are especially good at estimating distances (jumping spiders for obvious reasons), some have have a 360 degree vision field...
Spiders are pretty diverse.

Do you like your sapient spiders as just bigger spiders or more humanoid like this?

I have a fondness for the nerubian style.

I too enjoy Nerubian. Giant spiders are alright too, but I like Driders too.

What weapons would spiders use?

My not nerubian use:
- Mostly spear and various pole weapons especially for the subspecies inspired by jumping spiders.
- also javelin and such

A lot of natural weapons depending on subspecies:
- of course silk (web, net, slingshot or staff-sling... a lot of possibilities, but even more as utility than as weapon)
- poison of various kind (sometime mixed with silk for a poisonous net or "silk grenade" filled with poison) sometime spited, sometime injected, or coated on weapons
- "mandibles" or whatever have
- irritating hairs...

- heavy use of various non sapient spider subspecies.

What real-world cultures would be the best fit for spidermen?

Something non-obvious. What about the Celts? They had lots of solitary shepherd clans that occasionally bashed each others' heads in with bronze hammers and throwing axes, which would be cool. I don't think I've ever seen a mead drinking spider before.

You can honestly do anything with the concept of super people culturally. It's like ancient aliens asking what sorry of cultures humans would have.

>What about the Celts?

Roman era celts who had pants or skirt wearing modern celts?

I like how you can see when it dips into the uncanny valley with spider eye cuteness.

>visible giant poison needles level
Dysderidae
Tetragnathidae
Ctenidae
Araneidae
>tiny unlovable eyes level
Thomisidae
Scythodidae
Pisauridae
Sicariidae
>it's a spider level
Oonopidae
Hersilidae
Oxyopidae
>tiny eyes on a lovable teddybear level
Eresidae
>hi I have charm and personality level
Lycosidae
Salticidae
>"I have stared into your soul, and it looks delicious" level
Deinopidae

oh shit user, oh shit

Driders are a nice, lazy option.

I like the idea of spiders using back-mounted launchers, similar to slingshots or arbalests.

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/dump

Needs more spider.

Spider People?

Of just spider?

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Spider developing new weapons.

Spider merchant

"It belongs in a museum" spider

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Some jumping spiders are brightly coloured.

Spider-knight

Some spiders dance.

Fun fact: if you woke up with this staring down at you, you'd piss yourself.

I almost pissed myself closing the previous image to find it staring at me in the next tab...

Some spiders are furry.

Some spiders are friendly.

Some spiders are not friendly.

Some spiders are strong for their size.

Some spiders are just strong.

Some spiders are adorable.

Some spiders are NOT ADORABLE.

Fun fact: the size of a spider is usually negatively correlated with its adorableness.

AUSTRALIAN HAWKWASP.

REMEMBER

THERE ARE *NO*

TARANTULAS IN THE UNDERDARK

If you want to go for the more civilized route for spider-people, then they're actually one of the more interesting possibilities.

A society of spider-people, if their eating habits are not considering 'evil' by their neighbors (ie: they don't eat people), could have very close and friendly relationships with their neighbors, since silk is something they will have in abundance, giving them a valuable resource to trade with others for anything else they need.

And given their talent for webs, they could be great weavers and clothiers in their own right, able to produce tapestries, gowns, and other things made of fabric of exceeding quality. For bonus points you could even have the spider-folk dressed in fabulous robes and such, if the PC's should ever visit their town.

>jumping spiders
They're also the cutest of all spiders.

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#4 is missing, user

Tarantulas in particular tend to be nearly blind. They can tell light, darkness, and fast movement but no real details.

They use the moulted skin as instruments. Music plays an important role in spider society. Their webs make for amazing harps and the moulted skin hardens and make for great drums. Some spiderfolk are chosen as bardachnid and sent out into the world to share their music with it. Some cities sent their bardachnids with stories of mysterious cities filled with treasure to lure people into their cities as a food source. Some spidercommunities aren't as malevolent however and befriend other kin. It's a great honor to receive a moultdrum and when a spiderbard dies it partially moults a final time and transforms itself into a living instrument. It's final spasms create a most sublime, yet disturbing melody that often haunts those witnessing this event for the rest of their lives. After the bard has died and the final note has played, the body is gifted to the closest friend. After a week of mourning, this friend is supposed to end this period by playing the harmonic husk, celebrating the deceased's life. Then a day and a night of feasting commences.

I want to pet the 4th and the drugs the 16th one is on.

>using the dead as instruments

> Those two guys are itinerary silk merchants.
> They are trying to sell yourtheir stuff while arguing with each other like an old couple.

Their names are Breeble and Bork and they've known each other since spider-highschool.

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