WoE: Queen Anora

Driders of Etelafo

The small area of territory that the Drider’s inhabit is primarily a tropical mountain wet land on the South eastern coast of Etelafo their homes are in the canopy above. Every winter and spring the forest floor become flooded which gives the Driders peace and little worry of visitors. During the more dry season when access to their land is more easy, they are more tense but allow travelers to pass through, though they are watched carefully in their passing.

They do tolerate the presence of other species passing though, but they do not let anyone settle on their land besides the werewolves who tend to scare away unwanted visitors. The reason for this is that the Driders worry of the destruction on their forest and fiercely protect their habitat.

Driders usually only live for a couple hundred years and through out their life time will only see a small handful of their offspring reach true adulthood, which is 35 years of age. The reason for this is that Orcs find young Driders as a delicacy and enjoy feasting upon egg sacks. Often in return, more or less revenge, Driders will ambush lone Orc’s who have feasted upon their young in the past.

Culture
Driders are known for their beautiful clothing made of their very own spun silk, they specialize in tailoring custom uniforms and clothing for high ranking official’s of all species. Most clothing is created by the females though it is not uncommon for males to take up this talent as well.

Male Driders are often soldiers, hunters and guards, while females tend to be gathers, tailors, and occasionally spies and assassins. However, their have been cases in which roles have been in reverse though this is rare.

The ‘homes’ that the Drider call their own, are in the high tree tops of their forest and really not homes at all. They use their strong silks to bind leaves and branches together to form canopies, this protects them and their young from the elements.

Hierarchy
For generations royalty has been that of females and the queen usually has her mate assigned to her one year after her birth. Mates of young royalty are normally older then the spiderling by 25 years, this is so that if anything occurs with the royal parents the older mate may take over until the young queen is old enough to rule.

All other Driders are free to chose their own mates and their status in the society is based on their occupation, Guards rank higher then soldiers who are higher then hunters and so forth.

General Appearance
Driders come in many different colors, sizes and shapes and often their coloring is consistent through out their entire being. The ‘human’ half of the Drider is soft, flesh like with the same coloring and patterns as that on their lower, hard exoskeleton spider half. Females are often bright in coloring while males usually have dull coloring, the reason for this is unknown.

Mating/Reproduction

Males Driders preform a courtship dance to entice females into becoming his mate and if she is willing she will return the dance. The two will dance and exchange silken gifts before becoming mates and officially mating.

Females reach marrying age at 16, unless royal, marriage is often upon one year after their birth but do not reach reproduction age until around 35. At 16 Queen Anora had her mate executed when she found out that he had a human mistress which is forbidden in their culture. Males on the other hand are free to marry when ever they please even at a very young age and they reach reproduction age at 23.
Males spin a silk, sperm sack in that he gently places inside the ‘vaginal’ opening of the female spider if she accepts her bodies will produce a liquid that will dissolve the silk sack and allow his sperm into her body.

Driders lay sacks of eggs, just like that of common spiders, in which the female will often fiercely protect her off spring from predators. Though thousands of eggs are laid by a single female Drider it is not uncommon for only a couple of the offspring to live past their first year of life.

There is no sexual enjoyment or pleasure when Drider’s mate, and so to ‘bond’ with each other they will perform courtship dances and caress each other’s bodies.


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Queen Anora is for the group (c) Kyuuketsukibara