Arachne are one of the two races born between Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love, and Zanalpadna, the Evil God of Carapaces and Compound Eyes.
They possess the upper body halves of beautiful women and the lower body halves of spiders. At present, they are divided into three types – large-build, medium-build and small-build – each with their own special characteristics.
Immediately after the birth of the race, it is thought that only one type of Arachne existed, likely the medium-build Arachne, and they diverged into three types after the war between Vida and Alda that took place a hundred thousand years ago.
Incidentally, according to materials that were borrowed from Zanalpadna’s Chief Mage Bakota-shi, it seems that aquatic Arachne doesn't exist.
It is likely that the aquatic Arachne described in the Adventurers’ Guild’s manuscripts refer to Arachne that have developed cultural practices, such as using their thread to create pouches filled with air, that make an aquatic lifestyle possible. It seems that their biology is no different from other Arachne.
Because they are a race of only females, their upper halves are those of beautiful women from the perspective of humanoid races, and many Arachne resembles humans. They have compound eyes on their foreheads and backs, but if those are kept hidden, it would be difficult to tell whether they are Arachne just by looking at their upper halves.
Unlike Scylla, the features of their upper halves can vary greatly; individuals can have hair, eyes and compound eyes of a variety of colors.
But if they give birth to males of a certain race over multiple generations, it seems that the characteristics of those males appear in the upper bodies of the Arachne.
Their spider-like lower bodies have an armor-like exoskeleton and eight legs with strange claws at their ends. Small-build Arachne often have bright colors reminiscent of fish that live in tropical regions, while medium-build Arachne are divided roughly evenly into those with plain colors and those with venomous-looking colors. Many large-build Arachne have plain colors but have tufts of fur growing on their lower bodies.
Medium-build Arachne still have the traits of the race’s founder and are the most common type of Arachne. Their base Rank is 3.
Their upper bodies look like those of women in their late teenage years to their twenties, and they have lifespans of about three hundred years. They have a good balance of qualities for combat and magic. They are well-suited to become adventurers of all kinds.
Also, they are the type of Arachne that can produce the highest quantity of thread in a single day, and their threads are the most stable in quality as well.
Small-build Arachne are a type of Arachne specialized in using threads in an agile and dexterous way, and many of them have an affinity for the wind attribute. Their base Rank is 2.
They are even smaller in size than adult human men. Their upper bodies have the appearances of women in their early-to-mid teenage years, and they have lifespans of about two hundred years. They are well-suited to becoming scouts.
Many of them have childish personalities that match their appearance, often playing pranks with their threads.
They produce the highest-quality thread among Arachne, and they are adept in creating delicate structures with their thread. However, the amount of thread they can produce in a single day is less than the medium-build Arachne.
Large-build Arachne are the type of Arachne that are fewest in number, and they are powerful, heavy warriors. Though they do not have much talent for magic, they make up for it with exceptional physical qualities. Their bodies are about as large as a carriage, and they have considerable horsepower as well. Their upper bodies look similar in age to medium-build Arachne, but their proportions match their lower bodies; the upper bodies are about the same size as those of Titan women. They have lifespans of four-five hundred years, and with a heavy weapon in hand, they could easily scatter a group of average adventurers, and their base Rank is 4.
But as they are not good at tight turns, even if they become adventurers, there are many places that they cannot go… or at least, places that they would not be able to go in human societies. This does not apply in Talosheim or the region enclosed by the Boundary Mountain Range.
But perhaps because their ability to create thread has retrogressed, their thread is of low quality and they produce far less in quantity than small-build Arachne.
All three of these types are categorized as Arachne, and there is a chance of any of these being born to parents of any type. It is possible for a small-build mother to have a large-build daughter and vice-versa.
Also, the ability to cover ground quickly is another feature that all Arachne have in common, along with a carapace on their lower bodies that is hard like armor, allowing the use of Armor Technique. In addition, their claws that grow from the tips of their legs can be used to dash up cliffs as fast as they can run across rocks and trees. When these legs are used as weapons, they receive the effects of the Unarmed Fighting Technique skill.
When their Ranks increase, they gain race titles such as Arachne Soldier, Arachne Scout, and Arachne Knight. However, legends say that some individuals that increase their Rank after fulfilling certain requirements can become a member of a different race altogether.
Their only weakness is the spider abdomen of the lower body where the carapace is soft, but large-builds have fur that is harder than it looks protecting this area. Also, even if this area is damaged, it causes significant bleeding but will not result in a fatal wound.
In Zanalpadna and the rest of the area enclosed by the Boundary Mountain Range, there are almost no Arachne living as ordinary citizens, but it seems that they all generally become craftsmen that create cloths, clothing, and arms from their own thread. This is the same for Arachne outside the Boundary Mountain Range as well.
The difference is that they acquire their own original Jobs such as Spider Tamer, Samurai and Kunoichi. The existence of these Jobs was not recorded in documents in the Amid Empire, Mirg shield-nation or the Orbaume Kingdom.
There is the possibility that the Arachne outside the Boundary Mountain Range are in hiding, but it is likely that the worship of Zanalpadna and the knowledge of the culture from another world left behind by the champion Hillwillow are the reasons for this.
Zanalpadna’s citizens mainly live on materials hunted and gathered from nearby Devil’s Nests and Dungeons, as well as grains such as wheat that is harvested in low-difficulty Dungeons such as the Shell-less Open Field.
But they generally enjoy meat and fish. It seems that mammoth meat is their soul food.
In Zanalpadna’s case, their romantic behavior comes down to group marriages; it is ordinary practice for multiple men and women to live in the same tower-shaped dwelling. It seems that nothing is considered an affair as long as one dates one of the men or women within their group.
They have a strong sense of companionship and they are highly sociable. Males they accept as spouses are viewed as companions and are treated with care.
Incidentally, it is apparently also normal for individuals to leave their group and move to another group.
It seems that for a long time, there have been cases of Arachne leaving Zanalpadna and marrying into families of other races in other nations – Noble Orcs and the other main races of the other nations. Arachne likely see this as a rare opportunity for themselves to find partners that are stronger than themselves – in other words, companions that they can rely on.
Outside of the Boundary Mountain Range, they form settlements like the Scylla and live together with males of other races.
They give birth about once every ten years, and they lay several eggs at once. They often repeat this process several times over their lifetimes. All Arachne children have similar appearances regardless of which type of Arachne they are, but as they repeat their yearly molting, their sizes and the colors of their exoskeletons change and their fur grows, allowing them to be distinguished.
Arachne molt once a year; small-builds are considered adults after molting ten times, medium-builds after fifteen and large-builds after twenty.
Because they are defenseless during and immediately after molting. Arachne don't allow anyone to be present during the process except for those they have great trust in.
This molting allows the healing and regeneration of any injuries in their legs or exoskeletons, as well as the compound eyes of the upper body. However, it seems that multiple molts are required to regenerate legs that have been completely lost.
In Zanalpadna, there is a culture of using the molted husks to create ‘necklaces of deep affection,’ which are used as presents to symbolize friendship and love. Accepting such a necklace as a male is equivalent to accepting a proposal, so caution should be taken.
Variants
- Small-build (Rank 2) 200 years
- Medium-build (Rank 3) 300 years
- Large-build (Rank 4) 400-500 years
Transformation Rituals
There is a ritual used to turn a member of a non-Vida-created race into an Arachne. A priest of Zanalpadna blesses a special spider (which takes several years to raise), and the spider and the target (limited to females) are wrapped in thread. It is said that the target is reborn as an Arachne after ten years.
Many who undergo the ritual become medium-build Arachne. But there are apparently rare cases of the target becoming a small-build or large-build Arachne if a small-build or large-build spider is used for the ritual.
Trivia
- Incidentally, there is a race known as Andro Scorpions that live in deserts; they could possibly be related to the Arachne, but it seems that at the very least, they do not exist within the Boundary Mountain Range.
