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| Arachnoids; Spider People | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 7 2009, 06:26 PM (225 Views) | |
| Carniku | Jun 7 2009, 06:26 PM Post #1 |
Mega-Flare!
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Your Contact Details: PM to Carniku would be best. Requirements for the race: PM me for permission, have a good solid post count and have an idea for the usage which I like and not doubling up species. Also, weird one but one I want, a quirk which surprises me. Doesn’t matter where, but something to do with the character in relation to the race which is funny. Also, if I’m unsure whether or not you should have one there will be a quiz to prove you’ve read the whole thing. Name of Race: Arachnoids (Two sub-species, Spider and Scorpion) Dwellings: Depending on their inherent traits and sub-species, they dwell in a vast range of areas. Generally speaking, they’ll live in tropical areas if they hold Spider D.N.A and they’ll prefer arid climates if they’re Scorpion. While they won’t consciously select these areas, they’ll feel extremely comfortable in areas where their smaller arachnid brethren live, an area filled with cobwebs would comfort a Spider Arachnoid, and the majority actually live IN a web, though this is normally contained inside a bedroom. However, it is possible for them to live perfectly normal human lives if they deny their baser arachnid instincts and temperature/humidity are not major factors to their health, it is a matter of strict preference. Most Arachnoids who aren’t feral will live in cities but some who embrace their life-style will choose these areas to distinguish themselves from humans. They tend to be solitary creatures and live apart from each other. Population Size: Fairly small, there are about 50 Spider Arachnoids and 48 Scorpion Arachnoids currently active. There are meant to be sealed nests containing huge hoards of eggs to hatch into the next generation, but this won't happen unless all of the current Arachnoids are slain. As a result, all Arachnoids are the same age of 17 and have a number from 1-200 which dictates the order they were born (none of the initial thirteen digits are alive today). Technological Stage: The Arachnoids are fairly on par with human intelligence but they have a wildly variable state of their technology. Those who embrace their human side are capable and understand technology of the normal human world quite easily, however those who choose to live in the wilderness and to live as the other Arachnoids do will shun human technology and instead create things for themselves but due to their loner nature, it will rarely be anything terribly advanced. Appearance: The Arachnoid population tend to look like Caucasian humans with brown to black hair colours and dark brown eyes. It’s impossible to ball-park all of the species but they generally have fairly thin and long fingers and aren’t of a heavy build. The big feature that they all share is a sense of the alien, even if they appear quite handsome it’s a false beauty and their appearance is generally at a level of background unsettling to most human’s due to the inherent fear of spiders and scorpions. It is possible to see past this to the intelligent creature beneath but it’s hard. Unique from some other animal/human hybrids, Arachnoids can’t transform into different forms, however they do have some distinctive markings, such as the sharpened teeth and slits on Spider arachnoids hands, while the Scorpion’s have pronounced spinal ridges and strangely muscular thumbs. Race powers (minor, required): All Arachnoids have their abilities manifest at the age of 16, although only two of these are guaranted the others evolve due to circumstance and unlock as the individual gets older and more experienced in their powers. They're often aware of the shift due to a strange feeling spreading through them. Increased Abilities- The Arachnoids all have physical abilities surpassing an ordinary human, although depending on the individual the rate of power tends to change. The biggest factor affecting this is whether they’re one of the Spider or Scorpion sub-species. In general, the Spider Arachnoids have a reaction-time and general body-speed roughly 4 times that of an average human, while unable to run at incredible speeds they can sprint consistently for quite a long time and are able to dodge and punch quick enough to successfully fend off quite severe odds. They are equally stronger than a normal human but this is far lower in terms of strength compared to seed, the maximum they can lift is about 2-tons. They are equally slightly more endurable and have enhanced vision, 20-20 with the benefit of being able to see further and sense motion in front of them. Scorpion Arachnoids have an almost completely different balance, they are slightly faster than a normal human but not even to the point of being super-human, peak level human speed is as fast as Scorpion types, although they have the same stamina for running as Spiders. They gain mostly in their strength as Scorpions can lift almost 6 tons on average, the highest being 7, they are also highly endurable, able to sustain extreme damage far easier than Spiders. They also have enhanced hearing able to discern different footsteps from a range of around 40 feet. Venom production/High poison immunity- As you’d expect from a race of what are essentially poisonous arthropods turned into anthropoids, they have a naturally high immunity to poisons and produce large quantities of anti-venom to combat the toxin’s they themselves generate. Anti-venom is contained in a secondary spit gland, while the main venom is contained within their primary spit gland meaning their saliva is naturally slightly toxic. However, they aren’t greatly poisonous (although the poison is quite painful and makes the victim feel as if they’re burning) and a dose of poison from an Arachnoid is rarely fatal unless it’s administered in an enormous amounts (if you were facing one Spider, they’d need to bite you about 6 times in order to administer a lethal amount of poison). The main affects are profuse sweating and a blurring of vision (2 bites) and mild paralysis (4 bites). The toxin affects the nervous system, but if the victim has time to develop their own antibodies they gain an immunity to small doses of the toxin and the amount required to achieve the same effect doubles each time. It’s notable that Scorpion types can administer far more toxin per sting/bite than Spiders, about 1.5 x meaning they can kill in around 4 stings rather than 6. However, as shown below, Scorpions can’t apply the poison as effectively. Race powers (minor, but not required): Wall-Climbing- All Arachnoids have the obvious ability to climb nearly any surface, though the method used is somewhat confusing. They appear to generate a small static field around their body that allows them to cling to surfaces and crawl up them by strengthening and weakening it in time, much like how regular humans walk. This field isn’t powerful enough to actually damage anything it touches but it does allow the species to climb pretty much anything given the time and inclination. It doesn’t tend to work on organic life as well as inorganic, but can enhance their grip on things (i.e. it would be very hard to climb a tree over a brick wall). This same ability allows them to ‘repel’ themselves from a surface and gives them the ability to leap great distances, approximately 20 feet further than a normal person. Fear Response- This one’s often more of a disadvantage but, despite their human appearance, they often cause a small feeling of discomfort or fear in people at a sub-conscious level. Rather than making people afraid to approach, it normally leads to aggression or people disliking them for no readily apparent reason, and of course, if they rise to the baiting the police will immediately leap on them guns blazing. The main reason for the current batch of Arachnoids is the last were nearly all wiped out by paranoid soldiers in various wars. Of course, this doesn’t affect everyone and it’s possible to ignore a feeling of fear when seeing spiders or scorpions, some even find them cute and keep them as pets, but they tend to irritate most life native to Earth just by their prescence. This tends to become more apparant as they develop more powers and strengthens into a full grown ability after some time. Once you have more than four abilities, this ability is required. Brethren Communication-A more useful skill, Arachnoids are able to communicate amongst both themselves and their derivative species via a form of telepathy. There are some limits, as a matter of natural frequency, Spiders and Scorpions aren’t connected so they rarely talk unless they know each other personally and have made acquaintances and even then rarely mentally. While they are all aware of each other’s existence, they don’t always communicate as there’s a range limit of around 8 city blocks, so you can’t telepath your cousin in Vermont. The other downside is Arachnids aren’t as… intelligent as Arachnoids so the most they can communicate are emotions or things they notice in terms of shapes. It’s possible to block out all outside messages but as long as they are within the same distance, Arachnoids can find each other. Race powers (major): While they share their minor powers with minor differences, Spider and Scorpion Arachnoids have their most major difference when it comes to their major abilities. They have two each which are unique to their side of their species and the capacity to develop unique abilities in this vein over time (all initial characters only have these powers but can apply for more in the theme after enough time RPing). It’s impossible for a Spider Arachnoid to have Scorpion-esque powers and vica-versa for Scorpion Arachnoids to have Spider abilities. Spider- Web production- The part everyone thinks of if you say Spider, the web. For Arachnoids, this is produced by Spinnerets contained within their body but is ejected from a variety of places. The main location is from around midway down their wrist, however, the spinneret is not located here, it is normally contained in a silk gland located near the stomach where the appendix is in normal humans. What this does is take certain chemicals when eaten (primarily protein) and then transforms them into silk, before being conducted to the ejection point at the wrists via a system that run parallel to the circulatory system. Co-incidentally, this is why Spider Arachnoids rarely believe in self-harm since getting a face full of gossamer tends to ruin your day. The silk itself is a miracle of the species, as regular spider silk is often considered to be proportionally stronger than high grade steel in terms of its tensile strength and as strong as other high grade polymers such as Teflon. It also is fairly renowned for being ductile and being hard to break (well, for something insect sized). Unsurprisingly, this also holds true for Arachnoids but their web isn’t quite as powerful as you’d expect, even if it has stronger than steel wire. While it is quite possibly one of the strongest fibres on the planet, if not THE strongest, due to it’s protein make-up it’s quite easy to destroy as it lacks the high P.H normal webs contain. As such, bacteria can eat through it with relative ease if left unattended, and it is exceptionally flammable and prone to flaking away due to dehydration unless the Arachnoid is renowned for eating carrots or smoking as these contain the chemical Pyrrolidine, an important agent in normal spider webs. When preparing a web for living in, Arachnoids will often use either procyclidine or bepridil medicine as well as consume acidic drink or food like candy to guarantee the web will survive for a long time (this is impractical under normal conditions as they’re bodies aren’t adapted to suddenly producing true webs and may lead to a blood-clot due to the web surviving longer and obstructing the circulatory system) Arachnoid’s also lack the range of normal Spider webs, unless they are building a web for themselves to live in and have taken the before mentioned precautions, their web is normally of uniform strength and will last for around 50 minutes in a normal environment (20 minutes more or less depending on if it’s more or less humid respectively). The main usage Arachnoids have for their webs is, surprisingly, as a weapon. It’s commonly used as a garrotte but can equally be used in a process similar to ‘cheese-wire’. If you’ve seen Walter in Hellsing you’ll know what this looks like, however, there is a range issue, the longest web that can be produced is around 50 feet and (more importantly) there can only be one strand made at once. To achieve the ‘cheese-wire’ effect, the Arachnoid must consciously make the web exceptionally thin and needs to anchor it to something else as the web isn’t naturally sharp and only achieves slices via pressure. All in, they normally go for the garrotte. Ironically, it’s very rare to see an Arachnoid swinging from webs as it can lead to them slicing chunks into their palm due to the tensile strength and requires careful arranging Fang generation- The second ability of Spider Arachnoids, linked to the previous ability of poison creation, it is the application of poison via fangs. While all Spider types naturally have two fangs located where the canines are in a normal human (visible due to the thin silver line running down it and the hollow tips to the teeth). However, this is far from the most practical way to apply poison since it’s hard for a human being shaped person to somehow lock their teeth around another, especially as a surprise attack. As such, the Arachnoids developed a different method when they first gained human form and that was by generating two thin slits on their palms from which small injectors emerge. There are small toxin glands contained within the Arachnoids hands that generate saliva in the same way the normal saliva glands do in their mouths. However, this is limited as they can only unload one ‘bite’ per hand so they can only apply 1/3rd of the lethal dose in this manner and requires a long period of rest before the glands secrete enough toxin for a second bite. While this ability isn’t as complex as that of their web-spinning it’s still fairly useful and often one that develops early on. Scorpion- Stinger- Just as all Spiders have a web, all Scorpions have a stinger. In Scorpion Arachnoids, the sting is positioned beneath the skin parallel to the spine with the ability to rise out at command. It fits the rules of a normal Scorpion’s stinger as the tail itself has 6 joints to it starting just below the shoulder-blades and finishing slightly before the buttocks and hooking inwards when hidden. While it is normally hidden, it is possible to activate and the entire tail merges out of the back with no real damage to the skin due to their being a ‘dud’ layer where the tail is hidden between two layers of skin as such ripping it free merely means it’ll be harder to hide until the skin regenerates (which takes approximately 16 hours) Due to it’s position at the shoulder blades, the tail has a reasonably strong range but requires strange movements to perform lunging attacks which is also why it has the ability to ‘slot’. There are three points along the Arachnoid’s spine where the tail can move at the cost of length, it requires one joint to position the tail in the ideal spot at about halfway down the back. The maximum range of the tail is approximately twice the length of the Arachnoid’s torso and, most importantly, is hard to use consecutively. The nature of the tail is to move outstandingly fast, often at a speed comparable to a bullet but it can’t sting consecutively and it’s location on the back is awkward unless the traditional scorpion pose is adopted which lowers vision and makes movement difficult. As with the Arachnoid’s palm-fangs, only the Telson joint of the tail is capable of administering poison and it takes time to regenerate (around 2 hours). The main feature of the tail is that they are, almost uniformily, bladed as well as sting designed. It’s possible given enough concentration for a Scorpion Arachnoid to duel with a talented fencer but the body positions required are extremely awkward (and is equally why they have enhanced hearing over vision). There is another fatal flaw with the Stinger as it not only requires awkward movements that can be anticipated (as fast as a bullet, but has to move in a clumsy arc) but the stinger also has a tendency to rear back before going for an injection attack. This projection of movement is difficult to conquer and the majority of Scorpion types rely on just being too fast. On a rather unpleasant note, while they can’t make poison after the first sting, it IS effectively part of their intestinal tract and in a real scorpion the anus is contained in the tail so they can… ‘administer faecal matter’ as a last ditch effort to escape. As you can imagine, most Arachnoids tend to dislike this use of their abilities Claws-This ability doesn’t function in the same logical manner as many of the other powers as it appears to be a reflection of the Scorpion types being more ‘spidery’ than previously thought. While Scorpions are renowned for having claws, the Arachnoids do not have the same types of claws and they are able to hide them. Instead of a simple biclave pincer, they develop a thick dark brown chitinous coating over all of their fingers that acts similar to armour in a gauntlet. The armour only covers the back of their hands and has joints, leaving dexterity, but the tips of the finger ‘shells’ are exceptionally sharp. The thumb joint comes off best having a sharp edge double the length of the actual thumb and a serrated edge along the edge facing inwards. The generation of this substance is performed fairly quickly and appears to be done by excreting a liquid from the sweat-glands which hardens once exposed to air. The quantities of liquid produced are fairly large and makes the coating quite thick as it thickens. It is, however, fairly brittle and while it is possible to sustain a gun-shot by using the shell to protect yourself, it will likely cause it to shatter. It naturally drops off after an hour under normal conditions which gives the Arachnoid a certain time limit. The glands that make the chitin are located in the hands and as such the coating can only be made from there since it’s secreted and hardens too quickly. The other interesting feature contained within Scorpion types hands are that they have an incredibly powerful grip, the muscles in their thumbs being almost three times the strength of a normal human although this mainly affects the pinching style grip, it does help in other circumstances. For this reason, the sharpened edges of the claws that they manifest are exceptionally dangerous as it would be extremely easy to slice through most organic matter or to ensnare it in an inescapable trap leaving them exposed to their stinger. Both Both Arachnoid types also have a final major ability which comes into play after extreme circumstances, this ability is Hyper Evolution. If an Arachnoid is continually placed in an extremely dire situation where their existing abilities are not enough one of their pre-existing skills will mutate into a more desirable form that gives them greater power. One of the only rules for Hyper Evolution is that it has to reflect a pre-existing power in some way and be scientifically attainable (i.e. adding poison into your webbing is possible, making it suddenly ice not web isn’t). The reasons behind this power has to do with their evolutionary nature, evolving to fit an archetype of a spider/human hybrid in such a brief time has left them with a great deal of adaptability. Any initial Arachnoid application won’t have a Hyper ability yet but can RP for one in game, it’s essentially how they acquire new abilities beyond the major powers already listed and isn't a power so much as a means to an end. Any hyper abilities must be cleared by me first via PM, and you can't unlock one without first obtaining all minor powers and the two majors for your sub-species. Race Weaknesses: As they are fairly similar to normal arachnids, Arachnoids themselves have a very dangerous reaction when exposed to insecticide, it acts like a neurotoxin which is fittingly pretty much exactly what they do to other animals when they bite them. They do have a greater immunity than normal arthropods to the poison but if exposed to certain chemicals such as permethrin or tetramethrin, they have a severe reaction and exposure in large enough quantities can kill. Generally speaking, if they can smell the insecticide, the Arachnoid’ll keep away or take precautions although to smell it they would have to have been exposed before and recognise the scent… another element which is dangerous to them is fire, Arachnoids have a base fear of fire since it destroys their webs (as anyone who played Zelda knows) or meant someone was looking to make baked scorpion. As such, arachnoids are normally shifty around anything orange that flickers and is bigger than they are. This probably also adds to their greatest weakness, which is their mentality and their empathy. In their minds, they are both arachnid and human and see the two as the same. As such, seeing someone squash a spider will often override the logic in their minds and lead to a grade 5 freak-out, as they try and avenge the ‘murder’. They also have a similar aversion to rolled-up Newspapers and baths as a result. Although they can move past this, it takes some will-power to ignore a death you yourself feel due to collective telepathy. While their individual powers all have some weaknesses there is one unifying weakness that affects all arachnids and this is, oddly enough, a symbol. The Aegis, a symbol of Athena, which renders the Arachnoids powerless in what appears to be the only case of shame-faced guilt sneakily hiding the fact the person in question is actually an arachnid based human. Race Religion/Doctrine: The Arachnoids have a strange social structure in that they have a very set population of 200, 100 spiders and 100 scorpions, who are normally born together and help each other grow based on the numbers of their eggs (an instinctively known feature that all Arachnoids know) the lower numbers being considered the older siblings. While there was always a split between Spiders and Scorpions, they did work together, but the current generation, due to their separation, don’t have the knowledge of the social order so their numbers are more meaningless. The one major tenant of all Arachnoids is that the ‘queen’ must lay the eggs for the next 200 Arachnoids. The queen can be of either side of the races but must take a king from the opposite side, producing the eggs in a safe place before they move on to explore the outside world. Needless to say, this hasn’t happened yet so the hunt for the queen is on. In terms of religion, the Arachnoids all believe in a matriarchal figure in Arachne, the spinner of Greek mythology who was turned into a Spider by a wrathful Athena, as such to Arachnoids, Arachne is a goddess and Athena the Devil. Despite their formally quite organised social structure the current generation do not have the same discipline as they were scattered before hatching which lead to the current wide dispersal. One tenant survived, which is oddly the least arachnid principle one can think of, if you see an Arachnoid in danger or feel a cry for help, you must help. Race History: Our story begins in ancient Greece, the famous weaver Arachne, daughter of Idmon, was so renowned for her talents that she began to show signs of hubris, believing herself to be better than the gods. The Goddess Athena saw this and came down to earth, disguised as an old woman, to warn Arachne that she should show more respect to the god. Arachne, understandably since some random old woman was telling her this, scoffed and said she would challenge the gods to weaving to prove who was superior. Athena revealed herself and the shit was indeed on now, son. Despite what you’d think, Arachne actually DID win the contest, Athena did a very fine weaving of her victory over Poseidon in the naming of the city of Athens. Arachne did a weaving of 21 acts of infidelity from the Greek Gods. Most of them were Zeus. To put this in context, Athena did a proud moment of history, and Arachne made some porn. And Arachne’s was BETTER. Athena flew off the handle somewhat and destroyed the tapestry, throwing Arachne into despair. The poor mortal went and hung herself in shame for upsetting the goddess. Touched by the fact Arachne at least acknowledged she did wrong, Athena turned her into a spider, the noose her web, and left her to weave for eternity. See, the problem here which isn’t readily acknowledged is that generally speaking in Greek mythology, only the God’s change shape because they know how to change back. Arachne lived out the rest of her days as a spider and gradually passed her genetics on via breeding, leaving residual human D.N.A inside a steadily changing stream of Arachnids that gradually re-combined and lead, in 1870, to the first cluster of Arachnoid eggs being laid. Hatching free, the confused newly spawned creatures grew in the caverns of their lair and gradually began excursions for new ground or to find out who they were and how they were born. These Arachnoids were still quite feral, laying their own eggs in the same cavern before leaving to explore the later 19th century, the world of the gentle upper-class treated them pretty badly since they were found wandering naked in Greece and the entire of the first generation were destroyed by 1902, the last being number 54 who was burnt at the stake for being a witch due to him biting a local farmer. The Arachnoids next generation were born in the middle of a war, which suited most of them quite well since it gave them a good excuse to kill things, even if teenage soldiers were discouraged. It’s believed that the reason the second battle of the Somme worked was that a Scorpion Arachnoid managed to get into the German trenches and wiped them all out save a lone Spider Arachnoid who managed to kill the scorpion before succumbing to his injuries. The in-fighting lead to the second generation dying out, but not before laying their eggs, in 1930. Strangely, there seemed to be traces of evolution in the Arachnoids minds as these, while well aware of war and how it worked and having some knowledge of humans and even language within days of being born, chose to wait until the fighting finished. With the war over, they emerged to help humanity to redevelop and this is where they made their biggest mistake. One Arachnoid, a Spider type called Rent (number 17), made friends with an entrepreneur called Matthew Pierce. Pierce was searching for new artefacts that he could sell to the museum he worked for to show the developments of humanity and their primal worship of animals. Rent found this fascinating and discovered much about humanity, in time he grew to trust this human Pierce and when Pierce asked whether he knew of anything that could constitute a historic item, Rent thought to show his own ancestral home of the caves where the Arachnoids were born. Rent lead Pierce down to the caves and showed him the unhatched eggs glistening on the walls. Seeing the collection of such priceless artefacts, Pierce’s true nature arose and without warning, he shot Rent in the back and stole all 200 eggs. Rent survived but was disgraced due to what he’d done. In horror, he left his Arachnoid brethren for a life of solitude and spent the rest of his life searching for the man who stole their next generation. It took him years, he outlived all his siblings but finally, an old and broken man, he broke into the lair of Matthew Pierce and demanded the eggs back. What he found was a corpse, Matthew Pierce had taken his life days ago in remorse for betraying his friend. His suicide note told it all, he’d sold the eggs to various collectors and thrown a few away in fear of Rent’s retribution. He said he felt so ashamed that he’d donated nearly all the money to a charity for taking care of endangered species and had tried to find the discarded eggs many times but was afraid that they’d been destroyed. In sorrow, he’d taken his own life and left Rent to feel… empty. The Arachnoid had been cheated of his revenge and of his anger. Taking the gun from the cold hand of his now dead friend a single tear dropped down his cheek as he pulled the trigger and ended the third generation of Arachnoids. Across the world, the strange artefacts that Matthew Pierce had sold shook and cracked, and from them fell children who looked human and had no idea where their true identity lay. And so the fourth generation of Arachnoids was spawned on 4th of Jun, 1993, looking human but with great hidden powers. Will the Queen find her King before their species is finally destroyed? We may never know, except that a few eggs ended up in Japan… Edited by Carniku, Jun 22 2009, 07:07 PM.
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| Kira Rounin | Jun 22 2009, 07:32 PM Post #2 |
Yes, that's 18 with a Vizard mask.
  ![]](http://209.85.122.83/static/1/pip_r.png)
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Looks good by my standards *readies the stamp of approval... annnnnd... BAM!* Approved. |
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5:45 AM Mar 12
