Submarine Chomper
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Well, one thing came to mind.
House spider-driders = Hikikomoris
They spend the majority of their lives indoors and nowhere near as large as the other sub-species, allowing them to fit into smaller living quarters.
They order all their food online as take-out. They don't eat so much due to being part-spiders and not having to move around as much as the other sub-species.
And use dating-apps to find partners... who more or less have to determine who gets to be the one to leave the house to see the other first.
Surprisingly crafty regarding entertaining themselves indoors. Learning instruments, making strings for harps and guitars and the like, playing video games, reading, making blankets, few might even work out on their spare time, a lot of them doing "work-from-home" online to earn a living.
When meeting real people, they are shy and fidgety. When dealing with people online with the distance and isolation wrapped up from it? They get a LOT bolder.
Likes to live in apartment complexes. Particularly high-up floors.
They try to be quiet so the neighbors (other sub-species possibly) won't approach them to tell them "KEEP IT DOWN!", as the House-drider wants to avoid conflict as much as possible.
Good luck getting them out from their "nest", as only time that happens, if there is a fire in the building about to eat their homes all together.
...
Things like this?
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Like reflections in the glass!
that is a good start. what about orb weavers, tarantulas and black widows?
There are several published series that explore the idea of a spider-based society. In Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" a race of uplifted spiders share a planet with human colonists. Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" explores the civilization of a race of arachnid-like aliens that evolves in a system that hibernates at regular intervals. In both novels, the similarities and differences between the spider aliens and humans are nuanced and complex.
One thing I always thought was that their cities would have a lot of verticality to it since they can climb on walls.
Like reflections in the glass!
that does seem like a good idea, have them be pioneers of skyscrapers and the like.
Although their cities would probably be hard to traverse if you're not a spider person.
Submarine Chomper
And a lot of cobweb-roads between the buildings since spiders would be able to traverse those with ease.
Of course, some traffic laws would have to be put in place to keep people from making new roads in attempts of taking shortcuts to were they want to go and clog the space with webs in the process.
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
The "surface" of the city is likely to be a giant vertical layer with a network of flexible tunnels leading on and off it.
Like reflections in the glass!
Yeah Cobweb roads was an idea I already though of. They were only used to connect rooftops though.
I would suggest that the "surface" would be three-dimensional, with freedom to expand and move up and down, left and right, forward and back.
... Maps would be complicated. (Quite possibly conceptual rather than representational, like London Underground maps.)
My Games & Writing
Like reflections in the glass!
Or Kowloon (which granted I am considering using as inspiration for a different setting)
There are some webs that are like that. Depends on the ancestral species, I guess.
Would caffeine be a controlled substance or treated like how humans treat alcohol? Dumb question, but it popped into my mind while browsing through some articles.
Submarine Chomper
It probably follows the controlled substance-laws, I imagine.
There is no need for their chaotic webs between the buildings.
I do imagine artistic-spiders would use coffee quite frequently though when creating their art-pieces for display.
Edited by Trainbarrel on Dec 9th 2023 at 3:28:03 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Huh. I've now learned something about the effects of caffeine on spiders! ^_^
Conversely, looking at the Wikipedia article, I could see student-spiders taking and boss-spiders dosing their workers with small amounts of LSD: it was apparently found to increase the regularity of webs, so one might take a guess that it increases diligence.
I'd expect it from a certain set of artists, certainly—but perhaps not artists in general. (After all, while there are those who do, I don't think that all that many human artists seek to alter their work by taking drugs.)
Submarine Chomper
Imagine that world's version of "AA".
"Coffee Indulgers Anonymous"
"For those who have the bitter black beverage become their blood".
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Like reflections in the glass!
That is something I'll have to keep in mind for alter, since I am going for a vague early 19th century vibe with my setting and that means references to Prohibition.
Actually there is a potential goldmine of loopholes with species-specific bans.
OMG—and then they encounter humans. "You guys just drink this stuff?"
Like reflections in the glass!
the setting here has some pockets in contact with human civilizations (one or two protagonists are in fact such spiders) whiles others are aware of them.
That said it is funny to image that what is a cafe to humans is an outright bar to Arachne.
Submarine Chomper
Or humans visiting one of their "cafes" only to hear this when ordering a cup of pitch black pure coffee, no sugar or cream included.
(Silent pause from the one behind the counter):"Show me your ID lad."
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
A while back you mentioned what other spiders would be like after Hikikomori house spiders, so I did a little research on tarantulas. Besides being very popular as pets, tarantulas can live for a long time (upwards of 20 years) and generally don't kill their mates after breeding, so I can see them being something akin to kindly matriarchs within the society
One thing I know about spiders is that they can only see the colors green and blue. How would this affect their societies?
Submarine Chomper
Re-coloring the traffic-lights would be one thing.
"Warning colors" would be blue and yellow as another. (Yellow included so other races that can see the other colors can understand it is dangerous in this combo.)
The "Red Light Districts" would become the "Blue Light Districts" as a third.
Edited by Trainbarrel on Dec 23rd 2023 at 6:21:26 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Like reflections in the glass!
interesting idea
Prolly applicable to any other liminal being, but circumstances had be asking about driders specially.
Ahem. We all know that spider centaurs are a thing in media since Velma Green the Spider Queen and especially Rachnera Arachnera(sic?). But I'm starting to ask about ideas for a society of them, and how would their norms be affected by their biology. Would they be predisposed to weaving and textiling due to their spinnerets? Does their venom make them predisposed to cloak and dagger ops? are they a matriarchy? Does their extra limbs and eyes present problems for them? Are they parkour enthusiasts?
tell me in what ways literal spider-men that does whatever spiders can, usually differ from humans and how that shapes their society.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Oct 7th 2023 at 7:43:38 AM