Drider
The Drider people are the indigenous people of the Drid'aRae swamplands created by the deity Phantom. These peoples have a broadly shared, though complex, genetic history, but it is only in the last two hundred years that they have been defined and started to self-identify as a single group. They are a race of tribes, weavers, alchemists and mercenaries divided into separate factions, or tribes. The Drider are humanoid in appearance, with the obvious exception of sometimes possessing extra arms, polycoria eyes or other assorted arachnid features and their exceptional agility.
Background
Drider History has never been written either recorded through word of mouth or in artwork, however scholars and Drider people have typically agreed on the following: Drider spawned out in the marshland north of Buckwood, the first drider are commonly depicted to look very close to humans with four eyes, however various tribes have their own inspiration and art as to what they looked like. Drider are a hardy people and spread out into the vast reaches of swamp, marshland and tropical jungle, similar to the Red Pandaren being close to their gate caused many mutations often for the better which allowed them to adapt in different environments.
Culture
The Drider preferred to make their homes in the trees of the tropical jungles or on raised houses in the marshland.
In general with drider who live outside of the main city, the more spider features a Drider possesses the higher its status in Drider society. Driders with taur lower halfs are often at the top of their society. Within whole other drider tribes are ranked by achievements and the demonstrated favor of Craft, Alchemy or Phantom.
Before the Revolution and tribes moved to be more united, the ancient drider expanded and differentiated into distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 100 distinct Drider Tribes have been identified, distinguished by names designating their ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. According to noted anthropologists, archaeologists and sociologists, historically, these groups lived in three main cultural areas, the Northern Swamp, Southern Jungles, and Central Wetlands cultural areas. The Central and Southern areas, having richer natural marine and woodland resources, were more densely populated than the Northern area likely due to the presence of the Toxic Gate.
Drider culture centered around their tribal homes, which often were found in ancient ruins or hidden deep underneath the swamps. The locations of these were well-guarded secrets. Outside their camps, they usually only appeared in small groups of less than ten.
Architecture
Drider buildings were often circular. In place of staircases, they often had ramps or poles instead, since many of them could climb.
Currency
The Drider have gone through a number types of currency trading with fish bones to using Bucks and Rin, after the revolution the Drider created their own and unique monetary currency called Shards. Square beads created through hardened alchemical substance they feels like clay but is durable as metal there are five colours of different worths:
{| class="article-table"
|+Shards
!Colour
!Worth
|-
|Purple Shard
|5,000 Shards
|-
|Red Shard
|1,000 Shards
|-
|Green Shard
|500 Shards
|-
|Blue Shard
|100 Shards
|-
|Yellow Shard
|10 Shards
|}
Then there is are two ultra rare beads which Golden and Platnium worth 25,000 shards.
Shards can be traded individually but often they are traded in Strands. Strands are a line of shards on length of web typically 5 on one string and 2 on a half strand. They are an easy way to carry the square shaped currency, most often shorted lingo and prices are marked strand price rather than shard price. For example a loaf of bread would be marked as 1 blue strand which is the equivalent of 500 shards, but someone could pay with a Green Shard if they wanted. Mixed strands are Strands made up of mixed beads.
Language
Most Drider people speak Basic, with Drider phrases and words being added to create Dae'Basic (which also has a tangible influence of Drider languages in the phonology and grammatical structure). Names are a good example often man up of 3-5 letters and broken up with a apostrophe such as A'ma being pronounced like arma, or n'aem being name.
Government
Originally tribes were independent anarchy, with their own rules, rulers and territories. After the Revolutionary War they subverted monarchy and became a democracy where the people vote to elect representatives and a president, who meet in parliament to make laws. This happens through the process of free and fair elections so the people can give their opinions about issues occurring in their communities. The president holds a lot of power however can't just change laws without going through congress. They hold their position for 4 years, however they can't run two terms in a row and must have a different president in between.
Tattoos
TBA
Religion
The Ancient Drider were devout demon-worshipers. Their worship often involved bloody sacrifices. Most worshiped Phantom, along with with other deities such as Amaria (coastal regions), Erin, Light, Vaermina, or much darker versions of Ceres sacrificing those who hurt nature, they have worshiped over the years, but some some false deities have been mentioned who were either vampires or Demons. A lot of ancient Drider's worship was centered around fear and ghost stories. Such as with the darker depiction of Ceres told stories of those who harmed with forest/marsh would be consumed by the woods. In recent years most fear around Phantom was often misunderstandings from the novice deity or low points.
During the Bovine occupation, Daedalus and Terra where added into the worshiping pantheon and Ceres's darker interpretation was heavily corrected to be much closer how she is worshiped now. Close to post-revolution Phantom's depiction and representation has changed dramatically his faithful were led to believe that the deity saw everything that happen and nothing is secret to him, and guilt is his poison against sinners who try to hide or run from what they have done. In addition to fears are something to overcome or admit help you become a better person.
The goal of those Phantom marks is, is to bring about the truth of secrets which could lead to ultimate destruction of the world and stop them.
History
Child Thief
During the era of Bovine occupation of Drid'aRae to try and improve the conditions of the drider's education and welfare by taking children and raising them in Mashara and Buckwood. Very quickly it got out of hand with Drider's being forcibly removed from their parents and a common aspect of the removals was the failure by these institutions to keep records of the actual parentage of the child, or such details as the date or place of birth. The exact number of children removed is unknown. Estimates of numbers have been widely disputed. Report says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents.
The stated aim of the "resocialisation" program was to improve the integration of the Drider into modern [<nowiki/>Bovine] society; however there was no tangible improvement in the social position of "removed" drider as compared to "non-removed". Particularly in the areas of employment and post-secondary education, the removed children had about the same results as those who were not removed. The only notable advantage "removed" drider achieved was a higher average income. This was likely due to the increased urbanisation of removed individuals, and greater access to trade goods than drider living in remote communities.
The Bovines received huge backlash from the Cervidan and the Angelic decred that the Bovines consider the need to address appropriately the extraordinary harm inflicted by these racially discriminatory practices and considered inappropriate the provision of monetary compensation for those forcibly and unjustifiably separated from their families. The bovines where required to help find drider's original parents or lineages as well as grant the Drider the right to autonomy within their own borders and the majority of bovine settlers withdraw from the swamplands. Additionally they had to provide aid or education only if the Driders asked and let them grow at their own pace. 200 years later the Bovine still provided aid and secondary-education opportunities to the drider people that wanted them, until their revolution.
Health and Disadvantage
Drider have a number of health and economic deprivations in comparison with the wider world.
Due to the aforementioned disadvantage, Drider communities outside of Drid'aRae experience a higher rate of suicide, as compared to other foreign communities. These issues stem from a variety of different causes unique to drider communities, such as historical trauma, socioeconomic disadvantage, and decreased access to education and health care. Also, the problem used to largely affects youth, as many youth have felt disconnected from their culture.
In order to combat the increased suicide rate, many elf and angelic researchers have suggested that the inclusion of more cultural aspects into suicide prevention programs would help to combat mental health issues within drider communities. Many drider leaders and community members, do in fact, want more culturally-aware health care programs. Similarly, culturally-relative programs targeting drider youth have actively challenged suicide ideation among younger drider populations, with many social and emotional wellbeing programs using cultural information to provide coping mechanisms and improving mental health.
Revolution
The Drid'aRae revolutionary war was an ideological and political revolution which occurred in Drid'aRae which lasted 6 months. The Independent Drider defeated the Drider Loyalists, gaining independence from the Bovine Crown and establishing, the first modern constitutional liberal democracy.
The Drider objected to not being able to provide aid for nations affected by the Discordia Crisis and how to follow the Queen degree in Mashara, a body in which they had no direct representation. The Drider typically had enjoyed a high level of autonomy in their internal affairs. After the U.E.A assisted with a plague and the Drider wanted to help the Salamanders believing their alchemy could counter Discordia's Paint (which couldn't) but were denied because of the Queen Marbella's mistrust of the Salamanders, led to national protest, and the meeting of representatives from tribes who didn't want to be part of the Bovian Empire. The Bovines who were forbidden to send bovine troops sent supplies and drider from Unity City to Ripier to quell unrest. Those who lived out in the swamp or wanted nothing to do with the bovines rallied and set up their own government to coordinate their resistance of Drider who retained their allegiance to the Bovine, known as Loyalists.
Open warfare erupted when news of Avernus fell to Discordia, they put Loyalists forces in Ripier under siege. The Independent Army led by General Bitsy. They openly declared Queen Marbella a tyrant (or bitch whore) who trampled the Drider's rights. After 6 months and pressure from both the Angelics, Cervidan and Kito'an not wanting to loose her relationship and trade deals declared Drid'aRae a free and independent nation by ears end after the conclusion of the Discordia Crisis on Amber Isles. The Independent Drider leadership professed the political philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all races are created equal.
Ecology
Drider were consummate carnivores, eating any kind of warm-blooded flesh, including other races in ancient times. Besides meat, they also enjoyed birds and thus kept large herds of flightless birds captive for food and buy eggs from the Avians. They also like Vampires enjoy sucking blood.
After a male has incubated, a female drider lay eggs in sacks made of webs keps inside their homes, special huts or has someone carry them, marking each egg with its parentage. Eggs with often merge together inside of the sack consuming each other. Drider hatchlings are hatched from these eggs, which are always curious and eager to explore, and will seek food immediately, even eating each other if sustenance is not at hand or the parent does not cut open the sack during hatching. Young drider are trained in the use of their biological powers almost after being born.
Ancient Drider in their prime will scheme, breed, and work on behalf of their tribes. Breeding is carefully controlled, seen as a holy act, in order to produce the "best" offspring. Prospective partners will coldly measure one another and if both agree that the match is promising, they usually mate, regardless of their personal affections towards each other.
In more recent times Drider have become less picky about partners and often mate with whomever they wish. Drider's even in more modern times do not have marriage instead they have civil partnerships made through the unison of tattoos (see above). If at any time a couple wishes to split apart they can by marking off their tattoos. There is no right to share assets or to request ongoing assistance by way of maintenance for themselves, even if one party has given up their job to look after children.
Ethnicities
Drider are a hardy species, and can survive in a wide range of environments thanks to complex modifications to their physiology. Drider possess inherited abilities to stand a wide range of environmental temperatures in various ways. A study at the start of the 13th Century comparing cold adaptation in the desert-dwelling Pit'jan tribe compared with a group of kitsune, angelic, Kito'an and the Nuen'on Drider Tribe showed that the cooling adaptation of the Drider group differed from that of the other races, and that they were able to sleep more soundly through a cold desert night. Other studies found that a beneficial mutation in two genes which regulate a hormone involved in regulating body metabolism, helps to regulate body temperature in response to fever. The effect of this is that the Drider are able to have a higher body temperature without accelerating the activity of the whole of the body, which can be especially detrimental in diseases. This helps protect people to survive the side-effects of infection.
With the sheer diversity found throughout all the drider it is impossible to have definitive classifications of sub-races like Angelics and Elves. Drider typically identify by tribe or traits they possess. Common traits in driders are often fangs which let them drink blood, horns of various shapes, multiple arms up to a maximum of 8 which can regrow if removed from their body. They can have multiple sets of eyes or more commonly two - three puppies and irises in the form of polycoria which isn't fatal. Their blood color is reddish purple. They possess a wide variety of skin tones and complexions ranging from red, purple, blue, tan or pale, and some even have varieties of fur patches or chitin plates.
Some rare driders possed centaur-like bodies, appearing as humanoid from the waist up, with their lower portions replaced by the abdomen and legs of immense spiders. They were often regarded highly in drider culture as leaders, priests or shamans. Some drider could also have Spider like appendages such as spider legs coming from their back or forearms, or have jaws that split or had manipables on them. Meanwhile there where other Drider who actually appeared fully Human with impossible to tell traits, which can be hard to tell apart from a Giant. The most human-like, were the caste involved in negotiations with outside races.
It is unsure as to why drider have such an array or racial diversity, it is believed that many tribes who share common traits used some kind of alchemy to keep their tribe similar, others suggest it's drider's ability to be able to adapt to environments.
Another stranger mysteries of the Drider are folks who resemble other insects beyond the range of Spiders. Scorpi are Drider where who transformed long ago, Changelings or Mothlings are Drider infused with prankster magic who can disguise their appearance at will. Bee'ders are drider who resembles bees and produce honey which they sell to other races.
Racial Abilities
Drider have varying abilities depending their mutations, but they have some common powers shared within the race.
*'''Agility''': Being able to make movements that would be extremely difficult for other races with great facility, capable of swinging around on thin spider-webbing and jumping great distances and heights without difficulty. Their bones, muscles, and joints have more elastic strength and durability, allowing them to perform gymnastic and contortionist maneuvers without damaging their bone structure.
*'''Enhanced Senses''': Drider senses are greatly enhanced, not in terms of hearing and scent like Wolvians but more having more spacial awareness. Able to sense potentially dangerous things shortly before they occur. For example, if an object is being thrown at a drider, they're usually aware of it, even if it is hurled from far away and they're is facing the opposite direction or the heat from a wall before it explodes.
*'''Organic Webbing''': Drider can organically produce his silk webbing from glands within their forearms and/or in or around their jaws. Limited by a driders body's health and nutrition. Webs can last between two hours or upwards of a week to decay. Drider use different gland types to produce different silks, they can shape webbing into various shapes and structures given enough time and practice, such as parachutes, trampolines, gloves, boots, nets, bandages, slings, armor, plugs, patches, and even hammocks. They can cast large webs across two certain points as a sticky net to ensnare or catch creatures. Drider can often release long, thin strands of organic webbing in the form of web lines and draglines at objects, often a tall trees or building, can swing with a said line. They can also fire rapid shots which aren't lethal but can sting and bruise like paint balls, often to make a foe flinch or trip them up.
*'''Spider Climb''': Drider can adhere to walls, ceilings, and other surfaces in order to scale them, they can to stick to almost any surface when willing themselves to, as physical contact with said surfaces creates a locking connection necessary to support their body, even when they are inverted above the ground. They can even use this ability in combat to stick to their enemies and throws them around. They also possess a unique ability in that they can be immune to the adhesive properties of their own and other Drider's webs.
*'''Weaving Mana Networks''': Drider mana networks are similar to Bani networks, is more formed through their hands, forearms, feet, shins and calves. They can easily create and form mana in their hands or feet and throws it outwards. However unlike Bani networks they can't produce bodily infusions beyond their hands and arms, such as Earth Magic to absorb damage they can't apply to their bodies, but can on their hands which ties into a unique fighting style for catching/deflecting blades, fists and arrows with their hands. Somatically Drider weave mana itself, most often with other types, so it's largely common for Drider to have two or three types, unlike other races.
**'''Eye Mana''': A unique aspect in some drider's mana networks is the manifestation in their eyes which lets them cast limited mana through their eyes the most common is trapping a foe in an illusion by just looking at them in eye contact or causing a brilliant flash of light from their multiple eyes, but certain tribes and clans and been reported to squirt blood or venom out from their ducts.
**'''Web Mana''': Drider can also extend their mana through their webbing when it's still attached. Such as creating electro webs, flaming lashes or disabling dark mana shots.