Spider, and Spider, and Spider

While in some societies, spiders are seen as nuisances, vermin, or creatures to be feared, this is not always the case. In the polychotomy, spiders play significant rôles in a number of religions. And so they way they are perceived by folk varies quite a bit.

Among Hearthens, the goddess of the front door is often depicted as a spider, and is sometimes even called Spider. The Guardian of the Front Door weaves her web around those who would break in and disturb the devotee’s home. Supplications to Spider often take the form of sweets or small libations of strong spirits, and are left in a nook beside or above the door. Traditionally, the nook is decorated with octagonal and spider-themed motifs, but it is considered auspicious for corners of the nook to get covered with cobwebs. If spiders actually reside in Spider’s Nook, when insects are found in the house, they are also delivered up as offerings.

The Way of Brass also venerate the spider. They see killing of spiders as inviting bad luck, and so when followers of the Way encounter a spider in their home, they often winkle it to a small local temple dedicated to Spider. These temples are generally not attended to terribly closely by the clergy, and become thick with webs.

As the Way of Brass is not as prominent as the Warm Hearth, this second arachnidal avatar is sometimes called Lesser Spider, in opposition to whom the Guardian of the Front Door is called Greater Spider.

Occasionally, Totemists will find themselves called to the spider as a totem animal. Such individuals are generally solitary recluses, and often exhibit an unhealthy fascination with poison.

Ngethra’s Children have an ambivalent relationship with spiders – while they are in general attracted to vermin of all kinds, the more devout realize that spiders tend to eat insects and thus stop the spread of plague to their enemies. While most Ngethrans aren’t likely to go out of their way to kill spiders, they show little of the kindliness to arachnids that they might to, for example, fleas or cockroaches.

As an aside, it should be noted that due to the curious properties of Kiszuna’s Peace, any animals (and vermin) other than scavengers quickly go hungry and die of starvation. As such, spiders are rarely found in the Peace – typically, those that are encountered are recent arrivals from other Shards. The Temple of Lesser Spider is, in spite of this, rather large and (at least on the outside) opulent. Some say that the spiders released thereïn actually slip quickly through a portal to a place where they have much easier access to prey.