Azlu

The Azlu, or spider hosts, are driven by instinct to strengthen the Gauntlet. They begin life as an ordinary looking spider. They have the ability to possess a human by crawling in their ear and eating their brain, which gives them access to the human's memories. A human possessed in this way is preserved by the Azlu, and will only begin to decay after a month. After an Azlu melds with enough other Azlu, it consumes a human by biting it and wrapping it in a cocoon, after which it slowly melds its essence with the human, creating a human-spider hybrid. These melded Azlu are solitary creatures, but can easily be a match for a pack of Forsaken, since they tend to be the size of cars and often have one set of legs that are enormous bone scythes. Adult Azlu must eat one human a month for sustenence, and constantly weave webs which thicken the Gauntlet around them.