Saraviit
Ta Mando is a vast and wondrous place with all manner of intelligent species other than humans.
To the North live the elves and many different types of "Othyrworldrs."
The Eastern Oceans hold islands wherein there sit the ancient ruins of a long dead species of now ghostly entities who are fundamentally anathema to the very matter of the universe itself.
And the further ANYONE travels west the more likely they are to find dragons and monsters and deities of all kinds walking along with the common folk; tending to their own personal business as all people do. But not all Sophonts are so public about their existence.
Some Sapients have been hiding under the noses of humanity all along and neither side has ever become truly aware of each other. One such species that has let the world pass them by is the Spider Adjacent Saraviit; A Six armed, mostly female species of seductive, stone age weavers that make their home in the mountains and Titan Forests of Ta Orana Pariptia.
Once upon a time a great and prestigious civilization at the forefront of mortals powers during The Dawn Age, the now accursed people have forgotten entirely the truth of their origins and regressed into an insular society of kidnappers and manipulators who have all but forgotten that the world outside of their region even exists!
To the North live the elves and many different types of "Othyrworldrs."
The Eastern Oceans hold islands wherein there sit the ancient ruins of a long dead species of now ghostly entities who are fundamentally anathema to the very matter of the universe itself.
And the further ANYONE travels west the more likely they are to find dragons and monsters and deities of all kinds walking along with the common folk; tending to their own personal business as all people do. But not all Sophonts are so public about their existence.
Some Sapients have been hiding under the noses of humanity all along and neither side has ever become truly aware of each other. One such species that has let the world pass them by is the Spider Adjacent Saraviit; A Six armed, mostly female species of seductive, stone age weavers that make their home in the mountains and Titan Forests of Ta Orana Pariptia.
Once upon a time a great and prestigious civilization at the forefront of mortals powers during The Dawn Age, the now accursed people have forgotten entirely the truth of their origins and regressed into an insular society of kidnappers and manipulators who have all but forgotten that the world outside of their region even exists!
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Saraviit are a mostly female humanoid species typically standing well above "standard height," with flesh generally one shade or another of purple or blue, though skin tones ranging from nearly white to functionally gray are not unknown.
Possessing six arms that can all be used independently without difficulty, these arms end in hands with incredibly sharp nails that possess hollow channels which connect to venom sacks clustered against the bones of their forearms.
Capable of envenomating any assailants (or victims) with potent neurotoxic compounds that paralyze and leave them helplessly vulnerable for the Saraviit to either run from or capture, this natural defense is able to ground predators several times the mass of the Average Saraviit and is regarded as incredibly effective even on those species with high constitutions.
While control of this natural weapon comes with age and experience, all Saraviit can access it.
Most children, however, do not have the control their parents do and, much like venomous snakes, must learn the balance in how much venom is needed for any given target.
Regardless of how much is injected, Saraviit tend to be immune to their own neurotoxic compounds and so there is no danger of a mother being paralyzed by her own infant... merely poked very uncomfortably. Because of a specialized system of glands in their fingers, Saraviit produce unique oils from their hands that allow them to neutralize the stickiness in most organic compounds that they touch. (From Tree Sap And Chemical Adhesives To Spider Silk And Plant Latex)
The process of producing this oil is time consuming, requires a good diet and takes concentration and training but skilled weavers are known to call upon the ability at will and may do so consistently enough to handle individual silk strands all day long. Most impressively, the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet seem able to adhere to nearly anything at will, allowing them to climb even the sheerest of surfaces without falling or slipping; even glass, porcelain, steel or ice.
They MIGHT do this in the same way that certain spiders or geckos do; utilizing microscopic hairs beyond the notice of even their own eyes to alter the electron attraction between them and other objects... or it COULD just be magic.
Little is known about this phenomenon even by the Saraviit Themselves.
To them it is merely something that they do naturally. Saraviit Hair, though very similar to human hair, is much stronger and grows subtly more slowly. (Though often ends up much longer over time!)
It seldom tangles and seems coated with an outer layer that gives it a higher degree of shine and smoothness.
As far as anyone can tell, they do not suffer split ends and their hair seldom possesses much of any curl; often perfectly straight and grown very long in their latter adulthood so as to be able to put it into all sorts of beautiful styles and adorn it with all manner of baubles that boast their authority and wealth. These spider women possess alien flesh which is supernaturally uniform and consistently soft to the touch, without callous even after years of hard work despite still being difficult to damage on natural surfaces.
There is a certain glossiness to their skin that normal human flesh cannot reproduce and there are no records, paintings, writings or even rumor of them possessing anything along the lines of freckles, blemishes, moles, beauty marks or skin blotches of any sort at any time in their lives.
Wrinkles, as one might imagine, are seldom seen even in the most wizened of individuals.
They do not seem to scar and do not lose muscle or bone mass near as quickly when suffering prolonged periods of sustained inactivity. As a Saraviit spends more time in the sun her skin and hair get lighter, rather than darker, to reflect harmful radiation instead of blocking it.
Wealthy Matriarchs who seldom have to toil in the gardens or harvest wood from the Titan Forests often have luxuriously deep purple skin alongside raven black locks while younger women and children tend toward lighter skin and grey hair.
Some of the youngest members of the poorest clans have milk white skin and hair, thrust out to do the chores of their matriarchs alongside the few Prize Males the family can kidnap from more established groups. Obvious canines extend just beyond their lips, much like the modern depiction of the western vampire.
While these teeth do not inject venom and Saraviit do not have sufficient jaw strength to use them to affect like carnivorous predators might (nor the inclination to do so!) they are still easily able to pierce flesh, chew through minor impediments and cut any animal tissue that they gladly consume.
These are, however, Adult teeth and do not come in until somewhere between sixteen and eighteen.
Before their fangs come in the average Saraviit possess canines not dissimilar from their human counterparts. Perhaps the most unnerving part of Saraviit anatomy comes in the form of their five perfectly black eyes.
Easily the most foreign part of them, these eyes don't even resemble standard mammalian sensory organs; glistening black, the surfaces of which are composed of millions of tiny facets per eye, making them glimmer in any amount of light.
Two of their eyes sit in the same position as any human eyes whilst another pair sits just above them but slanted almost at a 45 degree angle inward.
These "Secondary" Eyes cannot rotate much in their sockets and are often used for triangulation during three dimensional traversal.
The fifth and final eye is a "Third Eye" on the center of the forehead that opens side to side.
The Central Eye is nearly flat and cannot move but still holds the same image forming capacity as the other four and always looks perfectly forward. While there might be some confusion about it, Saraviit do NOT produce spider silk from any part of their body and are unable to do so through any means.
It is considered EXTREMELY insulting to imply that they can, regarded as comparing someone to a farm animal. Saraviit Males DO exist but they seldom even reach three feet tall and are largely helpless, outnumbered by females 20 or even 30 to 1 and often possess childlike characteristics; generally shy and dependent on the larger, more intelligent females for protection and care.
Unable to even produce venom, Saraviit Males are truly pitiable; regularly mistaken by outsiders and recently captive Prize Males as children no older than eight!
Even so, these same males are jealously guarded and traded by clans back and forth as breeding stock, deviously pampered from birth to death to keep them happy and subservient to the clans that possess them.
Capable of envenomating any assailants (or victims) with potent neurotoxic compounds that paralyze and leave them helplessly vulnerable for the Saraviit to either run from or capture, this natural defense is able to ground predators several times the mass of the Average Saraviit and is regarded as incredibly effective even on those species with high constitutions.
While control of this natural weapon comes with age and experience, all Saraviit can access it.
Most children, however, do not have the control their parents do and, much like venomous snakes, must learn the balance in how much venom is needed for any given target.
Regardless of how much is injected, Saraviit tend to be immune to their own neurotoxic compounds and so there is no danger of a mother being paralyzed by her own infant... merely poked very uncomfortably. Because of a specialized system of glands in their fingers, Saraviit produce unique oils from their hands that allow them to neutralize the stickiness in most organic compounds that they touch. (From Tree Sap And Chemical Adhesives To Spider Silk And Plant Latex)
The process of producing this oil is time consuming, requires a good diet and takes concentration and training but skilled weavers are known to call upon the ability at will and may do so consistently enough to handle individual silk strands all day long. Most impressively, the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet seem able to adhere to nearly anything at will, allowing them to climb even the sheerest of surfaces without falling or slipping; even glass, porcelain, steel or ice.
They MIGHT do this in the same way that certain spiders or geckos do; utilizing microscopic hairs beyond the notice of even their own eyes to alter the electron attraction between them and other objects... or it COULD just be magic.
Little is known about this phenomenon even by the Saraviit Themselves.
To them it is merely something that they do naturally. Saraviit Hair, though very similar to human hair, is much stronger and grows subtly more slowly. (Though often ends up much longer over time!)
It seldom tangles and seems coated with an outer layer that gives it a higher degree of shine and smoothness.
As far as anyone can tell, they do not suffer split ends and their hair seldom possesses much of any curl; often perfectly straight and grown very long in their latter adulthood so as to be able to put it into all sorts of beautiful styles and adorn it with all manner of baubles that boast their authority and wealth. These spider women possess alien flesh which is supernaturally uniform and consistently soft to the touch, without callous even after years of hard work despite still being difficult to damage on natural surfaces.
There is a certain glossiness to their skin that normal human flesh cannot reproduce and there are no records, paintings, writings or even rumor of them possessing anything along the lines of freckles, blemishes, moles, beauty marks or skin blotches of any sort at any time in their lives.
Wrinkles, as one might imagine, are seldom seen even in the most wizened of individuals.
They do not seem to scar and do not lose muscle or bone mass near as quickly when suffering prolonged periods of sustained inactivity. As a Saraviit spends more time in the sun her skin and hair get lighter, rather than darker, to reflect harmful radiation instead of blocking it.
Wealthy Matriarchs who seldom have to toil in the gardens or harvest wood from the Titan Forests often have luxuriously deep purple skin alongside raven black locks while younger women and children tend toward lighter skin and grey hair.
Some of the youngest members of the poorest clans have milk white skin and hair, thrust out to do the chores of their matriarchs alongside the few Prize Males the family can kidnap from more established groups. Obvious canines extend just beyond their lips, much like the modern depiction of the western vampire.
While these teeth do not inject venom and Saraviit do not have sufficient jaw strength to use them to affect like carnivorous predators might (nor the inclination to do so!) they are still easily able to pierce flesh, chew through minor impediments and cut any animal tissue that they gladly consume.
These are, however, Adult teeth and do not come in until somewhere between sixteen and eighteen.
Before their fangs come in the average Saraviit possess canines not dissimilar from their human counterparts. Perhaps the most unnerving part of Saraviit anatomy comes in the form of their five perfectly black eyes.
Easily the most foreign part of them, these eyes don't even resemble standard mammalian sensory organs; glistening black, the surfaces of which are composed of millions of tiny facets per eye, making them glimmer in any amount of light.
Two of their eyes sit in the same position as any human eyes whilst another pair sits just above them but slanted almost at a 45 degree angle inward.
These "Secondary" Eyes cannot rotate much in their sockets and are often used for triangulation during three dimensional traversal.
The fifth and final eye is a "Third Eye" on the center of the forehead that opens side to side.
The Central Eye is nearly flat and cannot move but still holds the same image forming capacity as the other four and always looks perfectly forward. While there might be some confusion about it, Saraviit do NOT produce spider silk from any part of their body and are unable to do so through any means.
It is considered EXTREMELY insulting to imply that they can, regarded as comparing someone to a farm animal. Saraviit Males DO exist but they seldom even reach three feet tall and are largely helpless, outnumbered by females 20 or even 30 to 1 and often possess childlike characteristics; generally shy and dependent on the larger, more intelligent females for protection and care.
Unable to even produce venom, Saraviit Males are truly pitiable; regularly mistaken by outsiders and recently captive Prize Males as children no older than eight!
Even so, these same males are jealously guarded and traded by clans back and forth as breeding stock, deviously pampered from birth to death to keep them happy and subservient to the clans that possess them.
Biological Traits
Almost all buxom, very fit and extremely curvy by human standards; the average Saraviit is regarded as universally attractive to almost all humanoid species at a glance despite their obviously foreign appearance, though clearly they have their own ways of measuring beauty within their own species.
Possessing tall, statuesque bodies with near perfect biological symmetry, free from the development of visible scars, having flawless skin without blemish or disuniformity and living extremely active lifestyles; Saraviit are physically fit and beautiful people more than able to keep up with more attractive humanoids of other species without even having to put on makeup!
Hailing from an environment where hard work must be done every day, however, their bodies are resilient and strong; able to weather the harsh world of pounding ocean waves, vertical stone cliffs and gigantic trees hundreds of feet tall!
Genetics and Reproduction
The Saraviit breed much the same as any humanoid species; through sexual intercourse.
However, The Spider Women Of Ta Orana Pariptia are able to stall their conception for up to three months, allowing for better timed pregnancies and a prolonged preparation time that tends to squeeze out a marginally better success rate in child rearing than what might otherwise be considered for a neolithic people.
It is not known how they are able to do this or even if they actively choose to do so but it often means that a Saraviit might be able to more properly feed and house herself after having had her chance with a mate.
Since males are so rare family communities jealously guard them and often newly adult women must find ways to infiltrate the compounds of other families to breed with their males, only to escape thereafter in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for manipulating the clan out of their genetic stock.
This reproductive ability may therefore be a mechanism to gather as much genetic material as possible in a short period of time before settling down in a secure location.
No Saraviit capable of controlling the process consciously has yet been recorded. After roughly ten Kandia Months of pregnancy a Saraviit typically gives birth to either one child or identical twins; though triplets and fraternal twins are not uncommon, especially in families with a history of such things.
While single children are not considered inauspicious they are considered the minority; with well over half of all pregnancies resulting in identical twins.
The birth of triplets is always a celebrated occasion in the community and such celebrations might even extend to other clans of Saraviit as a means of boasting or setting status between different groups.
When boys are born it is cause for celebration across the entire clan!
Hunts are carried out, feasts are hosted and raids for Prize Males are arranged if possible.
As boys are so rare in Saraviit Society, the clan will be certain to avoid the rumors getting out so that use of their males can be carefully parceled out to the wealthy matriarchs of higher clans and powerful rivals looking to be placated.
It is not known how they are able to do this or even if they actively choose to do so but it often means that a Saraviit might be able to more properly feed and house herself after having had her chance with a mate.
Since males are so rare family communities jealously guard them and often newly adult women must find ways to infiltrate the compounds of other families to breed with their males, only to escape thereafter in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for manipulating the clan out of their genetic stock.
This reproductive ability may therefore be a mechanism to gather as much genetic material as possible in a short period of time before settling down in a secure location.
No Saraviit capable of controlling the process consciously has yet been recorded. After roughly ten Kandia Months of pregnancy a Saraviit typically gives birth to either one child or identical twins; though triplets and fraternal twins are not uncommon, especially in families with a history of such things.
While single children are not considered inauspicious they are considered the minority; with well over half of all pregnancies resulting in identical twins.
The birth of triplets is always a celebrated occasion in the community and such celebrations might even extend to other clans of Saraviit as a means of boasting or setting status between different groups.
When boys are born it is cause for celebration across the entire clan!
Hunts are carried out, feasts are hosted and raids for Prize Males are arranged if possible.
As boys are so rare in Saraviit Society, the clan will be certain to avoid the rumors getting out so that use of their males can be carefully parceled out to the wealthy matriarchs of higher clans and powerful rivals looking to be placated.
Growth Rate & Stages
Saraviit are born and grow much the same way human children do with the exception that they physically grow faster.
Infants only nurse for about one Kandia year and sometimes mothers wean them even earlier than that, by which time the child is already crawling up the walls and causing trouble for the entire clan.
By the time a girl is 14 she might have grown to well over five and a half feet tall, already starting to grow "Into Her Curves."
That being said, Saraviit are not considered adults in their culture until they are 20 and, unlike in most human cultures, this has been the age of adulthood in their society for as long as oral tradition remembers.
Anyone under 20 is simply considered a child, as their society does not define any middle ground between adults and children.
There is no "Young Woman" or "Teen" in the Saraviit Culture; Only "Child" and "Woman." These neolithic ladies hardly seem to age at all after they enter adulthood, being compared to fine wine or good cheese by the few of those aware of their kind.
At about 25-28 a Saraviit tends to stop growing vertically, though she won't stop "Filling Out" for over half a century!
Thereafter her aging ceases almost entirely and she retains the same height, constitution and level of fitness right up until her death, which she can generally feel coming as she gets weaker with age at around three hundred years old!
Along with this lack of visible senescence, Saraviit tend to become considerably more voluptuous over the course of their first century; growing curvier, heavier and gaining considerably more bone and muscular density until they plateau around their hundredth birthday. While growing in any dimension stops around a hundred years old, the second century marks the beginning of "The Matriarch Stage" of Saraviit life.
By this point it is assumed that the average woman has not only started a family but also one that has given her grandchildren.
Now, with an budding clan, she can maintain portions of land and take part in the shrewd politics of her culture; melding bloodlines, trading breeding rights, arranging raids for Prize Males and designing her new clan compound, presumably chosen when her family got too large to fit in the tiny cave she once lived in when she was young and inexperienced.
While she will continue to produce children of her own, (and indeed might be even more active than she was in her first century!) a Matriarch now must dedicate her time to the careful foundation of her clan, the gentle expansion of her territory and the imparting of wisdom onto her many grandchildren.
She will decide where the excess Prize Males go and how they are alloted to their duties, manage the spider farms that she's grown by stealing the stock of other clans and oversee the grand food stores at the rearmost positions of the clan compound.
And, of course, she will secure alliances and start up bloody rivalries with her fellow Saraviit in a bid to gain yet more power and station over her peers. After her second century passes a Saraviit will become a Grand Matriarch and finally start slowing down in the production of children or the participation in great projects or raids.
This isn't because she can no longer have them, Saraviit don't experience menopause nor do they experience enfeeblement as they age, but rather because her clan has presumably grown so large that most of her waking hours are spent maintaining the rosters, managing the stocks and grooming her successors.
While Grand Matriarchs are often seen as fonts of wisdom and learning, they tend to feel their time stretching thin at this point in their lives; watching on as their own grandchildren become Matriarchs and even Grand Matriarchs themselves, increasingly relegated to the monotony of what amounts to paperwork and inventory work in the depths of their Compounds and Tree Bastions while the youngsters go out and enjoy romantic trysts with the males of other clans and weave ever more complicated webs of intrigue between the various factions that surround her own family.
Untouchable except by their peers and with very little opportunity to enjoy the outside world anymore, Grand Matriarchs often spend their last century of life in unabashed luxury and epicurianism, bordering on debauchery and hedonism at times if the woman can't regulate her own consumption or has no other Grand Matriarchs around to discourage her self destructive behaviors. Because of their stunning lack of outward aging it can often be difficult to tell if one is speaking to an elder or someone who barely counts as an adult; with the exception that older Saraviit tend to act more formal and particular while younger adult Saraviit tend to be more inclined to explore and get their hands dirty if they think it will profit them more over time.
It is therefore safe to assume that they become more conservative and self important as they grow older while younger individuals may not have yet fully developed the vain sensibilities displayed in the majority of their kind.
Infants only nurse for about one Kandia year and sometimes mothers wean them even earlier than that, by which time the child is already crawling up the walls and causing trouble for the entire clan.
By the time a girl is 14 she might have grown to well over five and a half feet tall, already starting to grow "Into Her Curves."
That being said, Saraviit are not considered adults in their culture until they are 20 and, unlike in most human cultures, this has been the age of adulthood in their society for as long as oral tradition remembers.
Anyone under 20 is simply considered a child, as their society does not define any middle ground between adults and children.
There is no "Young Woman" or "Teen" in the Saraviit Culture; Only "Child" and "Woman." These neolithic ladies hardly seem to age at all after they enter adulthood, being compared to fine wine or good cheese by the few of those aware of their kind.
At about 25-28 a Saraviit tends to stop growing vertically, though she won't stop "Filling Out" for over half a century!
Thereafter her aging ceases almost entirely and she retains the same height, constitution and level of fitness right up until her death, which she can generally feel coming as she gets weaker with age at around three hundred years old!
Along with this lack of visible senescence, Saraviit tend to become considerably more voluptuous over the course of their first century; growing curvier, heavier and gaining considerably more bone and muscular density until they plateau around their hundredth birthday. While growing in any dimension stops around a hundred years old, the second century marks the beginning of "The Matriarch Stage" of Saraviit life.
By this point it is assumed that the average woman has not only started a family but also one that has given her grandchildren.
Now, with an budding clan, she can maintain portions of land and take part in the shrewd politics of her culture; melding bloodlines, trading breeding rights, arranging raids for Prize Males and designing her new clan compound, presumably chosen when her family got too large to fit in the tiny cave she once lived in when she was young and inexperienced.
While she will continue to produce children of her own, (and indeed might be even more active than she was in her first century!) a Matriarch now must dedicate her time to the careful foundation of her clan, the gentle expansion of her territory and the imparting of wisdom onto her many grandchildren.
She will decide where the excess Prize Males go and how they are alloted to their duties, manage the spider farms that she's grown by stealing the stock of other clans and oversee the grand food stores at the rearmost positions of the clan compound.
And, of course, she will secure alliances and start up bloody rivalries with her fellow Saraviit in a bid to gain yet more power and station over her peers. After her second century passes a Saraviit will become a Grand Matriarch and finally start slowing down in the production of children or the participation in great projects or raids.
This isn't because she can no longer have them, Saraviit don't experience menopause nor do they experience enfeeblement as they age, but rather because her clan has presumably grown so large that most of her waking hours are spent maintaining the rosters, managing the stocks and grooming her successors.
While Grand Matriarchs are often seen as fonts of wisdom and learning, they tend to feel their time stretching thin at this point in their lives; watching on as their own grandchildren become Matriarchs and even Grand Matriarchs themselves, increasingly relegated to the monotony of what amounts to paperwork and inventory work in the depths of their Compounds and Tree Bastions while the youngsters go out and enjoy romantic trysts with the males of other clans and weave ever more complicated webs of intrigue between the various factions that surround her own family.
Untouchable except by their peers and with very little opportunity to enjoy the outside world anymore, Grand Matriarchs often spend their last century of life in unabashed luxury and epicurianism, bordering on debauchery and hedonism at times if the woman can't regulate her own consumption or has no other Grand Matriarchs around to discourage her self destructive behaviors. Because of their stunning lack of outward aging it can often be difficult to tell if one is speaking to an elder or someone who barely counts as an adult; with the exception that older Saraviit tend to act more formal and particular while younger adult Saraviit tend to be more inclined to explore and get their hands dirty if they think it will profit them more over time.
It is therefore safe to assume that they become more conservative and self important as they grow older while younger individuals may not have yet fully developed the vain sensibilities displayed in the majority of their kind.
Ecology and Habitats
In their ideal state the Saraviit live in tree houses or cliff ledges hundreds of feet into the air with all manner of woven pathways and even complete buildings suspended over the brink by powerful webs and spider cloth.
Naturally, this takes place in the titanic forests and colossal caverns of Ta Orana Pariptia, in locations they have nurtured and curated for nearly two million years.
Over the generations these webways and built-in structures have built up and actually reinforced the many surfaces of Ta Orana Pariptia, keeping them strong and sturdy as a single entity instead of a collection of separate structures littered along numerous giant trees and cliffsides. While the Saraviit TEND to like heavily wooded and mountainous areas they are an adaptable species and can carve out a living almost anywhere so long as they have the time to figure out where they are and what they're supposed to be doing. Perhaps most interestingly, their abilities to handle quick motion changes, climb nearly any surface and see extremely well across great distances (Once Adapted!) make them naturally fit to take to the seas!
No Saraviit Sailor would ever slip while climbing the lines or get sick from harsh swinging, jostling or constantly moving floors.
These sort of things are natural in the settings that they come from and almost all of their kind have near perfect balance because of it.
Though no Saraviit has ever considered building herself a proper ship to tackle the waves, the sea would quickly become a new natural environment for these spiderlike people if they ended up gaining a love for shipbuilding!
Already practiced in diving from their cliffside habitats to get protein rich shellfish and setting traps for larger and more mobile prey, all that the Saraviit would need to embrace this new lifestyle would be a nudge from those outside of their ancestral borders.
Naturally, this takes place in the titanic forests and colossal caverns of Ta Orana Pariptia, in locations they have nurtured and curated for nearly two million years.
Over the generations these webways and built-in structures have built up and actually reinforced the many surfaces of Ta Orana Pariptia, keeping them strong and sturdy as a single entity instead of a collection of separate structures littered along numerous giant trees and cliffsides. While the Saraviit TEND to like heavily wooded and mountainous areas they are an adaptable species and can carve out a living almost anywhere so long as they have the time to figure out where they are and what they're supposed to be doing. Perhaps most interestingly, their abilities to handle quick motion changes, climb nearly any surface and see extremely well across great distances (Once Adapted!) make them naturally fit to take to the seas!
No Saraviit Sailor would ever slip while climbing the lines or get sick from harsh swinging, jostling or constantly moving floors.
These sort of things are natural in the settings that they come from and almost all of their kind have near perfect balance because of it.
Though no Saraviit has ever considered building herself a proper ship to tackle the waves, the sea would quickly become a new natural environment for these spiderlike people if they ended up gaining a love for shipbuilding!
Already practiced in diving from their cliffside habitats to get protein rich shellfish and setting traps for larger and more mobile prey, all that the Saraviit would need to embrace this new lifestyle would be a nudge from those outside of their ancestral borders.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The Saraviit can eat anything a human can, though seem most predisposed to a diet of fish, pickled vegetables and small land animals due to the nature of their homeland and culture.
While the Saraviit have been known to eat goats and other large mammals they get most of their meat from small game like rabbits, lizards and birds that can be trapped far more easily than large game like monkeys and goats.
Though the perilous waters below the oceanside cliffs of their region are extremely dangerous, enterprising Saraviit have long since dived for shellfish and thrown silken lines from their caves to the waters below to gather the ocean's precious bounty.
However, such women are regarded as wild and dangerous to the more civilized clans, seen with a degree of disrespect by those with more Prize Males despite the fact that these eager and enterprising divers provide nearly half of all protein in the average woman's Diet. The Saraviit tend to eat with wooden utensils carved from the offshoots of the smallest branches in the Titan Forests; often chopsticks, as they are easy to make, require little in the way of resources and need hardly any cleaning after use.
They like to cultivate large, diverse gardens in many small plots overlooking the ocean or tended in the boughs of great trees but do not take part in large scale agriculture.
The average Matriarch is more than happy to sustain herself off of an acre or two of land when she is home and has no desire to work in the fields for laborious monoculture harvests as the Kandia and other outsiders do.
To her such toils are a waste of time, distracting from the more important tasks at life.
Spare food, of course, is saved in storage caves at the rear of the compound or in the highest boughs of the clan's central tree houses but such contents far more often resemble pemmican than stocks of grain and preserves more commonly recognized in other cultures. Having an excellent sense of taste and smell, Saraviit are incredibly particular about the quality of their food and often scowl at poorly prepared dishes or foods that they regard as bland or unappealing.
The Spider Women are also fans of strongly fermented or extremely pungent items such as aged cheeses, fruity wines and ciders, pickled vegetables, heavily spiced deserts or well seasoned stews with powerful aromatics, as such things are rare and difficult to make in their culture.
While perhaps picky, they are also incredibly desirous of diverse experiences and this drives them to a culture of culinary adventure.
A Saraviit will gladly try something at least once so long as it smells good or novel!
While the Saraviit have been known to eat goats and other large mammals they get most of their meat from small game like rabbits, lizards and birds that can be trapped far more easily than large game like monkeys and goats.
Though the perilous waters below the oceanside cliffs of their region are extremely dangerous, enterprising Saraviit have long since dived for shellfish and thrown silken lines from their caves to the waters below to gather the ocean's precious bounty.
However, such women are regarded as wild and dangerous to the more civilized clans, seen with a degree of disrespect by those with more Prize Males despite the fact that these eager and enterprising divers provide nearly half of all protein in the average woman's Diet. The Saraviit tend to eat with wooden utensils carved from the offshoots of the smallest branches in the Titan Forests; often chopsticks, as they are easy to make, require little in the way of resources and need hardly any cleaning after use.
They like to cultivate large, diverse gardens in many small plots overlooking the ocean or tended in the boughs of great trees but do not take part in large scale agriculture.
The average Matriarch is more than happy to sustain herself off of an acre or two of land when she is home and has no desire to work in the fields for laborious monoculture harvests as the Kandia and other outsiders do.
To her such toils are a waste of time, distracting from the more important tasks at life.
Spare food, of course, is saved in storage caves at the rear of the compound or in the highest boughs of the clan's central tree houses but such contents far more often resemble pemmican than stocks of grain and preserves more commonly recognized in other cultures. Having an excellent sense of taste and smell, Saraviit are incredibly particular about the quality of their food and often scowl at poorly prepared dishes or foods that they regard as bland or unappealing.
The Spider Women are also fans of strongly fermented or extremely pungent items such as aged cheeses, fruity wines and ciders, pickled vegetables, heavily spiced deserts or well seasoned stews with powerful aromatics, as such things are rare and difficult to make in their culture.
While perhaps picky, they are also incredibly desirous of diverse experiences and this drives them to a culture of culinary adventure.
A Saraviit will gladly try something at least once so long as it smells good or novel!
Behaviour
While seemingly just a friendly female with some rather embellished feminine features, the average Saraviit is an overwhelmingly manipulative individual invariably thinking solely about what can benefit her in the moment when not otherwise distracted by thoughts of what can benefit her in the long term.
Flirtatious and affable to the average interlocutor, any woman of Ta Orana Pariptia enters interactions with others with a single goal in mind; personal profit!
While this isn't to say that Saraviit are all sociopathic narcissists, an outside observer could very quickly come to the conclusion that the entirety of Saraviit culture has developed on a foundation of family based enlightened self interest piggybacked on the shoulders of pure chauvinism and shoved into a complex and often somewhat violent structure of competing matrilineal clans. Because of this, there are FEW Saraviit that won't take what they see as an opportunity when they get it and they find the idea that other species are people like themselves to be almost entirely alien!
CERTAINLY sophont mortals from outside of Ta Orana Pariptia can speak and carry on conversations, can build and garden and dig in the ground... they can even read when instructed properly and might potentially be able to impart good values on one's children when the time comes.
But the Saraviit can't seem to yet reach the final revelation that these other mortals are "People." And even if they DID qualify as proper "People" such a reality would only mean for the Saraviit that they would have to be more tactful when kidnapping these other mortals and otherwise follow basic conventions that they follow amongst each other.
In actuality the Saraviit have been kidnapping and stealing not only from other species but from each other for so long that it has become part of their very nature; deceptive and manipulative, self interested and overwhelmingly vain.
So deep is the curse of vanity and pride set upon them by one of The Oldest that many of even the oldest storytellers have begun to wonder why the Great Weaver's Descendent ever bothered to unite the clans in the first place, as there was no personal benefit to such an act of goodwill among her relatives. However, while the curse of deception and vanity upon them keeps them from adequately considering the positions of others, older Saraviit, especially Grand Matriarchs, tend to have enough life experience to at least prioritize long term, collaborative ventures over singleminded personal projects that waste resources and take too long to finish.
Perhaps, if the prophecy was to be fulfilled and a capable diplomat were to reach out to them, the Saraviit could finally see an avenue out of their ancestral selfishness and hubris.
Flirtatious and affable to the average interlocutor, any woman of Ta Orana Pariptia enters interactions with others with a single goal in mind; personal profit!
While this isn't to say that Saraviit are all sociopathic narcissists, an outside observer could very quickly come to the conclusion that the entirety of Saraviit culture has developed on a foundation of family based enlightened self interest piggybacked on the shoulders of pure chauvinism and shoved into a complex and often somewhat violent structure of competing matrilineal clans. Because of this, there are FEW Saraviit that won't take what they see as an opportunity when they get it and they find the idea that other species are people like themselves to be almost entirely alien!
CERTAINLY sophont mortals from outside of Ta Orana Pariptia can speak and carry on conversations, can build and garden and dig in the ground... they can even read when instructed properly and might potentially be able to impart good values on one's children when the time comes.
But the Saraviit can't seem to yet reach the final revelation that these other mortals are "People." And even if they DID qualify as proper "People" such a reality would only mean for the Saraviit that they would have to be more tactful when kidnapping these other mortals and otherwise follow basic conventions that they follow amongst each other.
In actuality the Saraviit have been kidnapping and stealing not only from other species but from each other for so long that it has become part of their very nature; deceptive and manipulative, self interested and overwhelmingly vain.
So deep is the curse of vanity and pride set upon them by one of The Oldest that many of even the oldest storytellers have begun to wonder why the Great Weaver's Descendent ever bothered to unite the clans in the first place, as there was no personal benefit to such an act of goodwill among her relatives. However, while the curse of deception and vanity upon them keeps them from adequately considering the positions of others, older Saraviit, especially Grand Matriarchs, tend to have enough life experience to at least prioritize long term, collaborative ventures over singleminded personal projects that waste resources and take too long to finish.
Perhaps, if the prophecy was to be fulfilled and a capable diplomat were to reach out to them, the Saraviit could finally see an avenue out of their ancestral selfishness and hubris.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
The Saraviit Are Native To Ta Orana Pariptia; An Increasingly Dangerous And Difficult To Navigate Region On The West Coast Of Northeastern Estateri.
Ta Orana Pariptia is, in fact, so mountainous and densely forested that the Kandia have never tried to advance up the cliff walls and into the trees to settle it. So, while surrounded by more developed powers, natural barriers have kept them hidden from the outside world for nearly two million years! The territory of these "Titan Forests" and "Curtain Cliffs" of Ta Orana Pariptia, the world beyond of which the Saraviit are blissfully ignorant, is barely over a thousand miles long in its largest dimension and considerably more narrow...
However, it has been their home for longer than humanity has existed and they continue to call it their own to this day.
Ta Orana Pariptia is, in fact, so mountainous and densely forested that the Kandia have never tried to advance up the cliff walls and into the trees to settle it. So, while surrounded by more developed powers, natural barriers have kept them hidden from the outside world for nearly two million years! The territory of these "Titan Forests" and "Curtain Cliffs" of Ta Orana Pariptia, the world beyond of which the Saraviit are blissfully ignorant, is barely over a thousand miles long in its largest dimension and considerably more narrow...
However, it has been their home for longer than humanity has existed and they continue to call it their own to this day.
Average Intelligence
The Average Savariit is not only just as intelligent as any reasonably lucid human but considerably more naturally deceptive and socially responsive, able to intuitively manipulate those interested in the humanoid female form even if the individual in question doesn't understand what their targets are saying and has no grasp of the local culture.
Consistently creative in times of trouble, they are more than resourceful enough to find complex solutions to persistent problems when others cannot be relied on; descended from a long line of those who were born into, lived and died in harsh situations where ingenuity and self sufficiency was their foremost key to survival.
Good team coordinators and naturally inclined to cooperate with others of their kind, the Saraviit are smart enough to produce both extremely complex social networks and outstanding works of simple but effective engineering that rival the crafts of much more technologically developed nations.
They have highly elaborate artistic writing traditions that are mostly expressed through weaving or mural painting and, because of the importance of these articles and how closely they are integrated into the fabric of every day life in any given clan, literacy among the denizens of Ta Orana Pariptia is nearly universal!
They have highly elaborate artistic writing traditions that are mostly expressed through weaving or mural painting and, because of the importance of these articles and how closely they are integrated into the fabric of every day life in any given clan, literacy among the denizens of Ta Orana Pariptia is nearly universal!
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Having developed in the ancient mountain forests of Ta Orana Pariptia to maneuver through dark tunnels, walk along the edges of cliffs and shimmy over preestablished bridges between titanic trees, the Saraviit are generally considered a bit nearsighted in the light but those few that find themselves adventuring out of the darkness of their hidden homeland discover that their day vision corrects itself quite handily after a couple months of exposure.
Miraculously, this nearsightedness and mild light sensitivity does not seem to return after the Saraviit in question settles back into a life within the dim light of the countless cliffside caverns and understory communities of Ta Orana Pariptia. With the benefit of five eyes a Saraviit is able to see with considerably more clarity than any human ever could; able to pick out the finest detail of a situation through more numerous points of input, the nature of their eyes guaranteeing near perfect night vision and the capacity to LITERALLY get more than one pair of eyes on a problem without needing to ask others for help.
They can perceive a much larger portion of the light spectrum than the average human; able to pick out considerably more shades and hues more clearly than most other species.
This allows their art (normally in cloth) to be significantly more nuanced and utilize greater color diversity than other sophonts.
Considered universally beautiful and simply "Good" to any species with the capacity to enjoy the finer visual luxuries, Saraviit art would be widely appreciated in the outside world if any managed to get out of their isolated mountain home. The women of Ta Orana Pariptia have a somewhat more acute sense of smell and taste than the average human and a relatively wider range of different scents that they can perceive, which greatly influences their preferences in food and probably stems from the dangerous forests where they originate being home to gigantic, magical arthropods that release alarm odors and hunting pheromones when they select their prospective prey.
These somewhat better noses and taste buds allowed them to detect these scent based signals and escape to safe zones in the canopy before they could be eaten.
While it no longer plays much of a part in their survival, Saraviit still train as children to tell the difference between similar types of smell and have various memory games that they play with each other to sharpen their ancestral senses. Because they are accustomed to climbing sheer surfaces and existing in any posture from sideways to completely upside down and anywhere in between; directional sense, kinesthetic sense and conditions like motion sickness and (hypothetically) the deleterious effects of free-fall hardly ever seem to apply to Saraviit.
The act of swinging, climbing, hanging and even walking on vertical surfaces with their bodies in strictly horizontal "Standing" positions all come naturally to them and they are known for having a near perfect sense of posture, balance and overall physical orientation.
A Saraviit trapped in an avalanche, upon waking up under several feet of snow, will always know which direction is up and which way to dig without having to use tried and true human experimentation like spitting and seeing which direction the saliva falls.
To her, finding out which way is up and which way is down is a far more elementary procedure, one her mind can do without consciously thinking about it. The Saraviit sense of touch is, while perhaps not as keen as their directional sense, considerably better than that of the average human.
They are accustomed to weaving with the finest of threads and are most comfortable working with their hands and fingers directly, the special oil secreted by their fingertips rumored to heighten their tactile sensitivity considerably.
Some Saraviit can even tell what is written on a piece of paper by feeling the texture differences between the ink and the raw substance it is written on. While life in the deepest forests makes one's ears sharp, the Saraviit cannot be considered to have much better ears than the average human, possessing very similar capacity to hear directionally or detect faraway sounds and prone to being snuck up on near as often as any standard human if robbed of their capacity to see something coming.
The Saraviit may be an incredible people but they only hear about as well as anyone else... and most don't tend to LISTEN even half as well as that!
Miraculously, this nearsightedness and mild light sensitivity does not seem to return after the Saraviit in question settles back into a life within the dim light of the countless cliffside caverns and understory communities of Ta Orana Pariptia. With the benefit of five eyes a Saraviit is able to see with considerably more clarity than any human ever could; able to pick out the finest detail of a situation through more numerous points of input, the nature of their eyes guaranteeing near perfect night vision and the capacity to LITERALLY get more than one pair of eyes on a problem without needing to ask others for help.
They can perceive a much larger portion of the light spectrum than the average human; able to pick out considerably more shades and hues more clearly than most other species.
This allows their art (normally in cloth) to be significantly more nuanced and utilize greater color diversity than other sophonts.
Considered universally beautiful and simply "Good" to any species with the capacity to enjoy the finer visual luxuries, Saraviit art would be widely appreciated in the outside world if any managed to get out of their isolated mountain home. The women of Ta Orana Pariptia have a somewhat more acute sense of smell and taste than the average human and a relatively wider range of different scents that they can perceive, which greatly influences their preferences in food and probably stems from the dangerous forests where they originate being home to gigantic, magical arthropods that release alarm odors and hunting pheromones when they select their prospective prey.
These somewhat better noses and taste buds allowed them to detect these scent based signals and escape to safe zones in the canopy before they could be eaten.
While it no longer plays much of a part in their survival, Saraviit still train as children to tell the difference between similar types of smell and have various memory games that they play with each other to sharpen their ancestral senses. Because they are accustomed to climbing sheer surfaces and existing in any posture from sideways to completely upside down and anywhere in between; directional sense, kinesthetic sense and conditions like motion sickness and (hypothetically) the deleterious effects of free-fall hardly ever seem to apply to Saraviit.
The act of swinging, climbing, hanging and even walking on vertical surfaces with their bodies in strictly horizontal "Standing" positions all come naturally to them and they are known for having a near perfect sense of posture, balance and overall physical orientation.
A Saraviit trapped in an avalanche, upon waking up under several feet of snow, will always know which direction is up and which way to dig without having to use tried and true human experimentation like spitting and seeing which direction the saliva falls.
To her, finding out which way is up and which way is down is a far more elementary procedure, one her mind can do without consciously thinking about it. The Saraviit sense of touch is, while perhaps not as keen as their directional sense, considerably better than that of the average human.
They are accustomed to weaving with the finest of threads and are most comfortable working with their hands and fingers directly, the special oil secreted by their fingertips rumored to heighten their tactile sensitivity considerably.
Some Saraviit can even tell what is written on a piece of paper by feeling the texture differences between the ink and the raw substance it is written on. While life in the deepest forests makes one's ears sharp, the Saraviit cannot be considered to have much better ears than the average human, possessing very similar capacity to hear directionally or detect faraway sounds and prone to being snuck up on near as often as any standard human if robbed of their capacity to see something coming.
The Saraviit may be an incredible people but they only hear about as well as anyone else... and most don't tend to LISTEN even half as well as that!
Civilization and Culture
Courtship Ideals
Courtship in Saraviit Society is manipulative at best and outright coercive at worst...
If one is simply seeking to reproduce with another clan's males... that requires considerable business!
A freshly adult woman trying to find her place in the world must endear herself to the Matron of whatever clan she is seeking to use for reproductive rites.
She must provide that clan with many gifts for the privilege of using their males and she must prove that she will not STEAL any of them.
Naturally, this can take many years just to have the chance to see one of the jealously guarded boys; sequestered away in the deepest bowels of a clan's personal cavern compound or at the highest and most well protected of their forest palaces.
If she can gain access to their males she might be able to request a specific male or she will be given whatever male the matron so desires her to have.
Whether that be a weak, sickly male or one of the best depends on what sort of impression the Matron wants to make.
From there contracts must be fulfilled, signed out and certain deals made around the roles of the future children but, normally, it ends with the woman in question returning to her clan pregnant and ready to bring forth the next generation of Saraviit, hopefully at least one son for the clan's stocks. If a Saraviit desires a Prize Male, however, things are different!
Prize Males are, in no uncertain terms, the personal slaves of the woman or clan in question.
A "Labor Raid" is performed on a nearby human community and then the women in the raiding party divy up their spoils before bringing their men back home.
These men are required to do work for the Saraviit but are otherwise well fed and pampered when they are not working... constantly ensorceled and tempted into believing that the decision to stay is their own.
Unable to escape under their own power and surrounded by attractive women that constantly compliment, feed, fawn over and fuck them, most mundane mortal men grow complacent and learn to appreciate the insular nature of their cliffside or treetop lives not so long after they are captured.
And once they have reached that level of complacency their mistress is free to take her time and mold them into whatever she so desires, informed consent ceasing to be a concern. Some Noble Saraviit go out of their way to THEME all of their Prize Males while others prefer to collect diverse menageries of males; each gathered for a unique trait that their mistress values.
Regardless of station, EVERY Saraviit desires to have at least three Prize Males; a man for wood and stone, a man for the garden and a man to build, after which the mistress may do whatever she so desires as the men do the work for her.
Well established and affluent clans go out of their way to have as many Prize Males as possible, that they might free up more women to do more for the clan as a whole while solitary Saraviit tend to be selfish and unhelpful due to the harshness of living alone in the spider cliffs; hoarding what Prize Males they can kidnap from other clans for themselves so that they might use them to gain access to the males of other, more noteworthy families.
If one is simply seeking to reproduce with another clan's males... that requires considerable business!
A freshly adult woman trying to find her place in the world must endear herself to the Matron of whatever clan she is seeking to use for reproductive rites.
She must provide that clan with many gifts for the privilege of using their males and she must prove that she will not STEAL any of them.
Naturally, this can take many years just to have the chance to see one of the jealously guarded boys; sequestered away in the deepest bowels of a clan's personal cavern compound or at the highest and most well protected of their forest palaces.
If she can gain access to their males she might be able to request a specific male or she will be given whatever male the matron so desires her to have.
Whether that be a weak, sickly male or one of the best depends on what sort of impression the Matron wants to make.
From there contracts must be fulfilled, signed out and certain deals made around the roles of the future children but, normally, it ends with the woman in question returning to her clan pregnant and ready to bring forth the next generation of Saraviit, hopefully at least one son for the clan's stocks. If a Saraviit desires a Prize Male, however, things are different!
Prize Males are, in no uncertain terms, the personal slaves of the woman or clan in question.
A "Labor Raid" is performed on a nearby human community and then the women in the raiding party divy up their spoils before bringing their men back home.
These men are required to do work for the Saraviit but are otherwise well fed and pampered when they are not working... constantly ensorceled and tempted into believing that the decision to stay is their own.
Unable to escape under their own power and surrounded by attractive women that constantly compliment, feed, fawn over and fuck them, most mundane mortal men grow complacent and learn to appreciate the insular nature of their cliffside or treetop lives not so long after they are captured.
And once they have reached that level of complacency their mistress is free to take her time and mold them into whatever she so desires, informed consent ceasing to be a concern. Some Noble Saraviit go out of their way to THEME all of their Prize Males while others prefer to collect diverse menageries of males; each gathered for a unique trait that their mistress values.
Regardless of station, EVERY Saraviit desires to have at least three Prize Males; a man for wood and stone, a man for the garden and a man to build, after which the mistress may do whatever she so desires as the men do the work for her.
Well established and affluent clans go out of their way to have as many Prize Males as possible, that they might free up more women to do more for the clan as a whole while solitary Saraviit tend to be selfish and unhelpful due to the harshness of living alone in the spider cliffs; hoarding what Prize Males they can kidnap from other clans for themselves so that they might use them to gain access to the males of other, more noteworthy families.
Relationship Ideals
A Saraviit's ideal position is to be a Clan Matron and that desired position extends to their relationships as well.
Merely to consider oneself a matron one must have at least one Saraviit Male and three Prize Males... an independent, productive woman without the need to get her hands dirty with hard labor and with the option to breed out a line of her own at any time.
It is a plus if a fourth Prize Male can be attained for the sake of childcare assistance, of course! With this in mind... it is VERY important that a Saraviit Woman, upon coming of age, can AT LEAST get her hands on FOUR Prize Males... expecting her parent clan to take at least one from her for the good of the compound!
With three men all her own she can tend to her own craft and consider inroads with other clans to use or potentially steal their males; specifically their Saraviit Males. However, in this day and age, with the powerful Border Clans blocking more coastal and peak clans from accessing quality raiding grounds the ideal Polyandry of the Saraviit Culture is starting to fade and desperate women are beginning to band together in "Bachelorette Bands" to break through forbidden grounds and fight for their opportunity to steal mortal men from the lowlands!
For the first time since the laws were woven... it seems as though the Saraviit may once again go to war with each other. And for exactly what they fought over in the first place, at that!
Merely to consider oneself a matron one must have at least one Saraviit Male and three Prize Males... an independent, productive woman without the need to get her hands dirty with hard labor and with the option to breed out a line of her own at any time.
It is a plus if a fourth Prize Male can be attained for the sake of childcare assistance, of course! With this in mind... it is VERY important that a Saraviit Woman, upon coming of age, can AT LEAST get her hands on FOUR Prize Males... expecting her parent clan to take at least one from her for the good of the compound!
With three men all her own she can tend to her own craft and consider inroads with other clans to use or potentially steal their males; specifically their Saraviit Males. However, in this day and age, with the powerful Border Clans blocking more coastal and peak clans from accessing quality raiding grounds the ideal Polyandry of the Saraviit Culture is starting to fade and desperate women are beginning to band together in "Bachelorette Bands" to break through forbidden grounds and fight for their opportunity to steal mortal men from the lowlands!
For the first time since the laws were woven... it seems as though the Saraviit may once again go to war with each other. And for exactly what they fought over in the first place, at that!
Average Technological Level
While incredibly organized and well established, The Saraviit only possess advanced stone age technology at best, with no means to mine or refine metals and no knowledge of how to make metal tools, though their legends have words for metal and other substances made from heat and effort by Men in The Age of The Great Weaver.
Despite being a neolithic people the Saraviit possess amazing skills to weave cloth, trap wild game and build wooden structures literally SEWN together with spider silk to hang suspended hundreds of feet in the air.
What's more, the Saraviit have mastered stone working since the alleged curse that made them the way they are.
While they still have no taste for getting their hands dirty, countless generations stuck living inside the faces of cliffs have taught them everything there is to know about natural stone and how to work it at its source; where it's weak, how thick it is, how much give it has, if there's running water behind it.
Rather than being some sort of natural ability, the Saraviit are so familiar with stone from a life of living around and inside of it that the stone has become part of their culture.
Living in Saraviit society simply requires one to know how to dig into, handle, shape and utilize stone to its fullest; as they have no metals to rely on anymore and must find a way to survive somehow. Able to tightly weave cloth that can hold buildings in the air or deflect arrows and knives when worn over even mildly rigid surfaces, it would be agreed by any fabric specialist around Ta Mando that the Saraviit make better cloth than any other species.
Skills involving cloth seem to be woven into their very being, both societally and biologically.
Individually selecting each string from any given spider during the harvest, Saraviit have invented the skill to milk different types of silk thread by stimulating the spider's separate silk glands in order to weave different sorts of cloth; from major ampullate silk used for the hyper long, ultra strong anchoring lines that hold their buildings in place to cylindriform silk from egg sacs to be made into fine quality, soft cloth for one's wearing pleasure. While not regarded as particularly navally inclined, Ta Orana Pariptia DOES come right up to the ocean and thus the Saraviit have, overtime, developed extremely basic fishing vessels (Little more than simple canoes!) made from slats of the iron-hard bark of their home forest's trees which are sewn together and lined with waxed silk cloth to stay afloat.
Capable of producing extremely fine and strong nets, the cliffside denizens have a capable fishing economy and generally prefer seafood when they get the chance, as the alternatives in Ta Orana Pariptia tend to be small birds, rodents, lizards and insects...
Having no places to dock these ingenious crafts, the Saraviit have developed highly complex pulley systems along the cliffsides to lift or lower these rudimentary vessels to and from the caverns where they were sewn.
Despite the fairly unintimidating nature of these six-armed females' maritime technology, only Veannland (A Considerably More Navally Ingenius Society!) has ever found the need to produce naval landing systems as complex as the Saraviit. They possess incredibly advanced pottery and stone carving methods; capable of creating durable, watertight vessels able to facilitate long term fermentation!
Through this their society has developed a talent for pickling garden vegetables and other products alongside potting meat and preparing fermented dishes much like kimchi or chutney!
While this is perhaps not regarded as terribly impressive to most other realms, the Saraviit heavily rely on their extremely wholesome pickling and fermenting methods to stay well nourished through the year, as the fermenting process brings out more nutrients in their region's otherwise relatively substandard food options. While not common, Saraviit of authority and culture have even developed a special type of mead fermented from the red honey of their local bees.
This "Passion Juice" is said to cause fits of lustful affection and intensely pleasurable tactile hallucinations.
Grand Matriarchs in more affluent clans along the cliffsides have even begun to breed their own bees and stockpile huge stores of this delicious alcohol to enjoy in their spare time and mark them as more secure than other clans.
This Deep Red Mead, unlike anything in the rest of the eastern world, would rival some of the best Vaennland Meads and the highest classes of Bonobo Liquor for flavor and volume; with a deep, rich sweetness married to a tart aftertaste that differs subtly depending on which clan has made it! Due to their complete mastery of all things fabric combined with the ultra-strong wood of their home forests, The Saraviit have developed excellent bows for hunting and usually the most coordinated in their society learn advanced archery skills to match the beauty of these ancestral weapons.
Alongside those bows they are masters of poison, not only possessing their own natural neurotoxin but also growing several different plants and animals for the sake of collecting all manner of dangerous substances.
While poison is not necessarily impressive by itself, what IS impressive is the truly mind boggling variety of toxins the average Saraviit hunter might have at her disposal!
More than that, the Saraviit have an exquisitely encyclopedic knowledge of each and every intoxicant, how they are best applied and for what purpose.
Hundreds of different types of poisons exist in their cliffside compounds for anything from hunting rabbits and paralyzing prospective Prize Males to subtly assassinating the matron of another clan or forcing said matron to vomit up the aforementioned poison used to assassinate her in the middle of a grand social function she hosted to impress her political rivals.
In combination their mastery of archery and poison make for a deadly combo and guarantee that anyone being shot at by the Saraviit have more to worry about than a simple stone arrowhead flying their direction. Finally, The Saraviit ability to weave long lasting, near indestructible cloth has granted them an exquisite fashion of recordkeeping; with both written word and fully detailed pictures illustrating the stories of their past woven into countless tapestries throughout thousands of clan compounds.
Hidden away in grand history chambers, of which every clan has at least one, these ancient tapestries are made by those who experienced various events and then painstakingly copied them over the years down to the tiniest detail before adding to the family histories once the old ones wear out from age or are nibbled to bits by pests.
Though this information is extensive, however, it is not available to all and most Saraviit must show themselves to be absolutely trustworthy before they are allowed into any clan's history halls.
That being said, history can even be woven into the clothing one wears, as particularly well-to-do Matriarchs might weave themselves clothing-tapestry combos that allow them to depict their great actions on their very outfits.
What's more, the Saraviit have mastered stone working since the alleged curse that made them the way they are.
While they still have no taste for getting their hands dirty, countless generations stuck living inside the faces of cliffs have taught them everything there is to know about natural stone and how to work it at its source; where it's weak, how thick it is, how much give it has, if there's running water behind it.
Rather than being some sort of natural ability, the Saraviit are so familiar with stone from a life of living around and inside of it that the stone has become part of their culture.
Living in Saraviit society simply requires one to know how to dig into, handle, shape and utilize stone to its fullest; as they have no metals to rely on anymore and must find a way to survive somehow. Able to tightly weave cloth that can hold buildings in the air or deflect arrows and knives when worn over even mildly rigid surfaces, it would be agreed by any fabric specialist around Ta Mando that the Saraviit make better cloth than any other species.
Skills involving cloth seem to be woven into their very being, both societally and biologically.
Individually selecting each string from any given spider during the harvest, Saraviit have invented the skill to milk different types of silk thread by stimulating the spider's separate silk glands in order to weave different sorts of cloth; from major ampullate silk used for the hyper long, ultra strong anchoring lines that hold their buildings in place to cylindriform silk from egg sacs to be made into fine quality, soft cloth for one's wearing pleasure. While not regarded as particularly navally inclined, Ta Orana Pariptia DOES come right up to the ocean and thus the Saraviit have, overtime, developed extremely basic fishing vessels (Little more than simple canoes!) made from slats of the iron-hard bark of their home forest's trees which are sewn together and lined with waxed silk cloth to stay afloat.
Capable of producing extremely fine and strong nets, the cliffside denizens have a capable fishing economy and generally prefer seafood when they get the chance, as the alternatives in Ta Orana Pariptia tend to be small birds, rodents, lizards and insects...
Having no places to dock these ingenious crafts, the Saraviit have developed highly complex pulley systems along the cliffsides to lift or lower these rudimentary vessels to and from the caverns where they were sewn.
Despite the fairly unintimidating nature of these six-armed females' maritime technology, only Veannland (A Considerably More Navally Ingenius Society!) has ever found the need to produce naval landing systems as complex as the Saraviit. They possess incredibly advanced pottery and stone carving methods; capable of creating durable, watertight vessels able to facilitate long term fermentation!
Through this their society has developed a talent for pickling garden vegetables and other products alongside potting meat and preparing fermented dishes much like kimchi or chutney!
While this is perhaps not regarded as terribly impressive to most other realms, the Saraviit heavily rely on their extremely wholesome pickling and fermenting methods to stay well nourished through the year, as the fermenting process brings out more nutrients in their region's otherwise relatively substandard food options. While not common, Saraviit of authority and culture have even developed a special type of mead fermented from the red honey of their local bees.
This "Passion Juice" is said to cause fits of lustful affection and intensely pleasurable tactile hallucinations.
Grand Matriarchs in more affluent clans along the cliffsides have even begun to breed their own bees and stockpile huge stores of this delicious alcohol to enjoy in their spare time and mark them as more secure than other clans.
This Deep Red Mead, unlike anything in the rest of the eastern world, would rival some of the best Vaennland Meads and the highest classes of Bonobo Liquor for flavor and volume; with a deep, rich sweetness married to a tart aftertaste that differs subtly depending on which clan has made it! Due to their complete mastery of all things fabric combined with the ultra-strong wood of their home forests, The Saraviit have developed excellent bows for hunting and usually the most coordinated in their society learn advanced archery skills to match the beauty of these ancestral weapons.
Alongside those bows they are masters of poison, not only possessing their own natural neurotoxin but also growing several different plants and animals for the sake of collecting all manner of dangerous substances.
While poison is not necessarily impressive by itself, what IS impressive is the truly mind boggling variety of toxins the average Saraviit hunter might have at her disposal!
More than that, the Saraviit have an exquisitely encyclopedic knowledge of each and every intoxicant, how they are best applied and for what purpose.
Hundreds of different types of poisons exist in their cliffside compounds for anything from hunting rabbits and paralyzing prospective Prize Males to subtly assassinating the matron of another clan or forcing said matron to vomit up the aforementioned poison used to assassinate her in the middle of a grand social function she hosted to impress her political rivals.
In combination their mastery of archery and poison make for a deadly combo and guarantee that anyone being shot at by the Saraviit have more to worry about than a simple stone arrowhead flying their direction. Finally, The Saraviit ability to weave long lasting, near indestructible cloth has granted them an exquisite fashion of recordkeeping; with both written word and fully detailed pictures illustrating the stories of their past woven into countless tapestries throughout thousands of clan compounds.
Hidden away in grand history chambers, of which every clan has at least one, these ancient tapestries are made by those who experienced various events and then painstakingly copied them over the years down to the tiniest detail before adding to the family histories once the old ones wear out from age or are nibbled to bits by pests.
Though this information is extensive, however, it is not available to all and most Saraviit must show themselves to be absolutely trustworthy before they are allowed into any clan's history halls.
That being said, history can even be woven into the clothing one wears, as particularly well-to-do Matriarchs might weave themselves clothing-tapestry combos that allow them to depict their great actions on their very outfits.
Common Dress Code
The Seductive, six-armed women of Ta Orana Pariptia, by and large, can be said to have two "Modes" of being clothed: Dressed And Undressed.
Normally, when working, Saraviit remain "Undressed."
Undressed Saraviit essentially only wear what amounts to modern underwear; a simple thing to cover her important parts and keep anything from getting into them... and a snug silk garment to keep her breasts out of the way and provide support while she dirties herself with manual labor such as digging, building, hunting, gardening or otherwise sullying one's hands and body.
While they specifically undress so that they can get dirty without sullying their precious clothing, most Saraviit hate the very idea of getting dirty in the first place, even when they accept that it's a necessary evil.
Men under the "Care" Of a Saraviit Matron are also usually "Undressed" while they work and are dressed up lovingly by their captors for special occasions or when their matrons want them to look extra pretty for a day in. However, when the work is done and/or being managed by one's Prize Males and one is able to put her feet up and relax, the average Saraviit "Gets Dressed!"
When one "Gets Dressed" she makes sure to wear her absolute finest clothes, puts her hair up in fanciful designs and even dons artistic scenes of her experiences in the last month.
She makes sure that comfort AND splendor are shared in kind and that form and function become one in harmony upon her figure. When "Dressed" a Saraviit often considers the theme of her day.
If she has just retrieved for herself a Prize Male she may wear numerous shades of brown and gray with splashes of green and plant patterns to show everyone that she has just retrieved a laborer for her caverns and gardens.
If she's just become an adult it is typical for a woman to wear vibrant reds, blues, yellows and purples of numerous shades to symbolize her maturity with bright, passionate colors and tell other families that she is looking to be accepted as a breeding woman, seeking business to dictate time she might spend with their breeding males.
A fresh mother may wear numerous muted shades of blue and green with popping yellow strips and patterns.
And, if she merely wants to sit around and enjoy her time a woman might simply wear the traditional, undyed golden cloth and enjoy the comfort of her own cavern or adorn herself in simply dyed and unpatterned cloth to relax in casual pleasure. Even still, when one is "Dressed" they are guaranteed to look at their best for the occasion.
While perhaps not all consuming; the colors, shades and patterns one wears in Saraviit culture say a lot about them and many outsiders can get highly confused at the advanced fashion based politics that run throughout Saraviit Society!
Undressed Saraviit essentially only wear what amounts to modern underwear; a simple thing to cover her important parts and keep anything from getting into them... and a snug silk garment to keep her breasts out of the way and provide support while she dirties herself with manual labor such as digging, building, hunting, gardening or otherwise sullying one's hands and body.
While they specifically undress so that they can get dirty without sullying their precious clothing, most Saraviit hate the very idea of getting dirty in the first place, even when they accept that it's a necessary evil.
Men under the "Care" Of a Saraviit Matron are also usually "Undressed" while they work and are dressed up lovingly by their captors for special occasions or when their matrons want them to look extra pretty for a day in. However, when the work is done and/or being managed by one's Prize Males and one is able to put her feet up and relax, the average Saraviit "Gets Dressed!"
When one "Gets Dressed" she makes sure to wear her absolute finest clothes, puts her hair up in fanciful designs and even dons artistic scenes of her experiences in the last month.
She makes sure that comfort AND splendor are shared in kind and that form and function become one in harmony upon her figure. When "Dressed" a Saraviit often considers the theme of her day.
If she has just retrieved for herself a Prize Male she may wear numerous shades of brown and gray with splashes of green and plant patterns to show everyone that she has just retrieved a laborer for her caverns and gardens.
If she's just become an adult it is typical for a woman to wear vibrant reds, blues, yellows and purples of numerous shades to symbolize her maturity with bright, passionate colors and tell other families that she is looking to be accepted as a breeding woman, seeking business to dictate time she might spend with their breeding males.
A fresh mother may wear numerous muted shades of blue and green with popping yellow strips and patterns.
And, if she merely wants to sit around and enjoy her time a woman might simply wear the traditional, undyed golden cloth and enjoy the comfort of her own cavern or adorn herself in simply dyed and unpatterned cloth to relax in casual pleasure. Even still, when one is "Dressed" they are guaranteed to look at their best for the occasion.
While perhaps not all consuming; the colors, shades and patterns one wears in Saraviit culture say a lot about them and many outsiders can get highly confused at the advanced fashion based politics that run throughout Saraviit Society!
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
The common Saraviit Greeting is to reach out with all of the arms on one side in a demanding gesture while holding the other side's arms to one's chest.
Culturally this symbolizes the strictly transactional nature of most Saraviit Society, with people generally coming together to deal and haggle rather than to spend time with each other or altruistically cooperate with one another.
Therefore the standard Saraviit greeting is both one of demanding to take what someone else has as well as showcasing that they have something their dealing partner might want as well.
During these greetings hands are NEVER to touch, as this implies that one is putting THEMSELVES in the hands of another, but instead remain extended outward until one party invites the other for dealings and hospitality OR excuses herself.
Quick, less formal greetings normally have Saraviit tapping their chests with all the arms on one side while waving their other side hands out with the palms up.
Culturally this symbolizes the strictly transactional nature of most Saraviit Society, with people generally coming together to deal and haggle rather than to spend time with each other or altruistically cooperate with one another.
Therefore the standard Saraviit greeting is both one of demanding to take what someone else has as well as showcasing that they have something their dealing partner might want as well.
During these greetings hands are NEVER to touch, as this implies that one is putting THEMSELVES in the hands of another, but instead remain extended outward until one party invites the other for dealings and hospitality OR excuses herself.
Quick, less formal greetings normally have Saraviit tapping their chests with all the arms on one side while waving their other side hands out with the palms up.
Common Taboos
Due to the particular nature of the curse their myths say was laid upon them by The Crone, the Saraviit do not leave the mountains and forests of Ta Orana Pariptia for more than a few days at a time.
They feel uncertain and ill at ease when away from their mountain homes and believe that too long away from their compounds will only invite misfortune and death until the passing of the prophecy put upon them in their time of hubris. This particular sentiment has been growing more prevalent even in the outer communities in recent years; with more "Labor Raids" by those who still know about the outside world being blocked at the border by overzealous and superstitious Matriarchs who believe that the Saraviit must seclude themselves further and wait for the tapestry of fate to be woven.
They feel uncertain and ill at ease when away from their mountain homes and believe that too long away from their compounds will only invite misfortune and death until the passing of the prophecy put upon them in their time of hubris. This particular sentiment has been growing more prevalent even in the outer communities in recent years; with more "Labor Raids" by those who still know about the outside world being blocked at the border by overzealous and superstitious Matriarchs who believe that the Saraviit must seclude themselves further and wait for the tapestry of fate to be woven.
History
Saraviit myths speak of a Central Mother Figure known by all Saraviit as "The Great Weaver," who lived in The Dawn Era long before the age of man ever came to be.
While there are no known surviving physical records of her existence, The Saraviit consider The Great Weaver's Tale to be their cultural origin story and, as there are no other sources to the contrary, the story of their Age Of Hubris is all that can be relied on to consider the events of their deepest histories. According to Saraviit legends The Great Weaver was a fine and mighty Matriarch.
She and her hundred daughters (And Five Sons!) lived harmoniously together in a coastal woodland millions of years ago, breeders of a rare spider that would produce fine threads stronger than any other fiber.
The threads were sticky, however, so The Great Weaver taught her daughters how to use special oils collected from nearby plants to smooth the strands and make them weave together for the finest of silks! Gifted with six arms, The Great Weaver and her daughters became well known to the great powers of the day and many came far and wide to bear witness to their glorious crafts.
While the women worked on their newest inventions the strong sons of The Great Weaver toiled in the fields, providing food and pulling forth ore and gems from the earth below to mold into fine jewelry for their mother and sisters.
They stood eight feet tall with bulging muscles and glowed with health and dexterity unmatched by the men of other species.
Possessing of keen eyes, sharp minds and just as many arms as their mother and siblings, The Great Weaver's Five Sons were able to construct the finest of tools to protect their family, using the venom of their spiders to tip their bows. In time their glory and renown grew.
Times were good.
Their days were peaceful and prosperous.
The Great Weaver, sensing stability, looked to the world outside their cozy coastal wood and considered that her daughters perhaps needed mighty husbands just as grand as their brothers.
And so she sent out the call. Years went by and she determined that no man was good enough for even the youngest and least of her daughters.
At times she would refuse to even see a potential suitor, so repulsed and disgusted by any man's every shortcoming that she wouldn't even allow them to lay eyes upon the floors that her daughters walked across. However, one day an old woman arrived at her border and, for whatever reason, The Great Weaver felt inclined to meet someone that day.
Quickly she told her sons to bring the woman before her so that she could see what the elder had to offer.
The Crone, as she came to be known by the Saraviit, approached The Great Weaver and told her that she was a grandmother.
She had one hundred grandsons, all of which were tall, strong and handsome beyond The Weaver's wildest dreams.
And to The Great Weaver she presented a portrait of each grandson; handsome and valiant and everything from a young maiden's dream, each one more magnificent than the last!
Upon seeing them The Great Weaver was delighted and eagerly brought The Crone to her dealing table.
However... The haggling went on all night... and then all day... and then all night once again. For days... then WEEKS The Bargaining hotly continued, only stopping when one or the other required sleep and immediately beginning again when they awoke.
Soon the Crone and The Great Weaver spent all their time together, arguing over what could be exchanged for The Crone's Hundred Grandsons.
But The Crone Would Never Budge.
She Would ONLY Accept As Payment The Great Weaver's Five Sons; to take The Great Weaver's dearest protectors and servants from her... and her only begotten sons, no less! Finally The Great Weaver ran out of patience.
"How can I be expected to give you my only sons, who protect my business and my daughters while they weave!" Without pause The Crone snapped back!
"Your Weaving Is Not So Grand! It Would Be No Loss If Foul Forces Befell YOUR Looms!" Offended, The Great Weaver challenged The Crone to a competition and The Crone eagerly accepted.
They would sit at their looms and make tapestries for all to bear witness to and judge for themselves.
If The Crone won then she would take The Weaver's Sons as payment for her grandsons just as she wanted but if The Weaver won then she would take the Crone's Hundred Grandsons for but the finest tapestries already in The Weaver's Collection.
However, over the course of eight years the competition raged out of control.
Instead of coming to marvel at her family's accomplishments, deities and mortals alike flocked from around Ta Mando to bear witness to the continuing battle of weavers.
The Great Weaver's Hundred Daughters halted their looms and ceased making such fine products... for nobody was interested in anything other than the great competition between what must have seemed at the time like the very weavers of fate itself. Finally, however... the looms broke at the same second, in the same minute of the same hour on the same day!
The Great Weaver And Crone alike were exhausted, having woven tapestries far into the distance, so grand that the coastal winds pulled them high into the air like flowing scarves.
All came before them to bear witness to their marvels... and to judge whose was the best. It is said, at this moment, that The Crone said something confident and snarky to The Great Weaver but there is no story with any explicit quotes thereof.
Instead, gods and mortals alike unanimously agreed that, while a difficult choice and extremely close match... The Great Weaver created a longer, wider, more intricate and more compelling tapestry.
In every field her six arms allowed The Great Weaver to eke ahead, swifter and able to handle the loom faster with higher levels of detail and greater subtlety of shade and hue.
Even more than that, the cloth that The Great Weaver used was of higher quality, woven from only the highest quality of thread from her best and most willing arachnids.
The Great Weaver's spiders had ensured that her tapestry would be superior regardless of her natural advantage. Infuriated By This, The Crone Revealed Her True Form!
Casting aside her mortal disguise, The Crone became a primordial being of inspiration and creativity; One Of The Oldest!
She pointed down upon The Weaver and laid a curse upon her and her entire family for all eternity, guarding this destiny with a prophecy most foul! "You think you have bested me but you have only brought your own downfall!
I may have lost this contest but you have lost so much more!
For this sleight against me the hills shall grow as high as your tapestry flies on the wind!
Your trees shall grow thick and dense; unable to be cut by any mortal axe!
You shall scramble along the mountainside with your bare hands and your finest tools shall be ground under the stone, leaving you with nothing more than the pebbles at your feet to cut the cloth you so value!
You shall have my Grandsons but their own sons shall be WEAK!
They shall be sickly and feeble, unable to drive the plough or hunt the beasts of the wood; who themselves will fall from the sides of your mountains and be crushed under the roots of your trees, leaving you with nothing but vermin and feathery birds to trap around your cold, stony home!
And the children of your sons shall be the same; sickly and weak, small and stupid!
And your grandchildren, having no men of practice to feed them... will have to learn from the beginning how to feed themselves... how to build their homes... how to survive without the aid of their once strong and proud men you so jealously guard!
And Your Grandsons Shall Forever Disappoint Their Lovers, Unable To Please Them And Leaving Them Unsatisfied!
And, Consumed By Your Vanity, Your Descendants Shall Never Know But The Crone Was Not Done! "And For Your Hubris!
For Your Audacity!
For Your Entitlement!
To Give Yourself The Permission To Outperform Me!
To Raise A Beast That May Produce A Silk Finer Than My Own!!!
For that you shall never be forgiven!
Your love of these many legged pests has sunken so deep into you that it will be marked on your very fingertips; upon your hands and feet!
The faces of your entire family shall grow to reflect your obsession with these vermin and your skin will change to match the color of the stones under which you'll live!
The oils you use to separate your spider strands shall ooze from your fingertips and your very touch shall carry poison!
Until A New Goddess From Beneath The World Lays Eyes Upon Them In A Time Beyond This Glorious Age Of Dawn, Your People Shall Be Born, Live And DIE Alone In Darkness!
ALL of your creations shall mean nothing, for all the world will have forgotten who you are... and YOU will have forgotten that there was ever anyone to impress in the first place..." And before The Great Weaver could respond... The Crone had disappeared! Generations went by... The Great Weaver growing older and slowing down only to find her grandsons were, as The Crone had warned, deformed.
They were small and sickly and weak.
They could not drive the plow or hunt the beasts of the wood.
They were less intelligent, less inclined toward debate and conversation.
And they had no capacity to pull ore and gems from the land. But that didn't matter.
Because the lands slowly began to rise and the beasts that remained were small, feathered things and vermin who burrowed in the steadily growing hillsides. The Great Weaver's first granddaughter was, terrifyingly, unlike any of her parents.
She had five strange, black eyes and pointed claws for fingernails that oozed when she was excited.
She had dark purple skin like stone and could crawl upon the walls and ceilings with practiced ease.
Combined with the horror of her sickly grandsons... The Great Weaver's family tore itself apart... Years went by and the Great Weaver's family split into a hundred smaller factions, each of her daughters founding her own clan to dig their own homes in the steadily growing mountains.
The few other sapient mortals that had been in the area started to flee as the land became unlivable and the granddaughters of The Great Weaver who were most canny seduced who they could to stay.
The fighting between cousins grew more frequent, however.
They lusted after each other's men, needing the few strong males left to dig out homes in the mountainside for them... as they had no skill of their own to do so. Over the generations, however... even that became a strictly academic triviality.
The few men they had access to simply waned away, leaving behind countless daughters and only a few deformed, almost infantile sons.
The rest of the sapient mortals left as the mountains rose into great, dangerous cliffs against the waves while the once soft and peaceable trees of the wood drove roots deep into the stone to support their new growth into titanic, towering trunks as hard as iron that reached for the very stars themselves.
The deities of the world lost interest as the clans broke into disparate stone age factions, no longer united in glorious familial cooperation to produce collective works that would turn heads around the world but instead fighting for rights to men they couldn't even breed with. Knowledge Of The Great Weaver's Direct Line Soon Blurred To Legend And Then Faded To Myth Before Being Forgotten Entirely... Eventually the Great Weaver herself is said to have died in a cave somewhere close to where her original home is said to have been, comforted by her youngest descendent who whispered tales of old to her as she died... telling her of the glory their family once possessed... of the harmony within which they'd once lived.
As she die in her granddaughter's arms, The Great Weaver's descendent was struck with inspiration. She searched the land and walked through the day on the surface long enough that even her stunning black eyes grew used to the light.
THEN she set forth to find where the mountains began to fall.
Undeterred by the greatest of cliffs, she made her way to the foothills and found that mortals DID still exist there.
Strange creatures but capable ones.
She could not breed with them, for they were too different from her and the spark of the divine was not within them to break those such rules... but they were strong and resourceful... and she could use them! Over the course of a few nights she seduced many from the shadows; singing to them in their sleep and bathing at a distance in view of where she knew they walked.
All the while she stayed disguised or far enough away that they could not see her properly.
Eventually all of the men she had been keeping track of met and told each other of her existence.
They believed her to be a goddess descended from the mountain and, cannily, she heard of these rumors! So she dressed herself up in the finest silk and gems from The Great Weaver herself before presenting herself in the light of the full moon to the strong strangers.
Believing her to be a many armed goddess from the mountains, the men immediately fell in love with The Great Weaver's descendent and followed her back to her caves.
There she instructed them to excavate her a much larger and more lavish home; to build and garden for her and to do her bidding.
And they did so at her command! Before long she was living in luxury while the others toiled at the walls of their own caves with stone picks and their bare hands.
She saw this and rejoiced... but only for so long, as she remembered her great grandmother and how The Great Weaver had wanted peace and harmony for their kind.
And so she gave her many relatives each a man of her own.
She said unto them. "Let us fight no longer!
We all have men to now do our work for us.
We may toil on less muddy labors like gardening and building while they get their hands dirty on the stone!
Perhaps, if we learn how to work for ourselves in time and seduce many men from other cultures, we may yet have enough resources to spare us from these wretched trials!
I SAY THIS, THEN!
A woman must work in the caves to survive!
We Know This!
But a woman who provides a man to work in the caves may work in building.
And a woman who provides two men may choose to stay in her garden as long as she pleases!
A woman with a third man to work in her garden may do as all of us desire; to labor on only her own whims and to weave to her heart's delight!
Finally, a woman may have her daughters replace a man for these labors... but no man shall be less, on the pick, than two daughters!
All Shall Follow This Rule!" And The Great Weaver's Descendent Continued! "So that we may all have our chance at rest I shall show you the paths down from the mountains.
I shall show you where other mortals live, where other mortals work.
I shall teach you the ways of seduction so that you may convince these other men to come here to our homes, to persuade them to leave their people in order to enrich our own!
A clan, then, shall no longer put themselves over others by strength of arms and by the savagery and barbarism of this life we have been forced to live by The Crone who could not accept her defeat...
Instead a clan shall mark itself as superior by the social sway and influence it may have over others... by how many men they have to build their compound and secure their survival and luxuries!
We Shall No Longer Fight!
We Shall Only Create!" And with that the Saraviit were born.
They spread through the mountains they'd been forced into, seduced the labor required to build a new society and slowly clawed their way from the rubble; building fantastic, monastery-like mountain compounds into the cliffs themselves, great treehouse mansion complexes and advanced, multi-level homes suspended hundreds of feet in the air and made almost entirely of woven spider silk and tree bark.
Peaceful within their own culture and entirely manipulative toward all others, the Saraviit continued to live in what amounts to functional isolation for eons, becoming more and more like they are today as time went by!
Before long the very species that they'd used for labor died out independent of their manipulations and humans arose afterward, leaving an even more sparse foreign population for the Saraviit to utilize and driving them further into Paradoxically Xenophilic Isolation; cursed to stay on the mountains until The Crone's Prophecy is fulfilled...
Until A New Goddess From Beneath The World Lays Eyes Upon Them In A Time Beyond The End Of The Dawn Age... Gradually the "Labor Raids" grew weaker and more sparse until even the Saraviit began to forget, once again, that there was anything beyond the edge of the mountains at all.
Nowadays only a select few clans are even aware that the world exists beyond the isolation of their cliffs and great forest communities, and even then they regard the world outside of Ta Orana Pariptia as endless wilderness that simply "generates" a combination of sexy men to do work and hideous monsters to kill them.
While they don't necessarily keep the outside world a secret, they don't make any effort to tell anyone about it either and often keep bands of their kin from traveling or even talking about the potential of traveling west of their mountain homes.
While there are no known surviving physical records of her existence, The Saraviit consider The Great Weaver's Tale to be their cultural origin story and, as there are no other sources to the contrary, the story of their Age Of Hubris is all that can be relied on to consider the events of their deepest histories. According to Saraviit legends The Great Weaver was a fine and mighty Matriarch.
She and her hundred daughters (And Five Sons!) lived harmoniously together in a coastal woodland millions of years ago, breeders of a rare spider that would produce fine threads stronger than any other fiber.
The threads were sticky, however, so The Great Weaver taught her daughters how to use special oils collected from nearby plants to smooth the strands and make them weave together for the finest of silks! Gifted with six arms, The Great Weaver and her daughters became well known to the great powers of the day and many came far and wide to bear witness to their glorious crafts.
While the women worked on their newest inventions the strong sons of The Great Weaver toiled in the fields, providing food and pulling forth ore and gems from the earth below to mold into fine jewelry for their mother and sisters.
They stood eight feet tall with bulging muscles and glowed with health and dexterity unmatched by the men of other species.
Possessing of keen eyes, sharp minds and just as many arms as their mother and siblings, The Great Weaver's Five Sons were able to construct the finest of tools to protect their family, using the venom of their spiders to tip their bows. In time their glory and renown grew.
Times were good.
Their days were peaceful and prosperous.
The Great Weaver, sensing stability, looked to the world outside their cozy coastal wood and considered that her daughters perhaps needed mighty husbands just as grand as their brothers.
And so she sent out the call. Years went by and she determined that no man was good enough for even the youngest and least of her daughters.
At times she would refuse to even see a potential suitor, so repulsed and disgusted by any man's every shortcoming that she wouldn't even allow them to lay eyes upon the floors that her daughters walked across. However, one day an old woman arrived at her border and, for whatever reason, The Great Weaver felt inclined to meet someone that day.
Quickly she told her sons to bring the woman before her so that she could see what the elder had to offer.
The Crone, as she came to be known by the Saraviit, approached The Great Weaver and told her that she was a grandmother.
She had one hundred grandsons, all of which were tall, strong and handsome beyond The Weaver's wildest dreams.
And to The Great Weaver she presented a portrait of each grandson; handsome and valiant and everything from a young maiden's dream, each one more magnificent than the last!
Upon seeing them The Great Weaver was delighted and eagerly brought The Crone to her dealing table.
However... The haggling went on all night... and then all day... and then all night once again. For days... then WEEKS The Bargaining hotly continued, only stopping when one or the other required sleep and immediately beginning again when they awoke.
Soon the Crone and The Great Weaver spent all their time together, arguing over what could be exchanged for The Crone's Hundred Grandsons.
But The Crone Would Never Budge.
She Would ONLY Accept As Payment The Great Weaver's Five Sons; to take The Great Weaver's dearest protectors and servants from her... and her only begotten sons, no less! Finally The Great Weaver ran out of patience.
"How can I be expected to give you my only sons, who protect my business and my daughters while they weave!" Without pause The Crone snapped back!
"Your Weaving Is Not So Grand! It Would Be No Loss If Foul Forces Befell YOUR Looms!" Offended, The Great Weaver challenged The Crone to a competition and The Crone eagerly accepted.
They would sit at their looms and make tapestries for all to bear witness to and judge for themselves.
If The Crone won then she would take The Weaver's Sons as payment for her grandsons just as she wanted but if The Weaver won then she would take the Crone's Hundred Grandsons for but the finest tapestries already in The Weaver's Collection.
However, over the course of eight years the competition raged out of control.
Instead of coming to marvel at her family's accomplishments, deities and mortals alike flocked from around Ta Mando to bear witness to the continuing battle of weavers.
The Great Weaver's Hundred Daughters halted their looms and ceased making such fine products... for nobody was interested in anything other than the great competition between what must have seemed at the time like the very weavers of fate itself. Finally, however... the looms broke at the same second, in the same minute of the same hour on the same day!
The Great Weaver And Crone alike were exhausted, having woven tapestries far into the distance, so grand that the coastal winds pulled them high into the air like flowing scarves.
All came before them to bear witness to their marvels... and to judge whose was the best. It is said, at this moment, that The Crone said something confident and snarky to The Great Weaver but there is no story with any explicit quotes thereof.
Instead, gods and mortals alike unanimously agreed that, while a difficult choice and extremely close match... The Great Weaver created a longer, wider, more intricate and more compelling tapestry.
In every field her six arms allowed The Great Weaver to eke ahead, swifter and able to handle the loom faster with higher levels of detail and greater subtlety of shade and hue.
Even more than that, the cloth that The Great Weaver used was of higher quality, woven from only the highest quality of thread from her best and most willing arachnids.
The Great Weaver's spiders had ensured that her tapestry would be superior regardless of her natural advantage. Infuriated By This, The Crone Revealed Her True Form!
Casting aside her mortal disguise, The Crone became a primordial being of inspiration and creativity; One Of The Oldest!
She pointed down upon The Weaver and laid a curse upon her and her entire family for all eternity, guarding this destiny with a prophecy most foul! "You think you have bested me but you have only brought your own downfall!
I may have lost this contest but you have lost so much more!
For this sleight against me the hills shall grow as high as your tapestry flies on the wind!
Your trees shall grow thick and dense; unable to be cut by any mortal axe!
You shall scramble along the mountainside with your bare hands and your finest tools shall be ground under the stone, leaving you with nothing more than the pebbles at your feet to cut the cloth you so value!
You shall have my Grandsons but their own sons shall be WEAK!
They shall be sickly and feeble, unable to drive the plough or hunt the beasts of the wood; who themselves will fall from the sides of your mountains and be crushed under the roots of your trees, leaving you with nothing but vermin and feathery birds to trap around your cold, stony home!
And the children of your sons shall be the same; sickly and weak, small and stupid!
And your grandchildren, having no men of practice to feed them... will have to learn from the beginning how to feed themselves... how to build their homes... how to survive without the aid of their once strong and proud men you so jealously guard!
And Your Grandsons Shall Forever Disappoint Their Lovers, Unable To Please Them And Leaving Them Unsatisfied!
And, Consumed By Your Vanity, Your Descendants Shall Never Know But The Crone Was Not Done! "And For Your Hubris!
For Your Audacity!
For Your Entitlement!
To Give Yourself The Permission To Outperform Me!
To Raise A Beast That May Produce A Silk Finer Than My Own!!!
For that you shall never be forgiven!
Your love of these many legged pests has sunken so deep into you that it will be marked on your very fingertips; upon your hands and feet!
The faces of your entire family shall grow to reflect your obsession with these vermin and your skin will change to match the color of the stones under which you'll live!
The oils you use to separate your spider strands shall ooze from your fingertips and your very touch shall carry poison!
Until A New Goddess From Beneath The World Lays Eyes Upon Them In A Time Beyond This Glorious Age Of Dawn, Your People Shall Be Born, Live And DIE Alone In Darkness!
ALL of your creations shall mean nothing, for all the world will have forgotten who you are... and YOU will have forgotten that there was ever anyone to impress in the first place..." And before The Great Weaver could respond... The Crone had disappeared! Generations went by... The Great Weaver growing older and slowing down only to find her grandsons were, as The Crone had warned, deformed.
They were small and sickly and weak.
They could not drive the plow or hunt the beasts of the wood.
They were less intelligent, less inclined toward debate and conversation.
And they had no capacity to pull ore and gems from the land. But that didn't matter.
Because the lands slowly began to rise and the beasts that remained were small, feathered things and vermin who burrowed in the steadily growing hillsides. The Great Weaver's first granddaughter was, terrifyingly, unlike any of her parents.
She had five strange, black eyes and pointed claws for fingernails that oozed when she was excited.
She had dark purple skin like stone and could crawl upon the walls and ceilings with practiced ease.
Combined with the horror of her sickly grandsons... The Great Weaver's family tore itself apart... Years went by and the Great Weaver's family split into a hundred smaller factions, each of her daughters founding her own clan to dig their own homes in the steadily growing mountains.
The few other sapient mortals that had been in the area started to flee as the land became unlivable and the granddaughters of The Great Weaver who were most canny seduced who they could to stay.
The fighting between cousins grew more frequent, however.
They lusted after each other's men, needing the few strong males left to dig out homes in the mountainside for them... as they had no skill of their own to do so. Over the generations, however... even that became a strictly academic triviality.
The few men they had access to simply waned away, leaving behind countless daughters and only a few deformed, almost infantile sons.
The rest of the sapient mortals left as the mountains rose into great, dangerous cliffs against the waves while the once soft and peaceable trees of the wood drove roots deep into the stone to support their new growth into titanic, towering trunks as hard as iron that reached for the very stars themselves.
The deities of the world lost interest as the clans broke into disparate stone age factions, no longer united in glorious familial cooperation to produce collective works that would turn heads around the world but instead fighting for rights to men they couldn't even breed with. Knowledge Of The Great Weaver's Direct Line Soon Blurred To Legend And Then Faded To Myth Before Being Forgotten Entirely... Eventually the Great Weaver herself is said to have died in a cave somewhere close to where her original home is said to have been, comforted by her youngest descendent who whispered tales of old to her as she died... telling her of the glory their family once possessed... of the harmony within which they'd once lived.
As she die in her granddaughter's arms, The Great Weaver's descendent was struck with inspiration. She searched the land and walked through the day on the surface long enough that even her stunning black eyes grew used to the light.
THEN she set forth to find where the mountains began to fall.
Undeterred by the greatest of cliffs, she made her way to the foothills and found that mortals DID still exist there.
Strange creatures but capable ones.
She could not breed with them, for they were too different from her and the spark of the divine was not within them to break those such rules... but they were strong and resourceful... and she could use them! Over the course of a few nights she seduced many from the shadows; singing to them in their sleep and bathing at a distance in view of where she knew they walked.
All the while she stayed disguised or far enough away that they could not see her properly.
Eventually all of the men she had been keeping track of met and told each other of her existence.
They believed her to be a goddess descended from the mountain and, cannily, she heard of these rumors! So she dressed herself up in the finest silk and gems from The Great Weaver herself before presenting herself in the light of the full moon to the strong strangers.
Believing her to be a many armed goddess from the mountains, the men immediately fell in love with The Great Weaver's descendent and followed her back to her caves.
There she instructed them to excavate her a much larger and more lavish home; to build and garden for her and to do her bidding.
And they did so at her command! Before long she was living in luxury while the others toiled at the walls of their own caves with stone picks and their bare hands.
She saw this and rejoiced... but only for so long, as she remembered her great grandmother and how The Great Weaver had wanted peace and harmony for their kind.
And so she gave her many relatives each a man of her own.
She said unto them. "Let us fight no longer!
We all have men to now do our work for us.
We may toil on less muddy labors like gardening and building while they get their hands dirty on the stone!
Perhaps, if we learn how to work for ourselves in time and seduce many men from other cultures, we may yet have enough resources to spare us from these wretched trials!
I SAY THIS, THEN!
A woman must work in the caves to survive!
We Know This!
But a woman who provides a man to work in the caves may work in building.
And a woman who provides two men may choose to stay in her garden as long as she pleases!
A woman with a third man to work in her garden may do as all of us desire; to labor on only her own whims and to weave to her heart's delight!
Finally, a woman may have her daughters replace a man for these labors... but no man shall be less, on the pick, than two daughters!
All Shall Follow This Rule!" And The Great Weaver's Descendent Continued! "So that we may all have our chance at rest I shall show you the paths down from the mountains.
I shall show you where other mortals live, where other mortals work.
I shall teach you the ways of seduction so that you may convince these other men to come here to our homes, to persuade them to leave their people in order to enrich our own!
A clan, then, shall no longer put themselves over others by strength of arms and by the savagery and barbarism of this life we have been forced to live by The Crone who could not accept her defeat...
Instead a clan shall mark itself as superior by the social sway and influence it may have over others... by how many men they have to build their compound and secure their survival and luxuries!
We Shall No Longer Fight!
We Shall Only Create!" And with that the Saraviit were born.
They spread through the mountains they'd been forced into, seduced the labor required to build a new society and slowly clawed their way from the rubble; building fantastic, monastery-like mountain compounds into the cliffs themselves, great treehouse mansion complexes and advanced, multi-level homes suspended hundreds of feet in the air and made almost entirely of woven spider silk and tree bark.
Peaceful within their own culture and entirely manipulative toward all others, the Saraviit continued to live in what amounts to functional isolation for eons, becoming more and more like they are today as time went by!
Before long the very species that they'd used for labor died out independent of their manipulations and humans arose afterward, leaving an even more sparse foreign population for the Saraviit to utilize and driving them further into Paradoxically Xenophilic Isolation; cursed to stay on the mountains until The Crone's Prophecy is fulfilled...
Until A New Goddess From Beneath The World Lays Eyes Upon Them In A Time Beyond The End Of The Dawn Age... Gradually the "Labor Raids" grew weaker and more sparse until even the Saraviit began to forget, once again, that there was anything beyond the edge of the mountains at all.
Nowadays only a select few clans are even aware that the world exists beyond the isolation of their cliffs and great forest communities, and even then they regard the world outside of Ta Orana Pariptia as endless wilderness that simply "generates" a combination of sexy men to do work and hideous monsters to kill them.
While they don't necessarily keep the outside world a secret, they don't make any effort to tell anyone about it either and often keep bands of their kin from traveling or even talking about the potential of traveling west of their mountain homes.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
If it wasn't already apparent, the Saraviit are extremely flirtatious creatures that actually PREFER the company of males of others species over their own.
Being smaller, weaker, less active, less durable and often less intelligent than them, Saraviit males seldom please their partners and do not provide good romantic interests, especially when one remembers that Saraviit culture is extremely concerned with sequestering their males as far back into the cave systems as possible for the sake of reproductive safety. Instead the Saraviit, when they can, prefer to seduce other mortals and induce long, almost stepfordized relationships wherein the Saraviit themselves live luxurious, if domestic and homebound lifestyles while the strong "Prize Men" that they've gathered work together in a harmonious union underneath each Matriarch to build ever grander and more elaborate underground compounds within which they might raise families and house even more Prize Men.
While it may seem like the men have all of the physical power in these relationships it couldn't be farther from the truth.
In possessing six appendages each tipped with what amount to five hollow, neurotoxin shooting needles, any mature Saraviit can easily incapacitate even the strongest of human men with a simple prick so Prize Males seldom have much choice other than to get along with their captors and work toward the surprisingly fanciful rewards they may have in store. Though the Saraviit ABSOLUTELY therefore practice a form of stone age slavery at its most basic, they also hardly ever find a need to exercise methods like capital punishment or torture and hardly ever mistreat their "Prize Males;" as it would go against the point of having tall, impressive, sexy men around to gawk at if they were put under intense risk or made to walk around with ugly faces looking all frowny and unattractive all the time.
Suitably, Prize Males are normally well treated and quickly grow to enjoy their captivity; a life surrounded by beautiful, six armed masters of sexual and social manipulation, always able to make them think it was their idea to stay not unlike the heroes of Ancient Greek Mythology who were convinced to stay with so many temptress deities during their adventures. If it were to ever happen outside of a Labor Raid, the results of conversation with the average Saraviit highly depend on the speaker's physical sex.
Fellow female bodied individuals might be quickly passed over and ignored unless the woman in question seems to have something a Saraviit might want. (Like a strong, handsome son!)
However, any obviously male bodied individuals need to be extremely careful when talking to Saraviit, as almost all conversation will invariably lead to an attempt to seduce and kidnap the unassuming hunk for labor use in the Clan Compound.
Nearly all males of other mortal species are much taller, more fit and more attractive than any of their own males so a canny spider woman is consistently going to think solely about stealing him and taking him back home to do her bidding even if she's not talking about it.
Being smaller, weaker, less active, less durable and often less intelligent than them, Saraviit males seldom please their partners and do not provide good romantic interests, especially when one remembers that Saraviit culture is extremely concerned with sequestering their males as far back into the cave systems as possible for the sake of reproductive safety. Instead the Saraviit, when they can, prefer to seduce other mortals and induce long, almost stepfordized relationships wherein the Saraviit themselves live luxurious, if domestic and homebound lifestyles while the strong "Prize Men" that they've gathered work together in a harmonious union underneath each Matriarch to build ever grander and more elaborate underground compounds within which they might raise families and house even more Prize Men.
While it may seem like the men have all of the physical power in these relationships it couldn't be farther from the truth.
In possessing six appendages each tipped with what amount to five hollow, neurotoxin shooting needles, any mature Saraviit can easily incapacitate even the strongest of human men with a simple prick so Prize Males seldom have much choice other than to get along with their captors and work toward the surprisingly fanciful rewards they may have in store. Though the Saraviit ABSOLUTELY therefore practice a form of stone age slavery at its most basic, they also hardly ever find a need to exercise methods like capital punishment or torture and hardly ever mistreat their "Prize Males;" as it would go against the point of having tall, impressive, sexy men around to gawk at if they were put under intense risk or made to walk around with ugly faces looking all frowny and unattractive all the time.
Suitably, Prize Males are normally well treated and quickly grow to enjoy their captivity; a life surrounded by beautiful, six armed masters of sexual and social manipulation, always able to make them think it was their idea to stay not unlike the heroes of Ancient Greek Mythology who were convinced to stay with so many temptress deities during their adventures. If it were to ever happen outside of a Labor Raid, the results of conversation with the average Saraviit highly depend on the speaker's physical sex.
Fellow female bodied individuals might be quickly passed over and ignored unless the woman in question seems to have something a Saraviit might want. (Like a strong, handsome son!)
However, any obviously male bodied individuals need to be extremely careful when talking to Saraviit, as almost all conversation will invariably lead to an attempt to seduce and kidnap the unassuming hunk for labor use in the Clan Compound.
Nearly all males of other mortal species are much taller, more fit and more attractive than any of their own males so a canny spider woman is consistently going to think solely about stealing him and taking him back home to do her bidding even if she's not talking about it.
Lifespan
Often Up To 300 Years
Average Height
5' 9" to 6'6" (175.26 to 198.12 cm)
Average Weight
220 to 320 lb (99.79 to 145.15 kg)
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Blue-Gray To Muted Purple
Usually Dark, Stone Adjacent Colors No Discernible Markings Or Patterns
Noticeably Glossy and Lustrous
Remarkably Uniform No Saraviit Are Known To Possess Moles, Freckles, Skin Blotches, Blemishes Or Beauty Marks
Usually Dark, Stone Adjacent Colors No Discernible Markings Or Patterns
Noticeably Glossy and Lustrous
Remarkably Uniform No Saraviit Are Known To Possess Moles, Freckles, Skin Blotches, Blemishes Or Beauty Marks
Comments