Spider (Shadow Isles)

The spiders of the Shadow Isles are massive, venomous arachnids twisted by the Ruination that warped the region. They vary enormously in size, ranging from dog-sized broodlings that skitter in swarms to towering matriarchs whose leg spans stretch wider than a grown man is tall. Their domain is the webbed forests and lightless caverns of the isles, where sheets of silk drape the ruins and choke the passages between them. More than simple predators, these creatures are steeped in death magic. They spin their webs not from ordinary silk but from dark sorcery, and their venom carries the taint of undeath, paralyzing prey before the victim is wrapped and cocooned. A single bite can leave a target helpless while the rest of the swarm closes in. The spiders answer to Elise, the Spider Queen, who commands them through her connection to Vilemaw. Her spiderlings function as extensions of her own dark power, and she leads a cult that sacrifices humans to Vilemaw. In this the arachnids are inseparable from Elise's legend, serving at once as her army and as the instruments of the offerings her worship demands.