Driders (4e Race)

Driders
The blessed of the Spider Queen, gifted with spydric stature.

Hateful and arrogant, driders are Drow|drow]] who have been blessed by the spider queen and given a spider like form. Driders are often the greatest priestesses of the drow clergy, and are the strongest and bravest of the drow race. Driders lurk in the deepest depths of the underdark and are masters of deception.

Play a drider if you want...
 * to be a half-spider, half-drow creature.
 * to be at home in the deep places of the world.
 * to be a member of a race that favours the Cleric|Cleric]], Arachnomancer, and Rogue|Rogue]] classes.

Physical Qualities


Driders are Drow|drow]] with the lower body of a spider. Drider torsos are slender and of athletic build, and are about the same size as a Human|human]]'s torso, but much slenderer. Driders have the upper body complexion of a drow, with very little variance; drider skin color is obsidian, midnight black or dark grey. Drider hair has a little more variance than skin colour, and can be white, light grey, silver, platinum blonde, and even the rare faint golden blonde. Drider eye color is usually red, though can be white, purple, green and gold. The lower body half of a drider is a spider and can have any color pattern that spiders can. The most common is that of a black widow (Latrodectus mactans), the female being satin-black with a red "hourglass" mark on the underside, the male being paler. Driders have no body hair on their torsos and the normal amount of sensory hair for a spider on the lower "spydric" half of their body.

Driders are not usually born, so young driders are incredibly rare. Infant driders are often simply drow who have been forseen as great by the spider queen or tainted by the arachania at an early age. The few drider infants that do exist grow at about the same rate as drow, being fully matured at about 100 years of age. Driders are immortal and do not die of age, but are often murderd to clear the path to power by an ambitious drider or drow.

Playing a Drider
Driders are created from drow by Lolth, the demon queen of spiders. Chosen from the strongest of her followers, driders are the most ambitious and dangerous of their kind. Drow must pass dangerous tests of Lolth in order to be chosen to become driders. Those who wish to be driders must pass many of these such tests before they are given the honor of driderhood. Those that fail even one of these tests are transformed into horrific forms such as chwidenchas and shunned.

As driders are the greatest among drow, they tend to be far more proud and arrogant than their "lesser" cousins. Filled with anger and hate, driders can be some of the most vicious and evil creatures in existance. Driders are natural plotters; they subconsciously plot against almost everyone they meet, and are always undergoing at least some plots.

Driders believe themselves to be the supreme race (even more so than drow), a belief woven into their conscious by Lolth over many thousands of years of deceit and lies. This belief makes it hard for them to treat others as equals. As a result, drider interaction falls into a so-called "dominant and submissive" pattern; a drider will automatically assume herself to be the dominant individual unless she has sufficient reason to believe otherwise, and she will become angered if not treated as such.

Rarely, Lolth may forsee greatness in a drow infant. Such a child may be born&mdash; or transformed into&mdash; a drider. These "spiderborn" children are treated with great respect and reverence by drow from birth. Some driders even claim spiderborn heritage to gain more status within drow society. Such activity is frowned upon&mdash; if discovered. Lolth steps in and punishes perpetrators fittingly if they are discovered, for it is a clear sign of weakness, but allows those who succeed to continue in their lies, for it is the way of the drow to lie and deceive.

Even more rarely a drider is born of two adult driders rather than created by Lolth. This occurance is particulaly rare because of the rarity of driders, especially drider males. It is, in fact, more likely for such an occurance to happen around driders who no longer revere Lolth, as Lolth rarely tolerates the existance of "inferior" drider males.

Driders who no longer revere Lolth are rare; once a drow has become a drider they are usually too far gone down the path of evil to change their ways. More common are spiderborn driders who have grown up either inside drow society and fled or grown up outside drow society with the values of other societies.

Drider Characteristics: Nimble, agile, arrogant, hateful, quick, pious, spydric, lurking.

Names: Typically drow names.

Drider Adventurers
Three sample drider adventurers are presented below.

Myrloth, a spiderborn drider arachnomancer, was born into a society of cruel, merciless drow. Though the ideals of the drow where forced into her from birth, she was never content with her life among the drow. Wishing for a better life, Myrloth fled through the underdark to the surface. Now she joins parties of adventurers to raid the underdark and slay those that distroyed her childhood; the drow. Nymloth, a drow Cleric|cleric]], ascended through the ranks of the priesthood by cunning and deceit, using the foulest methods to gain the power she wished. Sensing her potential, Lolth put Nymloth through many tests and awarded her for her sucess with driderhood. Now Nymloth seeks to become exarch to Lolth herself, and will stop at nothing to achieve the position that she covets.

Xulan, a drider Rogue|rogue]], transended to driderhood shortly after his birth through contamination with the arachania. Not accepting the drider status of a mere male, his mother cast him out of her family, where he was taken in by a drow who had suffered a similar fate. Xulan learned secret ways of stealth and subterfuge from his new friend, but he became bitter. Now Xulan earns a living assassinating important drow... for a price.