Sorrow-Spiders

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Revision as of 03:40, 28 July 2019 by Avid Perfectionist (talk | contribs) (don't let the sorrow-spiders bite!)

These little charmers sneak into the bedrooms of sleepers and bite their eyes off. They take them back to their nests and do...what? No-one's actually seen them eating the stolen eyes.

File:SorrowSpider.png
Consider a sleep-mask. Art from FL.

That old saying that spiders drink your tears when you sleep? Sorrow-spiders rip out the whole eye. Sweet dreams!

Burn the Whole City Down

Sorrow-spiders are horrific arachnids that grow to about the size of a cat. They infest quite a few corners of London, to the point that the Department of Menace Eradication often pays handsomely for sacks full of spider legs. Rooms full of sorrow-spiders are sometimes used for executions, especially for unfortunate players of the Great Game. The landlord of the Blind Helmsmen runs a spider-pit, where Londoners place their bets as spiders fight to the death. It turns out that sorrow-spiders can actually be tamed; apparently they can be quite intelligent and prone to ambition. Now, what is their ambition...

Spider-Councils

"Sorrow-spiders are already repulsive. Spider-councils are what happens when sorrow-spiders go bad."

Your dreams just got a lot sweeter.

Every now and a bunch of sorrow-spiders come together and combine to form a hulking spider-council. These monsters can grow even larger than a horse, and they often fester in the crypts of abandoned buildings. As it turns out, the sorrow-spiders actually bring these monsters stolen eyes, in which they lay their eggs. Spider-councils seem to value the eyes of those "blessed" with the Correspondence in particular. Also, they talk. A smooth, silky contralto, as one would expect.

There's no particular limit to how big these things can grow, all they need is more and more spiders. Well, okay, there is a limit, namely the that there can be only so many spiders in a spider-council before it becomes a threat to the gods themselves. These planet-sized groupings are called spider-senates.

Saviour's Rocks

"The sound of their constant motion is like pebbles on a beach..."

Saviour's Rocks is the largest grouping of sorrow-spiders in the Neath. The few humans living in the Nativity, the only human settlement here, refuse to speak of spiders, only referring to them as their "generous neighbors of whom they will speak no ill." The sorrow-spiders see and hear everything, and those who transgress are soundly punished. On occasion, people may venture into the pitch-dark Scuttering Reaches to gather silk in preparation for the festivities.

The inhabitants of the Rocks are divided into two groups based on gender, Weavers (women) and Widows (men), both of whom avidly worship the sorrow-spiders. Luckily for visitors, the spiders follow a form of guest right called the Accord of Grace, which usually lets visitors commune with the humans here unscathed. Usually. Silk traders are common here, but they're notoriously tight-lipped and artificial, arguably even robotic. Fitting for a settlement that would give Orwell night terrors.

The Emissary of Spiders

The main human contact in this retched place is the rather passive-aggressive Emissary of Spiders, who, of course, lacks eyes. Despite his lack of sight, he's well informed and is willing to conduct business with zee-captains. He acts as the "mouth" of the spider-council here, and he also occasionally acts a tour-guide for visitors.

The Festival of Silk is the much awaited annual event where the inhabitants of the Rocks can finally set loose and have a good time. When it ends however, the people go back to their colorless lives.

Nearby the Rocks lies the wreck of the Nocturne, a ship that was webbed up and emptied by the spiders.

Webbed Secrets

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously."

Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution.

You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.


"...through the glass now I could see what lay at the meeting-point of its faces: thousands upon thousands of spider-eyes, champing spider-fangs, fused together like wax. A spider-council! but one of unprecedented size, and crammed strangely into a hybrid ship. It could only be the Tree of Ages: and the first day of our flight began..."

"Branches of webs hang in their thousands from the colossal statue of some being as far from an angel as an angel from a man. The spider-council has made its home in the chipped out eyes, surrounded by its lessers and a precious collection of ensnared unfortunates. Hundreds of these captives dangle in silk cocoons, the sane and still-living tended to just enough to serve their full measure of both use and suffering."

The Trees of the Rocks

The spiders here formed an alliance with an Avaricious Lorn-Fluke. The Fluke would blind a zee-beast that knows the Correspondence, and the spiders would give it troves of secrets in return.

The group of islands that make up Saviour's Rocks is guarded by the Tree of Ages, a living ship of huge spider-councils, made from a complex series of deals the spiders struck and betrayed. Eventually, they seek to become the Tree of Epochs, which will "stretch through the Neath to become the perfect geometry of sorrow".

Another council is the Tree of Seasons, which is smaller but arguably even worse. The Tree of Seasons resides within the Web of Stone, which is also home to various eyeless cultists. It is in possession of several unfortunate beings who remain trapped within cocoons, their only refuge being death itself.