Spiders

Spiders are an alien race from the distant planet Nilgocht, and are relatively new to Malhalla.

The Xeliopuge Bombardment is responsible for spider's prescence on the planet.

Where They Came From
Upon the cruel distant planet of Nilgocht, lies the forgotten planes: huge spider egg nests. The moon of Malhalla, Vinheilm is relatively close to Nilgocht. The Xeliopurge, an advanced space-age race from Vinheilm, once travelled to Nilgocht in research of resources, believing it to be abandoned. They got there and realized their predictions to be true. Reluctantly, the research craft flew back to Vinheilm with no more than a rock as a souvenier. Little did they know, that rock containted spider eggs. The egg hatched on the craft. The pilots, amidst the chaos, crashed upon the surface of Malhalla, an undiscovered planet (to them). The wreckage sat there for years, slowly being buried in sediment. Eventually, Titanium and spider eggs fossilized. The Gamma Radiation from Malhalla's Core caused the spider eggs to mutate enough to make them strong enough to hatch in the ground, and burrow out.

Role In Malhalla's Geography
They burrowed into deep rock. The cave systems in Malhalla we know today are scientificaly proven to be created by spiders. The Underworld; a spider safe-haven, was created by the queen spider, and her superior rock-eating abilities.

Unique Ability
Spiders have the power to scream at maximum decibals, causing the shatter of one's eardrums, for self-defense. They also have superior jumping abilities.

Health
Spiders can survive months on end without food of any kind, and heavily rely on fossilized remains found in andesite, and adventurers. Spiders are known to ingest valuable items from adventurers without realizing it, and continue to hold them in their bodies for weeks before fully digesting them.

Behavior
Since they are almost ALWAYS hungry, due to severe deprivation of food, they seem to kill & eat just about anything they can get their hairy hands on. Slashing open the belly of a spider often yields plenty of non-food items, some very valuable. They will see themselves as whatever they were raised by. If they were raised by a human, they would think they were human, too.

Intelligence
While they mostly act on instinct, they can sometimes, if trained right, make decisions based on rational reasoning. They are not as smart as Orcs, but are still rather intelligent considering that they are feral.

History
The spiders came to Malhalla during the Black Smoke Era.

Role in Society
Although considered as a myth by most residents, spiders have been recognized by The Kingdom as a viable and very real threat. Most adventurers know to watch themselves in & around caves because of spider's threatening possible prescence.

Crixus
Crixus finds the spiders to be wonderous; a dark, twisted mystery waiting to be unravelled.