Arachnalia: SickleYield Gets Freaky...

[SickleYield]

This is just the bare preliminary stages of a mod. Having successfully made and released an armor shop (Syntyche's Cavern), I'm going a little further with this next one. It's going to be a shop with clothes, armor, and weapons, and six new races. Four are now finished, and here are the screenies. I did the races first because the armor will be made to resemble/complement them. Most will probably have one set that fits their theme and then one set they can actually wear - vividly skinned characters don't match many things.

 

All of these races are made to resemble or suggest a type of spider I like. I will have at least two more races, but I'm not sure what. Black widows are cliched, but Mephala once had a black widow theme, which would give them a little more lore feel.

 

Their lore will involve Mephala amusing him/her/itself by transmuting them from their home dimension - which is all spiders - and their original forms to the humanoid ones they presently have. I'll ask CosmeticComp makers' permission to have one version of this mod merged with theirs for release to avoid compatibility problems. The filesize will be big enough I'll have to release it as a bsa anyway,

especially once I start adding new dialogue.

 

 

The Lyssomanid and Tarantula races:

 

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/6668/lystaranzl5.th.jpg

 

 

The Lyssomanes race is about normal-sized and the Tarantulas are much larger (of course). Lyssomanids are a slow and contemplative race, for Salticids, but they're still quite agile.

Tarantulas are very strong and not very quick. They're easy-going unless harassed and get along well with other races. Based on the genus Lyssomanes, green/red/yellow spiders that are

leggier and slower than other jumping spiders.

 

 

The Metaphids next to the Lyssomanids:

 

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/6905/metalysgv8.th.jpg

 

 

Metaphids are small, quick, aggressive, and curious (athletics and hand-to-hand are their areas of largest bonus). They are a more typical Salticid race and tend to be a little prickly, especially about their height. They don't normally get along well with Lyssomanids.

Based on the genus Metaphidippus, which is very common and which has many members with black/red/white geometrics. I wanted them to look furry, but the normal maps are too shiny and they'll probably look a little different in the final version.

 

 

Back tattoo detail on the Tarantulas:

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7567/tarabackfx4.th.jpg

 

I drew these silhouettes by hand. I'm no AlienSlof, sadly, but this is my first race mod so I'll probably get better. :)

 

 

 

Tarantulas, close front view:

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/2797/taraneyetu3.th.jpg

 

Again, the eyes and the patterns around them are designed to resemble the eye patterns of terrestrial Tarantulas.

 

 

Thomisid race, male and female:

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1594/thommjc1.th.jpg

 

 

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7601/thomfgb2.th.jpg

 

 

Thomisids are based on terrestrial crab spiders. They're a race of assassins and ambushers, specialized for stealth and having a strong poison attack and alchemy abilities.

Other races of Arachnalians tend to dislike and/or fear them. The patterns I gave them are meant to suggest the carapaces of white crab spiders like you'd see on white flowers.

 

 

None of these races have men much taller than their women. This is a compromise because real spiders nearly always have bigger females. :)

 

 

 

I don't expect a ton of interest for spider-oriented, more-freaky-than-sexy looking races, but I'm doing it for my own enjoyment.