First of the Kumoti

First of the Kumoti

**of Note**

Anansi was the first of Queen Ananasa’s Children, and many claim he remains the wisest. When the MotherQueen was captured by the Wyrm, it was Anansi who first found her and then tricked the Ovid into assisting in her release. Though the truth was lost a long time ago to legend, Anansi still takes the brunt of blame for triggering the First War of Rage, and for ending it for the other Ovid. His fellow werespiders hold him responsible for many of the Ananasi deaths that took place during that bloody war, but he is hailed as a hero because he managed to reestablish the contact between the Damhàn and their Mother-Queen.

Anansi is famous enough to live on in the myths of many people, a trickster god of wisdom and foolishness both. He is and has always been, a rarity among his people.

Anansi is said to still live today, moving through the world and watching over the Wyld places. He is known for his wisdom, his ferocity in battle, and his ability or recover from even the worst wounds inflicted. There are many who claim they’ve seen him at gatherings, but, of course, it’s impossible to be certain with a breed that can and often do change their appearance regularly.

Appendix Two: Loose Threads Real Spiders There is no way that we can give you all of the information about spiders that exists in the world today. There are volumes of books that are dedicated to the eight-legged sweethearts, and we have only this small space to give you some information. Still, we did want to hit some highlights to give you an idea what life from a spider’s perspective is like.

The information below isn’t highly technical, nor is it complete by any stretch of the imagination. This is simply a quick guide to give you some superficial facts about spiders. The idea is to give both players and Storytellers a chance to see what life is like from a smaller perspective. Use this information to enhance your character and your campaign, adding a touch of the real world to the World of Darkness. It isn’t meant to be the basis for any chronicle, but can help to flesh out any story.

The Anatomy of a Spider The spider is a member of the class Arachnidia, and is collectively known as the order Araneae. Other arachnids include ticks, mites and scorpions, but the term has become so closely associated with the spider that when a person hears the word “arachnid” he automatically pictures a tarantula or black widow.

A spider consists of two major body segments: the cephalothorax and the abdomen. The cephalothorax is the smaller front portion of the spider, which is covered on the top and bottom with a hard outer covering that protects it from attack. The abdomen is the softer, larger section in the Appendix Two: Loose Threads rear of the spider. The two sections are joined by a narrow waist, giving spiders that traditional bulbous appearance. It is also in the abdomen where the spinnerets are located — the organ that helps them extract and shape their webbing.

One of the most recognizable features on spiders are their eight legs. The legs of a spider vary in length, can have up to seven segments, and can even — in some cases — regenerate after being torn from their bodies. The shape and use of these legs can play an important role in naming and classifying the creature.

The cephalothorax is a complicated area. The common belief is that all spiders have eight eyes, but that isn’t the truth.

Spiders can have as many as eight eyes, but there are some that have fewer; there are many spiders that have only six eyes, and they have no problem seeing their prey. Unlike an insect’s eye, the spider’s eye isn’t multi-faceted; they see only one image from each eye. Their mouth is a fearsome thing, spawning many nightmares among children and adults alike.

The mouth of a spider consists of two parts: the chelicerae and the pedipalps. The chelicerae is the inner area of the jaw, used to crush the food before it is consumed. That’s right, they do eat their prey, though it has been softened and semi-digested by their toxic venom in many cases. That venom is delivered by the more disturbing mouthparts, the pedipalps. These fanglike appendages look similar to small legs, and have the openings that let the spider deliver the venom to its prey.

Spiders do indeed have lungs. There is a series of openings along the underside of the abdomen called book lungs, providing oxygen to the spider. There is also another organ called the spiracle located at the back of the abdomen that is connected to the trachea providing another avenue of air for the spider. Most true spiders have both book lungs and trachea, although some of the smallest have lost their book lungs, and some have two book lungs and no trachea.

The Life and Death of Spiders All spiders are born from eggs. Some gain more benefit from this than others, though, as there are some spiders that will guard the eggs up to the point that they hatch. Some wolf spiders even go so far as to carry their young on their backs until they are able to fend for themselves.

Once they have set off for themselves, they have to find food. All spiders are carnivores, and prefer to eat live food. So, the spider has to obtain his food, and they do that through hunting or trapping. The spider that everyone thinks of is a web-spinner, creating designs of silk that capture their food for them to eat. Not all spiders are web-spinners, and some simply hunt their food like any other beast of the world.

Where web-spinners use lures and traps, the hunting spiders use camouflage, speed, and power to attack and kill their prey.

Most spiders feed on insects, though there are some that feed on larger animals, such as fish, birds, lizards, and even snakes.

The spiders that feed on snakes will trap them in their webs, surround their head with silk, and then feed off the body for days on end. Spiders are perpetually on the lookout for a meal, but if the need arises they can go weeks between meals.

Growing up for a spider is a very relative term. The smallest spider on record, the Samoan moss spider, is just over three one-hundredths of an inch in diameter, while the largest, the giant bird-eating spider, can be ten inches in diameter. A spider continues to grow throughout its life, molting its endoskeleton up to ten times to make room for growth. They grow until they’ve reached a point where their exoskeletons are no longer large enough to support them, then simply crawl out of the old shell. A softer underlying shell expands and hardens to accommodate their new size.

More often than not, the old exoskeleton lies where it was discarded, and looks like a perfectly healthy spider that has simply died. No matter their size, the spider looks the same from birth to death, changing only in size, not in appearance.

As with all adults, there are times when the spider’s thoughts turn to romance. That might sound a bit odd, but there is something of a romance to many spiders’ mating rituals.

Some species bring gifts to prospective mates, hoping to win their approval. Others perform complex mating dances, showing their skill and grace to win over their would-be love. Still others serenade an attractive spider, hoping to win them over with the right sound. Once they have found that special someone, the spiders mate; the same fang-like appendages that deliver venom deliver the male spider’s sperm to the female, and then the little ones are on the way. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a universal practice for the female spider to attack and kill the male after mating. There are many male spiders that Ananasi die soon after mating, either as a result of a hungry female deciding they look good enough to eat (one of the reasons the Black Widow has earned her name), or because they have fulfilled their mating purpose and their internal clocks simply tell them it’s time to die. This is one of the areas where many male spiders don’t earn points in long lives. However, almost twice as many of the thousands of species do not suffer from this unusual problem. Many males live long productive lives.

To all things, there is an end, and for spiders that ending can be very harsh. The spider has many enemies, including birds, reptiles, mice, some insects, and their most dread foe, other spiders. Spiders are a cannibalistic bunch, and they will happily feed on each other if they can. The Padrone are an Ananasi analogue to the Portia spiders, which will attack other spiders in their own web, tricking them into thinking that they are trapped insects or other visitors. If they can survive the harsh reality of the world, the spiders can enjoy a full life — while it lasts. On average, spiders live about one to two years, but some species of tarantula live up to twenty-eight years — a long time in a difficult world.

Spiders Can Colonize Though there are literally thousands of different types of spiders, only seven types are known to actually colonize, staying together in groups ranging from a mere dozen or so to hundreds and in rare cases, thousands. The largest of these is the Australian funnel-web spider, an arachnid around the same size as a tarantula, with highly toxic venom, that often colonizes in gatherings of up to 100 members. No studies have yet discovered whether there is a hierarchy within these colonies.

Size Matters In most cases, the female of the species is larger and has a more toxic bite than the male, but there are exceptions. In the case of the Australian funnel-web spider, the male’s venom is over eight times more powerful than that of the female, and has caused comas and even death numerous times. In most cases the male spiders are more colorful than their female counterparts, likely because they are more expendable to the race than the females, who have to protect their young.

The Spider’s Web There are three basic types of spider webs: orb webs, sheet webs, and cobwebs. The cobweb is a random pattern of webbing, filling a space with material to capture anything that might try to fly or crawl through the space. A sheet web is a flat web that normally originates from a funnel, and is generally located close to the ground to capture anything that lands on the surface. Orb webs are the “classic” style of web, appearing as a series of concentric circles built on support strands that hold the structure. None of the webs is really more effective than the others, though for aesthetic purposes, none can compare with an orb web. The orb webs can be huge, and one species of spider in South America, the Nephilia, can weave orb webs that are up to eighteen feet across. These webs are so large and tough that some natives have used these webs Appendix Two: Loose Threads as fishing nets. One of the rare exceptions to the standard three types of webbing belongs to the net spider, which weaves a web and waits for its prey to get too close. It then literally throws out a web to catch its meal.

The elaborate designs of the webs have a very short life, and are rebuilt by the spider every day. One web with over one thousand separate attachments can be built by a spider in only half an hour. Not only are they artists, but they are efficient workers with excellent craftsmanship.

Many spiders actually recycle their old webbing, eating the old web and using the same proteins again in the new webs they produce. Orb spiders are known for this.

A spider’s web is incredibly durable. Though only one micrometer in diameter, the web has a stronger tensile strength than steel, and an incredible elasticity. Webbing is made entirely of protein, starting as a liquid in the spider’s abdomen and going through a chemical change to become the silky strands that the spider manipulates with the claws on the backs of his legs. There are several types of webs that one spider can create, with varying degrees of elasticity and stickiness. The web that a spider creates to capture prey is very durable and sticky. If viewed under an electron microscope, it appears to be mostly liquid, with a thin thread that folds back in on itself time and again. The web that a spider uses to create an egg sack, on the other hand, is made from a very soft, pliant webbing to keep the eggs warm and protected. Scientists have used the concept of this overlapping webbing to help create modern defenses like kevlar and similar woven products.

Other Fun Spider Facts • There are over 35,000 spider species that have been classified in the world, with more being discovered constantly. Scientists researching spiders have found up to 2.2 million spiders in one acre of grassy land, making them a very common neighbor.

• There are spiders that live in caves, trees, bushes, grasses, and even under water, but most are found living near water. There was even a spider found living on Mt. Everest at a height of 22,000 feet, making it the sole creature found living at the highest elevation in the world.

• Some common types of spiders are black widows, brown recluses, trapdoor spiders, tarantulas, fishing spiders, crab spiders, and jumping spiders. There are numerous subspecies of these types of spiders on almost every continent in the world.

• Spiders are usually thought of as hairy beasts, but they can be either hairy or smooth-skinned.

• Spider venom is very powerful. In the same volume, black widow venom is fifteen times more deadly than that of a rattlesnake. A scientist by the name of Professor W.J. Baerg who wanted to study the effects of spider venom on a person subjugated himself to multiple spider bites over a period of a few years. It took him hours to convince a tarantula to bite him, and, though the bite was painful, it had no other effect. The black widow bite he suffered a few months later put him in the hospital after only nine hours, where he remained under careful watch for three days. The venom of the widow isn’t even the most toxic in the world; that distinction belongs to the Brazilian wandering spider. What’s more, the venom of the Australian wolfspider is virulent enough to eat one centimeter of living skin a month — and there is no known medicine that can stop it.

• Spiders regenerate their limbs. If a spider loses a leg in combat or by accident, it will grow a replacement by the time it molts again. The new leg is sometimes smaller and weaker, but still functional.

• Tarantulas don’t use their fangs for defense, but shoot coarse hairs out of their body to sting attackers’ eyes and skin, causing severe irritation.

• The camouflage of some crab spiders is so amazing that it lets them change their outer color, much like a chameleon, when moving from plant to plant.

• Jumping spiders can clear a distance over 50 times their own length in a single leap.

• The den of the trapdoor spider is tight enough to hold out water, but sensitive enough to let the spider know when anything walks near the opening. The trap door spider hunts nocturnally, and the eyes of the spider will reflect light and glow red under a flashlight.

Use this information, and search out more information on your own, to enhance your chronicle in whatever way you see fit. Never let yourself get bogged down in the facts, but don’t ignore them completely. We hope that this quick guide will give you an idea of what life is like from a spider’s perspective. Crawl, don’t run, back into the meat of this book and get to work on your own arachnid life.

Clarifications: The Truth Behind Belief Contrary to what the Ananasi might want to believe, their worldview is just as skewed as that of the Garou, the Corax and the rest of the Ovid. They’ve gotten numerous things right, to be certain, but their lack of emotion has not stopped their perspective from leaning away from the “truths” of the World of Darkness. Below are some clarifications on the realities of the events the teachers in this book revealed to their students.

The Triat Actually, they pretty much got this one right. The Triat is messed up. The Weaver, the Wyrm and the Wyld are out of balance, which is precisely why there’s so much going on that’s wrong.

But that doesn’t mean they fully understand just what needs to be done to fix things. The Ananasi are trying to restore the order, but they don’t know just how that can be accomplished. The Balance they seek is not quite in their grasp, and the chances of them succeeding on their own are about the Ananasi same as the chances of the Get of Fenris adopting a policy of nonagression towards their foes. Despite their best efforts and their own delusions, the werespiders are not infallible.

The Weaver The Weaver does indeed seem to hold a partial grudge against the Ananasi, or, more precisely, against Ananasa.

The Ananasi get away with their dealings with Weaverspirits largely due to camouflage; most Net-spiders just aren’t savvy enough to tell the difference between a Pithus and another Weaver-spirit in spider form.

The Wyrm While the Damhàn might be able to see the forest, they often overlook the trees, at least as far as the Wyrm is concerned. Just as with all of the other Changing Breeds, the Ananasi are susceptible to the Wyrm’s influence and corruption. The difference is that they seldom let their instability show as easily. The unemotional mindset of the Ananasi doesn’t change when Wyrm corruption takes hold of them.

The only real change is the goals they seek to achieve. For the record, it’s not a question of if the Wyrm will corrupt Hatar, but a question of when. Friendly dealings with the Wyrm and its minions all but guarantee falling under the Wyrm’s sway eventually. Certain Gifts and rites can slow or prevent the corruption, but only if the Damhàn is aware of them (and his corruption). Just possibly, even the corruption of her Children is another part of Ananasa’s schemes.

Corrupted Hatar might not seem different on the outside, and their behavior could very well make their decisions seem as sane and rational as ever, but ultimately they’re likely to wind up aiding the Wyrm in its present incarnation, rather than helping the Wyrm achieve the goals it once had. Rather than seeking to maintain the Balance, fallen Hatar begin to corrupt others and to bring about negative changes instead of destroying the items, places and people they should in order to restore Symmetry to the universe.

The saddest part is, they never even realize they’ve been corrupted. The Wyrm’s long association with many of the Damhàn allows the Wyrm to work as subtly on the Ananasi as they in turn manage to work on the human population in general. They do not realize just how crafty the Wyrm can be, or how easily they can fall to the Corrupter’s influences.

They are, after all, an arrogant people.

The Wyld Following the Wyld is the job of every Kumoti. They must follow the philosophies of the Wyld’s chaotic nature, but that doesn’t mean they find the task easy. Most of the Ananasi are far too structured in their way of thinking to get comfortably behind the ideals of the Wyld without prodding and plenty of observation. For that reason, the Kumoti are the most likely of all the Damhàn to actually associate with other Ovid.

The rub here, is that most of the Changing Breeds just plain do not trust the Ananasi, and with good reason. The Appendix Two: Loose Threads Ananasi are first and foremost out for themselves and the ideals of their Mother-Queen. Even among the Ovid they befriend, there isn’t any true feeling or depth of emotion. The Patient Ones are also the distant ones. They just aren’t capable of joining with a pack the same way that others are. It isn’t in their nature. They can mimic a good friendship with the best of them, but they will never truly belong in the same way.

The Ananasi don’t suffer penalties for being by themselves; they aren’t social creatures. They have no need of others, save when the urge to mate comes over them, and even then they only need to sate their physical desire.

Unlike the Hatar, the Kumoti don’t suffer any profound effects for their service to the Wyld’s ideas — it’s just not powerful enough any more to have any noticeable effect.

They remain detached and unemotional.

The Kumo The Ananasi try to pretend that the Kumo are not a problem, just as people tend to think that the past isn’t really all that important, and that events half a world away won’t have an impact on them eventually. While the Damhàn might tend to believe the Kumo are insignificant in their lives, they are sadly mistaken. The Kumo know all too much about the Ananasi, and they aren’t afraid to use that knowledge to the best of their ability.

The Kumo are not quite the same as the Ananasi, not physically and certainly not mentally. The Kumo are far more chaotic in nature, more attuned to emotions and more malicious in their actions. That isn’t to say that the Damhàn are kinder, gentler creatures, merely more economical in their actions. The Kumo might decide to torture someone for the simple joy of torture; the Ananasi inevitably have an ulterior motive. One of the biggest differences between the two races physically is that Kumo can produce metis, while the by-product of any union between Ananasi is something a little different.

While there are physical and mental differences between the two groups, they are still closely related, and they are still doing what they believe is in the best interest of the race as a whole. Unfortunately, the Ananasi are largely convinced — wrongly — that the Kumo would never consider leaving Asia in order to accomplish that goal. The Kumo have long since moved away from their original homelands and infiltrated the Ananasi. They are sometimes caught and sometimes even destroyed, but they have no fear of the Damhàn. The Kumo serve their purpose too, and Ananasa doesn’t share her reasons with anyone.

There is a long history of mistrust and violence between the Damhàn and the Kumo. The differences in their cultures and beliefs prevent any real change in that history.

There is too much bad blood, too much bad history for them to ever reconcile.

The Kumo do serve Ananasa, but not in the same way that the Damhàn do. They serve to test and strengthen the rest of the Ananasi. They are a necessary obstacle that most of the werespiders think of as a minor inconvenience.

The Kumo do not acknowledge Ananasa in the same way, but presumably the conflicts they create with the Damhàn serve her purposes, just as everything else she does serves her purposes. This is only one of many secrets that Ananasa has kept from her children.

Queen Ananasa Queen Ananasa sits in her opal prison, and weaves her own plans. She does not respond to the ministrations of the Wyrm, neither do the threats of the Weaver nor the actions of the Wyld concern her overly much. They are currently only obstacles that stand in the way of her final goals.

Ananasa is not a standard Totem, though at present she can do little more than what a Totem does for any of the Ovid.

The Wyrm is her captor, and Ananasi legend holds that he is likewise her lover — although this latter is highly unlikely, considering how much impossibly more vast the Wyrm is. Ananasi is an Incarna, and still “small” enough to have something approaching a fathomable personality — the Wyrm is a Celestine, and big beyond any yardstick of human or shapeshifter sentiment.

The Weaver is a creature of meticulous ways, and is the perfect definition of anal retentive behavior. Nothing can ever be left to chance, and for that reason Weaver created Ananasa in the first place. Ananasa is not a servant of Weaver, despite her claims to be just that. She is a “back-up disk” of the Weaver.

Her entire purpose for being is, according to some Corax, to take the place of Weaver in the cosmic scheme of things should anything ever go wrong. The problem is, she really hasn’t been activated yet, because Weaver won’t permit it.

In Ananasa’s belief, everything that went wrong with the Weaver in the past could be mended if she could simply fulfill the function for which she was created. She believes that her sole purpose for being is to rectify everything that is wrong with the Triat. Unfortunately, she remains imprisoned.

Should she ever manage to get free, she will do everything she can to destroy the Weaver and take her place. At the current time, she isn’t strong enough to manage that task. The Weaver is growing stronger all the time, and even at her best, Ananasa isn’t nearly tough enough to take the Weaver on.

Still, her patience, cunning and manipulative skills make those of the Ananasi seem like the casual whims of amateurs.

She has trained them well, but has not taught her Children all of her secrets. Ananasa has many plans in motion, and only the smallest of them are known by her followers.

The simple fact of the matter is that Ananasa works on a very different time scale than anything mortal ever has.

She is patient, and she has all the time in the universe to set matters right — or so she figures.

When they are first brought into the fold, every Ananasi meets with an avatar of Queen Ananasa. The avatar is only manifested in the Sacred Caves, where all Ananasi are taken to learn of their heritage. Three separate teachers — one Tenere, Ananasi one Kumoti and one Hatar — must join together to form the body of the Mother-Queen’s avatar. The reason for this is simple: there can be no doubt in the minds of the werespiders that Ananasa is real, and very much active in their lives. The sight of the avatar is terrible, and has driven most of the few non-Ananasi who saw her to the brink of insanity. It takes a very strong will to gaze upon the avatar without being affected in some way. The Damhàn are resistant to the detrimental effects, simply because Ananasa wants them to be. They are affected, just the same. They are convinced beyond any doubt of the power and wisdom of the Mother-Queen.

Ananasa is indeed the guiding force behind the Ananasi, but she is not as kind as she would like most to think. Betrayal of her goals is enough cause for her to send one of her chosen to hunt down and destroy the werespider foolish enough to disobey her. She has several secrets she keeps from her children, not the least of which is the final fate of the metis created when one werespider mates with another. These metis are called the Atahsaia, and she has plans for them as well.

The Atahsaia The Atahsaia are metis, born of two werespiders mating.

They are not the same as their parents, and could never easily be mistaken for them. The Atahsaia are killing machines, pure and simple. They cannot easily assume a human form, their appetites are voracious, and they know nothing of kindness or pity.

When the Atahsaia are born, they hatch from the gigantic egg sacs that a werespider impregnated by another of her kind must employ. Once they’ve hatched — usually devouring any and all of their siblings, so that only the strongest survives — powerful Spider-spirits or elder Ananasi promptly take them away from their parents and carry them to a hidden location in the Deep Umbra. There they are allowed to mature, and using powerful rituals known only to a few carefully selected Damhàn, they are frozen in Amber, preserved for when they are needed. Ananasa herself is virtually the only creature these nightmares will communicate with. To all others, they are hostile to a fault.

Though the Ananasi might speak of these creatures, they know remarkably little about them. They are not considered a part of the Damhàn, because for all practical purposes, they are different breed entirely. The few who speak of the Atahsaia believe that the Mother-Queen has a special purpose in allowing their creation. They believe that when the time has come for the Mother-Queen to make her final moves in the elaborate game she plays to usurp the Triat, the Atahsaia will be her chosen warriors against any and all minions of the greater powers in the universe. Only time will tell if they are right.

Ananasi Colonies Ananasi do not normally work together, except when they are ordered to do so by Ananasa. There are exceptions, however, and they are becoming far more commonplace as times continue to change. The first colonies of Ananasi made themselves known in Mexico in the early 1800s, when the Hatar in the area started actively teaming up to defeat their brethren and anyone else who got in their way. Just who came up with the idea remains a mystery that has never been solved, but most Damhàn accept that the notion came from the Mother-Queen. It’s commonly accepted by the werespiders that Ananasa doesn’t tell them everything.

These days almost all of the werespiders in Mexico and South America are joined together in colonies, though some are far tighter in organization than others. The war between the factions of Ananasi in Mexico make it almost impossible for most of the Ananasi to feel comfortable without a few others of their kind to watch their backs.

Colonies are, by and large, loosely tied together. For the most part they go about their own business until they decide the time has come to work towards a common goal. More often than not, that goal is the continued existence of their species in a city where the vampires and the Garou have started getting too numerous for the werespiders’ collective comfort. Cities where the Sabbat vampires are prevalent, or where the Bone Gnawers and Glass Walkers are closer to “common” than usual are normally the most likely to have established colonies.

There are exceptions, of course. In certain areas it’s perfectly natural for the spiders to colonize. There isn’t a reason in the world why the Ananasi who come from such arachnid stock shouldn’t feel inclined towards the same goal. In the Amazon there are several colonies of werespiders.

Most of them remain deep in the rain forests, patiently waiting for the interlopers — Garou and Pentex alike — to come into their domains and try to start something the Damhàn are perfectly willing to finish. The war of the Amazon is a very real threat, but not to the degree that the Ananasi have felt obligated to choose sides. Some quietly work with Pentex, and others aid the Garou on the sly, preferring not to involve themselves too heavily with the werewolves and their insane politics.

Australia’s remaining Ananasi population — most of whom are in Melbourne and the surrounding vicinities — have long since joined together for protection. Something out there is hunting them, and doing its very best to destroy them all. Safety in numbers is a given for them. They are possibly the tightest knit colonies on the planet.

The politics within a colony are often hard to fathom.

There are no simply established leaders, and the pecking order can change from day to day. More often than not, the colonies choose their leaders for any given situation by deciding amongst themselves who is the most logical to head any given operation. Though, to be fair, rank does come into play in making that decision. Warriors lead in combat, and negotiators lead in business ventures. The werespiders are nothing if not calm about these matters. Once a decision is made, that individual is the leader, barring unusual circumstances.

Colonies are often short-lived gatherings, chosen by Ananasa for certain assignments. In the cases where the Mother-Queen has decided to gather a specific group together, all political and personal differences are set aside. The Appendix Two: Loose Threads Ananasi do not forget their conflicts, they merely set them on the back burner for the duration of the colony’s existence.

These temporary colonies serve a specific purpose and aim for a particular goal, to the exclusion of almost everything else. But once the mission has been accomplished, the kid gloves come off and a conflict or two is almost inevitable. Just the same, there are set and established rules of engagement that all of the Ananasi follow regarding any challenges made at the dissolution of a colony. The biggest rule is simply that a battle must be fought using cunning and physical prowess — no weapons permitted. Beyond that, there are no rules.

Colonies picked by Ananasa may come from any and all factions of the Triumvirate. It is fairly common to see Hatar, Kumoti and Tenere working together towards whatever goal Queen Ananasa has chosen for them. The naturally cool and detached mentality of the werespiders lends itself to their cooperation in these cases, keeping them from resuming their more usual hostilities with one another.

The Microcosm It’s a simple fact: the world is much bigger when you’re a spider than it is when you’re a human. For Ananasi the choice to live as a human or a gathering of spiders is a little more challenging. Almost every Ananasi will experience “downtime” sooner or later. They might choose a human life or they might choose to exist in the woods not far from the suburbs.

In the latter case, they are a part of the microcosm. It might not be the easiest thing for a Storyteller and player to handle, but the microcosm is an important factor in an Ananasi’s life.

The differences in size and scale can’t really be argued.

But the threats facing a spider are also a lot different than those that face a human. Spiders don’t worry about taxes, getting to the office on time or whether or not her aunt will like her birthday present. They deal with getting food, finding a safe place to put their web, and avoiding hungry birds, frogs and lizards. They deal with existence in the microcosm that becomes their world. Frankly, a chronicle set around that sort of setting could be very tasking: there aren’t really any political situations beyond eating, mating and sleeping from time to time. But there are possibilities for a story or two.

Just how you want to handle a microcosm chronicle is in your hands, but if you choose to go that route, the stories could be anything from an infestation of humans into the area — humans with machines and construction equipment or humans with farming implements and tools, either way, from the microcosm’s perspective, they are an infestation — to the changes brought about by a drought or a flood. Spiders don’t necessarily like to have their world changed. It’s inconvenient, especially if you’ve already set yourself up in a cushy place.

Weaver infestations need not take the form of human interference. Bees, ants, most insects that colonize, all have the sort of mentality that Weaver absolutely adores. They are unrelenting in their pursuit of what they want, from living space to food. Put enough ants into an area and there’s going to be trouble, especially if the ants look at the spider as another source having the buildings around you move of their own volition, and you might be able to grasp what humans must surely look like to spiders.

Now imagine being a human and becoming a spider, or more accurately a thousand or so spiders. The human mind and the arachnid mind were never meant to see the world from a thousand separate perspectives at one time. For that reason, and to reflect the changes it causes in the ability to fully comprehend the world around you, the following system should work well enough for reflecting the sudden change in perspective.

If the player decides to move her character into Crawlerling form she should choose the number of leader Crawlerlings she’ll be using. If the number is ten or less, there is no effect on her ability to react. If she chooses to break into more than ten leaders, there is a + 1 difficulty on all Perception rolls and Willpower rolls. This is cumulative, so if she decides on 15 leaders, there is a + 5 difficulty on all Perception and Willpower rolls as a result of the disorientation. Additionally, for ever 2 leaders above 10, there is a +1 difficulty on all Wits rolls; this too is cumulative.

Building from the Ground Up of food. By adding actual direct influence from Weaver, a plan to alter the natural balance in the area, you can have a bit of fun with the local spider population. An anthill isn’t a threat, but a hundred or a thousand of them is going to cause major changes.

Locust swarms are also going to change things, especially if they decide to eat every bit of greenery in an entire area.

Where the Weaver makes a move, the Wyrm is almost certainly soon to follow. Imagine the troubles Wyrm-tainted colonies of ants could cause in an area — especially if they begin mutating, or gaining a sinister directive to wipe out all that remains of the Wyld in an area.

One challenge to a microcosm could simply come from an Ananasi following a different aspect moving into the region. The Damhàn are rather territorial, and a civil war among the spiders could prove interesting, to say the least — especially because during “downtime” the werespiders might not be fully aware of what they are.

Memory Loss Losing a leader Crawlerling is a dangerous proposition. If it should happen, it’s in the hands of the Storyteller as to what exactly is destroyed. It could be childhood memories, or it could be very important skills. Think you’re damned good with a handgun? You won’t be if that portion of your brain goes missing and you have to learn it all over again. How about the ability to speak? Well, you’ll probably keep that, but you might not understand every word spoken to you, even in your native tongue. Each leader Crawlerling lost removes a hefty chunk of all your memories, including simple motor functions and important events in your life. You might have to learn to walk all over again, or you might need to wear Depends until you can relearn how to control your bladder. You might not remember how to feed yourself, or how to cook. You might not have the vaguest idea of what a car is, or any recollection about the Garou and other enemies you’ve encountered. Just as importantly, they will still remember you. Lose a leader Crawlerling and you just might forget that you killed somebody recently and were noticed in the act. You could even forget that you’re an Ananasi, and in the process, lose every Gift you’ve learned.

The Storyteller is encouraged to use the loss of a leader as an interesting tool in the telling of the chronicle, but Storytellers are also supposed to make certain you care for your leaders very well. If you lose one, you should likely come out of the experience with at least a few skills, Gifts and memories removed. Exactly what you lose in the process is entirely in the hands of the Storyteller (who is encouraged to be tough but fair in the matter).

The more leaders lost, the worse the recollection of simple skills and even the powers that Ananasa has gifted your character with. If you lose all of the leaders, you no longer have a viable character: You have a large collection of spiders, who will go their separate ways as quickly as they can.

Crawlerling Perspective For most spiders the world of humans is just too vast to comprehend. Imagine being in the heart of Manhattan and Ananasi With all of the disadvantages of being in Crawlerling form, it’s easy to ignore the biggest advantage of that shape.

The Crawlerling is a defensive dream come true. It’s damned hard to kill every spider in an Ananasi’s body, and unless someone gets very lucky it’s almost impossible to get all the leader Crawlerlings. “Oh, but you can use a bug bomb and get them all.” Sure. And by the time you’ve pulled the bomb from its wrappings and set it up, the spiders are probably gone — all of the important ones, at any rate. The aforementioned flamethrowers are wonderful too, but even with a big blast of burning fuel, the odds are one or two will escape. A smart Damhàn will take the leaders out of the way of combat and place them in any small place where they can fit. A crevice in the wall, or a corner under a sofa, or in a fold of an enemy’s clothing, all are acceptable places to hide.

But even if the main body of a werespider is destroyed. As long as the leader Crawlerlings are still around, all is not lost.

It’s just a matter of building back up the body mass. Initially, spider-born Ananasi must devour their way through a large number of other spiders to build up the mass needed to become a true werespider. The process sometimes takes years, because there are other predators that have to be avoided, and because not all spiders are willing to become dinner for the fledgling Ananasi. But once that goal has been accomplished the first time around, the werespider can summon additional spiders to regenerate. The same is true of a werespider who’s been reduced to one or two leader Crawlerlings. Using the right Gifts, or merely their hunting skills, they can build a new body in a matter of days or weeks. They know how to handle the process and they’ve likely had plenty of practice along the way. What are a few weeks in the grander scheme of things?

Ah, but there are other ways. The Ananasi doesn’t need to hunt down hundreds of spiders to rebuild her body, at least not when she can hunt down just one human. All Ananasi have a powerful sense of self-preservation, and most will do what they must to ensure their own survival. Unlike the other Ovid, they have an option that is radical and very effective.

They can take over another person completely, by entering the body of that person and eating the person’s entire mass.

How can one little spider eat an entire person? Not easily.

It takes timing, cunning and a serious desire to survive at any cost. The best time to catch a new body is while the current owner of that body is sound asleep. The Crawlerling must start by boring into the body of the target, preferably into the brain, where the gray matter, which is already softer than most flesh, can easily be consumed. This can be done with several different Gifts that most Ananasi already possess, such as Burrow. Once inside the brain, they must eat quickly. As spiders do not eat solid foods, they must liquefy even the soft tissues of the brain and then drink them down. Each bit of liquid they consume in this fashion immediately becomes a part of the Ananasi’s body mass. In a matter of an hour or so, an Ananasi can devour the entire brain of their victim.

At this point, the body should die, but that isn’t the case.

The Ananasi in the process of consuming a person in this fashion is helped along by the blessing of Ananasa. While consuming the brain, they extend a part of themselves out through the nerve clusters and take over the autonomic functions of the victim. This is effectively the same as becoming a leader and a drone Crawlerling all over again. The leader continues to eat, and the drone keeps the body going. Once the brain is gone and the drone has taken over the body functions, the leader begins feeding again, moving through the body and devouring flesh, assimilating that flesh and replacing it with more drones, until the entire body has been consumed. The entire process takes roughly four hours.

Once the body has been consumed the Ananasi has the body mass needed and can go on being an Ananasi, but with a few changes. First and foremost, the genetic makeup of the werespider has now been changed. Just as consuming different types of spiders can change the appearance of the werespider, so too the flesh of a human being. Where the Ananasi that infested and devoured a body might have been male, the new host could very well be female. Race, gender and human appearance will all be altered to match the new “host” of the Ananasi consciousness. This form of cannibalism has led to a rough sort of immortality for several of the Damhàn. It’s possible to escape from hunters and enemies in this fashion or simply to start a new life with a new identity.

The Ananasi do what they must, and few of them feel the least remorse for killing a human to have a new body, just as they feel no remorse for eating spiders to get bigger and stronger. It’s a simple matter of survival.

Perhaps the most unsettling side effect of this experience for the Anansi is that they also gain the memories of their victims in this fashion. The memories are seldom as vivid as the “true” life experiences of the invading werespider, but they can access those memories to ascertain who they Appendix Two: Loose Threads