Auratic

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Following document requires class-1 clearance to view. Original document has been archived. Any copies are to be destroyed after viewing. Any unauthorized personnel that interact with any of the documents are to be exterminated with extreme prejudice by the decree of the Royal Spymaster -  Echo.
- director of ACE¹Agency of Counter-Espionage/Intelligence. Sometimes called the CIA or Counter Intelligence Agency. Not to be confused with the central intelligence agency of the US. I really wanted to make the acronym to somehow read as ‘DICK’ but lacked the necessary creativity.

Following is curated information from a larger document.

Regarding my Familiars

My familiars are all from a different species, though recently their numbers have grown more than I remember conjuring. Seems that they use parthenogenesis often to make up for any lack of manpower. But the first ten, they have a special significance to me… even as more and more are conjured. They are kind of like an ambassador/leader of their species.

Alfred (Alpha) Nobel.

Species: A.artifices de moiras, formerly a Hex Weaver (A.magicae) Common name: Architect of fate, Fateweaver.

A leader to the leader, I created her for the purpose of her being the head girl. To unite others to a single purpose. I don’t know why I decided that was the name best suited for her, but at the time it made sense to me. Who else but the founder of the nobel prizes would best lead the others? But what I didn’t give her is that overwhelming sass that she gives me at every opportunity. That is something that she had from the moment of her creation and didn’t lose since. Despite her retorts, she is competent, sometimes to a fault. Has quite the sick sense of humor, cynical even. She can be unsympathetic and callous at times especially to those that do not present an immediate value to her plans and I cannot blame her for that, she was a monster, a predator devoid of human values. It is a wonder that she even has the will and capability to learn my sense of morality. She resembles us the most, both physically and in the way she thinks. After all, she was with us the longest. And she is the most in tune with the void among all others I’ve seen…

John (Beta) Browning. Alias; Moses

Species: A.tyrannus. Common name: Jungle tyrant.

Stoic and hulking Araneae largest in terms of weight. She doesn’t speak often. Not because she’s incapable of it, no she can be appreciably eloquent if she wants to be. She simply prefers to remain silent and listen. Her Araneae form is enormous, larger than any of the other Araneae we’ve conjured, no wonder her common name is a Tyrant. She lacks any distinguishing features otherwise, like the web spinning of the crypt weavers or the agility of the huntresses. But to make up for it she has the greatest raw statistics out of them all. Simply put, she’s stronger and faster than any of them, the only exception being Alice and I together. Though she does seem to lack the imagination and acuity needed for complex magic. But once again she makes up for it in her ingenuity. She is an excellent smith - specifically a gunsmith. Wasn’t created like that but became one to fit into the shoes of her name. Browning drew his last breath in a workshop behind a desk working on a gun. She shares the same talent and the passion for guns. Even if she doesn’t need a weapon like a gun to pulverise a man in full plate armor like a highschooler crushing a tin can just because. Canned human anyone…?

She produces the weakest venoms but I think the envenomation is the least of anyone’s worries considering her fangs can pretty much tear through anything given enough time. The prerequisite for her was the reinforced exoskeleton educement. And reinforced her carapace is. Even her molts, exoskeletal shedding that has dried up, hardened and became brittle with exsiccation has shown considerable protective capabilities. She shows a craftsman’s mindset which I can respect…

Charles (Charlie) Darwin.

Species: A.venatrix. Common name: Mother of the hunt, The Huntress.

Looks like a child in their humanoid form. Acts like a child in their humanoid form. You would think they are just a child if you didn’t know any better. Best not to be fooled, they are mature and deadly as any other Araneae I know of. They play into their juvenile appearances to earn trust of unsuspecting prey, making them think she’s not a threat. And this trait is not just exclusive to Charlie, all of her species is like this. They have the same terrifying mobility as they did as a jumping spider even in their humanoid form. They can literally run circles around you while stinging you with venomous bites, talk about an anklebiter. The combination of their small physique, extraordinary agility, phenomenal stealth, superb eyesight and natural inquisitiveness make for effective spies and assassins. Naturally that meant Alpha primarily used them for reconnoitre and interception assignments. People do not usually suspect children, thinking them as oblivious to the world around them, the huntresses use this misconception well to their advantage. They know just the way to talk and act to endear you to spill a little extra tidbit of information they need, before sinking their fangs into your neck. I think they're natural psychopaths. They act like they care, know what to say, making ‘friends’ with others is a literal child’s play to them. They use others without having them even suspecting a thing that they’re being used and cut ties and discards them when they hold no more value. A natural charmer but is ruthless as any other Araneae; people are just an amusing toy or a pet to them. Still I think there’s some compassion in them. I’ve seen them act… like their appearance when entertaining the twins, like a genuine child innocent to the world. Especially Charlie, she likes to insist that she’s their older sister, even though their height difference widens every day… And complains to me when the twins don’t listen to her the way they used to… I can’t help but ask her ‘what are you doing…?’ from time to time…

Dyson (Delta) Freeman

Species: A.speleaus. Common name: Cave creeper, Cave-Crab demon

The largest in terms of dimension and leg span. When taking a human form she is exceptionally tall and slender. She is extremely fast. I guess those long legs aren’t just for show but she does lack a delicate touch compared to Charlie. Or rather Charlie makes her seem flat out clumsy. Doesn’t mean that she is. But what she isn’t is an eagle eye. Due to their natural, subterranean habitat and lifestyle they have poor eyesight compared to the others with a tendency to miss something if it doesn’t move, mostly inanimate objects. To make up for their lacking sight, their sense of pallesthesia is perhaps the most refined, barely coming short of Alice and I. And in certain nuanced areas Delta might even beat us.

In her Araneae form, she is more wide than she is tall, with her legs having spine-like protrusions for both protection and sensory aid. Despite how frail she looks she is the second strongest in terms of raw statistics, below the Tyrannus species. While the Tyrants are all out brawlers, the Creepers are more of an area control fighters. Unlike the tyrants, despite appearing to be large, they can become quite flat if needed, being able to fit into small spaces like cracks, crevices and openings common in underground caves. Using their speed they quickly close the distance and surround the threat with her legs in something like a crescent moon shape, creating her own combat arena. Anything caged between their legs loses ground slowly as they tighten the noose around them, before being devoured by their fangs. Regardless of how flimsy they look, their legs are extremely resistant to damage and possess a deceitful strength. If one thinks that they’re clever and tries to fly or jump out of the cage they are in for another surprise. The creepers can pounce incredibly high up into the air. Though they can’t jump as far or frequently as the huntresses, this ability of theirs should not be underestimated. They don’t show this ability of theirs often, it is almost like they want you to jump and show you just how wrong you were thinking that you can escape. They act almost like an Iron maiden, I mean their legs are spiked after all. Delta unfortunately does not have much else to offer other than being a muscle. But she is excellent in exploring dungeons, caves and mines, often seen hanging around with Gustave and learning a thing or two from her.

Erwin (Echo) Schrödinger.

Species: A.ypnotizon. Common name: Mesmer. The illusionist. Aspect of Death. Mirror demon. The Hypnotist.

While all my Araneae share my lack of subdued coloration, namely with predominant whites, Mesmers are unique even among them. Anatomically they are not different from the common araneae but there are unusual characteristics about them. Their humanoid forms and their carapace are translucent. Given a little bit of luck you can even see their organs through their exoskeleton. With the right lighting condition and the correct angle sometimes you can see right through them. They have perhaps the most powerful stealth ability of any of my Araneae, through active use of their Camouflage they can effectively render themselves completely invisible in the visible color spectrum. According to Alma that is  just scratching the surface, they can also become invisible in infrared, ultra violet and even X-ray spectrums. Well not completely invisible but they can willingly absorb and or reflect certain wavelengths of radiation to make themselves obscure with disruptive patterns. Unfortunately I do not have the tools or means to verify these abilities of theirs. I would love to see them in action. This is not without a fault though they can’t become invisible in two different wavelengths. If they choose to be invisible in the infrared, they can be perceived in ultraviolet light. Different types of perceptions still can track them as well, such as all too common, pallesthesia among other Araneae. Furthermore, these active camouflages are remarkably energy intensive meaning that they cannot maintain their invisibility for long. Echo seems to be an exception though. Still it is an impressive versatility that they have. Mesmers have reflective plates all around their flexible abdomen which they can raise and fan out like a peacock. Their abdomen often appears as some sort of crystal or a reflective mirror. Their exoskeleton is extremely resistant to external magic. Combining their magic with their own metachromatic displays they can show hypnotizing prismatic patterns that can… well mesmerize an adversary. That’s probably where their common name comes from. While to me it is a little more than a photosensitive seizure inducing screen, to others it seems to be an irresistibly alluring display that invariably pulls prey in. And thanks to magic it is even effective to those that do not even have visual organs. Quite a bipolar species they are. One moment they want to hide so much that they can turn invisible, the next moment they’re a diva that wants every bit of your attention. Evolution, make up your mind.

 It seems that their colorful displays first evolved as a camouflage, then into a courtship ritual thing and then lastly into a weapon to hunt. Unfortunately I appear to be immune to the adverse effects of their mesmerism due to Kindred’s Protection. The First time I'm being disappointed with it, but with all that it has done for me, I can’t complain either. But asking for those that have made out of  Echo’s interrogation alive, the victims don’t even notice what is wrong with them, even if they were being consumed by a monstrous spider chewing on their innards. For more milder cases, it was described as the most beautiful yet terrifying things that they’ve ever seen. Their mesmerism combined with my gifts from the void make them terrifying masters of manipulation. They’re one of the few species that have the potential to learn Domination, Whispers and Cold reader without any extra help on my part. With such talents they have, Alpha has created some sort of internal intelligence unit, with Echo as their head. In the public they’re called Enforcers or something like that. Doing immigration control and border patrols. I don’t envy any spies sent to tune in on us.

Echo is also a strange individual herself. She can often be found spacing out staring at something. To someone who doesn’t know her, she can look a little loony. I don’t know when but she has developed a bad habit of dunking her head inside the void for extended periods of time. Since the rifts created by the void are imperceivable to those not in tune with it, few girls fainted thinking that she was headless Araneae seeking vengeance or something. She often comes out either on the cusp of enlightenment spouting some deep philosophical quotes or coming out thinking that she is the Kaiserin of the Holy Grandbunny Empire and someone has stolen her sweet roll. Again. Bipolar. It doesn’t take long for her to snap out of it so I don’t mind her weirdness that much. Those episodes can be amusing at times, if it doesn’t freak you out first. Like the last time when she thought we were being invaded by an army of sea monsters. Other times she speaks of glimpses of the unworldly nature of the void. A sea of blackness composed of void spirits, ever in flux, flowing slipping into worlds unknown. Crumbling islands sailing the endless emptiness. The incessant whistling winds, delirious whispers that tell thousand different tales about the end of the world. We feel justified, Alice and I, that we’re not the only ones that endure its insanity…

The molts of the mesmers retain some of their camouflaging abilities, I think with some processing we can make a cloaking attire that deflect magical projectiles or something that mimics the natural disruptive patterns of the Mesmers to create an all environment camouflaging uniform. I think Faenas and the ranger corps would love something like that, that doesn’t restrict their movements. Moreover some intact parts of their molt have some unique light refracting properties that could be used to make something like a telescope. I just need to casually recreate the multiple breakthroughs mankind had with telescopes just a few centuries earlier than intended, talk about tall order… More importantly it could help with creating a functional telescopic sight later on for the rifles. Not that Rangers need it, they’re a deadeye even without the irons, but the new human recruits definitely will. Maybe I could just make a circular glass with a red dot painted in its middle, call it a day…

Gustave (Gamma) Eiffel

Species: A.enedra. Common name: The Dungeon master. The burrow master. Ambush Demon. Earthen spider demon.

Finally~! An Araneae that is truly my kindred! Well that would be a bit unfair to everyone else who has been with me as loyal as the waves are to the cliffs… But they’re natural engineers, Structural engineers at least. The dungeon masters are a type of Araneae that is most likely named after their tendency to create elaborate, underground networks of tunnels as opposed to an overground web. They create many twists, turns, dead ends and divergent and convergent paths in their tunnels that only they themselves can really navigate efficiently, hence the dungeon part of their name. It serves to prevent any invaders from ever reaching the Dungeon master, draining the stamina and willpower of any that carelessly step into their domain as it is very easy to get lost in their tunnels. Those that perish due to starvation or weakened due to malnutrition and fatigue become an easy meal for the Ambush demons, netting them a nice passive income of food. These tunnels can be deep as they are willing to make it, as their name suggests, they have natural talent for Earth magic, Gamma, with the help from her daughters, seems to have made tunnels hundreds meters deep, spanning dozens of kilometers wide below the forest. An undercity of spiders and ants. Too bad, for the outsiders it can only be traversed with the help of the navigation services provided by one of the Dungeon masters, humans can’t exactly scale ninety degree walls, crawl upside down on the walls, or are flexible squeeze through ridiculously small crevices or survive 30 meter falls for that matter. That is considering that the humans are willing to cope with the utter darkness that dominates most of their tunnels.

Using their earthen magic they can easily loosen the toughest of bedrock into fine dust before… well slowly consuming them. In nature that is. Gamma and her daughters seem to just dump the excess soil into the void. If I ever needed to make a mountain, for whatever reason, I think I know just the right person to ask, I guess. But they also harden the earth around them that supports their tunnels with both magic and their own personal touch of silk. At first I wondered why they were called dungeon masters but it seems that before their species practically went extinct, the wild counterparts of my ‘Dungeon masters’ would create such tunnels that they can’t maintain all parts of it and would regularly abandon large sections of it. Monsters find the derelict entrances to their abandoned tunnels, see it as a perfectly fine shelter and move in, and before you know it, it’s a monster infested dungeon.

Their second name, the ambush demon or simply the ambusher seem to come from their active method of hunting. They create a spider hole, with its top entrance closed off by a fitting rock, slate or cool looking tree bark or whatever creating an inconspicuous hatch that hides the entrance to their burrow. Surrounding this entrance there is an almost invisible, extremely thin layer of silk that acts as their eyes and ears overground while they remain hidden underground. Any unsuspecting prey that wanders too close to one of the tunnel entrances the Ambusher was listening in on is quickly pounced on, envenomated and dragged into their dark tunnels.

Gustave and all her daughters have an excellent sense of structural engineering and are competent with any type of construction or infrastructural work see how well they handled the sewer system and aqueducts. It is just that… they are simply uninterested in overground constructions. If they focused their talents on something other than tunnels they could create towns and cities in just months. It feels like a hostage negotiation with a terrorist trying to convince them to help me with the construction of even the simplest of projects. It is in their nature to be an undergrounder I suppose. I don’t have it in me, nor will I ever force them to work for me if they don’t want to, sometimes they do throw me a free bone every now and then. Surprisingly cooperative when they do, I guess that they feel duty bound to help me on occasions. I appreciate those few moments.

Gamma’s species are the second smallest, next to the huntresses. Though not as childlike as they are, they appear exceptionally petite in stature, between an old middle schooler to an highschooler who is somewhat vertically challenged compared to their peers. Unlike the huntresses, they completely lack the charm and acting the former possess, nor do they play into their young looking forms. Often correcting and insisting that they are mature. While technically, yes they are mature, as their spider form, but that doesn’t seem to fully translate into their hybrid or human forms. That being said even in their spider forms they are… to put it kindly, compressed? It’s hard not to adore their small forms but different from the huntresses they do not particularly enjoy that type of attention. Gamma, her daughters and all the other Dungeons masters have an interesting dialect and a style of speech, not found in the others. When the subject is raised to them they appear baffled and see no problem with their speech.

Isaac (Indigo) Newton.

Species: A.setapiso. Common name: The Bristleback spider. The quill spraying spider.

Much like the Mesmers, the bristlebacks have turned their defense into an effective weapon. Much of their body is covered in thin but dense bristles, which contributes to their outward appearance of looking large and intimidating. If the Araneae is calm their bristles will relax as well and droop down, and conform to the shape of their bodies. Conversely if they feel threatened all of the hairs on their body will stand up, quite literally. Only about half of the bristles are exposed, the other half is burrowed underneath their bodies, the deepest of them are located in the area around their abdomen. The exposed part of their bristles also sport small branching structures. They can grow their bristles like that of barbs for getting stuck into the aggressor and hindering them or like that of serrations, able to dig deep into flesh and tear up blood vessels. Those external branches have hollow interiors able to carry venom if they deem it necessary to fill it up with it. The length of their bristles are about anywhere between fifty centimeters to little over three meters, averaging around two meters. Much like the spears and javelins used by the trolls.

It might be intuitive to think that their bristles are for protection, while one wouldn’t be wrong to assume that there's more to it than just being a spiky ball that protects you. Or that they can only launch their bristles backwards since it's in their name. Their abdomen is abundantly flexible and manoeuvrable than they would seem from their immense size though still heavy, they possess the necessary strength needed to easily and quite readily raise their abdomens high in the air allowing for omnidirectional attack. For a spider called the bristleback, it seems that they have no back to stab them in. Their bristles are their primary means of attack, more so than their fangs. Unlike the trolls the Bristleback will win any olympic javelin throwing competition in both range, speed and devastation. The educement needed for the bristlebacks were something like pressurized glands… Those glands beneath their abdomen can launch the bristles at extreme initial velocity, although inaccurate at longer distances they can launch their bristles at upwards of three hundred meters, if not more. While I do think I’m good at eyeballing certain distances, I lack the tools needed to accurately measure them unfortunately. With the mass and size of their bristles comparable to that of a ballista bolt, it is more apt to call them a living siege weapon than a spider. Unlike a ballista crew, or an entire platoon of ballista crew, they can rain bristles down faster than. Their magic is mostly used for pressurizing the glands and regrowing launched bristles. Most of them can sustain their assault for about 60-90 seconds before their fire rate declines noticeably. It should also be noted that their newer, fresher bristles are slightly shorter and less firm than old ones that’s been growing for a while. But it only takes about an hour for the fresh bristles to mature and harden.

Indigo seems to be an exception where she can maintain her barrage of bristles indefinitely. While the serrated and barbed are the two primary bristle types, there is a clever third one. The entirely hollow bristles. These bristles are significantly lighter and can fly farther than the others, owing to a lack of internal structural integrity other than the strut-like substance that links the walls, they are largely brittle and shatter on impact. While this might seem like an ineffective weapon, the resulting shrapnel splinters are still as tough as the real thing and since they fly much faster, despite lacking mass, the additional kinetic energy will still make them hit hard. Interesting detail I noticed is that the bristleback can fill in these hollow bristles with inorganic substances such as solids, fine granules and even liquids. The additional weight of the substances will affect the range and speed but… they could theoretically fill their bristles with gunpowder if provided. This would turn them from siege weapons to rocket artillery if conceived properly. Keyword there being, properly. Filling them up with explosives seems like a terrible idea and easy vulnerability to exploit. Small spark and you’ll have the most horrifying accident involving spines and internal organs. Until I find a way to safely facilitate such a process I refuse to allow any explosive, flammable or otherwise sensitive material into their bodies. I may be less human now than ever but there are some lines I will never cross so long as my mind remains sane. Even if they are disturbingly fine with packing themselves chock full of explosives and running at whatever enemy they come across. Especially Indigo. I’m just trying to make things better around here, not to create domestic terrorists and suicide bombers.

Nikolai (November) Tesla

Species: A.hypogeum. Common name: Crypt Weaver.

Quiet, reserved and surprisingly caring. The crypt weavers are isolationists by nature but don't dislike company as much as expected. They are quite creative when it comes to sewing and designing more… aesthetic side of things. The Weavers are the civil engineers among the spiders. They build, rebuild and maintain web networks, clean up intruders that get stuck in their webs and cocoon them for later consumption, the daily stuff. However with the newfound understanding of enchantment methods provided by our new associate, they have turned into artificers and armorsmiths, weaving in various useful magical features into everyday objects. They have also taken to helping me with construction projects, even if they make questionable decisions every now and then.

When I first gave November her name I did not expect her to take it seriously. But just to live up the shoes of her name, she has developed a firm grasp of electricity and its related magic. Though it seems that it was not by theory but rather, intuition alone. Her use of Lightning magic is unique in that she has a completely different approach to the conventional wisdom. It is her obsession to create a network of web that connects pretty much everything. Sitting in the middle of her web she sends precise electrical currents through the silk, using it as a conductor, or a copper wire in this case. She also seemed to have learned a thing or two from Victor. Although it might seem that she’s creating some sort of elaborate fly zapper this way, her control over the currents are so accurate that she can selectively shock targets while sparing allies of electrocution. Being a Crypt weaver she has much more of an understanding of vibrations carried across webs and as a result she can surgically zap intruders before they even knew that they were trespassing. November is markedly eccentric though even among others of her species, since the discovery of her Lightning magic she has gotten a morbid interest in shocking her prey, often at convulsive levels before frying them. She is fascinated with the electrical impulses of nervous systems… being overloaded, how the muscle spasms, how she can manipulate their limbs with just her lightning magic alone. It seems that she always had this rather disturbing interest as the venoms, specifically neurotoxic ones often have the same results just at a slower rate. Despite her concerning interests, she is still somewhat reserved and docile as any other of my Araneae and besides my worries… innocent? She seems to be driven only by curiosity and not by malice… not often at least. If anybody were to inconvenience me in the slightest, she would very aggressively solicit them into her experiments, often involving high voltages and excessive amperes. If I needed a technician… a very electroshock therapy pro technician, November would do nicely.

Paxton (Priest) Joseph

Species: A.perniciosa. Common name: The Bride of Death. The Toxic Temptress.

Setting aside their concerning names they are surprisingly considerate. Lacking any notable traits other than their production of extreme potent venoms, Priest and her subordinates seemed to have picked up on the pharmaceutical side of their venom. Although nothing like the synthesized compounds created by Alma, they proved to be much more effective than the bootleg alchemy that it is, which helped them quickly establish themselves as fairly competent apothecaries.

Paxton is quite caring towards others despite having access to venom that can kill pretty much anything that moves several times over. Though I refuse to try out her potions. I know what's in it, I'm still not keen on chugging down a bottle of spider vomit mixed with whatever weed she found outside and put together in a beaker and simmered for a few hours. She has started to be more known as Priest among the newcomers rather than her actual name, probably due to the healing services she provides. Though it may have gotten bit into her head as I  once caught her proselytizing her patients into worshiping me as their religious icon. Had to put a stop to that and forbid it entirely. I already have the trolls to deal with, I don't need more. Besides, it can't be a good idea to randomly convert people out of nowhere. Sounds like just asking for trouble. She also took to the old witch doctor to learn a few tricks. She might actually become a priestess at this rate. She's never trying out her new formulas on people, not on my watch, not before testing it on rats.

Victoria (Victor) Alexandria

Species: A.reteiactus. Common name: Webslinger, The net caster.

Physically the netcasters are indistinct from the other Araneae species sharing the same freckled pattern but other than that only, their smooth exoskeletons and their six eyes stand out. As a characteristic they have slow amble gait with purpose and the obvious ability to more or less shoot web from a distance. With the addition of the Exoskeletal reformation, they can now contort their bodies to shoot mass of web ahead or behind. The orbicular mass of web is held together by a special strand of silk similar to those used in draglines, but are structurally weak which then allows it to snap on collision strewing paralysing strands of reticulation all over the impact area. These web shots differ from their primary silk spray from their fangs by being more condensed and are able to be flung at a much distant target than before, allowing them to immobilize, debilitate and disable targets from a greater distance.

With minor modification to the composition they can make these silk shots deploy prematurely during flight, creating something like a net shot that can capture targets in the air. The webslingers seem to make it a sport to shoot down birds with their new silk ball. Not for consumption, but for the fun of it it seems. I hope the Forest’s ecosystem isn’t too affected by their sport. As a positive side effect, we have an abundance of fowl now… Victor herself isn’t too different from her peers, as in she reacts a little slowly to stimulus: unless it is a threat to herself or to me, then you can see how freakishly fast she can move. Besides that it seems their species as a whole is quite… carefree and short-spoken. It seems that their evolutionary mutations favored them to be on the  slightly slower side; however, due to Kindred pumping up their agility statistics whether they liked it or not, they can appear decidedly disturbing at high speeds. They already look alien without it. Now imagine that alien, shooting you down with a punch of web from nowhere and then approaching you at around approximately 88kmph fangs bared dripping with citrine venom. Most of the Araneae with the exception of the Tyrants and the Creepers don’t make much sound when… sprinting at high speeds, the same holds true for the Webslingers. I think their soundless approach makes them even more terrifying.

On a lighter note, Victor or one of her species are quite good at ensnaring the twins if they try anything mischievous, before they can stir up much trouble. I have little doubt that they can’t do the same thing to even armed assailants. Those liquid silk, venom, web things stiffen quickly when exposed to air, remarkably resilient to cuts and tears as they basically turn into rubbery texture when hardened.

…studying the evolution of the Araneae makes them seem almost… alien to this world. According to Alma’s genealogical mapping, it seems that these Araneae that I conjure are restorations of creatures that have gone extinct in this world some hundred, or thousands of millenniums ago, the implication being that the presence of magic has existed for a long time, accelerating growth in more than one ways. That and somehow Alma is restoring the genetic information of these extinct species by some reverse engineering of my - or should I say, Alice’s - “Enigmatic” DNA. Although it might be terrifying to think these monsters existed and even more mortifying is the thought of what wiped them out into extinction but According to Alma’s estimations with very high probability is that… they competed themselves into extinction. To reiterate, the areneaemorphae are not picky eaters, they will consume their offspring, their siblings and at times even their mates and parents if given the chance. They were such effective predators that they basically hunted each other into extinction, and when the last prey was consumed, without a consistently large food source they simply starved or practiced autosarcophagy until death.

They were quite simple creatures that acted on instincts. In a sense, Alma in its genetic restoration work, uplifted them so to speak, to a creature capable of higher, more human-like thought in its efforts to make my familiars - my kindred - into beings that will serve me the best. Their natural instincts were repressed but never fully suppressed, it still flows beneath their consciousness, just out of reach but they can willingly tap into it. With the current modifications to their genetic structures, the current Neo-iterations of the Araneae are much more intelligent and capable of cooperation than their ancient predecessors. Along with a healthy reduction of cannibalism. Though it seems that some habits die hard; their antediluvian conflict seems to surface again in current times in the forms of rather unnecessary and excessive rivalry all around. At least it doesn’t always devolve into violence and if it’s like that then some rivalry is a good motivator for all of them, that I can approve. It seems that my human nature is what leashes them to be more, well, humane and reserved. Prudent, even. Let’s hope it stays that way… For themselves and the residents of this world.

— Former engineer, Alicia von Velauhart.

Auratic

I was a little late but you get almost a triple release. In case you haven't noticed before, Alicia named all of her Araneae Alphabetically and after some parts great contributors of science and some parts chose names that just came to her. Can you guess all real life people used as their name? Their callsigns are a mix of Nato Alphabetical, Greek Alphabetical and some that are just made up by yours truly. Because having a female character with the shorthand 'Papa' just didn't sit right with me.

Since no one, except certain mark of wisdom came close to guessing all of the species correctly here's the list of all the new ones  Spiders along with their real life counterparts and inspirations.

- The jungle tyrants are based on the Goliath Birdeaters or tarantulas in general. Tyrannus comes from the Greek word τύραννος or absolute ruler.
- The Mesmers are conceptionally inspired by the Mesmers from Subnautica, real life chameleons and physically based on real life Mirror spiders, Thwaitesia argentiopunctata. Their names probably means something, Thwaite's Silver Punctuated (Spider). I'm not good at breaking down scientific names.

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They hide by confusing predators by the means scattering light in a way that makes the difficult to see. I don't know exactly how but since they exist it probably works. Another theory is that they hide themselves in the morning by looking like a reflective dew drop on leaves similar to this.

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and at a distance one can imagine how some other animals might mistake the spider as a morning dew. You can read up more on them here, about 3 minutes of reading. Their name Ypnotizon means "The Hypnotist"
- The Ambushers or Dungeon masters are based on Trapdoor spiders. Their name Enedra is based on the greek word ενέδρα meaning simply Ambush or more roundaboutly; "Lurking place".
- The bristlebacks are an unusual addition I made up myself, based on the tarantulas urticating hair that their kick with their legs as a defense measure. I just took that Idea and just went ham with it and created the Bristlebacks. Their name is based on Seta which is an Alternative form of Saeta meaning Bristle with the greek word πίσω (meaning back) is ducttaped behind it which very barbarically makes the word Bristleback. I should paid more attention to my linguistics class. But I was too busy confusing every other sound with everything else.
- The last species, Artifices the Moiras, means exactly what it says on the tin. Artifices means Architect or Craftsmen in latin. Since latin doesn't have the word 'of' a traditional sense like English does I just yoinked French word for 'of' and slapped in the "Greek" word Moiras or the "Fates". They are simply based on the contemporary media depiction of Arachne. Originally they were going to be called Yperochi de moirai.