AlexSilverX
The Blind Idiot God
Do you think there's life around other spiders?
This RP idea stems from the what-if article from XKCD.COM entitled Spiders vs The
. Particularly the citation from it below and the picture seen above:
"No matter which way you look at it, the bottom line is that we live our lives surrounded by tiny spiders on a world completely dominated by a gigantic star.
Hey, at least it's not the other way around."
Of course, my brain being the cacophonous, diseased cluster of ideas that it is, this immediately turned into an idea for a role-play. Because, let's be honest, how is this not an awesome idea for a role-play?
Setting
On the world of Arachnia, there's a well-known factoid that claims you're always within a few feet of a star. A small, tiny star, a ball of plasma and flame no bigger than an apple ranging between 400 and 5000 degrees, but a star no less.
As a result of this, 50,000,000 years ago, fires were a very common problem. In fact, it is believed that the previous dominant species - Zoors - died in a great inferno caused when the entire crust of the planet was set ablaze by an astrological event.
But like with all things, nature is a rather adaptive thing and so Arachnia developed a fauna and flora capable of surviving its conditions. Among the creatures that were born was our race; the Arachians. .
To anyone coming from our dimension who would gaze upon this world where stars have replaced spiders and vice versa, it would come as a surprise to notice that Arachians are in fact physiologically very similar to humans... on the outside, if anything. However, they do surpass humans in many aspects if only to be able to survive the harsh conditions of their home world.
First and foremost, they possess an endodermal exoskeleton. This means that their skeleton is on top of every other anatomical system except the epidermal one, a.k.a. the skin and "fatty" tissues. In appearance, this does not make them physically different from humans, but it makes them much more durable and flexible, allowing them to move much more freely and sustain much more damage than a human would before succumbing to major injury.
Second, they possess an Helolymph circulatory system. Hemolymph, or haemolymph, is a fluid, analogous to the blood in vertebrates, that circulates in the interior of the arthropod body remaining in direct contact with the animal's tissues. It is composed of a fluid plasma in which hemolymph cells called hemocytes are suspended. This system has several functions, but its primary capacity is to force nucleation, allowing them to resist temperature changes. This is to the point where Arachians can handle the stars surrounding their planet with relative safety bare-handed, having a natural resistance to heat slightly above 3000°.
Third and last, due to the plasma rich atmosphere of their planet, Arachians have developed a form of energy manipulation, allowing them to use the otherwise harmful stars as a fuel for their powers. In theory, all Arachians possess the same powers, but for obvious reasons each of them learn to master them at a different pace and focus their powers differently. Regardless of the color of the star from which they drain power, the energy they expulse through these abilities is the same color as their Helolymph.
Aside from this fully sentient race, however, most races of Arachnia are dramatically different from those found on earth in that they all possess insect-like exoskeletons. Every creature from dogs to snakes are thus covered in an armored plating.
Story
The Arachians have evolved on their planet for a long time and are now all ruled by the highbloods, those who possess the magenta Hemolymph. As a united race, they thus take on the next logical step; exploring the universe. However, there has been no life surrounding their Spider, so they hope on spider systems surrounding it there may be other species... what will they discover?
