Scridders

Just as a disclaimer, I am aware that a slightly similar race already exists, but they are a lot different. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try this.



Scridders are a subspecies of dridders, although some consider them as an entirely new species due to the differences and variants between the two. Scridders, in the easiest terms of physical appearance, are a scorpion-based arachnid morph, having the exoskeleton and stinger of a scorpion, and a human torso above. Much like a normal scorpion, their entire body under their human segment is covered in a thick exoskeleton for protection, including their legs and their tails. Although there are many different types and races of scridders, they maintain the same general shape and appearance. Unlike similar scorpion-based taur creatures, scridders lack pincers on their arms, and venom in their fangs. Instead, they rely on their sharp and armored legs for offensive purposes, as well as the stinger at the end of their tail, which is sharp and strong enough to puncture the trunk of a tree. The stingers can vary in size and shape depending on the type of scridder, and the type of venom contained in the tail can differ as well, although the magic of Felarya puts a damper on how deadly the venom can be. Even without a deadly poison, the stingers are usually strong enough to kill on their own, so for many it isn't much of a concern.

Scridders generally live in the Akaptoa Desert, able to navigate through the sandy terrain quite efficiently. Some types of scridders are able to migrate out of the desert, but a majority of them choose to make the more desert environments their home. Because the parts of their bodies covered in an exoskeleton aren't very sensitive to touch, the sand and weather conditions aren't nearly as bothersome as they would be to less protected creatures. Like many other species, scridders can range in size from roughly human size, to giant size, similar to that of dridders. Since finding a steady source of food in a desert climate is no simple task, many have taken up to eating whatever they can find, including each other under more dire circumstances. Although they are capable of eating meat, they can also dine on native desert vegetation if necessary.

Living so far away from most other races and species, scridders lack any natural biases against other races, as the amount of contact with them is too slim to really give a standing impression. In this way, anything small enough could be made food if the two species ever collide, and unlike dridders, they have no natural hostility towards other species like nagas. The larger scridders tend to usually act more primal in demeanor, but the smaller variants usually try to live together in small societies to help survival rate. These societies can often become hostile to other existing societies and can clash, usually over issues such as food.

Due to location and their slight cannibalistic nature due to a shortage of any stable food source, the scridder population is exceedingly low, near the point of extinction. The species was more active and lively several hundred years ago, but since then have dwindled greatly. Only in the past, and possibly the distant future will the scridders have a steady population. Due to the fear of extinction, many scridders tend to try to avoid contact with other potentially dangerous and hostile creatures.




That's what I've got so far. I'm open to ideas, changes, or critiques if necessary, as I'm near one hundred percent sure that it's nowhere near perfect.

I think most of it is pretty good, the parts about society and hunting was pretty interesting. However, I'm still at odds a little about the description of how they look. So they're rear is part spider *and* part scorpion? I know many combinations work in a tauric race, but I'm confused about further combining two lower halves, especially when the identity of both races like spiders and scorpions are often defined in their tail. Sure I guess a Scridder can have 8 legs, but where's the stinger, and the silk chamber? Just because it has 8 legs does not mean it's a spider (a scorpion also has 8 legs).

Other species with 8 legs are often anthropods:
Spiders
Mites
Ticks
Scorpions
Harvestmen
Psuedoscorpions

Also, I don't think you could have a scorpion tail coming out of the rear bulb of the spider half, it's an odd combination to begin with, and that bulb is already heavy enough. There would probably have to be another pair of legs just to hold all that rear weight up.

Either you make it a scorpion lower half or a spider lower half, I just don't see any plausible way to make it work. Just because they're both anthropods with 8 legs, doesn't mean it would be easy to combine them both.

My best advice, which is still bad probably (I don't know much about anthropod biology) is to have a natural scorpion like body, but the segmented parts be a little thicker, and have smaller glands closer to a thicker middle segment, and running back to the tail area. There would still have to be a spinneret somewhere though (since without the spinneret, it's not much of a spider).

Archmage_Bael wrote:

I think most of it is pretty good, the parts about society and hunting was pretty interesting. However, I'm still at odds a little about the description of how they look. So they're rear is part spider *and* part scorpion? I know many combinations work in a tauric race, but I'm confused about further combining two lower halves, especially when the identity of both races like spiders and scorpions are often defined in their tail. Sure I guess a Scridder can have 8 legs, but where's the stinger, and the silk chamber? Just because it has 8 legs does not mean it's a spider (a scorpion also has 8 legs).

Other species with 8 legs are often anthropods:
Spiders
Mites
Ticks
Scorpions
Harvestmen
Psuedoscorpions

Also, I don't think you could have a scorpion tail coming out of the rear bulb of the spider half, it's an odd combination to begin with, and that bulb is already heavy enough. There would probably have to be another pair of legs just to hold all that rear weight up.

Either you make it a scorpion lower half or a spider lower half, I just don't see any plausible way to make it work. Just because they're both anthropods with 8 legs, doesn't mean it would be easy to combine them both.

My best advice, which is still bad probably (I don't know much about anthropod biology) is to have a natural scorpion like body, but the segmented parts be a little thicker, and have smaller glands closer to a thicker middle segment, and running back to the tail area. There would still have to be a spinneret somewhere though (since without the spinneret, it's not much of a spider).

Oh, I think I didn't say it clearly. They're not half spider, or have a spider-like body. I mean... they're like the scorpion equivalent of a dridder. So while a dridder looks like a human with a spider body, the scridder looks like a human with a scorpion body. They don't share the characteristics of the dridders, they're just similar in that they're arachnid morphs. I guess I didn't clear that up very well, and I should see if I can fix that at all. I probably just worded it badly, sorry. The only similarity they have to dridders is that they're both arachnids. So scridders resemble dridders as much as a scorpion resembles a spider. I hope that clears things up a lot more. Everything else you said pretty much ties in with misunderstanding though, so I hope that explains it better.

Now they just sound like scorpion taurs, which we already have. Also if they're not part dridder, then where did the "ridder" in scridder come from?

Don't mean to sound negative here, just thinking...

I'm agreeing with bagel here, we already have scorpion taurs.