Dridder Culture

As many of you know, I tend to get a bit defensive when people raise the issue of dridders, as they almost invariably serve as villains, despite being very clearly human creatures.

I'd like to take some time to actually analyze the dridder culture somewhat and speculate about the people.

One thing I'd like to point out is that the wiki states this:

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Many of them display a cruel and sadistic behavior in combat which has gotten their whole war-like race labeled as evil. They are fierce fighters and they enjoy extracting every ounce of agony out of their enemies.

Right there, we can clearly states that the evil dridder image is nothing more than a stereotype brought on by some sadism exibited by some of the specimens.

It also states this:

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but if the prey is their size, they immobilize their victims and slowly liquefy their internal organs, sucking them out much like a normal spider. Needless to say this last fact contributes a lot to their sinister reputation.

This and some commentary on the matter I recall from Karbo makes it very clear that part of the reason dridders are so feared is that they're different from most predators.

Now, the way I interpret the wiki, dridders aren't bad folk at all. They're simply creepy and tend to be vicious in battle.
They do display somewhat sadistic behavior to their prey, but I have to point out; so does Crisis. XP

I'd just think that dridders have been given such a bad rap so far, it's worth discussing what they might actually be intended to be like.
Of course, dridders are still human, so just like humans, we can reasonably assume that there IS no norm, that Hitlers, Bushes, Oprahs, Abe Lincolns, Mencias and Norrises can all be found among dridders.

It is quite an issue. But don't forget that even though they are human, they are also part spider. Spiders are naturally sadistic, and will often be portrayed as evil.

To be fair, all predators could be labeled as "evil", since some predators don't even spare children before eating them. Harpies often tear apart their prey, and strong preds will crush a prey's bones before devouring them.

The point is that I agree with you that they've been given a bad rap, but if they didn't eat humans, I'd imagine them functioning no different from a normal village. There would be carpenters, shop owners, regular girls and all that.

I've been thinking of making dridders more or less good in my stories, if that'll help their rep.

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It is quite an issue. But don't forget that even though they are human, they are also part spider. Spiders are naturally sadistic, and will often be portrayed as evil.

If there is a single creature on Earth which would come to mind first if someone were to tell me to name an animal that wasn't sadistic, I think it would be the spider.

Spiders are predators. Nothing more, nothing less. What's more, snakes are despised almost as much, yet they're almost invariably portrayed as the good guys in Felarya.

Frankly, evil spiders is a cliche which I don't condone one bit. Much less when it's applied to a sentient species. It's so asinine to make the animal which everyone hates into a calculating, sadistic creature it isn't, while another animal which isn't one bit different psychologically, into the good guy, just because some people like that animal more.

By the sound of it, dridders are only considered bad guys because they're part spider, and people hate spiders. Quite frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if their hatred of nagas isn't completely justified, judging by how the wiki describes their reputation.

i am consistently brainstorming ideas about this topic becuase i am illustrating/writing a story about Driders in Felarya. I love spiders and i think the concept of Dridders hold a lot of potential. One of the questions i keep running into is why they are hated so much in Felarya.

Driders are very different from other races. They forge armor/weapons, and love to fight and they have a queen. Which shows more of a human side to them. So i do believe they have their own power structure. Sineria being their queen prob led war on other species of Felarya. When the guardians stopped her, it left the Dridders without a queen and their community without order, the wounds of war from both sides never healed. Dridders prob hated Felarya for leaving their community in ruins.

I also think that other races like Nagas hate Dridders becuase Dridders can eat them. Revenge, fear and other human emotions play a important role. Just how humans are scared and hate Nagas, or any other Felaryan race that eats them, Nagas are scared and hate Dridders too for the same reasons.

After the war, Nagas kill Dridders on sight out of fear of being eaten maybe, revenge or even becuase of the war. Its common to be scared of something you don't understand.

And Dridders hate Nagas and other Felarya species back, becuase of this and without a queen to lead them, well things aren't really going to get better.

it seems everyones a hypocrite.
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so in short,

I do think before Sineria, Dridders and Nagas lived peacefully between one another. Why did Sineria wage war, who was the former queen and even Guardian before her, and what will happen now is something i want to save for a other post.

I do have a whole back story but i dont want to post it yet until i finish my pictures . (trying to save money for a $1000 tablet... lol i'm sooo broke).

PS
Claire (future dridder queen) replies,"yea give us a brake, i cant lead an entire race in one day you know!!!!"

Well my theory is that everyone here is very attached to Nagas, almost everyone will introduce a Naga character in their story. And given that Dridders are the natural enemies of Nagas, that may be where the whole cliché of Dridders being evil. Well let's just that having a whole race labbled evil sucks, it would require that every single dridders be evil which is not the case. Someday I'm gonna introduce a Dridder character, one that is friendly with Nagas, we need an exception for everything.

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i am consistently brainstorming ideas about this topic becuase i am illustrating/writing a story about Driders in Felarya. I love spiders and i think the concept of Dridders hold a lot of potential. One of the questions i keep running into is why they are hated so much in Felarya.

Driders are very different from other races. They forge armor/weapons, and love to fight and they have a queen. Which shows more of a human side to them. So i do believe they have their own power structure. Sineria being their queen prob led war on other species of Felarya. When the guardians stopped her, it left the Dridders without a queen and their community without order, the wounds of war from both sides never healed. Dridders prob hated Felarya for leaving their community in ruins.

I also think that other races like Nagas hate Dridders becuase Dridders can eat them. Revenge, fear and other human emotions play a important role. Just how humans are scared and hate Nagas, or any other Felaryan race that eats them, Nagas are scared and hate Dridders too for the same reasons.

After the war, Nagas kill Dridders on sight out of fear of being eaten maybe, revenge or even becuase of the war. Its common to be scared of something you don't understand.

And Dridders hate Nagas and other Felarya species back, becuase of this and without a queen to lead them, well things aren't really going to get better.

it seems everyones a hypocrite.

On paper, this makes sense, but doesn't quite solve the mystery.
Dridders prey on nagas, but they would also prey on other predators, from fairies to mermaids, to harpies to centaurs, etc...
Yet they apparently get along with these races just fine. The rivalry is stressed to be between dridders and nagas, not dridders and everyone else.

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Well my theory is that everyone here is very attached to Nagas, almost everyone will introduce a Naga character in their story. And given that Dridders are the natural enemies of Nagas, that may be where the whole cliché of Dridders being evil. Well let's just that having a whole race labbled evil sucks, it would require that every single dridders be evil which is not the case. Someday I'm gonna introduce a Dridder character, one that is friendly with Nagas, we need an exception for everything.

Well, making them hopelessly diabolic because you like nagas is just sloppy writing, which in my opinion is just as bad as racism. XP

Well, like Sean just conveniently said for me, the fact that nagas are more or less the 'main characters' of Felarya tend to skew the way we see the dridder race there. The fact is, the dridders as a race are warlike. So as a whole, they are more willing to go to war. And dridders are able to, and take pleasure from, eating other larger predators. And so, many other large races, fear and loathe them. In a way, I'd think the naga's way of thinking was "There are so many tasty humans and nekos running around, so why are you eating me?" But now, after centuries of animosity and dislike, hatred for each other is basically taught as fact. Naga mothers teach their child, "Fear the dridder, for she is a horrible creature." and Dridders do likewise.

So basically, what I'm trying to strain out is that Dridders aren't 'evil.' It's just that almost every race but dridders dislike them.

In fact, I've been toying with the idea of a story where the human or neko main character befriends a dridder. And as such will present the opposite side of spectrum. Although the dridder will see it more as having a slave/pet.

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So basically, what I'm trying to strain out is that Dridders aren't 'evil.' It's just that almost every race but dridders dislike them.

Once again, the wiki and commentary I recall form Karbo state that the animosity is between dridders and nagas, not dridders and everyone else. It doesn't make sense if it's only because dridders eat them.

It makes sense at first, but it doesn't explain the specific rivalry.

As it's said is the fact the main characters of different stories are nagas influenced the fact the dridders are evil in stories.

The authors don't developp too much the characters of the dridders and sum it quickly as a evil creature.
This discrimination is similar to the racism. I explain for white people all the people who has a black skin are evil due to many cliché create by the movies, the religion etc...

It has never been said Dridders are the enemies of the other races but the problem is just the fact they don't like to mix with each other and few people know them really.

And the hate of the dridders come from the nagas mostly.

Other point is not because you are sadic you are evil too

To be simple the dridders have a strong war-like culture contrary to the other races in Felarya, so their point of view can be problematic for externers

To sum this problem, people need to write a story with a good developpment of the dridders culture, showing the advantage and drawbacks

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Once again, the wiki and commentary I recall form Karbo state that the animosity is between dridders and nagas, not dridders and everyone else. It doesn't make sense if it's only because dridders eat them.

It makes sense at first, but it doesn't explain the specific rivalry.

There is a war between the two races and I think their rivalry is similar to the Elf and the Dark Elf maybe.

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

As it's said is the fact the main characters of different stories are nagas influenced the fact the dridders are evil in stories.

The authors don't developp too much the characters of the dridders and sum it quickly as a evil creature.
This discrimination is similar to the racism. I explain for white people all the people who has a black skin are evil due to many cliché create by the movies, the religion etc...

It has never been said Dridders are the enemies of the other races but the problem is just the fact they don't like to mix with each other and few people know them really.

And the hate of the dridders come from the nagas mostly.

Other point is not because you are sadic you are evil too

To be simple the dridders have a strong war-like culture contrary to the other races in Felarya, so their point of view can be problematic for externers

To sum this problem, people need to write a story with a good developpment of the dridders culture, showing the advantage and drawbacks

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Once again, the wiki and commentary I recall form Karbo state that the animosity is between dridders and nagas, not dridders and everyone else. It doesn't make sense if it's only because dridders eat them.

It makes sense at first, but it doesn't explain the specific rivalry.

There is a war between the two races and I think their rivalry is similar to the Elf and the Dark Elf maybe.

Well, I think every races needs more development. Even though we got a skeleton of each sentient species in Felarya except the mushroom peoples I forgot their name, it's a pretty frail skeleton. Some elements I find that are lacking would be: culture, feeding habits, mating, life-span, general location, likes and dislikes and particularity. This would go not only to dridders, but every races in the wiki. For feeding habits, it's pretty much the same thing for every races, but they all have different tactics to catch their preys. Likes and dislikes are general elements, not universal, but common among the race. At least that's what I think, maybe some races are developed enough, but more precision can't hurt.

Sean Okotami wrote:

There is a war between the two races and I think their rivalry is similar to the Elf and the Dark Elf maybe.

Well, I think every races needs more development. Even though we got a skeleton of each sentient species in Felarya except the mushroom peoples I forgot their name, it's a pretty frail skeleton. Some elements I find that are lacking would be: culture, feeding habits, mating, life-span, general location, likes and dislikes and particularity. This would go not only to dridders, but every races in the wiki. For feeding habits, it's pretty much the same thing for every races, but they all have different tactics to catch their preys. Likes and dislikes are general elements, not universal, but common among the race. At least that's what I think, maybe some races are developed enough, but more precision can't hurt.[/quote]
That's why you should developp the race and the character in your story
The wiki is just a begining nothing more

This is a good topic for the Felaryan Race Discussion Thread-dridders are long overdue for some attention. One of the reasons Felarya is so appealing is because it does away with a number of fantasy/sci-fi cliches; one of the most persistent is racial moral alignments.

I would like to see Felarya treating good and evil as manifesting only within individuals, races having representatives from all parts of the moral spectrum. After all, history shows it doesn't take a whole race to do evil, when one person is enough to bring forth death and suffering.

I think this come mostly from their way of feeding on large preys... this must be quite horryfying to witess o.o
This said dridders have actually a better reputation in the eyes of humans than.. say nagas.

Also I agree that different races really need an history to them, though this is a part of design where I am not very good ^^; So if you have idea

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This is a good topic for the Felaryan Race Discussion Thread-dridders are long overdue for some attention. One of the reasons Felarya is so appealing is because it does away with a number of fantasy/sci-fi cliches; one of the most persistent is racial moral alignments.

I would like to see Felarya treating good and evil as manifesting only within individuals, races having representatives from all parts of the moral spectrum. After all, history shows it doesn't take a whole race to do evil, when one person is enough to bring forth death and suffering.

THANKYOU.

History shows that even a nazi is genetically identical to an overweight, German pacifist and that a Spartan warrior is genetically identical to a Sparten brothil girl.

I for one and sick to death of a fantasy race all being one way while another is all a different way. Yes, culture is an issue, but there have GOT to be some mixed families and villages out there. Most of our main Felaryan characters live in racially mixed families. Crisis, Rin,Violete, Katrika, Elle, etc...
It makes sense that nearly ALL characters know at least a few others not of their species. And most of the major ones do.
Which makes it that much more absurd when one reacts differently to another character for what they are and still moreso when that one odd character actually IS different, for no other reason than it's based on an animal the author dislikes.

Besides that, culture is hardly bolted to each member. My culture teaches me that God is real and that homosexuality is bad, yet I and countless others ignore such teachings entirely.
It makes more sense to me that all-dridder villages teach that nagas are bad, yet only a fraction of them actually bother to hold up that belief.

Siafu789 wrote:

This is a good topic for the Felaryan Race Discussion Thread-dridders are long overdue for some attention. One of the reasons Felarya is so appealing is because it does away with a number of fantasy/sci-fi cliches; one of the most persistent is racial moral alignments.

I would like to see Felarya treating good and evil as manifesting only within individuals, races having representatives from all parts of the moral spectrum. After all, history shows it doesn't take a whole race to do evil, when one person is enough to bring forth death and suffering.

So dridders suffer from the consequence of the actions of their Queen

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I for one and sick to death of a fantasy race all being one way while another is all a different way. Yes, culture is an issue, but there have GOT to be some mixed families and villages out there. Most of our main Felaryan characters live in racially mixed families. Crisis, Rin,Violete, Katrika, Elle, etc...
It makes sense that nearly ALL characters know at least a few others not of their species. And most of the major ones do.
Which makes it that much more absurd when one reacts differently to another character for what they are and still moreso when that one odd character actually IS different, for no other reason than it's based on an animal the author dislikes.

The difficulty for the dridders is the weight of their past, most of the main characters don't have someone who always remember what's your ancestors did in the past.

In addition there is the others, if a naga can have a dridder friend but it won't be the case of everyone.

The problem with any story is that it has to be told from someone's perspective in order to make any sence at all. Take DnD for instance... To a Red dragon, humanity is like a plague of vermin, not just the annoying kind, but the kind of vermin that in great enough numbers and with great enough luck can actually be deadly. As such, in the red dragon's mind they are merely trying to stay safe and sanitary by burning that village and the metallic dragons are a bunch of sinister, manipulative rat-tamers out to get your gold and land.

Meanwhile, the dire rat sees itself as a great adventurer, leading a party of like-sized adventurers against the murderous machenations of the gigantic fire-wielding bipedal monsters out to rule the land.

Like Karbo said, chances are pretty good that Driders get along better with humans than nagas do.

I can also think of reasons they would get along well with Fairys and Dryads, depending on if giant insects are part of their diet (can't remember off the top of my head).

gwadahunter2222 wrote:

Siafu789 wrote:

This is a good topic for the Felaryan Race Discussion Thread-dridders are long overdue for some attention. One of the reasons Felarya is so appealing is because it does away with a number of fantasy/sci-fi cliches; one of the most persistent is racial moral alignments.

I would like to see Felarya treating good and evil as manifesting only within individuals, races having representatives from all parts of the moral spectrum. After all, history shows it doesn't take a whole race to do evil, when one person is enough to bring forth death and suffering.

So dridders suffer from the consequence of the actions of their Queen

The difficulty for the dridders is the weight of their past, most of the main characters don't have someone who always remember what's your ancestors did in the past.

Exactly so. Not unlike Germany, who bears the weight of a certain 20th century barbarian who they once called "Der Fuhrer". Even today, Hitler casts an ominous shadow over Germany-with people there, and unfortunately in the United States as well, who continue to chant his name.

Siafu789 wrote:

Exactly so. Not unlike Germany, who bears the weight of a certain 20th century barbarian who they once called "Der Fuhrer". Even today, Hitler casts an ominous shadow over Germany-with people there, and unfortunately in the United States as well, who continue to chant his name.

It remember me a quote from an american TV science fiction sorry but the titles was translated in French
The people die but the ideals stay

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I can also think of reasons they would get along well with Fairys and Dryads, depending on if giant insects are part of their diet (can't remember off the top of my head).

There is no reason dridders are ennemies of the fairies and dryads.
In theory Fairies and Dryads are neutrals nothing more.

GREGOLE wrote:

If there is a single creature on Earth which would come to mind first if someone were to tell me to name an animal that wasn't sadistic, I think it would be the spider.

There are better things, but yes; spiders are relatively 'kind'. Look at Orca's, which involve killing a critter by forcing it underwater, then pounding air out of its lungs. Or Weasels, which will bit all over the place until they reach the throat, and then hold on until you either are choked by lack of air or drown on the blood going down your throat.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Well my theory is that everyone here is very attached to Nagas, almost everyone will introduce a Naga character in their story.

Yes, for a character to rip the nail off one of its fingers to escape.

wrote:

Well let's just that having a whole race labbled evil sucks, it would require that every single dridders be evil which is not the case.

Agreed, only races that can truely be pure evil/good/neutral are Hive Minds, since there's only ONE mind.

Feign wrote:

The problem with any story is that it has to be told from someone's perspective in order to make any sence at all. Take DnD for instance... To a Red dragon, humanity is like a plague of vermin

Er, D&D Red Dragons are known to be sadistic among Dragons themselves, and count anything smaller than them as both Fair Game and "Play Things".

Anyways, yeah. Dridders have a bad rep that is undeserved.

Karbo wrote:

Also I agree that different races really need an history to them, though this is a part of design where I am not very good ^^; So if you have idea

Claire yelling at the top of her lunges, "i'm working on it!!!!!!!!!!!"

lol i blame working, college, gym and going out. (mostly going out, too much money!) after my spring brake i should have enough money for my tablet! (working over 60 hours for the week). so i'll post my progress and see what you guys think.

I am really looking forward to it !

Malahite wrote:

Feign wrote:

The problem with any story is that it has to be told from someone's perspective in order to make any sence at all. Take DnD for instance... To a Red dragon, humanity is like a plague of vermin

Er, D&D Red Dragons are known to be sadistic among Dragons themselves, and count anything smaller than them as both Fair Game and "Play Things".

Anyways, yeah. Dridders have a bad rep that is undeserved.

Maybe I should have said chromatic rather than red in particular, as they have a bad reputation even amongst chromatics.

The point is more the alignment system is a bit iffy when applied to a species as a whole, and often doesn't apply at all within that creature's own society though it will definitely severely tint their dealings with other species.

Also, I seem to remember that fairies at least in some regions are in conflict with many giant insect species. I read through tht ewiki again and couldn't find it again... the whole idea is that if Driders will eat giant insects (another thing I couldn't find in the wiki, but that I just sort of assumed to be true) then the whole "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing would apply.

Naxyla Driders aren't "evil", but most humanoid races view them as such...much like they view giant humanoid eating nagas

Well, I just finished my little Dridder character. For a human, she's only 3 years old. Be warned, she's awfully cute, your eyes may bleed from watching her Bio.

Just for the record-Neither Bolas or Trapdoor Dridders are "evil." They have no hatred for nagas or any other race in their hearts. They eat them if they can (Trapdoors especially) but they don't war on them.
And that's my two cents!