Horde Weavers are a species native to Coleop Terra, being the predatory species of the Oryctini (Eatle).
Appearance[]
Horde Weavers are large arachnids, that average around 10 feet (3 meters) in length as adults. Their bodies are a very dark brown-ish black, with lighter brown armoured plating covering most of their legs, as well as the abdomen. They have six red eyes, and four large fangs. Along their head, mid-section and most of the abdomen is a seam, which opens up to reveal their internal cavern, which houses their 'horde'. They often have several members of their horde roaming across their body, cleaning them.
Powers and Abilities[]
Horde Weavers contain within their body a swarm of up to a thousand or so of their children, which are controlled by their hive mind. When capturing prey, the Horde Weaver's body opens up like a mouth, and their children emerge to swarm the prey. Because of the hive mind, they are all controlled and coordinated by the parent, acting as a single entity in many parts rather than a typical swarm of independents. This ability evolved to allow them to overcome their Oryctini prey, whose energy beam ability makes them difficult for large beings to approach without harm, and so Horde Weavers send their children, which are much more difficult and sometimes impossible to properly aim at, to swarm and bring them down.
Life Cycle[]
Horde Weavers begin life as members of another Horde Weaver's namesake horde. They are born by the thousand, beginning life as approximately 1-inch minions to their much larger parent. They serve their parent's hive mind, until they grow large enough to develop their own psychic imprint, at which point they leave their parent's horde and produce their own. Horde Weavers can only produce one horde in their lifetime, and so once enough children have left the hive mind or died, they become more vulnerable, and either starve from being unable to catch prey, or are killed.
Trivia[]
- This alien was created as a submission for the 2020 Spooktober Contest.
- The idea for the premise came from me thinking "what's scarier than a spider?" with the answer being "a lot of spiders".
- Horde Weavers live in large, 3-dimensional webs with different 'rooms' for sleeping and holding captured/killed prey.
- The name is a play on 'Orb Weaver', an actual species of spider.