>I think that the sentient spiders are connected to Aracne Solara, and
>spend their time doing more esoteric things than ferrying trolls to war.
I'd agree -- but then again, how many giant spiders does Cragspider really
need around the house? It's not like they can dust the altar. Since she's
got some in her personal guard, there's gotta be at least a _little_
surplus for the mundane stuff like acting as the troll panzer army.
>Sure, the non-sentient runt males might do so, but the web spinning,
>magical, sentient females have far better things to do. Much like
>sentient horses would be too sacred to carry solar soldiers into battle,
I don't link tarantulas that closely with the Spider Wood spinner spiders (different species, IMO), but a possibly elegant troll solution:
I'm a little sketchy on spider reproduction, but I believe they lay a big mess o' eggs. The little spiders die in huge numbers, leaving only a few spiders to survive to maturity/breeding. This is perhaps how most giant spiders breed, such as the Spider Wood spiders.
But, among the, um, civilized spiders, things are different.
Your war-minded troll initiate of Aranea hears that one of the female spiders is laying eggs. Not having a spider at the moment, you wait a few days until after the eggs hatch (giving time for the initial die-off), then go out to the area in question and perform the ancient rituals which reinforce your ties to Aranea and spiders. Coaxing one (or more) of the kids home, you spend some time teaching it, protecting it, feeding it. Until it gets big enough to ride -- which isn't long, because spiders grow fast. Maybe a couple years. If you can train a couple at a time, you've (hopefully) got enough "extras" to keep other riders in mounts.
That's right. The Fearsome War Tarantulas are the _kids_.
Once it gets big enough, you ride around on your new FWT, slaughtering Yelmists, Lunars, what have you. Now, quite a few of these FWTs are gonna die in combat, but that's okay -- you're essentially inflating the spider population by saving some of them anyway. And the mamma spiders figure, hey, it weeds out the weak, combat gives the youngin's a chance to learn some useful skills and, hey, as Fate wills it, neh? Spiders aren't as attached to their kids as humans are.
Eventually, your FWT matures enough (after maybe 10 or 15 years of this, that it grows interested in peforming its esoteric rituals at the AS temple; you fondly bid it goodbye, then repeat the cycle.
So this means that the nasty tarantulas in the book are the kids. Momma in the temple is meaner, more experienced, and has years of campaigns under her belt.
Cut to: Trolls cowering before Bat eats them. Troll #1: (Poorly dubbed) "Oh no! Hey, the Bat will kill us for sure! Troll #2: (Poorly dubbed) "Do not be so sure! Look, it is Tarantulor!"
Cut to: Giant tarantula strides through city. Billions of bolgs worth of Royal Jelly have produced a beast that's as big as the bat. Cue the "Tarantulor Theme Song," based on the "MST3K Gamera Theme Song." ("Tarantulor is really neat/The Crimson Bat he will now beat!/ We believe in Taran-tul-or!")
60 minutes of monster mayhem ensues.
Tarantulor triumphs over scheming bat, evil lunars. Cut to credits. Teaser of sequel, "Tarantulor vs. Cwim."
Trolls: the B-Movie fodder of Glorantha. :)
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #268
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