Kevin Andrew Murphy's Tarantella

Illustration by Carlos Villa.

Well, not exactly.  But after Paris pointed this out to me in the comments, I've got to recommend Kevin Andrew Murphey's Pathfinder fiction, "The Perfumer's Apprentice," which reached an important chapter today, apparently in keeping with my mythopoeic spidey senses.  Give it a read by clicking the link -- you won't be disappointed.

Grimm's "Tarantella"

Sexy Spinnetod

Played by Amy Aker

You've seen my posts on the spider-woman, so you know I was happy to see that the latest episode of NBC's Grimm (S1E11) includes a new monstrous shape-shifter, called the spinnetod, in a way that fits the folk source material.  I worry that the show feels like it might be stalling a bit, but thrilled to see this addition to Grimm's stable of Wesen.

Kumohime Revisted

Spider woman by IanLIR

The kumohime may not be particularly well known outside of Japan, but it is a classic Japanese monster (for earlier treatments on this blog, see here, where I treat this yokai -- more specifically, obake or bakemono -- in relation to the Lolth, D&D's demon queen of spiders and goddess of the drow).  As I mentioned before, it is also known under the name jorogumo.  It is under this latter name that it is getting lots of love in recent releases of the Pathfinder RPG: it appears in both the Bestiary 3 and the Dragon Empires Gazetteer.  If you are playing PF or a 3.5OGL compatible game, and do not yet have the B3, then you may get the same basic concept by using another OGL monster -- this is in fact what happens in a volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path (I will say no more, to keep spoilers to a minimum) where the volume employs an aranea.  Here is the d20 version and here is the PF update.  I love the idea that there is a small country ruled by a jorogumo.  The Pathfinder designer whose idea that was needs to comment over here so I can lavish my fanboy praise upon them.  Dare I guess that it came from the mind of Dave Gross?

Any monster that puts to use the two classic fears of arachnophobia and Oh-my-God-that-beautiful-woman-is-not-what-she-appears-to-be has to be bi-winning in a way that puts Charlie Sheen to even more shame than he normally puts himself.  (Hey, 2011 references die hard.)  For more info on the appearances of the spider-woman (and sometimes, man) of many names in popular culture, take a look at the TVTropes entry on Youkai, then scroll down and click on "Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo Examples." (I had completely forgotten about Akira Kurosawa's hinting in Throne of Blood.)  And if you really want to blow an afternoon, do searches for "spider" and for "beautiful tropes" while you are over there.

A special thanks to the two artists featured in today's Mythopoeic Monday.  They got back to me with their permissions too late to be included in the earlier posting, but they gave me an excuse to revisit the creature and update the resources I found online.  Please repay their generosity by giving their DeviantArt pages a visit and maybe even a comment.

In parting, I offer you a thematically appropriate magical relic: Bat's Banner of the Spider God.  The banner could be used by a warrior in service of the Spider God -- perhaps the champion of a powerful kumohime.

KumoHime by WittA

Light on Lolth from the Land of the Rising Sun

In my previous posts on Lolth, you have seen me use an identification of the Demon Queen of Spiders with the ancient figure of Lilith to draw the strands of the demonic, the vampiric, and the arachnid, together with the dark elves, to revision a coherent divine niche out of traditional and game materials. The name Liloth will serve to identify this composite or revisionary demon queen. I have, however, one more strand that I wish to draw on. For this final strand, we look to Japan and its rich store of folklore. Therein we find a figure of the spider woman, though she goes by multiple names in different areas and in different stories. She has rightly become a popular figure in Japanese horror, and provides some further possibilities for my vision of Liloth. I know that my references here are not exhaustive as I would like them to be, but I welcome any further resources that my readers may alert us to.

The figure is an attractive one to weave into our web of Liloth, because she is beautiful, and she combines various features of a beautiful woman and a spider, depending on depiction, just as Lolth does in her various depictions or aspects. She uses her beauty and charm to capture men. Playing on the association with strings, she often complements her appearance by playing on the biwa or some other traditional Japanese stringed instrument. This adds another possible area for exploration to Liloth: why not make her a patron of stringed music? If the silk of Liloth and driders were strong enough to hold a tune, it would have many other applications as well. Can we learn more from portrayals of this figure? Let us turn to the names used.

Right away, we face a problem of terminology. I found that there are at least three names that this shapeshifting yokai, or bakemono, goes by: tsuchigumo, jorogumo, and kumo onna. The first two names have entries on wikipedia which promise to be helpful for those wanting more details to mine:
Tsuchigumo or Jorōgumo

The latter name seems to be more common. The jorogumo entry at the Obakemono project provides additional information from folklore (and about the spider that shares the same name). The fact that there is a particular species of spider involved fits with game developments in which a particular kind of spider is particularly identified with Lolth. For an appearance of the the jorogumo in an RPG product, we need look no further than the cover of the final installment in the Kaidan adventure series Curse of the Golden Spear:

Michael Tumey & Rite Publishing's Dark Path, cover by Jason Rainville

Thanks to Michael Tumey for reminding me of this and allowing the use of the image. (I do wish there was a bigger version available, as I forgot this fact because one has to look at the illustration for some time to realize the woman's nature.)

The final name that I found for this creature is kumo onna. This is the name that occurs in Dark Tales of Japan: The Spider Woman, which is viewable on YouTube (parts 1, 2, and 3 -- thanks to Dave Gross who retaught me how to use Google in a moment of mental impairment). While these different names are used in different contexts, so far I have no reason to think that they represent any important distinctions in the figure, at least for our purposes here. Other places that you kind find the Japanese spider woman: Hellboy cartoon, Sword of Storms, features one, and so does the manga/anime xxxHolic, which has a character named Jorougumo. (The latter's blond hair is unique among the characters, which not only serves to mark her out as the sexy blond, but recalls the white hair of the drow -- hair the color of spider silk.) The figure also shows up as the Spider Queen in the video game Okami.

This matter of hair is a particular area that I would pay attention to if I were rebuilding avatars of Liloth to fight in games, and, for that matter, vampires/driders. Liloth's spidermaids (little Miss Lolthets?) would fit with the kind of action I see in the Japanese portrayals, and with the male fascination in women's long hair, if the web were to strike out from their hair. It also calls to mind all the white-haired witches in kung fu movies that are able to attack with their hair.

But there is more to be gained from reflecting on the jorogumo (or whichever name you prefer) than adding these elements to the characterization and mechanical build of Liloth.  Often, divine or demonic figures are assumed to be popular in only one culture or segment of the world's population in RPG worlds (a human god, a dwarven god, an Eastern god, etc.)  Whether assuming a world in which such supernatural figures are real, or from real world cases of amazing parallels between mythic figures (accounted for however), Liloth might benefit not merely from some Oriental elements, but from having an Oriental presence, as well.  If, say, driders and their goddess have an above ground (nocturnal) presence in your fantasy Japan, this is another area of world-building that will call for explanation and lead to more world-building.

We might do well to close by reflecting on this figure from the Jungian perspective: this is a male anima archetypal figure, and a negative one. It represents the fear that woman will catch you in her web, and that though she seems beautiful, she will turn out to be a monster that will suck you dry to sustain her own life. That she would reign over an entire underworld of threatening, shadowy figures as matriarch is not surprising, once we become aware of the elements that she reflects. That this figure of Liloth would seem like a more compelling figure is in keeping with the strength of the psychological elements combined: lust, entrapment, loss of self and life, etc.

In closing let me add this addendum: I believed I was being creative and somewhat original in my identification of Lolth and Lilith, but to show the nigh impossibility of actually being the first person to have a totally unique thought and do so something with it, check out this link that I later read, and this illustration that I recently found. While all the connections are not present, either implicitly or explicitly, it gives one pause if one is inclined to entertain Jungian thoughts. But who can tell with the power of linguistic attraction at work?  On that note, I bid you Happy Halloween, and a good Mythopoeic Monday.

Lilith Queen of Lust by Icequake Design

Other contemporary illustrations of the jorogumo may be found about the internet, for example, check out this illustration by Matthew Meyer.

Lolth's Kind of Guy

Hextor by Ralph Horsley

I think it was the day I got my Hextor miniature, but it may have been when I saw WAR's illustration of Hextor (sadly, I can't find a nice link to it).  I took one look at the eight-limbed freak: big, strong, violent, evil.  And, above all, with strong arachnid features.  Just Lolth's type.  That is why, in the version of a fiendish hierarchy that I developled for 3.5, I planned to develop a liaison between Lolth and Hextor, despite their differences in alignment (don't make me state the obvious about male-female relationships in the real world).  I like the idea so much, that I would consider using it in another setting if I never used this setting again. 

Hextor also seems a good choice to me for the worship of goblinoids, especially hobgoblins, given his goblinoid features and his warlike character.  Does anyone know where this design originated?  Hextor was not on my radar back in the days of first edition, only coming to my attention with third edition.  Did Hextor look like this in the old world of Greyhawk materials?  In my opinion, this is a strong design. 

By the way, in spite of the what I said about WAR's illustration, I do like the work that Ralph Horsley has done for WotC, Paizo, and others.  I especially like his use of color.

Lolth's Web Grows

Lilith by Israel Llona, 2007

Thanks for the interesting comments on Respinning the Demon Queen.  I knew Lolth is (and has been since 1980) super popular, but I was gratified to hear that folks are also as interested in Lilith as I am.  There's a lot of great creative ideas out there, and cross-fertilization and discussion of the original sources is both helpful and enjoyable.  I hope folks will scroll down to the comments in my linked post above to see the jewels hidden down there and join in!  (I'm going to disable the comments here to encourage folks to keep the comments all together over there.)

 Drider by Ben Wooten

Lolth on the cover of 4e's MM3.  Courtesy of WotC's Fankit. 

EDIT: Comments opened for art talk.

Respinning the Demon Queen

N. Wright has rattled my cage with his post on Lolth.*  I had been thinking about this post for a while, and noted it in my blog schedule document, but I hadn't moved it up the queue, much less written it.  I shall wait no longer!

Lolth (or Lloth)

Every gamer of my generation remembers Lolth, Demon Queen of an underworld filled with drow and giant spiders, this way:

Erol Otus' Illustration from the Fiend Folio, 1981

Erol Otus' Illustration from Queen of the Demon Web Pits, 1980

 And "she also enjoys appearing as an exquisitely beautiful female Dark Elf," in D&D, called drow (Q1:31).  So perhaps she was even more memorable to pubescent and adolescent boys as looking something like this:

Another Erol Otus Illustration from Queen of the Demon Web Pits, 1980

Thus Lolth has two forms of appearing, even as she has two aspects: Goddess of the drow and Demon Queen of spiders.  These forms are both favorites of artists: reward yourself with a Google image search and you will be inundated with forms both of a horrendous arachnid with varying female humanoid attributes, and of the exquisitely beautiful female dark elf.  (All drow chicks are hot, ergo, Lolth must be the hottest of the hot.)

J. M. Collier's Lilith, 1887

Lilith
Another powerful demoness is the similarly named Lilith, from Jewish mythology.  Lilith is another sexy demon: according to the tales of some rabbis, she was Adam's first wife, divorced and turned into a demon because she wanted to be on top during coitus.  Thus she was punished as a threat to the belief in a divinely ordained male dominance.  Denied children of her own, she became an envious demon who kidnapped children.  In some people's mythopoesis, she became the first vampire.  Remember vampires?  How often they have pointed ears and are beautifully irresistible?  Like, well, elves.  Also note, female vampires from earliest days were portrayed as kidnapping children, just as the elves did with changelings.


Mash-Up Time: The Demon Queen Gets a Makeover
These two demon-goddesses offer a strong case for identifying the two figures as the same individual.  They share so much thematically that it is easy to do.  As I noted, even their names are very similar.  If you keep the two names, they can just be differences due to language.  Or you could call her Liloth.  Combining them has happy consequences.

If you are tired of the same old folklore controlling vampire game mechanics, you can now offer vampires a makeover based on their demon mistress: driders could be the spider form available for vampires.  Now we know why the drow moved underground: those who had received Liloth's gift (many of the nobles) had to flee the destructive rays of the sun.  Why should you especially identify bats with vampires?  There is one species of vampire bat, but don't all spiders suck their victims dry of their vital juices? We also have tehe answer for why evil elves and vampires kidnap children: Because they are easy-to-catch-and-carry little bags of blood, that's why.  Changelings would be ones selected to be allowed to survive and grow up to be turned into vampires and sent back to plague their old communities.  And remember the fear about female dominance represented by Lilith?  Of course drow are a matriarchal society under the demon goddess.

Vampires and drow tend to be among lots of gamers favorite monstrous races.  They also are the object of complaint as overly used and overly familiar.  I offer this new spin on the Queen of the Demonweb Pits as a way to creatively revamp both the Lolth and her elven devotees.


* His post led me back to Tim Brannan's earlier post.