Tonight I was reading through original Dungeons & Dragons Gods, Demi-gods, and Heroes. Because I'm doing a bit of research & prep work for an up coming campaign. I came across the Hyboria section on the Conan Mythos. And I came across the entry on Yezud the spider god of Zomara. Yezud is rather nasty according to Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes; "YEZUD Armor Class — 3 Magic Ability: (See Below) Move: 16" Fighter Ability: 12th Level Hit Points: 225 Yezud is a giant black spider able to consume energy levels, as does Stormbringer, and use all the powers of a phase spider. Its evil priests keep it in human sacrifices and for this is supplies them with tiny hand-size pearls. These black pearls, upon a mental command, will turn into a poisonous spider, biting for 2 dice (10-sided) of damage. These pearls are usually placed in the center of a piece of jewelry that the priests give to high officials and other people of importance"
What if Shelob was the distant grand mother of Yezud?! Shelob was a great Spider and the greatest offspring of Ungoliant, the primordial spider. Ungoliant,was the offspring of an archnid god even old in the form of Ungwë-Tuita, the 'Spider of Night. Now if these archnid gods remind you of Stephen King's 'It'? There's a reasom for this. King borrowed quite a bit of material from Tolkein especially for his Dark Tower series of novels. And 'it' seems to have a lot in common with Ungoliant; "The origins of Ungoliant are unspecified, except that she had been a spirit, entering Arda and taking the form of a giant spider. As a spirit being, she would only be perceptible to those that could perceive spirits and the spirit world. It is implied that her spirit form was one of pure darkness, reflected in her physical form. Since the Valar, Maiar, and other spirits in the physical world freely took on forms that reflected their nature, Ungoliant's terrifying and monstrous form did the same. While her form was described as being that of a giant spider, and she is credited as the "first" giant spider, the narrative indicates that"
Both Yezud & 'It' also feed on life force or the souls of thier victims indicating more common linage. And this also plugs into Ungoliant once again who was in point of fact a primordial.
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Depiction of Ungoliant in her lair by Max Duran artwork used without permission.
In the face of this speculation, I'd also go so far to say that could on the indicators of this archnid god linage that the Great Old One Atlach-Nacha is another member of this branch of primordials. The giant purple spiders of the Dreamlands are the last remains of these horrors and hates of old. The original god like horrors had a purpose.
This branch of primordials spins out the great web of existence while feeding on the human prey of reality. Thier function seems to be to mark the great epochs of Earth's cycles while feeding on humanity in stages. We get the following from Ungoliant's entry:"Considering that the Ainur passed through the Void while venturing from the Timeless Halls to Arda, it is likely she was simply a powerful Ainu in the form of a spider, or a being from the Void itself."
These are not beings to trifle with an only the most fool hardy or high level adventurers should trifle with these beings.
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