ANADI

The very southwest reaches of Garund conceal a beautifully strange, reclusive sapient race known as the anadi. Nestled in the thinning parts of the southern Laughing Jungle, the cave systems of the nearby mountains, and on the low hills of the shore, anadi are human-sized spiders with a talent for magic and a distaste for violence. They often go out of their way to help other people feel more comfortable, and their patron goddess Grandmother Spider is as present in their lives as a good friend. Anadi value self-sufficiency and cooperation, and though slow to bond to others, they will stick with their chosen companions throughout their lives.

History

Nobody quite remembers where the anadi came from, as they had not yet learned to write their stories. Oral legends, of varying veracity, tell of a dark place of shadows and cold. There, say the legends, the anadi people were servants with as little freedom as Grandmother Spider had, in those early days. When she wove her own fate and gave herself a new destiny, the anadi followed her example an age later and began to chafe at their servitude, longing for the same agency. They cried out to Nana Anadi, some say their blood grandmother, and she came when she heard.

According to ancient stories, Grandmother Spider helped many anadi escape using trickery and misdirection. She wove roads of silk for them to follow, winding up and down and

around in directions most people could never follow.

Where they had the ability to, the anadi aided her efforts with creativity and nimbleness. In the end, only a small number of anadi made it to the new world Grandmother Spider led them to. Even in her benevolence, she wasn’t without her humor, and the new jungle proved to have its own dangers. The newly freed anadi rose to the task of survival, weaving comfortable homes far from predators and learning to direct their own fates. In commemoration and pride, Grandmother Spider scattered dewdrops from her tapestries of fate in the dark sky, ensuring that her grandchildren would never have to live in darkness ever again.

When questing anadi ran into their first humans and halflings, they quickly became aware that other races had a deep-seated fear of spiders that most couldn’t look past. Their first attempts at diplomacy didn’t go well, and the anadi retreated back into their enclaves to decide what to do.

Several of the best weavers looked to the future and saw destinies as numerous as the threads in a bolt of silk. They picked through them, and after much deliberation, decided upon a path. The most learned anadi immediately set about improving their magical skills. The few groups who stole into lands northward returned with what knowledge they could, particularly that of arcane learning. It is said by some that several of Old-Mage Jatembe's Magic Warriors were able to

Anadi Names

Anadi parents generally each choose a syllable from their own names to stitch together into the name of a chil. This means that children with longer names often have more parents, and vice versa. Adult anadi adopt phrase names, derived from a nickname given by others, something they're known for, or a trait or aesthetic they value highly.

When introducing themselves, an anadi with a phrase name will give that name first, followed by their given name, and occasionally tack on a nickname.

see past the anadi’s form and provide them with the records and learning they desired.

A group of the anadi’s foremost users of magic, headed by the young Colors-Give-Her-Strength Fanatha (NG anadi spellsage 9), eventually developed a ritual that is as essential to modern anadi life as web-weaving. Using this ritual, any anadi could temporarily change their form into that of a human, keeping the same face each transformation. It is said that when those first anadi learned to walk, they stepped out into the sunrise at the top of the jungle canopy, looked north to the Mwangi Expanse, and decided then and there that they would never give up.

The instructions for that very first ritual are recorded in a magical tapestry called the First Weaving, kept in the cave libraries of Majabi. It was a long and arduous process, and only lasted several days at a time, but using this transformation ritual, anadi finally made successful diplomatic contact with the Mwangi Expanse. They established a small port of trade on the coast and adapted council-based governments they found in the north for their own use. Through their own experimentation and research done in the Mwangi, various anadi added onto the transformation ritual until it became what it is today—an easy ritual cast by every child that allows them near-instant transformations their whole lives.

More recently, the anadi nation gave quiet aid to the Song’o halflings in their secretive quest to help Vidrian. More and more anadi have been questing northward to partake of the numerous opportunities for learning, spreading what they hope are seeds of tolerance along the way.

Appearance

Anadi have two, and occasionally three, forms: their true form, that of a spider; their humanoid form; and those who wish to push their transformations even further often end up adopting a hybrid form, combining what they see as the best features of both extremes.

As spiders, anadi span about five or six feet across, from front legs to back legs. They measure about half that tall, putting their spider eyes just under eye-level of most halflings. They often resemble jumping spiders. Anadi natural colorings tend to be vibrant and symmetrical. While in their true spider form, an anadi usually has worse eyesight, but the delicate hairs coating their bodies and the sensitive pads on their feet alert them to soft sounds, subtle scents, and even vibrations in the air.

Most anadi spend their entire childhoods switching between their true forms and their human one, meaning that they never experience much disconnect between the two. In their home nation of Nurvatcha, they switch freely between forms, using their spider legs to walk on webs between buildings and using their human fingers to do dexterous work. When outside Nurvatcha and their private homes, anadi stay in their human forms whenever possible.

A few anadi have “human” forms that aren’t actually human. In Nurvatcha, it isn’t too uncommon to hear of someone’s sibling whose “human” form is actually a halfling, or sometimes an elf, or even more rarely, an orc or other humanoid. The vast majority of anadi transform into humans of various ethnicities, depending on who their families are most familiar with.

Whatever ethnicity or race an anadi becomes, they share several traits, including a propensity for dark skin and textured hair. Human anadi eyes are always dark, and have a strange, reflective sheen in the right light. A significant percentage of anadi retain their poor

spider eyesight, remaining nearsighted to various degrees and even partially blind. They tend to keep their hair long and woven into braids.

As every anadi produces at least a little silk, and weaving is a central focus of their culture, human anadi clothing is a point of pride. They do little to distinguish between genders in clothing, layering many thin silk robes, scarves, sashes, shirts, and cloaks in many bright colors. The brightest undyed whites are saved for special occasions. Anadi incorporate painted and engraved leather pieces into their tools and clothing.

Due to the bad eyesight many anadi have, eyeglasses and other vision-correcting or devices are relatively common, though they can be prohibitively expensive in Nurvatcha. Magical assistive devices are more widespread, and skilled glassmakers are rare but valued.

The few anadi who care to achieve a hybrid form appear to be thin, four-limbed humanoids with their spider coloring and heads, including fangs and venom, but with more human hands and height. In hybrid form, they can walk on webs and peel mangoes at the same time. Unfortunately, many other races see these hybrid forms as even more monstrous than full spider forms.

Society

Anadi are known for their web families, groups of blood siblings born to groups of three to five parents. Several web families living close together form clutters, often comprised of several siblings and their own spouses and families. Anywhere from five to twenty families make up a single clutter, which are led by the oldest female in the group, a matriarch considered a stand-in for or bridge to the goddess Grandmother Spider. They practice a wide variety of trades and tend to keep apprenticeships inside themselves, though they have specialties.

Clutters living in the same location form a colony, of which there are eight in Nurvatcha. In the past, colonies would choose a single web family to preside over them, and when these families gathered to make decisions for the entire nation of Nurvatcha, not much got done—“too many bells makes no music,” as the saying goes. After traveling through the Mwangi Expanse and seeing their governments firsthand, the anadi altered their structure. Now, each of the eight colonies elects a single anadi from anywhere in their ranks to become a council member. Promising anadi are often lifted into prominence by their matriarchs and spend time visiting different clutters in their colony.

The anadi council of eight convenes in the central city of Domithari, built high above the jungle floor. They meet inside a massive tree with a hollow grown in the top. Their circular table is divided into ten. One portion is left respectfully open for Grandmother Spider, though nobody actually expects her to show up or intervene, and one portion is left for her most prominent priest or oracle. The council often takes reports from experts in their field to make informed decisions.

When faced with a difficult problem, the council first asks for research from Majabi about precedent and relevant information, takes interviews from several members of relevant communities, and listens to the diviners, weavers, and oracles who practice in Grandmother Spider’s tradition. These weavers of fate confer with the priest at the table to cast a single vote among them, a ninth vote that ensures no decision ends in a tie. Lately, the council has been hearing requests to add an official ninth colony and a tenth council member to represent the anadi living outside Nurvatcha. Traditionalists worry that it would upset the balance of the vote, but the arguments are gaining strength as more and more anadi settle northward.

Anadi towns are generally small and communally focused. Whether on the coast, in the jungle, or on a cliff, anadi settlements are built vertically as well as horizontally. Anadi involved in construction weave a thick, fire- resistant silk known as structure silk into beams, supports, and walls. Homes are complexes of spherical or drop-shaped rooms, decorated with colored tapestries and cushions and hammocks, along with the occasional lightweight wooden furniture. Homes often change size and shape depending on the family’s needs.

Anadi Silks

Though at first glance, all the silk that anadi spin is similar, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Spinners differentiate between four major types of silk, though each can be separated into even more types.

Structure silk is woven into walls, docks, and scaffolding. It is fire-resistant and takes skill to make and work with.

Water silk can be woven tightly together to create watertight fabric, used for rain canopies, lining boats, and making buckets.

Wick silk catches on fire quickly and burns easily but slowly, ideal for lanterns.

Weaving silk is the most versatile kind of silk. It takes dye well and is used for clothing, writing, decorations, and most other applications.

Spider Vision

Most spiders have dramatically nearsighted or blurry vision, compensating with other precise senses. That bad vision sometimes carries over into anadi human forms, but without the benefit of other senses. A relatively high percentage of anadi are mostly blind or are nearsighted to various degrees in their human forms. While correcting glasses aren’t yet prevalent in Nurvatcha, not the least due to the lack of glass- and metal-working, various Mwangi glassworkers have heard of the demand, and some are attempting to barter their way onto a Vidrian merchant ship to cater to the new customer base.

Eliek (M human glassblower 4), an artisan from Nantambu, is currently trying very hard to get permission to set up a permanent shop in Jendouna Fee, which makes many anadi nervous. He has so far been unsuccessful in gaining an audience with a matriarch.

Jungle-dwelling anadi construct platforms attached to trees, shaded and protected from the rain by canopies. Cave anadi, with most access to sunlight on the sides of their mountains, build garden boxes that often surround a cave entrance. Coastal anadi find use for strong silken docks and shore buildings on stilts of wood or stone. Although anadi settlements are built using ancient techniques, today they're altered to accommodate both humanoid and spider forms—taller doorways, ladders or nets to climb, and higher ceilings.

Villages often have a surplus of bright tapestries and rugs decorating communal spaces, along with long strands of knotted silk that tell stories, strung in web shapes between structures. It’s common for a few strands of webbing to connect communities, as anadi on either side can vibrate the strands to communicate news or warnings quickly between groups.

One striking feature of most anadi towns is the lack of fire. Since many anadi are versed in arcane magic, they do not see the need to risk their flammable structures with fire and use simple spells for light and heat instead. Still, a good fireside lit with wick silk and set on the ground or in a ventilated cavern proves a good occasion to share some of Grandmother Spider’s wilder stories.

Each child of a clutter spends time with various tradespeople in their community, learning the basics of weaving, trapping, gardening, fishing, and magic. They choose their first vocation at a young age and apprentice under a master, usually a member of their clutter. Young anadi are expected to switch vocations several times while they find their calling, potentially traveling to other cities or even into the rest of Mwangi to learn, but they are also assumed to want to return home and settle before they are too old.

Few anadi learn combat. As a general rule, they try to avoid violent situations and solutions, but everyone knows that some of the world’s dangers don’t listen to calm voices. To that end, several of the most interested anadi from each clutter train with their natural fangs and with humanoid weapons. Anadi don’t work much with metal, so most non-wooden weapons aren’t made by them, but plenty are adorned with bright silks. The anadi’s best fighters sometimes seek outside tutelage and most often become rangers, rogues, and maguses. Others learn more secrets of medicine than secrets of magic, and as a result, become healers and alchemists. While arcane magic is the most prominent tradition among anadi, there are plenty who expand their learning.

Faith

All anadi treat Grandmother Spider with a measure of respect and wariness, knowing that she loves well-meaning pranks but also cares deeply for her grandchildren. They see her as their communal patron goddess, and the common anadi pays homage mostly by telling her stories and conversing with her out loud as if she were a friend.

Anadi do not keep a temple for Grandmother Spider, feeling that it would invite her meddling, but they do have an informal priesthood of those who practice her favored trades. Most of her clerics and oracles are female, and a chunk of them reside in Domithari. The others travel to every clutter in every colony, sharing Grandmother’s stories and doing their best to advise and aid the people.

Other deities have small places in anadi culture. An anadi might feel called to worship a certain one more reverently. Most of these gods are those of learning, magic, exploration, or destiny. Gods of warfare and combat are rare, as anadi tend to avoid violence as much as they can. Those who feel guided to another deity often travel outside Nurvatcha for a time to find others of that faith and learn more about them.

Culture

Anadi value their families, communities, adaptation, and self-sufficiency. They try to help others to be more comfortable around them, even at the expense of their own well-being. As a result, many anadi are highly aware of etiquette and formal behavior. They have their own cultural etiquette, of course, but as anadi travel, they prefer to emulate the behaviors of those around them to not offend or annoy their companions. This has earned them a reputation as shy people. The anadi dislike violence, but violence is not the same as confrontation. Though most anadi are soft-spoken and peaceful individuals, the race has its fair share of firebrands.

Many anadi always seem to carry snacks on them and make it a point to offer them out. Anadi cultivate mushrooms, grow vegetables, and tend fruit trees. They prefer to lay snares for fish, fowl, and small game rather than actively hunt them. Their favorite foods include dried and fresh fruit, mushrooms of various kinds, and especially sweets. Most anadi swear off eating crabs and shellfish, finding their biology to be a bit too similar for comfort.

Many anadi are artisans by vocation or by hobby. The most common kinds of art use silk, as it’s a resource constantly on hand and very versatile. Weaving silk takes dye the best, so is used for most decorations and clothing. While most silk is woven into fabric, some of it is manipulated in other ways similar to knitting or macrame. Non-textile anadi art includes small paintings, carved wooden beads, percussive music, and complex dances.

Anadi Silk Writing

The most significant development in anadi culture, aside from the first transformation ritual, was the invention of a writing system. The story goes that the arcanists working on the ritual were not able to memorize all the important information they were learning from outside sources and could not manipulate other cultures’ writing implements.

These scholars devised a new system for writing in their native, chittering language—by varying knot type, size, and spacing on a long strand of silk, they could record syllables and words. Generations after them refined the system, bit by bit, evolving it from a syllabic language. Now, many words have their own knots, so things can be written and read quite a bit faster.

Jewelry

Anadi jewelry often serves dual purposes, since strands of decorative silk can also contain words. Anadi who travel wear hardy, magically treated strands of knotted writing as belts or jewelry that can identify them in the case they cannot identify themselves.

When beginning to consider marriage, individuals weave and wear thick, colorful bracelets that display their genealogy to those who know how to read it.

Wooden beads and leather charms also work their way into anadi accessories, and some have taken to keeping their favorite poems or stories close in the form of knotted belts and necklaces.

Growing Up

Anadi eggs hatch in groups of anywhere from one to three, making twins and triplets quite common. Before hatching, web families keep their eggs in a hollow in their homes, often watched by younger children. Hatchings are clutter-wide celebrations.

Elders in a clutter convene to tell young anadi the stories of their people. Once a child is deemed old enough, anywhere from two to five years old, their parents will teach them the most modern transformation ritual and supervise its performance. Children often perform this one at a time, but some colonies have a tradition of holding a celebration for the children and making it an event.

Magic is an essential part of anadi culture, the basics taught to children early on, though some show more aptitude than others. Anadi use simple magic or enchanted items to light their communities, cool their homes, cook food, and recycle waste. Those who wish to learn more often journey to the cliff city Majabi to learn from the wizards and oracles there.

Parents in a family raise their children together, not keeping track or much caring which were born exactly from who. The concept of half-siblings is foreign to anadi who encounter it while traveling.

The simplest type of writing is still a single strand of syllables, which is the form the oldest books in the Great Library take, as well as most identification strands worn by anadi who travel. Newer books are tied with increasingly thinner threads and more complex but more descriptive knots, barely taking up more room than a paper book or scroll of similar content. The greatest advantage to anadi silk writing is that it can be written and read in any of the anadi’s forms, and often without sight at all. Unfortunately, illustrations still have to be drawn on paper or leaves and attached separately, leading to long descriptions of diagrams.

Web Families

Outside of Nurvatcha, anadi are perhaps known best for their web marriages. While marriages between pairs exist, they are less common than the more traditional multi-member web marriages.

Once an anadi has settled into a vocation or returned from a journey, they are encouraged to attend occasional celebrations in other clutters and other colonies, expecting to find their future partners. They wear brightly colored knotted bracelets to these that contain detailed genealogies, so they don't accidentally end up courting a close relative.

Anadi are fond of somewhat outlandish courtship stories, and will often make a significant effort to impress their potential spouses with spectacular feats and handmade gifts. Equally adored are sweet romantic anecdontes, and in the detailed planning stage of an engagement, individual pairs make it a point to spend time together. On occasion, an entire group considering marriage journey away from Nurvatcha for a time to experience the world and grow closer together.

Between three and six anadi—similar in age, of a variety of genders, and deeply in love with one another—perform a marriage ceremony involving weaving a literal web. Generally all members at once join together, though it isn’t unheard of to add another member or two later on. A marriage ceremony is a bittersweet time, as it means a child or sibling or cousin will leave their home for another clutter or even another colony. These marriages and the point anadi make of joining with only those unrelated to oneself means that families are constantly moving and shifting throughout Nurvatcha and beyond.

Relations

The anadi are a reclusive people, nevertheless, they want to get along with their neighbors. Their diplomatic efforts have borne much better fruit since they began teaching their transformation rituals, but they still find themselves at a disadvantage, unable to invite most outsiders in. Other races, even those that often interact with anadi traders or artisans, believe that the anadi are cursed, or perhaps lycanthropic. Others can be ironically skittish around anadi, needlessly sympathetic, unnecessarily aggressive, or even fearful. Anadi are painfully aware of these misconceptions, and the natural fear most species have of arachnids. It only makes them more nervous about engaging with others.

The anadi who travel sometimes find kinship with Kallijae elves, who also often help others at the expense of themselves, Alijae elves for their dedication to knowledge, Taralu dwarves for their diplomatic approach to life, and other peoples stigmatized and feared for reasons beyond their control, such as tieflings or orcs.

Due to their proximity to the Laughing Jungle, anadi are familiar and even friendly with the Song’o halfling caravans. They trade goods and stories, and more recently, the anadi in the north found themselves supplementing Song’o efforts to aid the Vidrians in their revolution. Some anadi who wish to travel often begin with the Song’o caravans. At least one web family travels the Song’o trails in a small caravan of their own, and their magic has given them halfling forms.

The coastal settlement of Jendouna received sailing visitors from Senghor and Vidrian not long ago, after several generations of limited contact. The anadi council hesitantly approved requests to trade freely out of the outpost. Several scholars have recently traveled on merchant ships to attempt to learn more about the anadi.

From the little they know of the outside world, anadi are still hesitant to join it completely. They enjoy the opportunity they have to learn from the Magaambya, and they fear more predators or foreigners coming to exploit their people. Despite their nervousness, anadi people tend to assume the best of individuals they meet unless proven otherwise.

The anadi nation of Nurvatcha features low but craggy mountains, deep jungles somewhat cooler than those of central Mwangi, and rocky shorelines. The anadi are spread throughout the region but connected by well-worn trails, hanging roads in the sky made of structure silk, and many celebrations that span colonies. The southern Laughing Jungle is, by all accounts, calmer than the north, but it still features quicksand, sinkholes, dangerous waterways, and all manner of predators.

The shallow cave systems dotting the mountains do not seem to be very rich in ore, or at least the anadi don’t notice. A single wide, easy cove provides a place for flat anadi boats to fish, and for occasional merchant ships to make port. Around anadi settlements, one can find cultivated fields of mushrooms, strong fruit trees, and vegetable and herb gardens.

In recent years, more outsiders have been allowed deeper into Nurvatcha, particularly powerful druids, who show no hesitance when dealing with anadi in their true forms, and scholars, who don’t take long to get over it. Anadi are generally hopeful that this is the beginning of actual positive relations with their neighbors.

Domithari

The Twilight City of Domithari is the oldest and largest permanent anadi settlement, and has become the capital of Nurvatcha. The single largest tree in the region stands somewhat apart from others, surrounded by a shallow but clear and wide lake. A large room with a single entrance and no windows was shaped into the top of the tree, and this room serves as the formal meeting place of the anadi council. It features not only the large round table hanging from the ceiling, but some of the oldest tapestries in their possession, telling the anadi’s story and offering advice in the form of art and diagrams.

Most of Domithari winds along the first tree as platforms and buildings, and has expanded to fill nearby trees, as well. An organized network of bridges and hanging roads covered with woven canopies expands outward to connect the large trees together. Domithari boasts a number of homes, though the only permanent residents are a few priests and the single Domithari clutter. More buildings are dedicated to workshops, classrooms, receiving rooms for the council members, shops, and restaurants.

Silksickness

Many anadi trades involve spinning a lot of silk in a day, using up a lot of energy and nutrients. Malnourishment can quickly set in if they spin on an empty stomach, becoming fatigued. Constant silksickness can lead to lower-quality silk and other sever issues.

To avoid silksickness, anadi eat hearty snacks all through the day, with one meal in the evenings designated for family. Anadi who spend most of their time in their humanoid forms don't run into the potential problem as often, but they tend to snack throughout the day anyway, and make sure their companions are well-fed, too.

The Arena

Domithari also features a large area in the branches of the main tree with a flat, silken floor and a draped ceiling of many dark colors. Once a week—and more often than that in the warm months—young anadi throw magical lights up into the ceiling, where they bob like stars and illuminate the Arena below them. Under the canopy of the jungle, it’s all but impossible to see the night sky, but in the Arena, it feels like one is under the stars. While the Arena does host some sparring competitions and marriage ceremonies, its most common use is for meaningless parties and more meaningful celebrations. Anadi travel from far away to attend the gatherings here. Many an anadi has met their lifelong partners in the Arena, and many more continue to do so.

Majabi

Set inside the mountains near the eastern edge of Nurvatcha, the scholar-city Majabi doubles as a somewhat informal university. It serves as a permanent place of residence for the Majabi clutter and those traveling there to learn.

Majabi is a series of connected caverns just inside the mountain, as well as several buildings and vertical gardens clinging to the outside of the mountain. The inside of the caverns are coated with generations of colored silk and tapestries, and always lit with magical and mundane lanterns, making them rather cozy. Anadi are not particularly known for their stonework or metalwork, though both are more prevalent here. The natural cave structures have mostly been left alone. Silken walls and curtains divide the bigger caverns into smaller rooms, expanding in all directions.

The largest cavern contains the Majabi Market, the best place in Nurvatcha to find magical items and books of all kinds. The second-largest contains the Great Library. While most of this particular cave system has been explored and is occupied, there are portions near the back that have, so far, been ignored for one reason or another.

Hanging outside the main entrance to the caverns is the second, smaller portion of the city, with greater access to sunlight and rain. It is here that the anadi build their garden boxes, narrow platforms of dirt that grow various small crops. The most impressive gardens are those that house entire fruit trees, creating a shaded orchard that helps supply Majabi with fruit and sweets. Several inns hang on the face of the mountain as well, giving travelers easier access to their services. A long, wide road of silk scaffolded with wood connects the entrance of Majabi to the ground, decorated with tiny bells and lights that make approaching the city a merry and rather noisy affair.

The Great Library

Those few outsiders who have heard of the anadi’s Great Library would do anything to see it, and the anadi would do anything to welcome them inside. Unfortunately, the severe reactions outsiders have to populations of large spiders have prohibited this on both sides of the equation in the past. Still, the anadi are doing what they can, and several groups of outsiders have gained access to the library over the last generation.

Anadi have been allies with the Magaambya since the school’s inception, though it’s only recently that they’ve come as students in open honesty about their ancestry. There, and at There, and at every other school they’ve have gained access to, the anadi exchange books. They make paper or silken copies of interesting books, particularly on magical topics, and bring them. Some anadi carry paper copies of anadi-written volumes to written volumes to distribute to libraries around the world. More than one scholar has made exciting discoveries based on the theories recorded inside these anonymous books.

Archivists do try to do their part. Perhaps in comparison to other places, the Great Library of the anadi is not very impressive, but it holds knowledge that they count themselves very lucky to have. Majabi prides itself on keeping its libraries organized and tended, despite the difficulty of having two very different formats of books to wrangle. The Great Library contains dozens of bookshelves and nearly several hundred rows of silk strand books, along with comfortable places to read and helpful librarians.

Jendouna and Jendouna Fee

Though the Jendouna clutter calls itself coastal, in reality, the town is several hours’ walk from the ocean. It’s a unique place, built closer to the ground than almost any other town in Nurvatcha. Jendouna bears the unique distinction of being the only anadi settlement to weave and use boats daily. Other towns down the coast tend to set traps for fish, but the Jendounan anadi row out into their lagoon to actively catch fish.

Jendouna is also the town that outside merchants technically visit. The cove has several good places to dock, and a growing number of Mwangi merchants have sailed south to visit Nurvatcha. With the help of the more persistent merchants, the anadi built a village of wooden buildings near the cove, just off the beach. The village is known Jendouna Fee, or Second Jendouna, and is where non-anadi can find food, rest, and a fair amount of trade.

Anadi who dwell in Jendouna Fee remain in their human forms for as long as they are there. While it has served to strengthen the anadi’s relationship with the Mwangi as a whole, the sailors seeing anadi in what they assume is a full town has only enforced the rumors that anadi’s spider forms exist because of some kind of curse. Few non-anadi have been welcomed into the actual town.

Jendouna Fee is booming as a market town. The merchants bring goods that the anadi otherwise have a very difficult time getting their hands on. Jendouna Fee primarily supplies the anadi with metal and glass goods, such as dishes, jars, pots, fishing and farming tools, instruments, even kerosene lamps and vision-correcting eyeglasses. Of course, such things are very expensive at the moment, and entire clutters may pool their resources to afford a set of glass jars between them. Vidrian merchants affably anticipate prices decreasing in the near future.

Martukal

Martukal is the collective name that anadi living outside of Nurvatcha have taken. The name translates obliquely into “The Ninth Colony.” It’s not an official colony by any means, but support has been growing to instate it as one. So far, the anadi council’s stance is that there are simply not enough anadi settled outside Nurvatcha, and not enough communication between them, to call them their own colony. Supporters say that they’re different enough to warrant a council representative, while detractors point out that adding a tenth council member introduces the possibility for vote ties and further division.

So far, there are no anadi-exclusive permanent settlements outside Nurvatcha. Those who call themselves Martukal dwell in cities and villages populated primarily by other races. At least one web family close to the Laughing Jungle has joined the Song’o halfling caravans, and several more have been accepted into various elven settlements. They find opportunities in places like Bloodcove and Nantambu, though the vast majority of anadi keep their heritage quiet.

Martukal anadi are more likely than their Nurvatchan relatives to have non-human forms when they shapeshift, taking elven, halfling, even dwarven or orc forms instead. They break the anadi tradition of web marriages more often, committing to a single partner who may not even be anadi themselves, or including non-anadi in their marriages. Anadi simply traveling or visiting the world don’t call themselves Martukal unless and until they decide they’re staying.

Anadi Adventurers

Anadi come from one of four major locations—the jungle, the mountains, the coast, or north of Nurvatcha. Those from the jungle are more familiar with plants and animals, and of the snaring or venomous heritages. Mountain-hailing anadi are often of the spindly or venomous heritages. Anadi from the coast are mostly of the snaring and polychromatic heritages, while anadi outside Nurvatcha often have the polychromatic or adaptive heritages.

Some anadi may not know how to speak the Mwangi common tongue at first, used to the chittering Anadi language, but they do often know how to read it and pick it up quickly. Some anadi enjoy collecting languages and dialects.

Anadi who travel often do so for the opportunity to learn more about other peoples and other places, or perhaps to study a very specific topic. Occasional anadi are merchants or entrepreneurs, and some explore far and wide to find the perfect gifts for their potential partners. They are still fairly secretive and skittish by nature, but some have grown into formidable warriors of their own right, whether with weapons or with magic.

Sailing Spiders

Though Jendouna and Jendounee Fee use anadi-made, strong silken boats for daily fishing, they don't venture outside the lagoon in them. The anadi do not have a history of sailing, but there are many who desire to learn.

Several Martukal anadi have already joined crews who sail around the world, finding that their natural inclinations for climbing and weaving make them asset.

In Jendouna, anadi carpenters are more common than anywhere else in Nurvatcha, and several have begun to take interest in shipbuilding. They have created several canoes using techniques learned from visiting merchants and the Song’o halflings, and hope to create more seaworthy vessels soon.

The Future

The anadi have oracles and seers and priests who can see the future, but they prefer to think of the talent as seeing potential futures. Fate is never set in stone, as even the very webs of one’s destiny are mutable.

Anadi set a lot of stock in personal agency, most often expressed in choosing their vocations and travels and lifelong partners. Each individual is different, and can choose their own way in life. This philosophy may explain why most anadi attempt to put others’ needs before their own.

Prophecies and destinies are never definite things, and though some anadi may believe differently, most scoff at the idea of inevitability and instead choose to help others build better futures.

Magical Medicine

The resources of the jungle provide the anadi with many plants that can be used to heal or harm. Beginning with the very first anadi to emerge onto the continent, they have cultivated several strains of herbs with careful application of magic to be more potent than ever.

Most anadi don't even consider that their knowledge could be used for poison—they have venom of their own. Instead, they see the world around them as an avenue to aid those in need.

Rustling-Chimes-of-Leaves Priatasath

N | Male | Anadi | Healer 8

Hatched in the Domithari clutter as third in a set of triplets, Priatasath, or Sath for those who know him, quickly found his vocation as a healer under the direction of the clutter’s elders. While still young, he became known through Nurvatcha as a prodigy. His two siblings were likewise talented, though his brother Rijinlia became an expert tracker and hunter, while their sister Frilianth showed most promise with metal weapons. She was the one who ventured north to receive more training at the hands of non-anadi masters. When her letters slowed and contained concerning information, it was Sath who paused his marriage negotiations to go find her.

Sath spent two years in greater Mwangi, and returned with Frilianth’s identification and genealogy bracelets, along with a letter about how she’d decided to venture even farther north, likely to never return to Nurvatcha. He adopted his adult name Rustling-Chimes-of-Leaves and went right back to healing. For a while, Sath was withdrawn and even more somber than he had been. Something shifted in him recently, however, and to his family’s relief, he seems to have healed from whatever happened in the north. He has since resumed his engagement with confidence and a bit more maturity.

Some of his stories are, perhaps, rather embellished, but Sath has many anecdotes and tales that he spins for his patients and the children who come to visit him—the time he escaped several dozen charau-ka out for blood, the time he visited the hidden Kallijae city Haven, the glories of Cloudspire’s library. Notably, Frilianth is absent in every single one of his yarns, and their brother Rijinlia avoids talking about her. Sath also has been unwilling or unable to give a straight answer about her actual whereabouts or plans. He sometimes startles at loud noises, and one of the apprentice healers has heard him mention Nagisa in his sleep, a location that also doesn’t appear in any of his stories.

Whatever really happened in Mwangi, and whatever else he learned, Sath is a dedicated and talented healer. He prefers to use his healing magic as a human, but finds it easier to get around in his spider form. On occasion, he seems to miss human company and travels to Jendouna Fee to exchange stories with the sailors and merchants. Sath’s three betrothed and he are waiting on the Majabi clutter’s matriarch to give her blessing—she is slightly nervous about some of the rumors surrounding Sath in particular.

Sath may be on the lookout for adventurers to deliver some potentially dangerous letters inquiring about certain texts throughout Mwangi for him, or to obtain a cutting of the rare ginseed plant for a crucial medicine. If someone capable really earns his trust, he’ll ask about their experiences with demons.

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Anadi lore