Drider
Driders are a creature that originated in the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons. They are basically centaurs, but replace "human half" with "drow elf half" and "horse body" with "giant spider body". Basically, the batshit crazy Lolth has a history of transforming her followers into half-spider monsters for shits 'n' giggles.
In the original lore, transformation into a Drider was supposed to be a punishment for those drow who failed one of Lolth's various psycho-tests or for a male who pissed off a high priestess so bad murderraping him to death wasn't punishment enough. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense considering that Lolth herself is basically half-drow and half-spider in her favorite avatar-form, that she considers spiders sacred (her original title was Demon Queen of Spiders for chrissakes) and Driders are actually more powerful in crunch than the drow they were made from. So when 4th edition came around, the fluff got changed to match the crunch and getting Drider'ed became a cherished reward for her most worthy followers instead. 5th edition went back to the old fluff, arguing that Lolth is batshit insane and that few if any of her actions makes sense at all.
Pathfinder made driders into the results of twisted mutative "fleshcrafting" done on failures with no divine connection at all. It also introduced a classic monstergirl sexual dimorphism; female driders look like sexy half-drow half-black widows, whilst male drow are hideous spider-faced half-tarantula brutes.
In Eberron, Drow instead worship the scorpion god Vulkoor, and thus have drow/scorpion hybrids called Scorrow.
Monstergirls
 | This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match. |
Since the basic picture of a Drider is inevitably a sexy black-skinned elf-lady atop a giant spider, centaur-style, it should be no surprise that they have taken off as one of the more common forms of monstergirls. Non-explicitly D&D based ones tend to be called Arachnes, however, since, y'know, trademarks and Arachne being the woman who became the first spider in Greco-Roman myth and all. These monstergirls are often depicted as dominatrixes, particularly favoring bondage, since they can spin restraints out of their own silk - though there is an almost equally strong tendency to portray them as surprisingly timid and demure. Some actually invoke both, either by having the arachne possess a facade of shyness or demure mannerisms that gives way to domination in the bedroom, or by having them act assertive and domineering in public, but be shy and tender lovers in the privacy of the bedroom. Surprising if you look into actual spider behavior, it's not too far removed depending on the species. Some have elaborate 'dancing' such as with the peacock spider (watch it, it's pretty cute, and quite memeable.). Others do 'cuddle' after reproduction, and there are at least a few species of spider that do the bondage thing and tie up there mating partner... although it is typically the male that ties the female down so he can have a chance to have his way with her without getting eaten by the much larger and stronger female. (Yeah, Mother Nature is something of a /d/enizen like that at times...)
It's also surprisingly common for monstergirl Driders to parasitically lay eggs inside of humanoid hosts with an ovipositor, especially nubile human or elfin maidens. Precisely why, nobody freaking knows, especially since first, Driders are almost always depicted as sterile in D&D (Lolth might be crazy but she doesn't want to create a self-sustaining rival race to her beloved/hated Drow - she has the chitines for that) and second, spiders just don't do that sort of shit in real life. Like, at all. Some species of wasps do that, the eggs are usually injected like a syringe rather than deposited with a tube, it's done with the idea that when the young hatch they feed by eating the recipient - alive - from the inside out and as an ironically fun fact, spiders are known for being at the receiving end of it.
The Monster Girl Encyclopedia has no fewer than 6 varieties of spider-based mamono:
- The Arachne is the common variant, and is basically a typical dominatrix spider-girl.
- The Jorogumo is a Zipangu variant who acts polite and demure during the day, but reverts to the same aggressive, sexually dominant behavior as her mainland cousin at night.
- The Ant Arachne is an arachne variant that has adapted to resemble the appearance of a Giant Ant mamono; these lazy bums infiltrate Giant Ant dens, where they freeload off of the food and captured men that the Ant-girls work so hard to provide. In case your wondering: this is actually biologically accurate and there is a whole Taxonomy family of spider which mimic ants.
- The Ushi-oni is another Zipangu arachne; based upon a yokai that resembled a giant spider with an ox's head, it's essentially a minotaur-girl from the waist up and a giant tarantula from the waist down. They are amongst the most brutish and uncivilized of the Zipangu mamono, being essentially even more aggressive than minotaurs.
- The Girtablilu is essentially the Scorrow of the MGE world, taking its name from an actual scorpion-taur monster. It uses aphrodisiac venom to ensnare victims. If your wondering why Scorpions and Spider monster girls are in the same family, it's because Scorpions and spiders are in the same biological order: Arachnid.
- The Atlach-nacha is a Mythosian mamono, and as such one of the freakiest; in its native form, it resembles a loli with spider legs growing out of her back, but she uses her magic to transform men into giant spider-like abominations, with a "head" that is basically an orifice full of sexual organs and aphrodisiac venom-injectors into which she slots herself to take up the traditional "tauric" appearance.
