The Kobbe

Kobbe are an intelligent, upright, and deceptively humanoid type of arachnid. Their eight appendages are arranged in clusters of two, giving them a resting outline similar to that of a human with bifurcated limbs. Their spindly arms somewhat lack the strength of humanoids of equivalent size and their fingers have one less joint, but their overall quantity of limbs and digits allows them to accomplish equivalent feats of strength, and often superior feats of dexterity. Their four legs give them a strange, almost gliding gait while walking or running. They are natural climbers, easily scaling all but the most smooth surfaces.

They can produce a tough webbing from a gland on their upper thorax, around where the small of the back would be on a humanoid. Although their webs lack the proportional powerful sticking quality of spider webs, they are quite tough and used by the Kobbe as a material for everything from light construction to clothing. Kobbe webbing feels tacky to the touch and as though it should leave an unpleasant sticky residue on one's fingers, but the only thing it meaningfully sticks to is itself, with enough strength to adhere together as though it were a single object. The simplest form of their web for them to produce is a thick single strand similar to rope, but with practice it can be extruded in a thinner, fabric-like gossamer sheet. By creating a net of rope-like webbing and attaching several layers of fabric-like web over it, they can produce sturdy yet flexible surfaces that can support large amounts of weight. They use these to construct tent-hammock-like dwellings, usually in elevated areas protected from the elements. They create clothing for expression and practicality rather than a sense of modesty, using layers of fabric-like webbing with crushed insect shells, pottery, or colourful stones embedded between the layers to produce patterns. "Baking" the garment in strong sunlight for a few days reduces the tackiness of the webbing, and this is used as a finishing step to make the garment not cling to itself. Despite the artistic value or functional use of their creations, the feel of kobbe web is generally agreed upon to be quite unpleasant to non-kobbe, making such objects hold little monetary value outside of certain collectors.

Kobbe tend to live on the fringes of most civilized societies and in wilderness areas—especially those with ruins or abandoned buildings. The nature of the dwellings they erect and abandon are often not welcome in more major metropolises, and in some regions they have reputations as vagrants and criminals. Urban kobbe dwellings are often removed with fire, though such kobbe have often learned to see the signs of their welcome being worn out and almost always have vacated before people show up with torches. Due to their more transient lifestyle, urban kobbe tend to construct smaller, simpler dwellings. The kobbe who live in ruins are sometimes sought out by scholars and merchants, who trade supplies and other things for ancient objects, guide services, or safe passage through or into the ruins.

Kobbe communicate through two primary languages of their own, a clicking, popping, buzzing form of speech that is difficult to emulate without mandibles, and a form of sign language used to communicate over long distances. Kobbe sign language consists of large movements that make use of most of their limbs, and can be likened to a far more nuanced form of semaphore signaling. To someone unfamiliar with it, it could be mistaken for a strange dance. Kobbe are perfectly capable of learning and speaking other languages but have difficulty with certain soft sounds. A kobbe accent typically involves overemphasizing sharp sounds, such as the C or T in cat, and buzzing substitutions for soft sounds such as F's and TH's—"Find them" might be pronounced closer to "Vind Zhem". Their names don't translate well, typically pronounced at a speed that becomes awkward with human mouthparts given the sounds being used. They are usually punctuated with one or more glottal stops. Some examples would include Chuut'zhull'chaak, Vvak'taak'chuuk, or Vuut'ket.

Although Kobbe from temperate and tropical climates tend towards having a chitinous appearance, those native to colder regions often have thick coats of bristly fur, similar in texture to although sparser than that of a boar. Kobbe shed their exoskeletons periodically, which happens less than once a year once they've reached adulthood. While growing, young kobbe may shed several times in a year. Kobbe age slightly faster than humans. Their young are hatched from eggs, usually in groups of anywhere from 5-20. Their predilection for living in dangerous areas contributes to an unusually high mortality rate.

Kobbe do not have a central religion. Those inclined towards spirituality often pick up the religions of those around them, or in some cases forgotten religions that exist only as relics from older times. Many cultures throughout the ages have recorded contact or encounters with the kobbe, and it's unclear just how old their species is—a few scholars theorize, based on fossils, myths, and ancient legends, that the kobbe actually predate most of the current species who are world powers. The kobbe themselves don't seem to have any true records of their own history, and although many oral traditions exist among them, they rarely have much common ground. The one somewhat recurring theme that could be argued to exist is the presence of some antagonistic, adversarial insect species, long since vanished. No such species is described by any of the ancient records that mention the kobbe, leading most historians to consider such stories to be fabricated myths.