Aranas

Aranas is the Great Spider, bringer of terror and weaver of lies. Many desperate people seek the Great Spider to assist them in getting back at their enemies, and so Aranas also has a reputation for being a patron of revenge.

The Great Spider is thought to be constantly craving souls to gorge itself on, ever looking for more victims to lure into its webs. One prominent legend states that the night sky is the Great Spider's web, the stars being the souls of those the Spider has trapped and is planning to feast on. It is perhaps largely because of terrifying stories such as this that many people, when approached by the Great Spider or its servants, seek to try and strike a bargain, offering lives of servitude instead of facing the unthinkable fate of having their very soul devoured.

Aranas is most often reported to take the form of a giant black spider with a cluster of glowing blue eyes, though it is also occasionally said to take other forms such as a large nebulous black mass, or simply a cluster of glowing blue points of light (assumed to be the eyes) lurking in deep shadows.

Uncommon Views

The Harbingers have some additional views that they have been making efforts to spread: Aranas indeed hungers for souls and weaves webs to bring more deserving souls to its ravenous maw. When needful it weaves webs of subtlety and deceit to manipulate those who need manipulating. Most have forgotten, however, that the Great Spider was also the Great Organizer, the Weaver of Dreams, the Architect: The one who inspired mankind to develop greater culture and society beyond scattered primitive tribes, to build sprawling cities and empires, to form guilds and craft wondrous artisanal goods and machines, to establish interconnected webs of politics and trade between civilizations. Generations of neglect and scornful anti-worship by the mortals who were turned against Aranas by the Prime Immortals left the Great Spider with little choice but to focus on its hunger in order to survive without respectful worship. Thus its other facets and roles have been tragically hidden from those who have been made ignorant of them.