Driders

Day 6 - Spider Girl by Anna Verhoog

I am working on a commission for a species of a fantasy universe and, while writing about its natural enemies, I discovered that (shamefully) I did not know the name of the type of creature you see in the beautiful illustration at your left.

It's also a shame because I have been writing about it in the entry on "Centaurs" that I am preparing for the Frankenguide.

So, for all of you who also did not know the name of it, the title of this post is suppose to shed some light on it. As you can read, this kind of creature is called a drider.

In fact, a quick search on Google will show you that the name "drider" is not restricted to spiders, but to virtually any other kind of bug. Their relation to centaurs is obvious. While centaurs are usually depicted with a human upper body and a lower body of a quadruped, always with the four legs present, driders are almost the same, but with, let's say in a more scientific way, their lower bodies being of arthropods. 

Well, I'm now officially including driders as an entry in the Frankenguide. It appears that the name "drider" was introduced by D&D as a half-drow/half-spider creature, but then spread through the popular culture as a convenient name to use for all kinds of similar creatures. That's actually what I am considering them to be in the guide.

One more note. I have seen the term written as "dridder" (with a double d) in many places. As the etymology of the name suggests that the "-ider" stem is derived from"spider", I will assume that the correct way to write it is with only one d.