Spooky Spider Business

[PrimalTazza]

So, after a little crawl under the house to fix some pipes and a battle with the raging inferno that is my arachnophobia (webs everywhere), a thought that's hit me before came knocking again. I have a crippling fear of spiders (larger ones, that is, tiny little spiders that are ant-sized or smaller are no problem) that is almost incapacitating. I can't breathe, I can't move, I can't talk, I lose track of time and I begin to sweat as I just stare this thing down... but small spiders or spiders on TV, in books or in video games hardly do anything to me. The most that happens is a little paranoia where I look under my desk or flip the lights on to "just check" and get on with my day.

Despite my fears, I find spiders incredibly fascinating and would like to maybe create a character focused around them and the potential fear spiders cause. Forsaken seems like the best way to go so far as race... but which spider? The lava/flame spiders seem too flashy, tarantulas are a bit goofy (and the old models do not help) and the bone spiders, while fitting, seem like it's trying too hard to be "scary." The idea of a perfectly normal/normal-looking thing causing such fear is really fascinating to me, one of the spiders I saw under the house was one of those long, slender-legged "should never see the light of day" types of spiders, with shiny, almost clear legs that made me think of glass or some sort of bottom-of-the-sea lantern fish type of creature.

I guess what I'm asking is which spider would work well for this character? A spider that you find very creepy, yet it isn't TRYING to be creepy. Do you guys have similar fear-fascination conflicts with spiders (or rats, or snakes, or other commonly feared animals)?

[Equeon]

If you want a sort of-clear, glass-like spider, there's always the crystal spiders:



I noticed you didn't mention the classic "spindly spiders" or the Maexxna-like spiny spiders, so I'm assuming you don't mind those. In that case, I would recommend the duller or more realistic colors, since they'll probably seem creepier to you:





Otherwise, with a Forsaken hunter I would totally advise you to go with a bone spider. They just fit so perfectly... I can easily imagine a Forsaken chowing down on a corpse, right alongside their pet spider that's busy draining the fluid of the recently deceased.

Do you guys have similar fear-fascination conflicts with spiders (or rats, or snakes, or other commonly feared animals)?

I have no problem with any of the creatures you mentioned - in fact, I love spiders and snakes IRL as well as ingame, but the closest thing to me would probably be parasites. Whether long, coiling worms, bloated ticks, or parasitoid insects that only spend part of their lifetime in a host, I think they're extremely interesting and love seeing those kind of creatures in literature or in videogames. I also think most of them are absolutely repulsive, especially those can actually cause serious issues in humans and other animals. I'm very glad whenever I hear river blindness is on the decline thanks to human-driven extinction of some worm, but I still can't help but be morbidly fascinated by these creatures.

[Thwip]

Haaaaaai! As an Undead Hunter main and a lover of the creepier things, I might suggest a few more 'natural colors' other then the ones listed!



I actually have spiders around my house that are somewhat similar to these, yet are browns. If they had made a brown/tan skin with stripes then it would have been a perfect match to a Common House Spider.

This is the closest to that, I suppose! [Without linking the image of the actual thing, ahaha...]

Not as natural, but some of my favs:



If you'd like to expand into other pets, I might suggest various other bug families as bugs tend to be one of the biggest guilty party for fears. Worms, wasps, beetles. I even have a friend that is scared to death of moths, no idea why...
Demon dogs always work well, I know some people have fears of dogs and those are the creepers out of the bunch.
Snakes are always a big contender of 'this thing is scary!'. Basiliks/Crocodiles work as well!

[I personally get squicked over under-the-skin type of parasites...and roaches make my skin crawl. But I love me some snakes/reptiles and bugs. :> ]

As a side note: Rolling a forsaken will actually start you off with the Mother of All Fear Causers: The black widow.

[zedxrgal]

funny cause I am almost the exact opposite of you. I love big spiders. Tarantulas etc. It's little spiders that freak me out. I won't say why. Cause it can trigger people's fears.

But I was thinking this lovely lady:

DARKMIST WIDOW

She's a vanilla rare spider. She is pretty in game to me too.
I will warn you. The spikey spiders make completely different sounds than the rest of the spiders in WoW. At least they used to.

Also giving your new spider pet a happy name, a name you relate as something good, comforting, fantastic etc can also help with a phobia.

[PrimalTazza]

I appreciate all the replies!

Yeah, I thought of the glass spiders almost immediately. I might give them a try. The vanilla spiders with the thin little legs work very well, but their age shows. The Maexxna-model spiders are very cool too, they always make me think of mean, thorny briar plants, and some of them do have unique sounds. Some spiders actually use nerubian sound files, which I may go for if I ditch the "far too real" approach. The boney corpse spiders will probably be the default if all else fails, and yes, it matches Forsaken almost perfectly, and there's one set in particular that I know would work well with the purple-eyed ones.

Worms would work well, but I only managed to snag the green grub on my troll and I feel that'd get the best reaction out of all the creatures in the family. A black scarab/beetle would be nice, but again, the age shows and I'm not particularly fond of the animations. I really wish they'd give us more serpent models than the super-cobras and magi-snakes, like the pythons from Throne of Thunder. And the moths... those soulless dark eyes staring into you could be pretty creepy, especially if you've had a run-in with one of those bird-sized ones (I have!). The new bats look pretty good, maybe I'll play with some of those and see how it feels. A scorpid could be interesting...

Also yes, screw ticks and cockroaches too. They can burn in hell (though they'd probably survive).

[Karathyriel]

I absolutely hate cockroaches and everything that is slimy.
Worms, snails... *shudder*

For the InGame spiders, especially for a forsaken hunter, I'd absolutely go with a bone spider, the light grey being my favorite.
(Although I have to admit I'm not a fan of fosaken hunters.)

[Kayb]

or

The green jungle one to me utterly screaming exotic and extremely venomous.

The black one is the classic widow, and carries that sinister dark scariness thing about them