This is a working character sheet and subject to change in both style and color. what do you think of things as they are? I originally wanted his hair to have blue rather than red, but Kim, a character he’d often be featured with, is already pretty blue, and I associate purple with females, so…red seemed the next best option, and anyway, it matches his eyes. Also considered putting red or black bands or speckles on his legs.

Nikki said I needed to make a “Flight” character to make a full Sonic Heroes style team. ~tearra ‘s Mairi the Sheep will be “Speed” and *nikkicub ‘s character Kim the Seal will be “Strength”, you see. I was unhappy with most of my species options, as most of them were either uninteresting or over-represented in fandom. Then I remembered that spiderlings can fly with a method known as ‘ballooning’, and one spider species, Stegodyphus, even does it as adults. Granted, a spider as big as a Mobian is going to have to outright weave a parasail or something, but still, it works for me. It’s interesting and it’s not going to be one of a million. When I first thought of the idea, I was going to just adapt an existing spider character, Deo of my Megaman X storyline, into the role, but as I drew, I realized that they were going to be far too different not just in looks, but in personality. So…Malthak it is, as an entirely different character.

There is already a canonical race of intelligent spiders in the Sonicverse, the Arachne (dead though they seem to be. Were there more? I don’t remember) so I differentiated Malthak’s people, the Araneae (got the name from the Order) by further anthrofying them and uh…not making them ninjas. I waffled a lot between giving him six or eight limbs on the spider body, because counting his arms, having eight spider legs means having ten limbs total. The six looked odd to me, though, so…ten limbs it is. I was tempted to make him female, but that would have predispositioned me to make him elegant and subtle, and therefore too similar to characters already in play. In the interest of personality variety, I’ve stuck with him being a male.

Name: Malthak
Species: Spider
Age: Unknown
Gender: Male

Malthak the Spider

Personality

Malthak puts up a prickly front, but he’s actually a very nice spider (once he decides he's not going to eat you) with a sense of honor and justice. Despite his claims to be a loner who would be best off on his own, he misses his colony and family (gone due to Robotnik, the fate of so many others) and is traveling in search of a place…and people…to belong to. He rather enjoys perpetuating untrue stories about his kind, such as the ability to lay eggs in the heads of other Mobians. Startling or angering him often results in a faceful of forcefully expactorated silk.

Combat and Abilities

Malthak’s soft body makes him unsuited for direct combat. His venom is very dangerous to living organisms, but utterly useless against robots. With no knowledge on how to use any other sort of weaponry, his usual method for dealing with hostile robots is to render them immobile with his silk, then bash them with rocks until they stop moving. Needless to say, he works best as part of a team, where others can dispatch threats as he detects and captures them. Malthak is quick and agile, and able to climb most vertical surfaces or squeeze into tight spots when threatened.

If injured, soft tissues will heal, and once that is complete, Malthak will molt, replacing the hard parts of his body and undoing the damage to them. He is very vulnerable and weakened for a few days after doing this, and will not come out of hiding until hardening is complete. Lost limbs will be regenerated during the molting process, though this will take weeks rather than days and may require more than one molt, depending on the damage. (Real spiders don’t regenerate, but some crabs do. I’m taking creative license here.)

Spider silk has antiseptic properties and can be used to keep wounds clean and closed (thank you, Wikipedia! I learn something new every day). This makes him useful to injured allies, as well.

People

Malthak comes from an ancient, long-lived species, the Araneae, ( Nikki wanted to call them the Cavatica, get the reference? XD ) that makes a home in the Great Unknown. Not an entirely unknown race themselves, stories, perhaps not entirely untrue, abound of unwary travelers actually being eaten by these reclusive creatures.

Unlike their smaller, less intelligent kin, these spiders do not eat their mates or lay masses of numerous eggs, but rather live in loosely connected colonies characterized by small family groups. Unsurprisingly, they have a culture rich in textile arts, and can create incredibly detailed and colorful tapestries, clothing, blankets, draperies, and rugs with their own silk. In better times, they would even trade and sell these with other Mobians, though they had to leave the Great Unknown to do so.

Due to their somewhat human-like upper bodies, the Araneae do not have to subsist on a liquid diet, but do require a large amount of protein, which is not always readily available. Like regular spiders, this means that old silk is often ingested. If silk is not being produced, they can go for some time between meals.

The Araneae are not limited in what methods they use to capture game, and are capable of making classic webs, but also the lesser known bolas, thrown nets, snares, and ambush burrows of various smaller spider species. The strongest, most versatile silk comes from the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen, but they are also capable of spitting silk through glands in the roof of the mouth, usually as a defensive mechanism. They do have fangs, which secrete a deadly neurotoxin, and they are also in possession of a set of venomous claws bearing a more diluted toxin.

Past

…under construction.

Art and Character belong to me, blah blah, this means you. Dammit, the one time I DO wanna watermark something, it doesn't give me the option. Freaking useless. ~_~