Arachnos

Arachnos is a spider-like semi-divine being used by Arachna to keep the order in her dimensions. He is one of the main characters of the Hellgate Saga and versions of him appear in multiple roleplays. He is one of the main characters of the player nicknamed Arachnos. Arachnos is not a unique individual, instances of him exist in most worlds of Arachna's creation (normally only one per planet).

His role is to enforce Order on Arachna's worlds, and as such he intervenes in many incidents. When he does not appear in a roleplay, this usually means he is occupied elsewhere.

Physical appearance
Arachnos is physically similar to a member of the Nerubian race from the Warcraft series. He is a spider-like being, bigger than a human, standing on six legs, which end in sharp claws, while the frontal pair of legs ends in humanoid hands which allow Arachnos to manipulate objects. Those hands have very long fingers tipped with sharp claws. Arachnos' face is spider-like. His mouth has massive fangs that can inject poison or siphon the entrails of his enemies, and he has eight eyes which normally glow yellow. Arachnos' carapace is black and engraved with mystical red symbols. Abnormally for a spider, he has a stinger at the end of his abdomen.

History
TBA

Personality and traits
Arachnos takes after his creator Arachna when it comes to personality. He detests all forms of chaos, evil and wannabe Gods, and will often engage in dramatic speeches before and during battle. However, Arachnos is significantly more "grounded" than Arachna and his morality is therefore closer to mortal standards. He can have an attachment towards certain mortals, and does not view them as the specs of dust Arachna sees them as. Disagreements between Arachna and Arachnos can happen and often do, but the Goddess tends to pay little attention to the ideas of her enforcer.

This is not to say that Arachni do not take after the Broodmother at all. They have a pronounced tendency to be arrogant and haughty as well as quite utilitarian and brutal, ready to use any means necessary, up to and including the murder or maiming of relative innocents, if they feel like it would help preserve Order. Because they may jump to conclusions very easily, they may employ such extreme means before they truly become necessary. They can get upset extremely easily if someone insults them or their ideals, flying into tantrums and violently assaulting allies, or shutting down completely in a deep depression.

Members of the "species" are known for frequently moping and whining over perceived failures or desperate situations. This is particularly apparent in any Arachnos living through the destruction of a world he had been in charge of, because of the intricate connection between an Arachnos and the realm he is in charge of, the spider will enter a deep depression which can last until his death or until he is somehow attuned to something else.

On the opposite end of the inaction scale, Arachni may also snap into a terrifying rage after certain traumatizing events. If this fury goes out of control, the spider may go mad. In other cases, an Arachnos may attempt to conquer a world and rule as a tyrant in a misguided attempt to prevent a similar event from ever happening again.

Individual members of the species can sometimes mostly grow out of these traits, however going through severe trauma can also amplify them even further.

Skills and abilities
Arachni have a plethora of abilities linked to their divine nature.

They are immensely strong physically and their tough carapaces can deflect weak attacks. Arachni will sometimes attack with vicious claw swipes or biting. Their fangs can secrete a variety of poisons, which can damage, paralyze, put opponents to sleep, cause forceful regurgitation and others. The same poisons can be generated in an Arachnos' rear stinger, which is usually fired at the opponent like a projectile. Sometimes an Arachnos can even unleash a rapid-fire barrage of those stingers. In addition to poisons, Arachni can generate extremely caustic acidic or basic liquids in their mouths, which are vomited to liquefy hapless opponents.

Fitting into their nature as spiders, Arachni can create multiple kinds of webs. This includes standard webbing, which is extremely strong, and multiple kinds of elemental webs, including fire, electricity, and air. Using webs, an Arachnos can lay traps for opponents, attack with whip-like web tendrils, or create a shielding cocoon around himself. Arachni can also use web carpets to fly themselves and carry allies.

An Arachnos is the commander of all of Arachna's Black Brood forces on a given world. Therefore, he may summon several spider allies to assist him in battle.

Due to their connection to Arachna's "world web", Arachni display minor reality warping. Typically, this is used to control the weather and natural phenomena. Arachni are able to unleash earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, blizzards, heavy rainfalls, lightning, massive hail, droughts, severe wind and more against enemies. They sometimes control gravity offensively, though this is relatively rare.

Arachnos also displays psychic abilities such as communicating via telepathy and invading minds. This is typically used to communicate with allies and fool enemies with illusions. His main true psychic "attack" is an amplified, targeted telepathic scream used to inflict extreme pain and to daze opponents.

One of the greatest assets of an Arachnos is his connection to the Void, the domain of Arachna. This connection allows an Arachnos to exit reality and re-enter it elsewhere, effectively teleporting. Because of the spiders' bulk, this tends to be one of their primary ways to avoid attacks. An Arachnos can also use the Void offensively, using portals as blades that can cut through almost anything and generating Void black holes, or defensively, using portals to the Void to absorb attacks. Sometimes, Arachnos can even unleash an attack absorbed this way back at the enemy.

One Arachnos was able to use his vastly enhanced power from a Rebel Mimic to attune himself to an entire universe, gaining in the process powers related to the cosmos, such as the generation of projectiles shaped like celestial bodies.

Although not all individual members of the species display this ability, an Arachnos may also use his innate knowledge of the workings of a realm to display an amazing proficiency in engineering and biological science.

Weaknesses and flaws
Arachni lack very powerful, explosive attacks. Most of their moves deal either edged or elemental damage as opposed to blunt damage. Because of this, their effectiveness is limited against enemies who do not have flesh to cut, burn or electrocute and are too large to destroy with Void blades, such as Hellgate.

Although they are well protected against damage by means of their carapace, Arachni are larger than a human and therefore present an easier target - powerful attacks that can pierce through their carapace are extremely dangerous to them. Their teleportation helps offset this, but many powerful foes have the ability to completely flood the airspace with attacks, leaving an Arachnos no safe spot to teleport to. In those cases, the spider may need to hide out in the Void - taking him out of the battle for a while.

Because they are so emotionally unstable, in certain cases an Arachnos' emotions can also be exploited to manipulate him. Despite being enforcers of Order, Arachni tend to be notoriously poor team players and have been known to occasionally attack allies if they feel like their ideals are being trampled upon.

Relationships

 * "Hellgate Crew": Arachnos generally has a friendly relationship with his fellow heroes who assisted in stopping Hellgate - Kanako Imrah, Sebastian Jebediah Aurion, Jonathan Scarlet... However, in the DEPTHS reboot, relationships between them are far more strained due to Arachnos' ruthlessness.
 * SDM: 'Arachnos has a somewhat friendly relationship with SDM, but it is sometimes strained due to their different ideologies, especially considering that he is a Godspawn and SDM detests Gods.
 * Flandre Scarlet: Arachnos has an attachment towards the little vampire best described as almost parental. It is strong enough that her death once caused him to become Anarchos. Even the most ruthless iterations of Arachnos, such as his appearance in DEPTHS, show this aspect. It was also shown in DEPTHS that his affection is reciprocated by Flandre. His relationship to the other inhabitants of the mansion is more neutral.
 * Cirno: He also has a similar relationship with Cirno, whose boisterous antics he is able to tolerate better than most. He seems to be looking out for her and protecting her whenever possible. He was the one to personally purge Cirno's Dark Spore in Hellgate 2 Part 2 and subsequently assisted Cirno during the fight against the Black Spawn. As both of them are part of the F Squadron in Hellgate 2 Part 3, they tend to fight by each others' side as well.
 * Hellgate: Arachnos hates Hellgate with every fiber of his body for being a God wannabe, a wicked corruption of SDM, and a demented evildoer and chaos-monger overall. Arachnos is the one to have given Hellgate his iconic nickname, by which the infected house is still known to this day.
 * The General: Another one of Arachnos' most hated nemeses for completely destroying Gensokyo and abducting SDM and his inhabitants.
 * Desmond: Arachnos has a personal hatred towards the blood youkai for not only being openly hostile to humans, but also for having killed Flandre Scarlet back in the day.

Design and influence
Arachnos' first appearance was in the Doujinstyle thread "Help Yourself Take Over tMS" (the earlier character who appeared in "BOSS BATTLE", originally named Arachnos, was later retconned into Horus'aman). He shares his name with his player's nickname. He was inspired physically by the Nerubian race, and functionally simply by an idea of a spider that weaves the whole world as a web and looks over it (although this role would be later given to Arachna).

Theme
Arachnos' character theme is In The Very Beginning from Evangelion 2.0.