Shadowrun General > General Discussion

Arthropods

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Mercer:
Arthropods are insects, arachnids, and crustaceans.

Given that arachnids spirits are creepy and insect spirits are terrifying, what do you think the crustacean spirits are?  The Insect Spirits of the Sea, or totems of deliciousness? 

The only one I can think of is the Crab totem that goes back at least to Awakenings (I think, but haven't looked it up in awhile).  I'm not aware of a lobster or shrimp shaman appearing in any of the books, but there may be.  My understanding is that shrimp eat mosquito larvae (someone told me this years ago, I never checked it out), which would seem to put them in the arachnid camp in terms of how they would be perceived as totems or spirits.  (There's also the Horseshoe Crab, which is an arachnid.)

Is it a meaningless distinction as the totems tend to have cultural or mythological roots that predate or otherwise exist separately from the biological taxonomy?  Or do lobsters plot the downfall of metahumanity?  And what role does the shrimp's high resistance to toxic pollutants play in all of this?

(By way of explanation, it is very late.)

Mirikon:
Hmm. Now I wonder if there is a Lobster totem.

Spider, on the other hand, is one of those interesting totems. It is one of the regular totems, and always has been, but at least in some of the novels it behaved like an insect totem as well.

farothel:
I assume you have lobster and shrimp totems and spirits in certain locations, like all those islands in the pacific that are dependent on those animals for their survival, but less in the locations we normally run in.  You don't see that many in the sprawls we depend on for our work.

CitizenJoe:
It isn't the genetic compatibility to bugs, it is how humans perceive the animal's mentality that is important.  Insect spirits are bad because people perceive them as hive minds and totally alien.  People might perceive crabs as fierce defenders.  Magic is all about perception.

farothel:

--- Quote from: CitizenJoe on ---It isn't the genetic compatibility to bugs, it is how humans perceive the animal's mentality that is important.  Insect spirits are bad because people perceive them as hive minds and totally alien.  People might perceive crabs as fierce defenders.  Magic is all about perception.

--- End quote ---

If you want a fierce defender, there's no other than the mantis shrimp.  Take it from a scubadiver.  There are accounts of some subspecies breaking aquariums (and fingers if you're not careful).  Although most people will not react all that good if you start with 'mantis' and will probably not hear the 'shrimp' that follows.

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