Neogi

The neogi were a race of spider-like creatures that were usually accompanied by umber hulks, their large ape/beetle crossover monsters. They were ruthless, xenophobic slavers and plunderers, hated in all known crystal spheres.

Description
Neogi were small eight-legged creatures, no bigger than a small child. They had a head with reflective eyes that sat upon a long eel-like neck and were sometimes described as akin to a cross between a wolf spider and an eel.

Personality
Neogi were extremely clever and devious when conducting their affairs. When not working for their masters, they were free to conduct any profitable activities they saw fit. Even when doing business, neogi were extremely dangerous due to the possibility that they could enslave their patrons. For that reason, everyone except the most desperate individuals avoided trading with neogi. They were, however, known for setting up shops near mind flayer or drow settlements.

They were intensely cautious, choosing not to fight unless there was a significant prize of gold or other valuables.

Combat
Neogi were aware that they were not extremely powerful in physical combat. For that reason, they often sent their slaves to weaken their opponents before they themselves moved in. They produced a natural poison that could be delivered through their weapons or through their bite. They were also capable of mentally enslaving other creatures, rendering them docile and susceptible to commands for up to 24 hours, as long as the neogi remained within one mile (1.6 km) of its victim.

They were reported to sometimes fight using a psychic ability to cause pain and discomfort, but it seemed to be limited to their line of sight.

Society
The neogi traveled through the Sea of Night using large spider-shaped spelljammer ships known as deathspiders and, less commonly, lighter ships known as mindspiders. All neogi ships shared a similar spider-like appearance.

Some neogi ships were capable of crossing to different planes. Plane-traveling neogi were sometimes referred to by other members of the race as "tso" and typically preyed on githyanki and djinn vessels.

The neogi spelljamming enterprise was a rare exception in the sense they did not acquire their spelljamming helms from the Arcane. Instead, they either built their own helms (or acquired them from different sources) or powered their ships by different means, which were largely unknown. For example, some neogi had access to starry compasses, magical devices similar to crowns of the stars that, when properly installed, could allow a normal seafaring craft from Toril to lift out of the water and rise into the Sea of Night.

Language
The complicated language of the neogi was called K'azz'jak'n.

Reproduction
Neogi had a unique reproductive cycle. When an individual reached the end of its lifespan and began showing signs of mental decay, other adult neogi injected a type of poisonous secretion that transformed the old individual into a swollen 20 ft (6 m) tall creature known as a great old master, that lost all previous intelligence and autonomy and existed only to eat. The other neogi hunted exclusively to feed the great old master and to lay eggs on it. After a 2-month period, the eggs hatched and between 20 and 40 newborn neogi fed on the great old master and on each other until the strongest few survived.

Magic
Neogi that were capable of using magic did so through pacts with elder evils such as Acamar, Caiphon, Gibbeth, and Hadar. The neogi encountered those creatures during their space voyages and accepted them as mentors by forging warlock pacts.

Spellcasters among the neogi had developed new and modified spells that were more suitable for their needs. Some had the objective of slowing and terrifying their opponents, such as venom bite and arachnophobia, while the identify race spell was employed to locate strong potential slaves when visiting a new world. In a combat situation, the lethal hatchling spell injected a victim with a neogi egg that could hatch and devour its host from the inside out.

Some neogi also developed special magic items, such as the protective charm of distraction, or the more utilitarian bands of the serpent and bands of the arachnid, which the wearer to transform into their namesakes, among other properties.

An obscure neromantic ritual allowed the neogi to create undead hulks, undead versions of umber hulks put together by joining pieces of several different umber hulk bodies.

Religion
The neogi had an unusual view of their deities: they did not offer prayers and rarely sacrifices, but demanded favors and boons from them regularly, seeing the deities as servants of the neogi race. The neogi powers were sexless just like the neogi themselves.

Speaking the name of one of their deities incorrectly was seen as a sacrilege worthy of a slow and painful death by the neogi. Given the difficulties of the neogi language for other races, it was advisable to refrain from the attempt of pronouncing the deities' names.

The neogi pantheon included:


 * Ka'jk'zxl, the dead god of creation.
 * Kil'lix, a chaotic evil lesser god of death, murder, and poison.
 * Kr'tx, a chaotic evil lesser god of war, brutality, and strength.
 * P'kk, a lawful evil lesser god of fear and tyranny.
 * Thrig'ki, a neutral evil lesser god of "love" (actually more like envy and jealousy in human terms).
 * T'zen'kil, a neutral evil lesser god of torture, pain, and suffering.

History
The neogi were said to come from a distant crystal sphere, which their legends called Ka'jk'z. In a very distant past, they abandoned their original home world and conquered an entire other planet inhabited by umber hulks, which they assimilated as slaves to construct their spelljamming fleet and spread across the Prime Material plane.

By the late 15 century DR, neogi spelljammers were still in use, being constructed and maintained by some neogi groups.

Appearances

 * Computer Games:
 * Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace
 * Novels:
 * Into the Void
 * The Maelstrom's Eye
 * Corsair