#the divide between ascended and trueborn is rly fascinating also

[viralarcadian]

the fact that nerubians have really poor eyesight and rely entirely on smell to tell non-nerubian entities apart is rly neat and goes a long way to explaining how players are able to traipse around the city of threads w/o instantly being mobbed. most spiders IRL have pretty poor eyesight and use a combo of touch, taste, and smell to find their way around the world, w jumping spiders and to a lesser extent ogre-faced spiders being exceptions.

it also doubly makes sense bc they live underground w nothing in the way of overwhelming bright lights. there's no need for them to have eyesight on the level of surface-dwelling sapients

w how ascended are specifically noted to not only be unable to emit pheromones consistently, if at all, but can't even really sense them at all anymore, i wouldn't be surprised if one of the "boons" given to ascended is that they have much better eyesight.

not THAT much better obv bc then they'd immediately aggro from much farther away than they actually do in-game, but enough that if you get close they can tell you're not supposed to be there