Heritage spiders are the chroniclers of Drow houses. Runes carved into their carapaces imbue them with knowledge, history and insight of the family and its past, often in a manner that is truer than the tales written by dark elf recorders.
Each house values their heritage spider more than its individual members, even more than the house’s status itself. A heritage spider is the record of a house’s rise and fall and rise again—so long as the spider lives, the house’s tale continues. It is the final act of destruction for a heritage spider to devour its counterpart of a rival house, thereby obliterating their history.
Heart of Heritage. The matron of a conquering house will consume the still-beating heart of a destroyed heritage spider in a symbolic absorbing of the subjugated house’s honored past. It is this act that allows the Drow of the defeated house to align themselves to the will of their new matron.