The Caliban Chronicles: Nonhuman-Friendly Ravenloft

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Very nice work!

Mytteri is a rather underused resource in the Ravenloft materials I've read. I liked how you used him/her/it as a welcoming entity for the Calibans.

It might be fun to explore at least one or two Caliban settlements. Perhaps they'd be more in the way of reclusive safe-houses or monasteries than regular towns, with Calibans passing through or staying as their needs dictate. Those with farming skills would be highly prized, as they could provide food, and any builders could provide housing.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Agreed, very nice.

I liked the in-character citation of the source material.

I also enjoyed the Lovecraft reference with Brown Jenkin.

[Hell_Born]

Very nice work!

Mytteri is a rather underused resource in the Ravenloft materials I've read. I liked how you used him/her/it as a welcoming entity for the Calibans.

It might be fun to explore at least one or two Caliban settlements. Perhaps they'd be more in the way of reclusive safe-houses or monasteries than regular towns, with Calibans passing through or staying as their needs dictate. Those with farming skills would be highly prized, as they could provide food, and any builders could provide housing.

Agreed, very nice.

I liked the in-character citation of the source material.

I also enjoyed the Lovecraft reference with Brown Jenkin.

Thank you both for the compliments! I wanted to touch base with the original Brutes & Banshees article without actually being so crass as to repeat it word for word, so I'm glad that this seems to have worked out.

Mytteri is a sad position as a deity, since to the best of my knowledge its only appearance in canon is in the extended Lawgiver writeup from the Gazetteer IV, and even there it's only mentioned in passing. Still, with Brutes & Banshees canonically mentioning a) that calibans are despised by most religions other than Hala (and, implicitly, the Morninglord), b) the Lawgiver's church is especially hostile, and c) calibans often fall into cults based on magic, chaos, transformation and fiend-worship because those cults exult them, similar to mutants in Warhammer 40,000, well, it seemed logical to give calibans an affinity for the God of Rebellion, Magic and Chaos.

Hmm... well, the original Brutes & Banshees article does mention that caliban numbers are on the rise, if memory serves right... so I could edit it that small caliban family groups and even reclusive communities are starting to form, if folks like?

Any suggestions for which race I should tackle next?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Red widows! ^_^

[Hell_Born]

Alright, I'm currently working on the Red Widow profile, and there's a topic we need to discuss: reproduction. Canonically, all we know is that red widows:

• Breed once a year
• Implant their clutch of 2d4 eggs into a host creature like a wasp. In AD&D, the host could be dead; in 3e, the host is alive but paralyzed.
• The eggs hatch 1d6 days later.
• The infant red widows feed on the host, doing 1 damage per spider per day in the case of a living host.
• Red widows reach full maturity in 1 year.

Now, obviously I'm going with the interpretation that Red Widows don't need to use the father of their children as the host, but instead this is merely the "intellectual laziness" that sees most of them settle for a life of monsterhood; instinct says they're pregnant and need to provide shelter and nourishment to their brood, well, here's a creature they have no further use for, so why not use it? In fact, I might retcon that Red Widows don't even need to technically do the wasp thing, they can just lay their eggs in a sheltered spot and then provide food for the hatchlings, but they usually don't because most don't rise above the instinctive mentality of a spider and spiders aren't the most maternal creatures as a rule.

The problem I'm having is adding defined time periods; how long does the breeding season last (also, how strong is the compulsion)? How long after hatching do the infants feed before they grow large enough to leave their "nest"? What other "missing elements" am I not seeing that should be fleshed out as part of turning this from a monster manual entry into a PC writeup?

Anybody have opinions?

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I googled "black widow life cycle" and found this, which suggests that eggs incubate for 20 days, and young grow up over 2-3 months (if I understood correctly). This was more or less corroborated by this Wikipedia article. That specifies that full maturity takes 6-9 months, but breeding maturity is only 2-4. Total female lifespan is about three years. You could try to match these periods to the official red widow maturity and lifespan numbers, then use that factor as a guide to determine the missing time periods.

[Hell_Born]

I googled "black widow life cycle" and found this, which suggests that eggs incubate for 20 days, and young grow up over 2-3 months (if I understood correctly). This was more or less corroborated by this Wikipedia article. That specifies that full maturity takes 6-9 months, but breeding maturity is only 2-4. Total female lifespan is about three years. You could try to match these periods to the official red widow maturity and lifespan numbers, then use that factor as a guide to determine the missing time periods.

...I have no idea how to even begin doing that, and this is literally the last bit of information I need to finish up the first draft of the red widow lore writeup...

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

It's just a semi-arbitrary process to find some number that sounds vaguely good.

In particular, suppose we take that 6-9 months for full maturity of a black widow to be equivalent to the 1 year for maturity of a red widow.
Then, we can take that other 2-4 month figure, ignore its original purpose, and say that is equivalent to the nest-leaving time.
Now 6 to 9 averages to 7.5 months. Scaling up to 12 months would be a factor of 1.6. Applying that to the 2-4 month figure gives us 3-6 months (after just dropping the digits after the decimal point). Now, we can pick something in this range for the nest-leaving time.

It's not particularly scientific. It's really just an exercise to come up with a number that sounds alright to the author.

[Hell_Born]

Alright, here's Red Widow fluff mark 1: opinions and requests for which race gets the treatment next?

Red Widows:
What separates a person from a monster? To many 'scholars' of this misty realm, the answer is simple; humans are people, and any non-human intelligent race is a monster. To myself, the answer is more complex, but a short summation would be that a monster is a being that could be a person, but chooses to prey on other people rather than co-exist.

This summation becomes inaccurate when confronted with the red widows. How do you define an intelligent race that most frequently preys on other sapients, not from malice or cruelty, but out of simple ignorance and lack of understanding?


Physiology:
In their native form, red widows are giant spiders, resembling the more common black widow but with an inverted color scheme - red chitin offsetting a black hourglass-shaped design on their back - and about seven to eight feet in length. However, each red widow is inherently able to assume a singular humanoid form, in the manner of a therianthrope - a red widow's "humanoid form" is a natural part of them, and cannot be replaced with other forms in the manner of, say, a doppelganger or a skin thief. Most red widows assume a human form, but they can take the form of any humanoid race encountered in these lands of mist.

This potential diversity has to do with the race's unique reproductive methodology. Red widows are an entirely female race, lacking males of their own species. Instead, they must copulate with humanoid males to breed; the children of such pairings are red widows, but their humanoid form always inherits the race and features of their father. The one defining trait of a red widow in humanoid form is that they always have bright red hair, which they usually pass off by claiming membership in an ethnicity known for this trait - Forfarian, most typically.

In many ways, red widows remind me of another race I have encountered beyond these realms; the aranea. These too are a race of sapient giant spiders with an innate ability to assume a singular humanoid form that they develop at birth. There are some very key social differences, but still, I cannot help but hypothesize about a possible link between the two races.

Red widows typically only have spider and humanoid forms. Unlike aranea or werespiders, they do not have the innate ability to assume a "hybrid form". I have heard rumors of red widows who do possess this ability, but couldn't verify them; it's possible that at least one such story actually depicted a red widow whose "human form" was a spidery-featured caliban, and who could pass herself off as human with mundane disguise methods.

Unlike most spiders, red widows possess masticating fangs as well as the traditional envenoming ones. This allows them to chew as well as consume liquefied tissue. Like all spiders, red widows are carnivores, feeding on flesh and blood.

Red widows become fertile for a period of one month out of every 12, usually in the spring. Whilst the urge to mate can be resisted, it is a strong impulse. To breed, a red widow need only mate with a sufficiently fertile humanoid male in her humanoid form, fertilizing a clutch of 2d4 eggs.

After a brooding period of 24 hours, these eggs will need to be laid and incubated; most red widows will kill a sufficiently large creature, such as a sheep or a goat, and lay their eggs in the corpse, but others will paralyze a living creature and lay their eggs into its still-living body, in a manner akin to a wasp, to ensure the maximum amount of food is retained over the nesting period.

It bears mentioning that this host body is usually the sire of the red widow's brood, killed or paralyzed once the fertilization is complete.

However, the use of a host is not strictly necessary; it merely combines food and shelter in one easy package. A red widow can simply lay her eggs into a silken egg-case and then provide food for her children in the form of raw meat, bowls of blood, mice, lizards and small birds once they hatch.

Upon hatching, which occurs 1d6 days after being laid, red widow hatchlings are at their most vulnerable. Over a period of about three months, they grow quite rapidly, attaining a length of about 2 feet. Over the next three months, they will double that size, and then slow their growth, ultimately reaching their full size and full maturity at the age of twelve months, whereupon they also manifest their ability to assume humanoid form.

Compared to more "normal" humanoids, red widows live an incredibly short time, even by the standards of short-lived races such as calibans or goblinoids. Assuming they do not die through violence or accident, a red widow lifespan only stretches for three decades, with most dying around the age of 20 to 30 years old.

One strange ability of the red widows is that they able to communicate with spiders - both normal spiders and their larger "monstrous" counterparts - and exert a kind of control over them. This enables them to tame their lesser counterparts like a skilled beastmaster, and use them as their agents. This trait has led to the race being nicknamed "Spider Queens" by those aware of their existence.


Psychology:
Red widows are a fascinating psychological study. Although as intelligent as any human, most red widows live a simplistic existence dominated by instinct; despite having the potential to be more, most red widows are better classified as extremely intelligent animals rather than as sapients. They concern themselves only with following their instinctual drives for shelter and food, and any humanoid behavior is essentially a mimicry - a tool to assist in filling those drives.

Many red widows, if not most of them, never grow out of this... intellectual laziness, for lack of a better word. But others are different. These red widows grow beyond their instincts, and realize there is more to life than simply feeding. Red widows who survive beyond their first decade almost invariably experience this cognitive shift; they have simply lived too long and been exposed to too much of humanoid society to resist developing their minds beyond the simple instinct-fueled stage of their youth. Others possess this curiosity from a younger age, simply due to the natural variables of personality. And the smallest minority are taught how to be people rather than beasts, as we will discuss in the Sociology segment.

Bestial red widows are basically a form of particularly dangerous predator, clumsily imitating humanoid norms and behaviors to acquire food. There is little to discuss there, so we shall instead move on to the "awakened" red widows.

Even those red widows who have grown beyond letting instinct rule their existence tend to have a very primal mentality. Whilst some go so far as to exult intelligence over instinct, most red widows still trust instinct as a basic guide; the saying "don't think; feel" is the typical mantra of the red widow.

Passion and Patience are the keystones of the red widow psyche. They are a naturally emotional race, but also very good at pushing those emotions aside until they feel safe to indulge. A red widow naturally understands the idea of waiting to savor food, but then will feast rapaciously, devouring as much as she can get away with. An angry red widow might explode in an outburst of temper, or put on a façade of being unaffected and secretly plot until she can attain vengeance, depending on which serves her better (and also how extensively she has been provoked).

Hedonism is an extremely common, if not ubiquitous, aspect of red widow psychology. Which should be no surprise. Fundamentally, what civilization offers red widows over their instinct-driven lifestyle is pleasure, both carnal and cerebral. Food and drink, initially consumed just as a protective disguise, becomes appreciated for the concept of taste alone. Reading and art offer mental stimulation comparable to, yet distinctly different from, the hunt for sustenance and shelter. Sex for pleasure rather than to breed, or the use of drugs, are surprisingly common, especially amongst older red widows. Red widows tend to be indulgers rather than creators, but that isn't always the case. Some red widows become fascinated with the process behind creating the pleasurable things they so enjoy, and eagerly pursue them.

Another major influence in red widow psychology is their awareness of their own mortality. Once a red widow understands just how short her life will be, invariably she will have to learn to live with that fact. Some refuse to accept this cruel twist of fate, either wallowing in denial or seeking a "cure" for it. Others accept it and focus instead on living as full a life as they can in the span that they have. Some become cautious to the point of paranoia, others become almost recklessly bold, having accepted the inevitable and being content to go out if it's on their terms.

This awareness of their mortality also influences how they balance passion and patience. A red widow understands the need to wait, but at the same time, she knows she literally cannot afford to wait too long. Red widows usually become known as "clever, but impulsive" amongst their unknowing peers, as they typically favor gratification over anticipation.

This element particularly comes into play in the developing of skills or talents; red widows are unlikely to focus on subjects that they do not possess a natural talent for unless it truly fascinates them, simply because a red widow is aware that she doesn't have the time to truly devote herself to mastery. A red widow may enjoy paintings, but is unlikely to do more than dabble in the art herself unless she is naturally talented, simply because she doesn't have the decades to spare to devote herself to mastering it. You are extremely unlikely to find a red widow sculptor who works in stone, simply because it is such a time-intensive process, but red widows often become skilled cardsharps, because card games play to their natural strengths - and for similar reasons, red widows are some of the few non-Vistani to be interested in drotche.

Red widows often develop a reputation as "flighty" or "fickle" amongst other races, tending to pick up and then discard interests or projects.

The last element of note to discuss is that, being a race of lone predators at heart, red widows can be frightfully pragmatic or ruthless compared to most humanoids. A red widow's primary concern is her own survival, and she has no instinctive qualms about sacrificing others, metaphorically or literally, towards that goal. Sympathy and empathy aren't impossible for red widows, but they don't come as naturally as they do to, say, humans. Even when they try to be more "kindly", it's often imperfectly understood, and they can often be disturbing to those who see them at their most human when the spider within metaphorically peeks out.


Sociology:
As fascinating as their psychology is, sociology is even more so, because it is largely an emergent phenomenon.

As I stated above, most red widows pursue an instinctual lifestyle that essentially mimics that of a standard giant spider, but with the addition of humanoid infiltration for hunting, in the manner of other "humanoid mimics". These red widows concern themselves only with survival; having emerged from their birth-nest, they scurry into the wilderness to survive in the manner of an ordinary spider, until they reach their maturity at the age of 1 year. Now furnished with their humanoid form, they often begin infiltrating humanoid society, typically gravitating towards the most fringe existences; these newly matured red widows typically become barmaids or prostitutes, as these roles are always open with minimal questioning to an attractive female and they usually require little complex social interaction. The red widow find shelter and settles down, typically feeding on any humanoid male she lures into her clutches - most red widows are killed within a few years of maturity because they get too aggressive with their hunting strategy; the ones who survive to reach their first decade invariably learn to cover their tracks and better blend into their host society.

Ironically, as a red widow becomes a better mimic, she becomes less of a threat. Oh, a red widow will see nothing inherently wrong in killing and consuming an assailant who threatens her, but fundamentally the race has no particular attraction to sapient prey. Humans and humanoids are attacked simply because they are large, easily-subdued prey creatures; red widows have no dietary need for flesh or blood taken from sapient creatures. Once she understands that the option is available and less dangerous to her, the typical red widow is more than happy to subsist on animal flesh.

What's truly fascinating is that a growing number of these veteran red widows are adopting humanoid social concepts. Which only makes sense. After all, why endanger yourself by killing the fathers of your children, when there are safer ways to incubate your eggs? Why allow young red widows to threaten your comfortable existence by being obvious predators when you can teach them the tricks to surviving as you do?

The result is a small but growing number of red widow clans, consisting of a matriarch who rears her children for the first year of their life, teaching them the secrets of blending into humanoid society and why preying on them is actually not beneficial. These younglings are typically sent away when they reach their maturity, but not always - I encountered one red widow clan that operated in plain sight by disguising itself as a "night club" in Dementlieu; each generation's brood simply joined the club as new "hostesses" and so went unnoticed.

It bears mentioning that red widows are still trying to identify the role of males in their fledgling society. After all, despite their necessary role in perpetuating the species - and red widows can easily grasp that it is ultimately less dangerous if they don't kill the males they breed with - the fact remains that males are of a different species and thus pose a threat to the secret life of these shapeshifters.

Being lone predators by nature, and having no particular need for paternal care, most red widows resolve this dilemma by keeping males at arm's length. Though they accept males as sexual partners, and a surprising number confessed to me that they actively enjoyed the act, they make no attempt to form permanent bondings for themselves. These red widows typically have a string of suitors that come and go, or they settle into the role of mistress to a wealthy partner - as the red widow only cares about her consort's financial support and satiation of her yearly breeding urge, she makes little threat to her consort's existing marriage, making for a comfortable existence.

However... a side effect of their immersion into humanoid culture, which in these misty realms tends to heavily promote monogamous pair-bonds, is that some red widows do eventually grow curious about forming such a union themselves. For some, it's a purely political move; the wife of an important man wields much greater power and security than a mere courtesan. Others simply see what humanoid women around them have and start wanting it without understanding it. And others? They genuinely fall in love. Sadly, most attempts to form an interspecies union fail should the spouse discover the true species of his lover. But, on the other hand, I did encounter one couple where the male knew that he was with a red widow, and they were still together, so perhaps there is hope for other red widows with similar inclinations.

As an aside, whilst biologically geared towards breeding, once a red widow has assimilated the concept of sex for pleasure, they typically give little thought to the gender of partners. Some red widows establish themselves publicly as homosexuals, a fact aided by the fact that any male lovers they take are only for the span of the breeding period, and often swiftly disposed of once their purpose is fulfilled.

In terms of religion, red widows are rarely devout believers. They may feign loyalty to a particular faith, if this is an obvious survival tool, but as creatures with an inherently materialistic view of the world, red widows are little given to trust in such nebulous concepts as "faith". Red widows inherently value the tangible over the immaterial, and even a red widow who has seen proof of divine magic rarely has the ability to truly believe in its origin. Most red widow "priests" are typically sorcerers faking an affinity for divine magic, or warlocks; a fiend, a powerful fey or any other such magical entity is demonstrably real, after all, and thus a red widow can readily grasp the idea of service in exchange for power.


Adventurers:
Adventuring red widows are typically either running from something or searching for something - usually a way to prolong their lives, but sometimes just for wealth and comfort. Due to the aforementioned lack of empathy, red widows are rarely motivated by altruistic goals, and they are usually quite focused on either payment or personal vendetta. Not all red widow adventures are nonheroes, but most are at best antiheroes.

For their classes, red widows tend to favor those that play on their natural strengths and which fit best with their natural inclinations towards self-centeredness and hedonism. Outside of Drunken Fist Style, there are very few red widow monks, for example. Martial classes are extremely unappealing to red widows, who prefer to avoid danger rather than directly wade into combat.

Typically, red widows will be either rogues or sorcerers, followed by warlocks and wizards. As stealth predators by nature, red widows find that roguish talents and mentality both come intuitively to them, whilst their fundamental nature as magical beasts often finds its expression as instinctive magic users. Magic fundamentally appeals to red widows, and so they are quick to pursue the path of pact magic; the studying required makes wizardly magic less appealing, but red widows are intelligent and focused enough to typically have a natural talent for it. Such red widows almost invariably become either necromancers or transmuters, seeking immortality (or at least an extended lifespan) through their discipline, though others become illusionists or enchanters to expand upon their natural predatory skills with a new arsenal.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

It looks very good.

Spelling/Grammar check:

VIEW CONTENT:

There are some very key social differences, but still, I cannot help but hypothesis about a possible link between the two races.

"Hypothesize" is the verb.

A red widow can simply lay her eggs into a silken egg-case and then provide food for her children in the form ofraw meat, bowls of blood, mice, lizards and small birds once they hatch.

Space missing.

An angry red widow might explode in an outburst of temper, or put on a facade of being unaffected and secretly plot until she attain vengeance, depending on which serves her better (and also how extensively she has been provoked).

I feel like the word "can" is missing between these two.

Others accept it and focus instead of living as full a life as they can in the span that they can.

"Of" should be "on", and I feel like "can" should be "have".

As fascinating as their psychology is, sociology is even more so, because it is largely an emergent phenomena.

"Phenomenon" is the singular form.

It bears mentioning that red widows are still trying to identify the role of males in their fledgeling society.

There is no second "e" in "fledgling".

After all, despite their necessary role in perpetuating the species, and red widows can easily grasp that it is ultimately less dangerous if they don't kill the males they breed with, the fact remains that males are of a different species and thus pose a threat to the secret life of these shapeshifters.

This section really seems to break up the phrase. I would recommend sticking it between em dashes instead of commas.

As long as we are on shapeshifters, perhaps the paka next?

[Manofevil]

This was all very good, but I need to ask the questions-
What is a red widow's default form?
Do they appear as spiders or humanoids at birth?
What about when they are asleep or unconscious?
Do they have a Drider form or the equivalent?
If nobody teaches them, do they not learn to wear clothes?
What would the experience of a Red Widow be in, say, The Wildlands?
Do they ever change shape unconsciously or accidentally?

There's still all kinds of questions.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I liked it a lot, but I'd like to see a section on red widows and religion.
Is there a racial deity, or a pantheon?
Do red widows feel an attraction to the Spider Queen and does it lead to conflict with the Arak? Do they ever ally with Zelldrow, or will they compete for the Queen's dread favor?
Do any red widows worship Ezra and hope to find salvation by repressing their instinctive urges, or channeling them into feeding on things that threaten Ezra's faithful?
Do red widows have hope for an afterlife?
Do they have burial customs? Are these elaborate or simple?

What happens if red widows stumble into each other's territory? Youngsters might squabble, but do veterans ever feel the pangs of loneliness, having to assimilate into another species, yet denied the companionship of their own?
Do any of the clans keep records of red widow history? Are there stories about a homeland, or a divine punishment that made them what they are?

Has any magic-wielding red widow ever tried to create a male of the species?
Are there red widow liches?

After all of that, the paka do sound good. ^_^

[Manofevil]

I like your format for asking questions better. I'm going to edit my post. In the meantime-

What if some Red Widows developed lesbians desires or were exposed to women with them?

[Hell_Born]

Wasn't sure if I should answer these in person or if you were expecting them in a revised writeup...

This was all very good, but I need to ask the questions-
What is a red widow's default form?
Do they appear as spiders or humanoids at birth?
What about when they are asleep or unconscious?
Do they have a Drider form or the equivalent?
If nobody teaches them, do they not learn to wear clothes?
What would the experience of a Red Widow be in, say, The Wildlands?
Do they ever change shape unconsciously or accidentally?

There's still all kinds of questions.

The spider. I guess. Aranea PC lore from Red Steel establishes that all three of their forms are inherently theirs, so magics designed to reveal illusions don't reveal an aranea's true form. I figure it'd be the same with red widows.

They appear as spiders at birth. The lore I posted literally says they don't gain the ability to shapeshift into a humanoid form until they hit 1 year old.

I guess they stay in whatever form they're in until they consciously wish to change it?

In canon, they don't have a hybrid form, but I wouldn't be adverse to letting it be a skill they can learn, represented as a racial feat. This would give them the best of both worlds, letting them use arms & armor whilst also benefitting from their racial climbing skills and natural weapons.

That's right, learning to use clothing is part of their basic "disguise training" once they emerge from the wilderness.

In the Wildlands? Same as any other sapient giant spider. They would actively reject their humanoid form, which is after all the shape of a creature the Wildlanders fear, and would mate with giant spider males, producing daughters whose humanoid forms would be identical to their mother's.

Given that they're shapechangers, but not "lycanthrope" style shapechangers, I'd argue no.

I liked it a lot, but I'd like to see a section on red widows and religion.
Is there a racial deity, or a pantheon?
Do red widows feel an attraction to the Spider Queen and does it lead to conflict with the Arak? Do they ever ally with Zelldrow, or will they compete for the Queen's dread favor?
Do any red widows worship Ezra and hope to find salvation by repressing their instinctive urges, or channeling them into feeding on things that threaten Ezra's faithful?
Do red widows have hope for an afterlife?
Do they have burial customs? Are these elaborate or simple?

What happens if red widows stumble into each other's territory? Youngsters might squabble, but do veterans ever feel the pangs of loneliness, having to assimilate into another species, yet denied the companionship of their own?
Do any of the clans keep records of red widow history? Are there stories about a homeland, or a divine punishment that made them what they are?

Has any magic-wielding red widow ever tried to create a male of the species?
Are there red widow liches?

After all of that, the paka do sound good. ^_^

Ugh, religion, my bane for worldbuilding...

I don't know if there would be a native red widow religion. I personally view them as a species which is only recently starting to become civilized - to develop customs and traditions beyond the animal-driven nature of their origins and start thinking of themselves in that way humans do. Frankly, I think most red widows would be irreligious; the gods are too hands-off in Ravenloft for a red widow to really trust them or their power - a red widow inherently believes only in what she can see, hear, touch, smell and taste. Red widow warlocks would far outweigh red widow believers, because a warlock patron is somebody a red widow has actually met and knows is real.

I mean, there could still be Spider Queen-worshipping red widows under this paradigm, Mike Mearls did do a Lolth Patron warlock subclass, but even then, the red widow would probably be less worshipping the Spider Queen and more the Zelldrow who she thinks is the Spider Queen.

Where would a red widow even hear of the Spider Queen religion? Unless they intuitively can sense her existence in some way, it seems like a faith nobody would actually hear of, given how secretive the Shadow Fey are about it.

I suppose it's not impossible for an Ezran red widow to exist, but they'd be very unusual.

Hope for an afterlife? Honestly, I think red widows would either desperately cling to the belief it's real, which would first require them to come to believe in a particular religion, or else they would view death as the utter cessation of existence, which would further stoke their determination to live as long as possible.

Burial customs would be fairly simple and largely consist of getting rid of the body, which has reverted to that of a giant spider. Usually they'd just eat it, but in more civilized clans, they might burn the body and hold a simple celebration of the deceased's life.

Younger red widows usually tussle for territory; even in Ravenloft, there's only so many predators an area can hold. Older red widows are more likely to live in peace, especially if they've largely abandoned hunting humanoids, and begin openly communicating. They're cautious about it, but once the initial trust is affirmed, they can become quite open towards physically interacting. There's a certain competitive undertone, but largely it's a relief to have somebody else around who understands them.

Like I said, I view clans as a relatively recent and natively emerged phenomena, to better tie into 3e's focus on Ravenloft as its own land. If red widow clans are older, though, but only recently started to reform, then maybe there are garbled histories, passed down more through racial memory and dream visions than anything, implying they are the descendants of a cursed aranea sorceress who may still have her own domain of dread out there in the mists?

There have definitely been red widows who attempted to become liches, though I don't know if any succeeded - aranea did get two unique liches in AD&D, after all. As for whether any have tried to create males of their kind... I don't know; why would they consider doing so?

I like your format for asking questions better. I'm going to edit my post. In the meantime-

What if some Red Widows developed lesbians desires or were exposed to women with them?

Given they have an actual breeding season, I don't think any red widows would exist that would be 100% homosexual. Most would just take it as another hedonistic pleasure; they don't really care what sex their partner is outside of breeding season, and during breeding season, they very much crave a male mate. So it's entirely possible that red widows would infiltrate/assimilate into any lesbian subculture in their native domain, but they'd never really give it any thought; they wouldn't identify themselves by that subculture and would still be attracted to males, especially during breeding season.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

As for whether any have tried to create males of their kind... I don't know; why would they consider doing so?

I recall that Mischief put forward an idea that the female-only red widow species came about due to an endemic fungal infection (or something like that), and resurrecting the male of the species would allow for the birth of a more powerful red widow variant.

I tried to find references to this idea, but it appears that Mischief swept out her revisions thread in April. That is unfortunate.
The idea might be somewhere in her partial Zytia Gazetteer.