"From the Spinner’s fang dripped the First Venom,

And where it fell upon the web, stars ignited.

Know this: Venom is not death.

Venom is the unmaking of falsehood,

The purging of weakness,

The sacred pain that spins new life.

The fool fears poison and perishes.

The wise drinks, bleeds, and is remade.

Thus the Ryautjan Hunter drinks the Venom Chalice,

Not to die, but to be unspun,

And respun stronger upon the Loom of the Ancestors.

**Blessed is the hunter whose veins burn with sacred venom.

Cursed is he who remains unchanged."_

— Recited at every warrior’s first Venom Rite

(bonus detail: the sacred text pages are thin sheets of spider silk woven so tightly they feel like soft bone.)