That was adorable and I love that we gave the soon to be apprentice a reason to come back: the library here is great if he's going to really push his theory.
This is also the We writing about the We, their contributions are categorized under Dwarven because the only known We are citizens of the Karaz Ankor.
"...and as We come to be increasingly aware of the myriad not-We of the four-legged not-food, the differences in perspective become increasingly apparent in a way that We, being the only eight-legged not-food in the known reaches who may echo the four-legs, are best placed to identify and analyze, perhaps even speculate upon.
"Take for example the simple matter of directions. To those with two eyes and two grasping legs, the division into before the eyes and hidden from the eyes is simple and intuitive. The two grasping limbs perpendicular to this distinction serve to then separate the directions into four: front, back, left, and right. The wood-echoes of the not-food routes even pretend as though they are a four-legged not-food, such that the directions remain the same but are given different names that they be known as the facings of a wood-echoes. For those more detailed wood echoes, half-way between two directions are also noted, and gradations of increasingly fine divisions of two as needed.
"The simplistic determination of primary direction by where it's eyes point is characteristic of species that is self-contained within one body and therefore need only reference itself when orienting. Furthermore, the implicit assumption of navigation on a flat surface indicates a species that has grown on the surface, where differences in the vertical may be resolved largely through horizontal perambulation.
"We, therefore, naturally have a more complex and comprehensive vocabulary of orientation. As many-We may be looking in many directions, there is no subjective reference point that equals the 'eyes forwards' of a four-legged not-food. Instead, We rely on the only universal direction constant across all We: down. Past this, the implicit assumption is that all bodies are looking at each other, and all are oriented perpendicular to down, but directions are given from the current body echoing to the listener, as listeners may be many or few. This has caused confusion among the bearded four-legged not-food, as their 'forward' is not directly 'behind' the listener as ours is, but rather in the shared direction of facing.
"In naming, We rely on our biology in a similar manner to four-legs, although eight legs allows for a more refined base eight instead of base four. 'Forward' thus becomes 'grasping-arms-clasped-fully extended'.
"Let us (Us! Such a wonderfully short word for all-We in transient many-food) examine this more closely. Each leg of a We is named, and is used to indicate the direction in which it is most prominent. The half-point between two legs is indicated by the modifier 'clasping' or 'touching', another minor difference, as the 'primary' directions are offset by 12.5⁰ from those used by the four-legs. Furthermore, the degree of extension naturally provides a vertical component, with fully extended being horizontal and fully curled pointing down.
"A dwarf facing the same direction as a We (on the 'right' side) and telling us that something is ahead, a bit to the right, and up thirty degrees would therefore be understood by the We to mean seventh-leg one-third anti-curled, but would be phrased as third-leg one-third anti-curled were the dwarf to be giving the directions in the manner of the We...
Understanding Arachnid Directions, as dictated to Bron Dustylocs by We hunter Silverchip.
