Okay 3rd attempt writing this ask, let's get to it lol
Elves in my world are evolved from humans (or, a common ancestor with humans, undecided) stepping into the Feywild and being affected by wild magic there. What this entails is not fully to my knowledge yet, I'll get to it when I do, but essentially this means that although Elves are magical, they are primates.
Drow and Shadar-kai were deeply affected by, specifically, the Unseelie court/Winter regions of the Feywild (which, includes bits of the Shadow Plane as well). The main distinction between these two in my world is mostly aesthetics;
Shadar-kai were affected more by the Shadow aspects and malevolent spirits of the Unseelie court, leading them to be in a permanent state between life and death, cold and uncaring.
Drow stayed mostly in the Autumn region, closer to Summer than the Shadar-kai were, leading them to be less pessimistic, more emotive, and just slightly warmer in general. And, there they met Lolth. Lolth was heavily changed in my world, but I love the spider aesthetics and certainly wanted to keep them :) As part of this meeting, where the religious devotion began, Lolth promised to make their children in her image as long as they promised to be devoted and hold her close. Her protection, too, was not far behind. Spiders are venerated, and more creepy imagery and strange-looking mutations are just part of this culture, knowing their goddess is looking out for them.
So, to my question; Is there a way you can think to make them more spider-like without sacrificing too much humanoid aesthetics? It's magic after-all, so I'm not concerned that it makes no sense for a primate to have, like, venom or whatever.
Limb whiskers (different from primate hair)
Something to do with the teeth?
Idk. Thanks for reading, any consideration you may make, and if you decide, helping me out :)
Hi! here is a more humanoid spider drow design, as opposed to the more spidery ones i posted earlier.
(image description: A simplified sketch of a bipedal drow with spider features. They have stiff body hair, facial whiskers, and claws on all their fingers and toes. From their ribs, they have two pairs of small spider legs. They also have spider fangs and tiny extra eyes. end description)
The extra eyes have been labeled "simple" because there are different categories of eyes. Humans and most other vertebrates have complex eyes. Most insects have compound eyes. And a lot of creatures all over the animal kingdom have simple eyes, sometimes alongside complex eyes. there are some amphibians with extra eyes on their heads, for example. but they're just simple eyes, so they're small and really only function to track changes in light overhead. I think the extra eyes on spider drow would have a similar function, just helping track motion via changes in light and other such simple visual tasks.
Love your world building ideas btw, you've really put a lot of thought into this and I hope my posts are helpful for you!