Nerubian Nerubians are an ancient race of intelligent arachnoids native to Northrend within the kingdom of Azjol - Nerub . History . Early history . At the ancient continent Kalimdor ' s center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies , the Well of Eternity . It was the true heart of the world ' s magic and natural power . From this magical ether the silithid were born . As the fallen Old God C ' Thun recognized their appearance , he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its unmerciful grasp . The Old God created avatars from the silithid in its own image . These avatars were to be known as the qiraji . The aqir ruled the lands of the far west . These clever insectoids were greatly expansionistic and incredibly evil . The aqir were obsessed with eradicating all non - life from the fields of Kalimdor . So the two big troll empires of Gurubashi and Amani found their common enemy in the third empire — the nation of Azj ' Aqir . The trolls fought them for many thousands of years , but never succeeded in winning a true victory over the Aqir . Eventually , due to the troll ' s persistence , Azj ' Aqir split as its citizens fled to separate colonies in the far northern , western and southern regions of the continent . Three aqir city - states emerged — Azjol - Nerub in the northern wastes , Ahn ' Qiraj in the western desert and another group to Dread Wastes in the far south . So the new empire of Azjol - Nerub that stretched like a great web beneath the desolate glaciers of the land later known as Northrend was founded . War of the Spider . Thousands of years later when the Lich King extended his influence over Northrend , the shadowy empire stood against his power . The ancient subterranean kingdom of Azjol - Nerub sent their elite warrior - guard to attack Icecrown and end the Lich King ' s mad bid for dominance . Much to his frustration , Ner ' zhul found that the evil nerubians were immune not only to the undead plague , but to his telepathic domination as well . The nerubian spiderlord s commanded vast forces , and had an underground network that stretched nearly half the breadth of Northrend . Their hit - and - run tactics on the Lich King ' s strongholds stymied his efforts to root them out time after time . Ultimately , Ner ' zhul ' s war against the nerubians was won by attrition . With the aid of the sinister dreadlords and innumerable undead warriors , the Lich King invaded Azjol - Nerub and brought its subterranean temples crashing down upon the spider lords ' heads . The nerubian empire had now fallen for a second time . Though the nerubians were immune to his plague , Ner ' zhul ' s growing necromantic powers allowed him to raise the spider - warriors ' corpses and bend them to his will . As a testament to their tenacity and fearlessness , Ner ' zhul adopted the nerubians ' distinctive architectural style for his own fortresses and structures . Though there are few pockets of nerubian warriors left , they still seek to gain vengeance upon Ner ’ zhul and reclaim their subterranean kingdom . Recent history . Now , the nerubians are a depleted and embittered people . Most live in Northrend and shun all contact with outsiders — indeed , they attack intruders on sight , viewing all creatures not of their kind with suspicion . Understandably , they possess a vitriolic hatred of undead , especially crypt fiends and crypt lords . They realize that they are too weak to overthrow the Lich King , and must content themselves with their pathetic guerrilla war . Mael Shelub , a living nerubian necromancer traveled south and worked with ( but hated ) the Forsaken Blarus Whitrick to defeat the Scourge in Silverpine Forest . Wrath of the Lich King . With the death of their former leaders , the nerubian vizier s have risen to power . They serve an " unseen emperor " , one who is destined to lead the ancient spider - people to a final victory over the Scourge . " This does not seem to be touched upon in WotLK . " In the quests and , Kilix the Unraveler and Archmage Lan ' dalock say that as the nerubians fought the Scourge , they dug deeper underground as they lost ground to the undead . " We inadvertently exposed a tendril of the Old God ' s will , which was made manifest in the creatures known only as the Faceless . " He then goes on to say that they lost the war because " In the end , we could not fight on two fronts against such powerful enemies . Our misfortune cost us the war against the undead , and ultimately , our home . " implying that the nerubians discovered the faceless ones by accident . In Cataclysm . After the death of Anub ' arak , the Nerubian people can now populate in Azjol - Nerub . Culture . Azjol - Nerub contained huge libraries of literature , philosophy , and arcane lore . Occasionally , the kingdom would kidnap human s and elves for experimentation . Kel ' Thuzad claims that they were fiercely intelligent , and their will dedicated to wiping out any who were not like themselves . Much like the aqir . Nerubians are cruel and xenophobic . Like their silithid relatives are hostile to all races . Nerubian culture may place great store in longevity ; Nerubians encountered at the Sundered Monolith told Brann their ages , and they seemed impressed by his . Legends tell of the nerubians ' using the jormungar as creatures of labor , forcing them to carve massive tunnels through Northrend ' s subterranean ice and lay the groundwork for the nerubians ' ancient civilization . " Nerubian culture resembles the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture in terms of their architecture , though the ziggurats are of a completely different design . " Architecture . As attested by many traps and contraptions in Azjol - Nerub dungeons , they were once good engineers . The Nerubian architectural style was adopted by the Lich King after the War of the Spider and so Ziggurat s , the big Necropolis es Naxxramas and refer to their building style . Of course most of the architecture can be seen in Azjol - Nerub itself . Another good example for their style is the statue in the Pit of Fiends . Organization . The Nerubians had a complex social organization , like ants or bees . The function of each individual was predetermined by genetics , as well by the subspecies they belonged to . Different types of nerubian are referred to as castes with a life - long occupation and responsibility in society . Seers , for example , are relatively high - level nerubians who act as priests and mages . Spider lords are the rulers of the society in the same mold as the aristocracy of humanoid races . The colonies were headed by a Nerubian queen who was responsible to giving birth to new Nerubians . The queens wielded great power , although in most cases they shared it with Spiderlord s ( a subspecies that bears more resemblance to beetles than to spiders , which are born from a litter of 20 egg sacks laid by a queen ) and the Nerubian vizier s ( another subspecies with preference for magic ) , acting as special advisors to their queen . There was also a Spiderlord reigning over all the Nerubians , and whose main function was coordinate the Nerubians colonies through its queens . He also should provide protection to them . All the spiderlords , and the last king of the Nerubians , Anub ' arak , were killed and later resurrected by the Lich King after the War of the Spider , and they became Crypt lord s of the Scourge . At the bottom of society were the Nerubian worker s who performed various tasks . Workers who showed unusual physical abilities became warriors ; workers who showed mental talents became seers , and those who demonstrated exceptional weaving skills became Nerubian webspinner s . Other subspecies are Nerubian flyer s and Nerubian spiderling s . The spider is the most common motif of the nerubians , and they have appeared to have evolved at least partially into an arachnid race ( eight limbs ) from an insectoid race ( six limbs ) . Despite the nerubian cultural association with spiders ( who reproduce through any male and any female ) , they reproduce as social insects do , through queens . Undead nerubians are usually under control of the Scourge and are known as crypt fiend s ( in the case of most nerubians ) and crypt lord s ( undead spiderlord s ) . Too few crypt fiends appear in Azeroth , so nobody knows yet what nerubian females look like or are called . Nerubians tend toward evil ; they have always been ruthless and aggressive , and since the fall of the Spider Kingdom these traits are more pronounced . Still , nerubians are intelligent , and not all fall into dark ways . They may join a group of adventurers in the hopes of striking against the Lich King , or of gaining the power to do so . Other nerubians , often young ones , leave their homes because they want no part of their people ' s hopeless conflict and desire to become more than embittered survivors — perhaps they want to attain , at an individual level at least , the heights their people once possessed . The remote possibility exists that a handful of nerubians are not evil and could get along with other races better than their brethren . Languages . Nerubians speak Common and Nerubian . Nerubian is both a spoken and a sign language . Many nerubians are fluent in Common as well as their own tongue ( a clicking rasping language ) . Faith . In ancient Azjol - Nerub , there were five or six schools of religious thought , and theological debates were common . Eventually , however , nerubians have come to a conclusion that worshiping creatures from beyond the world is insane , and , in the words of the seer Ul ' Tomon , " makes as much sense as a fly caught in a web worshiping the spider who is about to devour him " . To modern nerubians , even the concept of " worship " itself is alien .