>>720525294
People have given their versions already but here's mine:

At some point in the very distant past, Grand Mother Silk came into existence. She is infertile, which she is very mad about. She uplifted the Pharlids to turn them into the Weavers. They served as her surrogate children. Pharloom became a very impressive kingdom, and the Weavers become its ruling caste.

Eventually, maybe due to realizing they aren't really her divine children, the Weavers got into some kind of dispute with GMS. As it became clear she wouldn't be able to stop her children from abandoning her, GMS made an artificial child, Lace, out of pure silk. Lace is insane, permanently a mental and physical child, and needs titanic quantities of silk to stay alive. Following GMS' desperate need to keep her baby alive, Pharloom's society gradually twists into a gigantic, oppressive machine for acquiring as much silk as possible. The Weavers leave for good at some point during this period, and lull GMS into a permanent sleep as a final fuck you.

Now GMS is waking up. She wants her kingdom back and is using the silk already woven into everyone's bodies to take control of them. She wants her babies back, so she's sending puppets to capture anyone in the world they can find with Weaver blood. Hornet is half weaver and half pale being; the ultimate prize. Then Lace realizes she is about to be replaced by a much cooler surrogate daughter and freaks out, freeing Hornet and setting her on the path to deposing GMS.