User:Apateus

The continent of Eden is surrounded by the Ocean. A vast place, populated by different creatures, amazing mysteries and ancient folks, even older than most of the continental races. The Ocean surface is far larger than Eden, and mostly inaccessible for those who are not born to breathe underwater. Various lands and different oceanic biomes are yet a mystery and the few things we know are mostly a legend or ancient elven knowledge.

Coast

The coast is the Oceanic realm closest to Eden, that includes the seas and the first part of the Ocean (normally 800m-1km from the shore). Many monsters and fishes live in this busy place, where Eden factions’ merchant ships and war fleets sail the waters.

Waters here are not too deep and Intelligent life like Glubbmen and Merfolk hardly come here, unless they have a strong motivation to do so.

The Glass Sea

The Glass Sea is the name given to the calmer northern part of the Alban Ocean, enclosed between the Glass Rocky Shores and the Wyrm Islands. Its waters are very cold, similar to the ocean depths temperature, and its seabed is irregular, full of fissures and underwater caves that host old Merfolk Ruins and Serpentinite veins.

Marine life

Any kind of northern sea life can be found here, like mackerels, brills, salmons, anchovies, plaice, squids and prawns. Most of the marine life, especially the so-coveted Black Oysters (whose dark pearls are normally 50 cm big!) live inside well hidden underground caves, sometimes linked to the large network used by the old Glass Sea Merfolk.

These waters are also inhabited by the famous Sea Serpents of the Glass Sea: aggressive specimens that sometimes attack sea travelers in the Glass Sea’s outer regions.

History Notes

The old Glass Merfolk civilization was not much different from a Temperey Merfolk clan. This clan was used to trade and live close to the Mythril Kobolds, once diffused on the Glass Shores surface in a long forgotten past. Some ancient pots or rock paintings of these merfolk could be found underground, although exploring these caves underwater can be extremely dangerous.

The oceanic currents can easily lead any adventurer to a death by drowning. Another problem of exploring these underwater caves is that the inexperience of the air bubbles locations inside these caves can nowadays be fatal, even if these caves once allowed expert swimmers to reach most of such underground places.

The Merfolk of the Glass Sea were prosperous, until their small lordship got completely destroyed by an invasion of water horrors and demons from the demonic plane of Alran. Their Serpentinite mines and their beautiful coral homes got wrecked together with their whole kin, and so the legendary Serpent’s Mirror that allowed them to communicate with the Underground peoples, especially the Mythril kobolds of the Argentate Realm.

The Serpent’s Mirror was a giant entrance, part of a complex system of underwater caves where Merfolk and the Mythril Kobolds were once used to meet and trade. This legendary place is now forgotten and covered by tons of debris, and according to a legend the home of an enormous Sea Serpent that inhabits the Glass Sea.

Nowadays the Mythril Kobolds still exist Underground, although they are extremely rare and only a faded version of their ancient glory, witnessed by every inscription of the numerous underground dungeons of this region.

Alban Ocean

The Alban Ocean is the name given to the open sea that borders the northern Glass Sea and the Southern Coral Shores. Here the winds and the waves are the highest among all the Eden Seas, although mitigated by the great Alban Coral Reef that separates the Alban Ocean from the Temperey.

The Alban Coral Reef is mainly made of small colonies of minuscular aquatic creatures called Sepherum Corals (the same species that gives its name to the Sepherum Sea).

Sepherum Corals are able to absorb both Aros and Voidal magic, reducing the oceanic waves height, and constituting a barrier for both voidal and water rifts inside this Sea, that is considered the most navigable and peaceful of all the Eden seas, facilitating both trade and sea travels.

Marine life

The Alban Ocean is also renowned for being the most abundant in fish: Bluefin Tuna, Cod, Salmon, Herring, Eel, Bass, Mullet are all extremely common fishes in the Alban Ocean. Lobsters and Crabs are omnipresent on the dishes of whichever coastal town in the west of Eden and you can also find Dolphins, Sharks and even Whales in the outer parts of this sea.

All these qualities come with the problem that many oceanic great predators sometimes come here to eat, especially from the Temperey, the Southern Coral Shores and seldom even from the deepest abyssal depths, like the Sea Serpents, the Water Drakes (more common in the Southern Coral Shores) and the Kraken.

The Coral Shores

The Coral Shores is the common name given to the sea south of Eden, famous for tremendous storms with high colossal waves, mythical sea monsters, sirens and the origin of most sailors ' legends.

The waters here are usually warm and calm but the dangers and the tropical storms come fast, unpredictable and are extremely devastating.

Marine life

The Corals that give name to this region are extremely colorful and cover most of this region’s seabed. Any kind of tropical fish hides in these corals, most of them are still unknown and unreported.

The so-called “Proper Corals” that cover the seabed do not absorb magical energies nor shield these waters from voidal rifts, making them extremely vulnerable to both voidal corruption and the full destructive force of the elements.

Giant monsters from the abyssal depths sometimes come closer to the coast, whose coastal caves are inhabited by water drakes, frequently in territorial fights with the fire drakes that settle in the Dragon Islands. These coastal regions are almost virgin and rich of any type of mineral veins, like gold, platinum and serpentinite and home of the coveted cloisters, whose pearls can be sold at a high price in any region of Eden.

The Underground below the common underwater caves is a mystery and completely unexplored.

Sepherum Sea

Sepherum Sea is the name given to the famous sea washing the Elven Shores, where the blue sapphire waters gleam with magic and reflect the astonishing, enchanted circle of life that covertly evolves on its colorful seabed.

Sepherum blue Corals grow scattered in these waters, giving it its characteristic sapphire color. They absorb Aros magic from the oceanic ley lines that fill these waters with elemental magic and magical creatures.

Marine life

The most common fishes in these warm waters are tuna (yellowfin and the rarer redfin), cod, sardines, the swordfish but also clams, shrimps and mussels.

One of the main features of this Sea is the many rifts that sometimes originate to the Aros plane. It’s not unusual to see the waves shaping in humanoid figures sometimes. Very common tales tell of Water Genies morphed as elves traveling in this sea, and even the legendary Hoplydroi, servants of the primordial Rivule, have sometimes visited its legendary coral barrier.

Rare Species

Most of the rare fishes that live in the southern waters are yet to be classified and discovered, but some of them are famous and common knowledge.

A rare and iconic fish that can be found in these waters is the so-called Sepherum Scorpion Fish. The Sepherum Scorpionfish is the most renowned example of the Magical Exemplars of these waters: completely covered in sapphire-colored ridges and spines, this Scorpionfish can use water magic to increase its speed and its poison, enchanted with criomancy, can freeze your blood in an instant.

Another famous species is the “Azure Globefish” or Coron-Tar in the Elven tongues. Azure Puffers have the ability to fill their elastic golden stomach with water: but when they do, their belly glows with magical energy they have absorbed from the water rifts and pushes everything away with such a force that creates small vortexes.

The Coron-Tar is hunted by both fishers and water elementals, who sometimes eat these fishes to absorb their Aros energy and remain longer in Eden. These rare fishes hide and reproduce in the coral barrier of the Sepherum sea, in its deeper seabeds.

Temperey

The Temperey is the realm between the Coast and the Abyss. Sometimes what lives here trespasses into the coastal sea (like the Alban or the Sepherum Sea) and vice versa. Many beasts and non-intelligent creatures populate the Temperey.

Intelligent life in the Temperey

Glubbmen: There are Glubbmen non civil tribes that, differently than the ones integrated in Thalassur, live in the wildest way, and speak their own “Glubb” dialect, incomprehensible to a non-native aquan speaker.

This means that you need to be a Glubbmen or a Merfolk or a water elemental, to even try and understand what these Wild Glubbmen tribesmen say. Anything that these creatures say would be heard as an incomprehensible “Glubb-rublubb, Gurulubb blubb blublublurrb” By any surface race.

Temperey Merfolk: For a better description of Temperey Merfolk, see also Merfolk

The Deep Ocean

The deep open ocean seems like a desert, if seen from the surface. But it is one of the most inhabited and full of life places of Eseron. Most of the oceanic intelligent inhabitants are merfolk, that come in very different variations and ethnicities. The second race for the number of inhabitants are the Glubmenn.

Glubmenn are low intelligence creatures, similar to a crossbreed between a goblin and a swamp creature. They have webbed hands and feet and their upper body is far larger than their lower body. They have no neck and their frog eyes and mouth are large; their skin is usually green but they can be of any color and pattern, like tropical fishes.

The Kingdom of Thalassurr

The most important and largest underwater continent is definitely the Thalassurr, with its feudal domains populated by the Thalassi (mainly Merfolk), its inhabitants.

All the Merfolk have partially scaly skin, while the Thalassi ones usually have darker tones, and have fancy fins instead of hair on their head.

For Merfolk’s aspect and attire description, see also Merfolk

They are far slower on the surface and as tall as a short human, around 1.6 m.

Merfolk can barely breath on the surface and usually start to suffocate if they stay out of the water for more than 3-4 hours. But when they are in the water, they can reach a speed of about 15 m per round.

Merm King Purefin the IX is formally the king of Thalassurr, but he has fallen asleep at least two centuries ago, which is something normal among the abyssal royal families, for the great Patriarch of the Salt religion is able to excommunicate rulers he doesn't like through sleep, thanks to the power of his horn Brudzakk.

The formal language of Thalassur is Thalassian Koinè, which is an Aquan dialect, where Aquan is the common language in the water elemental plane, spoken by the Aros Primordial.

The People of Thalassurr

For the Thalassi the true sense of life is sleeping. And they do it in the darkest depths of the ocean. Alas, they are ordered to awake by their religion: the Saltanar, that order them to stay awake at least 8 hours a day.

The mere act of staying awake for them is to pray for their Abyssal god they worship, since they do not feel to belong to the waking world, but to the dream world. Being excommunicated therefore means not being able to pray and consequently being imprisoned in their dream world.

Half of the merfolk are usually born aquamancers, even if they do not usually master this power, since their waking time is limited. Most of them can use water for healing their friends or family when they get hurt.

All of the people from Thalassur you might meet are religious, as being atheist means not praying and therefore sleeping all day. Then since the atheists are sleeping, the only merfolk you might happen to encounter will always be a religious one.

Customs and Religions in Thalassurr

The Sapphire Day: Once a year, the merfolk of Thalassur migrate to Korarius, one of the greatest cities of the kingdom and capital of the homonym duchy, once famous for its contacts with the coast-dwellers.

Now its importance is marginalized, but on the first day of the 10th month of the year, when the Emerald Dusk begins for the surface peoples, most of the young merfolks gather in Korarius for reproduction. A great jousting, dance and celebrations are held, and it is the only day of the year when all the merfolk kin do not sleep. Then after the celebrations are over, they come back to their houses, where they sleep for three days.

During these three days, for a mystery that nobody has yet explained, most of the abyssal creatures patrol the waters around the Thalassurr cities, while their youngest inhabitants sleep.

The Salt Day: Sometimes, usually once in a decade, the old Patriarch of the Salt religion, who dwells in the Thalassur capital Lequiriss announces that he is “Going to sleep with the fishes”.

He travels a long road to the Abyssal Cliff south of the capital, where he plays the Bruzdakk, the Horn of the Sea. All the sleeping merfolk, even miles away, get suddenly awakened (many would return to sleep) and his body transforms into foam that goes to the bottom of the abyssal depths, where nobody ventures. Then all the new military and civilian offices are reassigned (including the new patriarch)and new merfolks are knighted.

The Sun Pilgrimage: Sometimes the people of the abyss decide to visit the coast-dwellers. It has not happened in centuries, since the king is now sleeping, but usually a Marid that has visited the Eden coast appears from an abyssal rift and proclaims the discovery of a new type of music. For one who lives underwater, feeling the pure vibrations of the air, very different from the music heard underwater, is a luxury that only the bravest and the luckiest can witness maybe only once in their own life.

Then happens that the king proclaims “the sun pilgrimage” and every merfolk can enlist in small groups to visit Eden coastal cities.

The Water rifts and the “Lords of the Abyss”

A Marid is a genie that comes from the plane of water. He usually appears in the Abyssal biomes, where he is usually venerated as “Lord of the Abyss”. for its racial capacities and his god-like speed.

He in fact can hit 30m underwater, change into any shape and size and can cast superior magic, although their appearance is rare and only close to the water elemental rifts.

It happens that these Marids visit the coastal rifts, when they get bored or curious and sometimes shapeshift into humans to travel through eden, even if they prefer remaining next to coasts and swamps and not venturing into the mountains.

Water Genie incredible elemental powers and excessive sensitivity and touchiness can lead to many problems in Eden, but in the Abyss they are worshiped as gods, and merfolk are used to build sanctuaries and underwater temples, where they bring offerings and treasures.

On the contrary the Glubmenn fear the Marids and their underwater shamans invented many rituals and customs (usually not working) to keep the “water demons" away from their settlements.