Empire!7 - Into the Depths: Waters of the World (CWBG)

[LapisCattis]

The Unrelenting Horde

Leader: Carver Dunbar
Diplomacy: 3
Military: 3
Economy: 5
Faith: 4
Intrigue: 4
rolls

Capital Region: Lyssnos - Region 196
Resource: Clamp-eel Slime (a building material)
Desired Import: Meat

Holy Sites:

• The Great Mausoleum - The Evermarching Hunger
• Whalefall Temple - The Evermarching Hunger
• The Mat - The Evermarching Hunger

Faction Support:

• Aristocratic: Self owned
• Clerical: Self owned
• Mercantile: Self owned

Starting techs: All

Spoiler: Geography

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Sparse crags rise out of a fog of waste, floating remnants of beasts from above, and the murk of silt that is forever floating above the fine bed of the sea. The Fog wraps all in tangible pressure, and can cover only the writhing bodies of Clamp-eels or be as thick to cover entire skeletons of great Beasts, long since fallen to the seafloor and stripped of all meat and use. Above, in the Clear Sea, what few cliffs that approach the glowing yellow-green surface waters are capped in white, and shimmers of salt cascade in dizzying whirls. A current brings choking water into the edge of this territory - fierce and lethal enough that no life persists around it, and dense enough to slip underneath the Fog, ensnaring any fool who wanders too close to add their remains to the Great Mausoleum.

Instead of tall cities or grand structures, the people of Lyssnos congregate around existing landmarks. The Great Mausoleum, spillway of the Wastes, holds the bodies of fools and lesser beings that dared to challenge the power of the Wastes without preparing themselves adequately. Whalefalls are infrequent and ephemeral protrusions from the fog, bones and body protruding until enough Hyperiids, Clamp-eels, and the various non-sentient crabs, blind fish, and smaller beasts feast on the remains enough that the connections of tissue and ligament fail, and the skeleton falls flat into the Fog. Each Whalefall is a celebration and a test - the most abundant is named Whalefall Temple until a new corpse arrives. The Mat is less ephemeral, though navigating to it requires more skill than can be expected of either an outsider or a juvenile. A place where the Fog rests flat, apparently no different from its surroundings, but underneath is a deep, disguised pool of slime and sulfur-smelling mud, enough to completely submerge several Hyperiids on top of one another. Smaller mats exist, also hidden underneath the Fog and dotted throughout the region, and impossible to tell apart from the normal sea bed until one is already submerged. Inside the mats, the slime and mud block all light and sensation, creating a disorienting chamber where even directional sense cannot be relied upon.

Spoiler: People

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The residents of Lyssnos are primarily Hyperiids - swimming crustaceans with transparent bodies and thick shells, about half the size of a Clear Sea dolphin skeleton. With two elongated claw arms and wide head, Hyperiids mostly swim while vertical, spindly legs and tail tucked into their curved shells. A lost leg, and the proof that one is still able to function without it, is a mark of pride at meeting the challenges of Lyssnos. To them is the lot to suffer and prevail - to experience and triumph over the most inhospitable environments, and to that end, the Hyperiids will experiment and create anything to attempt to conquer new challenges, particularly if those inventions are made from materials already in Lyssnos.

To that end, the Hyperiids culture and breed a host of Clamp-eels - blind, soft-horned eels the size of a Mer skeleton with round bodies and long spade-tails. Covered in a flexible but strong slime and dotted sensory organs over the length of their bodies, the Clamp-eels are valuable for livestock, slime harvesting, and tracking. Their jaws are strong and bodies soft and flexible enough that a single Clamp-eel could tie itself into multiple knots, a skill they use to create leverage for tearing off meat and to carry rocks and bone for construction.

Using the nutrient rich Fog, Hyperiids are also able to grow large, latticework barrel sponges that form rounds of silica that can be used to wrap around a Hyperiid for defense, egg-laying, or simply for comfort. Combined with slime and harvested bone, these sponges are also quite useful building supplies.

Spoiler: History and Government

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For most of their history, the Hyperiids formed small, aggressive roaming groups that communicated with each other but were broadly separate in order to make the most of food supplies. Each group competed with each other for triumphs and bragging rights to different hardships, while also avoiding the cursed status of Drifters - Hyperiids who make the environment too easy to survive in and who remove challenges completely. In recent years, as more corpses and food has entered the Fog, the Hyperiids have grown anxious at how the abundance is impacting their youth, and groups began to band together (in sufficiently challenging numbers) to find new challenges. The current leader, distinguished by her surviving in the Mat for an entire season and using her Clamp-eel to split each bone in a Whalefall for the marrow, is Carver Dunbar.

Spoiler: Resources

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Clamp-eel slime is a gel-like, flexible substance that can be wrapped around food to seal out new contamination, around bones or sponges to keep them together in a building, and has even been tested to be able to hold small amounts of air from the bubbles that rise from parts of the sea floor. Its primary value currently is in construction.

Even though the elder Hyperiids preach moderation, there is no denying the appeal of fresh meat to the Hyperiids, particularly the rare meat and food that hasn't already been chewed by several dozen other creatures before reaching the Fog.

Spoiler: Faith

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The Great Mausoleum marks the most visible and accessible sign of the ultimate challenge - the Wastes. Hyperiid legend says that originally, their ancestors were born from rocks and viscera spewed from the Wastes before the Fog settled and separated them in its shelter. While normally shelter for shelter's sake would be looked down upon, it is also widely agreed that without the Fog, the Wastes would have covered the entire ocean. Life with hardships is better than no life at all. Nevertheless, the Wastes are an eternal yearning - a goal held by every self-respecting Hyperiid that one day, they might be strong enough to survive inside it. So far, as the Great Mausoleum can attest, that day has not come, but the passion to chase the ultimate challenge still remains. Just as the Wastes have an eternal hunger to devour all creatures that enter, so will the Hyperiids persist, Evermarching, with their own Hunger. This belief forms the bedrock of society, and identifies the other important places in Lyssnos. The Whalefalls, and Whalefall Temple specifically congratulate those who survived long enough for a new arrival, and teach that one must pace themselves. The Mat teaches appreciation for the darkness and rewards those who have taught themselves the skill to find hidden gems and withstand the sensory deprivation inside. Finally, the Great Mausoleum teaches that a challenge is only a fool's errand if not approached with strategy and self-awareness.