Empire!7 - Into the Depths: Out-of-Character Thread (CWBG)

[Kythia]

Bugger. Work went mental and I didn't get round to rolling or writing up. Ignore my actions this round.

[TheDarkDM]

Region for review:

Lapangan Zamrud (Region 24)

Spoiler: Geography

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Lapangan Zamrud (Region 24)

Spreading south of the crimson waters of Bloodhome and the Khandeeps, the rolling kelp forests of Lapangan Zamrud form a glistening veridian sea-within-a-sea. Their verdant expanses guided but never pierced by the stunted remnants of volcanic mountains, the tangled wilds can easily confuse and disorient those unfamiliar with their currents, leaving more than one weary traveler vulnerable to the dapple-furred sea tigers that make the place their hunting grounds. Those fleeing to the sandy surface are no safer, for venomous, sapphire-hued urchins often cling to the holdfasts of the groves. Occupying one of the shallowest expanses of the tropic waters, the waters above the rolling forests are often speckled with strange ghost-lights from the surface, and Lapangan Zamrud’s inhabitants are some of the few brave enough to have laid eyes on the mythic “sun.”

Spoiler: People

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Merfolk

Wedged between great kingdoms of corals, the mer who call Lapangan Zamrud their home have long prospered in careful anonymity. Weaving hidden villages in natural valleys and dales, they have farmed the forests and hunted its bounty for generations. Loosely organized into tribal groups, conflicts between these settlements were rare and highly ritualized, with all involved aware of the greater danger of exposing their hidden fastnesses or drawing greater attention from ravenous sea tigers through rampant bloodshed. Most arguments and grievances between the scattered villages were addressed at regular conclaves of tribal leaders, these conclaves forming the nearest thing to a governing body in the region. However, the rise of the great powers in Lapangan Zamrud’s orbit spelled doom for this way of life.

As conflicts raged and tropical kingdoms sought to become powers, the dregs of a dozen armies were left adrift in the uncaring sea. Many of these forces, driven from their homelands by the expansionist ambitions of Syndicate, Lighthouse, and Unity, saw in the kelp forests a place to lick their wounds and consider the future. At first, this trickle of outsiders was seen as no danger to the forest tribes, and some were even welcomed to prove themselves and thus gain a true home. But what began as a trickle soon became a flood, as entire shattered divisions reconstituted themselves beneath the banners of one of a dozen petty warlords. The native population found itself besieged, their forests now fully infected with armed bands who navigated the hidden ways thanks to collaborators willing and unwilling. These bandit groups extorted the hidden villages to fulfill their base desires, while adopting the fundamental rule of the forest - to hide. Woe to them, that this proved insufficient to blunt the Syndicate’s ambitions.

The invasion of the Lambent Syndicate brought true war to the great forest for the first time in recorded song, as bandit clans made a stand against the unified fist of the kucen’s slave soldiers. Had they commanded the loyalty of the people, they might have prevailed, for the forest held as many dangers for the invaders as for the occupiers. But the Syndicate is ever one to couple the thrusting spear with the subtle knife, and beneath the haze of battle sirens in service to the great Mistresses made contact with the local tribes. Eager for freedom and seduced by the siren’s honeyed words, the tribes betrayed the secret ways, the hidden fortresses, and the supply caches of last-resort that the bandit clans had relied upon, and so their oppressors were finally defeated. To signal the peace they offered, the Syndicate’s soldiers bound all the captive bandits in fungal cages bound to the kelp, breaking their limbs and leaving them as living delicacies for the swarms of bottom-feeders drawn to the carnage. This ring of the living dead stretched the perimeter of the forest, and offered a chilling warning against further resistance.

Now, the tribes stand liberated but not free. Their confederation now meets in a location of clear-cut forest where the Syndicate’s intricate coral palaces might take root, under the watchful eyes of a siren. The subtle knife has been sheathed, but one need only look at the field of bones that now surrounds Lapangan Zamrud to know they are a conquered people.

Spoiler: Resource

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Fibrous Kelp

The vibrant fields of Lapangan Zamrud are made up of a variety of species of kelp, but none is more prized than the durable bull kelp that the local mer rely on for building materials and textiles. The tough strands can be woven into fibers of great strength while still alive, providing living cocoons in which to shelter from the elements. Moreover, the natural processes of the heterokonts serve to filter the surrounding waters of impurities, suggesting more advanced uses for the resource.

Resource Requirement: Military Labor

Forced to spend a generation under the control of greedy despots, the people of Lapangan Zamrud log above all else for a return to the security of their prior anonymity. To that end, each village has taken up a collection to procure their own defenders, independent even from the Syndicate’s distant enforcers.

Spoiler: Faith

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The Gyre: With their daily lives so intimately entwined with the kelp forest, the mer of Lapangan Zamrud have long deified both the kelp itself as well as the often mercurial currents that set it to its strangely graceful dance. This animist belief system, whereby the souls of all departed mer sprout anew and whisper their old wisdom through the water, is collectively identified as “The Gyre,” and is venerated at innumerable small shrines. No central locations for worship exist, but concentrations of tribes in the East and South have great influence over the rites practiced by the villages radiating out from them.

[Tychris1]

Region review

Budak Perak
Region 18

Spoiler: Geography

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To the east of Binar Fajar lays an idyllic stretch of land that glitters under the light of day. Such a twinkling buffet is a flower's deceptive poison though, for the slightest disturbance of the surface can cause ruptures of deadly gases and particulates from underground. A complex network of interconnecting tunnels, veins, and geomantic cross sections have created a madman's journal beneath the clean surface of Budak Perak. Most make their home on floating debris and elevated nomadic structures. Occasionally drifting whales will disturb the land and create devastating "poison riptides" which have been mythologized in scale.

Spoiler: People

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Migrant Kucen from the countless wars in the west settled in these lands. Their lives are nearly entirely nomadic and migratory, circling the edges of Budak Perak on crude barges made from broken vessels and floating debris. They chase the current in the hopes of harvesting the shiny treasure of their home without suffering the deadly aftereffects. As a result, they have no formal stationery government but an inconsistent and unofficial council structure of tribes and families. One tribe holds particular ascendancy for their ability to lay root and act as a buoy for others. Their leader, dubbed The Silver Surfer for their elegant attire and swift pirating skills held nearly uncontested power in the region until the fanatics of the Lighthouse arrived. They promised no noticeable change to their way of life, save for the opportunity to leave their home behind, and make a living as cutthroats and sellswords in sea lanes far away. They still meet at the Silver Shack yearly to discuss and handle local affairs, though now their collections are more competitively shined, and a number of Kucen have taken up the incredibly dangerous and foolhardy challenge of mounting local wildlife in hopes of emulating their goddesses endless hunger. The presence of the Endless Eel has created a constant disrupting natural disaster that the locals have had no solution for.

Spoiler: Resources

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Galena: This crystallized mineral is found predominately in steam vents and veins but also in shattered crags and treacherous caves throughout the region. Most of the "harvesting" done by the locals is just changing hands of the same sparkly material, however. It's too soft to use as a proper bludgeon so ritual implements are its man use.

Required Resource Skilled Labor: The dangerous living conditions of the land cause a toll on the elderly and skilled populations, forcing the locals to constantly improvise, and scrabble for expert hands in urgent matters. Things like doctors, artisans, and crafters are more valuable than raw goods to the people of Budak Perak

Spoiler: Faith

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The Silver Shack is the only concentration of minds and influences strong enough to count as a "Holy Center" though the words are a bit of a stretch. The Shimmers of Unseen faith has placed roots in the community long back but with the Forest of Astral Yearning trampled and no official head in place the faith has grown stagnant and slightly terrified of the giant goddess rampaging through their land.

[MappyPK]

I'm looking to satisfy R153's desired import -- which is listed as Exotic Food and written as "food that has interesting pigmentation properties" in my initial recruitment post. I was looking through some options and was wondering if any of these would satisfy: Waveweed Root, Giant Cleaner Wrasse, Hollow Sunfish, Delicate Mussels. Not entirely sure who has to crosscheck this stuff.

[TheDarkDM]

Coralberries are also local and might qualify?

[Rolepgeek]

Updated Shark Folk mechanics:

Each round, the Shark King rolls a 1d6 to determine their actions based on the following list:
1 - Attack a region w/One Thousand Arms
2 - Sack a TP or Holy Site
3 - Sack a TP or City
4 - Sack or Coerce a food TP
5 - Convert a Holy Site OR Party Crash Attend an Event
6 - Roll again twice

They can move what region they're in as a non-action, and they gain or lose units passively as other shark-rider nomads flock to or abandon the banner of the Shark King - the exact mechanics are intentionally obscured, but remaining in one area overlong makes it harder, and successful raids make things easier. There's a couple of other hidden mechanics, but they aren't relevant yet.

mystic1110 will be choosing targets for them according to what makes sense IC for the Shark King, as our previous NPC Manager has stepped down, sadly.

[TheDarkDM]

For people attending the Exquisite Gala who haven't before, the intro post of the first Gala has some more place-setting and geography that it seemed odd to just replicate.

[MappyPK]

Coralberries are also local and might qualify?

Coralberries are probably plausible too, but would be a lot tougher to obtain with my very limited beginner resources, since they seem to be fully bought out, haha.

[Volthawk]

A loose sketch of what I'm thinking for the military World Wonder I've been talking about in the discord. Precise effects and the numbers involved can be adjusted/removed depending on balance needs - I do have other ideas for how to work it, just figured I should put the best idea at the moment down here so there's something to work with.

Spoiler

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<Mercenary Hub, proper name TBD>

The Cyphiri have always dealt in mercenaries, and as time has gone on and the needs of the Union have developed so has the mercenary business around them. The construction of the <Hub> is a recognition of that fact, the need for the various peoples of the seas for additional warriors at times, and the ways that the Cyphiri can benefit from this. Located in Pyl-Garat - the Council doesn't want a place like this too close to home, after all, but close enough - the <Hub> is naturally primarily a center of business, a place for reputable and reliable mercenary companies to have representatives stay in and arrange for new contracts, the Cyphiri providing reasonably priced housing and other property, facilitating the relevant fees and payments, and allowing the use of their photospore network to ensure the steady flow of contracts and orders. For the various armies of the seas, the <Hub> provides a quick and effective way to gain mercenary troops to reinforce their own, the representatives confirming the details and relaying them to mercenary companies in the wider ocean, while for the mercenaries the <Hub> provides a good supply of work, along with more practical services from the various businesses that have cropped up around it, and the Cyphiri Union gets to take their cut at various stages of the process and occasionally pays for whole companies to be folded into its Retainer Guard.
<will expand the fluff with the actual actions and time, but that's the basic idea behind it>

Any country may Establish Mercenary Contacts as a 2-action project. Once contacts have been established, that country can spend up to two treasure on a battle (in addition to normal treasure use, if desired), gaining effective units for the purpose of determining Outnumbering bonuses equal to the amount spent (similar to when a Merchant Marine spends multiple treasure on a battle). The controller of the region the World Wonder is in automatically counts as having Established Contacts if they have not already, gains 1 treasure for every 2 used on this ability by other countries and can, once per round, spend 1 Treasure when taking a Recruit Units action to gain an additional unit.

[LapisCattis]

Region Submission - Region 103: Taifre Mandala - The Hundred Trenches

Spoiler: Geography

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Ridges and canyons alternate in chaotic waves, forming a sea ‘floor’ that is rarely level or smooth. The rock is largely composed of multicolored limestone ridges. The ridgetops, most exposed to the heavy currents of the region, are barren but for hardier crustaceans and schools of larger fish. The valleys, sheltered from the harsher waters above, are home to sweeping coral reefs and thousands of species they house - including the Nereid, the only known sentient natives of the region. From above, this has the effect of a mandala-like swirl, alternating bands of rock and vegetation in a myriad of patterns and colors. It is broadly debated among the locals whether this pattern was natural or deliberately cultivated. This earns the region its proper name, Taifre Mandala, though colloquially it is often simply called the Hundred Trenches.

At the center of the region, like an eye of calm in the swirling trenches, sits the shallow basin containing the remains of the Temple of Duarge. It is the most intact pre-Calamity structure in the region, only recently identified by the Sereian visitors. Numerous hollow shell structures dot the basin, faded paint and carvings depicting all kinds of ocean life, from fish and seahorses to turtles and whales. Broken remnants of shoal enclosures and feeding pens litter the grounds between, now overgrown with seaweeds and corals. In the spiral arms of the valleys extending, many more-fragmented ruins speak of a once vast city, now only a shattered legacy to be explored and deciphered.

The passage of the Trawlers has left a scoured scar thousands of feet wide, marring one side of the mandala. Fortunately the primary settlement of Demeli was missed, but one of the outer collegiate grounds was less fortunate. While the staff and student body were evacuated, the campus itself was completely leveled.

Spoiler: People

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Nereid are a merfolk race, with a piscine lower body and tail meeting at the waist with a humanoid torso, arms and head. Adult Sereia typically measure two to five meters in length from head to fin, with the tail accounting for between half and three-quarters of their body mass. Skin and scale colors come in a broad spectrum, though very few Nereid sport the customized grafts of the Sereia.

Spoiler: History

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The Nereid have lost much of their history, but the scholars have begun to piece together things from the ruins and relics recovered by the adventuring scholars. They have traced their origins to a once widespread society of their race known as the Tritaol Republic. The republic, according to records, was a thriving high society of faith, philosophy, and martial prowess. Dozens of city-states formed a network of communities, and representatives of each governed in a senate according to their population. Grand architecture led to the creation of vast halls and temples.

Then the Calamity laid all this low. From pieced-together bits of writing, the scholars’ broad consensus (there is some debate on the meaning of certain phrases) is that a combination of corruption and complacency among the aristocracy was already fraying cohesion among the Tritaol people. When the apocalypse struck, the already weakened ties among the city-states collapsed. Without the nets of trade and support, most who survived the initial devastation succumbed to starvation, exposure, and infighting. Small groups formed, forsaking class and caste from desperation, managed to survive in isolation until the waters cleared and bonds could be found anew.

Spoiler: Resource

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Adventuring Scholars - Those Nereid who continue their education into the field of research have formed colleges. These schools are focused on furthering scientific knowledge through analysis of their predecessors and of the natural world. Groups of scholars take their studies from the halls of their schools into the wild currents of the trenches, which necessitates some skill in navigation and survival as well. Those who pursue these ‘field studies’ spend years training and pursuing a thesis under the supervision of a respected mentor before they are allowed to join or lead expeditions of their own.

Spoiler: Faith

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The Examinations - Nereid beliefs bear little resemblance to that of the republic that was their origin. With their survival dependent on careful study of their surroundings, knowledge and education have surpassed philosophy. The Examinations are a series of developed tests, where children and young adults can prove their retention of their lessons. These test for proficiency via memorization and deduction of four subjects: language, reading, mathematics, and scientific reasoning. An individual’s performance in the Examinations determine their prospects in the next level of schooling, and when education is completed, the career options available.

Approved! You can add this entry to the Waters of the World

Region 66
The Seas-Not-Yet-Dead

Spoiler: Geography:

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Tis an unweeded garden grown to seed / things rank and gross in nature possess it merely. -Hamlet I.ii

The Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, while not the sterile moonscape of the Dead Seas, are hardly liferich waters. Little native plant life exists, long since picked away by the Occupying Natives, who themselves are few and far between. Much like the neighboring Dead Seas, there seems to exist but one trophic level, that of the natives, with no extant life above or below them on the food chain.

How can such a place have gone so far to seed? The waters of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead are not the unpolluted crystal of those of their neighbors but instead a cloudy fog, interrupted by rotting chunks that churn quietly through in the slow, enormous gyre that provides these waters no outlet. The ultimate resting place of the detritus of its neighbors, the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead are, despite their name, a rich rotscape, a necrothalassa of choking thickness.

The great stinking churn of filth settles in thick layers, and nothing inanimate stays uncovered for long. Layer after layer of rich decay settles in stultifying strata, stunting any effort to erect edifices. Dunes of death stretch so far as the eye can see--which in these waters is hardly half a fathom.

Spoiler: People

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Is the breath of Her hot in thy hair? -Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Doleurs)

The Chrysomallon Kiwa are a unique race, cancrine mollusks whose cutting claws are coated in near-luminous hair. These extend three inches--half their body length--forward from their main shell, from which their reamining eight over-articulated legs riot outwards, between which a cancerous mass of eyes peer dimly out. The shell under whose rim these endless eyes squint slopes thickly back, glinting with specks of the same gold of the clawhairs, but otherwise the rude black of unworked iron dominates their greigite-based exokeleton.

The Chrysomallon Kiwa, proper to a place without property or permanence do not know any stability or structures beyond their holy sites. Instead, the only permanent features of the region are the Writhing Ways. All across the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, ever shifting, rising, and dying with the currents of the glacial maelstrom above, the seabed is shot through with shining bands of gold. An observer tolerant enough of the choking waters to swim down to observe would find the Chrysomallon Kiwa in their millions, an endless vein throbbing with the slow shift of the seas. Hundreds per square metre, this crawling congregation clambers and creeps, catching cast-off chunks of rotting flesh that flow unceasing down the invisible river. Though the awful nature of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead is such that the Corpsefall Drift, as it is known, sees fleshbergs many times the size of the relatively diminuitive Kiwa avalanche quietly downstream, the cutting claws of the crabs skillfully excise proportioned chunks on which to feed, the rest of the grey-hued hulk drifting on.

The ebb and flow of the Corpsefall drift mean that the Chrysomallon Kiwa occasionally cross over the (up until recently stoppered) Maternal Fonts. In these waters, though the Mother's Breath has only since the annexation begun to again fill the sea with her noxious blessing, the edges of the rifts hold a treasure unique in all the seas: sulfer jelly. The crabs feed on this ferrous slime, laying their eggs in its place. In so feeding, they find their hairs coated in both the jelly and the Mother's Breath, and it is on this that their third great food resource feeds. The clawhairs of the Chrysomallon Kiwa are a great orgy of feasting bacteria, and their bodies and byproducts serve as reserves when the shifting waters see branches of the Corpsefall Drift fall still and the Kiwa are forced to scuttle blindly in search of the new paths.

Spoiler: Government

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Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it. -Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Students of recent history would name the House of de Trenché Bleu the recent rulers of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, and by certain calculus, they would be right. A cadet branch of one of the great mer lineages of the north, the de Trenché Bleus had indeed for some decades laid claim to these waters. They fought constantly with the decay to build structures that would last. They sent messengers along the Corpsefall Drift to declare to the Kiwa their dominion. They sought to find legitimacy through marriage pacts with local nobility from the Cathedral.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of the house's wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

The Chrysomallon Kiwa know no government for to each is given what is needed. Food floats down the Corpsefall Drift, springs from the Maternal Fonts, and generates even on their claws. The cancrine creatures see the fall of nobility and quietly continue their rave.

Spoiler: Resources

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Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. -Dante Alighieri, Inferno

A visitor to the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead from a life-blighted sea would know at first only the creeping horror of what is absent. Neither plant nor beast, but merely the Writhing Ways of endless cancrine feasting, below a sluggish drift of indistinct meat that make the waters, there is no other word for it, chunky. Instead of proper religion, veneration of deities, there is only the mad worship at pits of poison.

Such a visitor is blessed, for they have not yet glimpsed the brave new world. Oh woe it is to know what is to be known, to see what is to been seen! In the northern waters, before the snapping claws of the writhing way dissect the truth of the Corpsefall Drift, great bloated masses loom in the frigid waters. Almost unrecognizable as mer, these tragic composites and hollows form a portrait of suffering unlike anything known across the many seas. Most, by some foul grace, are dead, and those that cling to torturous life do so dumbly, sentience driven out by crude surgeries, by slow death, or by the merciful madness brought by pain.

These are the Pelagic Graftsmer, the seaborne cast offs and discarded remnants of Ennead projects. Some drift south absent of key parts harvested by avaritious tentacles; some come suffocated under the weight of parasitic additions unspeakable and unbearable. These make rich the Corpsefall Drift, and the Chrysomallon Kiwa are ever thankful.

Spoiler: Faith

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Now that we are sending you to The End / That great god / Tell him / That we who follow you invented forgiveness / And forgive nothing -W. S. Merwin, For a Coming Extinction

The Occupying Natives once held to a disorganized collection fo beliefs centered around the Fundamental Principle: Life calls to life. Born of a biology possessed of magnetic sclerite, the constant pull towards each other and to the ferrous concretions that over the Maternal Fonts--sites where life-giving sulfer jelly accrued--gave easy evidence to the belief.

It is no wonder that they took so easily to a faith centered similarly in union. The Chrysomallon Kiwa see the Eternal Communion not as a foreign faith, but as a deeper elucidation of the philosophy under which they had already operated. When their holy sites were revealed to be stoppered Fonts, it only confirmed for them that these Riftlings' Mother perhaps had grace enough for a second species as well.

Holy Site 1: The Low Rock
Once upon a time, there was a great sulfrous concretion, rust red and sunken near ten fathoms. As the slow fall of fleshdust sank ever more into the obscured Font, the pit around the Low Rock retained its depth--a unique depression in the otherwise level sand. Now that the font is opened, the rock shattered, it is still seen as holy. Here, the Mother breathes life to Riftling and Chrysomallon Kiwa alike, and the red rocks scattered around that gaping maw retain their wonder.

Holy Site 2: The Budding Fields
Across the empty waters, where the Corpsefall Drift is absent, there is no food to be found. This is the rule. Yet here, in what had seemed otherwise uninterupted barreness, sulfur jelly bubbled to the surface, saving the lives of many migrating Kiwa.

Now, this is a web of thin rifts, reopened with the coming of the Riftlings. The salvific wonder of the fields remains.

Holy Site 3: The Bounteous Atrocity
The current sweeping from the north brings the blessed detritus to these lands, but ever more with the rise of the Ennead, that bounty has grown rich. Mangled bodies of mer, lacking parts or possessed of tumorous blooms of additions, tumble ever inward, and here in the north of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, a becalmed doldrum waxes and wanes. Thousands of corpses dangle aloft, out of reach of the Chrysomallon Kiwa, a promise of the bounty to come.

I believe you've been chatting with Role about the lore for this region, so once those are all worked out let me know and I'll look over again. I didn't have any additional comments other than what he's raising/will follow up with

Region 120

The Dekapoloi

Spoiler: people

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This region is a rough conglomerate of hamlets, notionally ten spread out 'cities," each representing a different species or ethnic grouping. There are representatives from Otterian, Nautilite, Merish, and Crab-folk tribes, as well as Sakura-Jin Hermit Crabs, and other races as well. The Hermit Crabs are later immigrants, and not notionally one of "the ten." Levt are also not present, being restricted until recently to Qzzry'ya.
They have a democratic council, with speakers from each tribe answering to a grand jurist. The most recent grand jurist led the defense against the Sakura-Jin invasion. He has since converted and has been allowed to keep his titles in exchange for allowing the Ecclesiarchs to act as a veto on his power and name his successor.

Spoiler: Geography

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This land has rolling hills and variable salinity clines. It is interspersed with small villages that are organized by caste and ethnicity into ten "cities." The actual terrain is idyllic and pastoral.

Spoiler: resource

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This place is a calm, pastoral land where axolotl shepherds farm their strange basal vertebrate creatures for meat and nutritious glitter-slime they shed from their bellies.

The people have little building materials and move around constantly, living in tents. As a result, they need Textiles

Spoiler: Faith

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The people of this region have no organized religion, but pray to manifestations of nature personified, not unlike the Baalim priests of the Precursors, though they use different names. Theologians will study similarities to these discredited faiths in order to better supplant them. This is the first time Mer or Otterians have been attempted to be integrated into Sakurado in large numbers. Their bizarre biological needs and "family" structures may not be easily integrated and great care will be taken not to antagonize them or make the integration seem compulsory.

Approved! You can add this entry to the Waters of the World

Both of these region submissions will be updated once I know what their Required Resources are. However, I had the time tonight to work on them, so I did.

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Gosto G'Cor
(Region 137)

Spoiler: People

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As a colonized region, Gosto G’Cor – which roughly translates to Tasty Colorland – is predominantly Gotezhar. There are a few adventurous Mer as well, but the population is primarily focused on the younger, smaller Nuven of Gotezhar who wish for more skies in order to grow faster.

The rains in Gosto G’Cor are supposedly different, with a distinct flavor to them that the colonists say is an acquired taste. It is not poisonous, but even the rain is… swampy.

Spoiler: Geography

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Gosto G’Cor is distinctly brackish in it’s waters. Almost swamp like, it is full of flat plains sunk only about ten globes under the waves. It is supposed that before whatever happened to overflow the world with water, Gosto G’Cor was a swamp. And now it is just… a very briny sea; almost green in color in some spots, particularly near the southern border which slowly expands into a region full of waste.

The vegetation in Gosto G’Cor runs rampant, as it is much closer to the sunlight, creating a hunting ground for beasts of various sizes… but also a plethora of places for fish to thrive. Still, these fish are very skittish, as though they are plentiful and can hide easily, there are a number of creatures that enjoy a lite snack with nary a word of warning.

Including the new Gotezhar settlers, who find themselves enjoying having steady supplies of meat to eat!

Spoiler: Resource

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Export: Wild Armored Gharials are the biggest beasts around. These crocodiles rather enjoy fish. They can grow to large sizes, are covered with spines, and possess a toothy maw that is one-third the length of their body. Not to mention their reptilian scales are thick enough that most spears cannot pierce into the flesh below.

There is one in the region – named Big Snapper – that can spit globs of some kind of acidic substance, and has grown to be four times bigger than any other Gharial that the colonists have seen. Big Snapper is given a wide berth, but the smaller Gharials are highly valued for their meat, their scales, and their teeth.

Some colonists speculate that the Gharials could be tamed somehow, but so far all who have tried have not returned and are presumed croc food. Gosto G’Cor gladly accepts fools, for they are delicious. Even if the smaller, more passive beasts could be tamed, no one wants to try to disturb Big Snapper. Some claim the creature to have Titanblood in it's veins; not a true Titan itself (it is still far too small for that) but perhaps the distant descendent of a long gone Titan. Or at least one that is hopefully long gone...

Required Resource: ??? {Not yet determined by GM Team}

Spoiler: Faith

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Holy Site: "The Temple of Leocidia" [Brihinte]

Just below the surface of the water sits the remains of a stone temple. Walls decorated with constellations, strange winged and beaked creatures, and sun-and-moon patterns are laid out in a broad rectangle, and carved marble columns rise every few meters to breach the waves above. Where some of the columns and angled ceiling have fallen in, a gentle ramp of stone winds along the interior also to break the surface, leading to a slanted balcony open to the sky above.

Also known as the Temple of the Sky, those of Costa Sereia risked much to bring it back under their control. Supposedly Gosto G’Cor’s more tainted waters were cleaned away by beseeching Leocidia herself; for this reason, the Gotezhar respect the temple and leave it to the faithful of Brihinte to oversee.

Holy Site: "Big Snapper’s Rest" [The Flowing Way]

Near the center of the region lies Big Snapper’s hunting grounds. To warn away intruders from getting too far into the Gharial’s territory, a small village was one of the first to be built in the area. In addition to warning away people from aggravating Gosto G’Cor’s alpha beast, this village also serves as a place to study the Flowing Way. Joontar formerly from Ezcorher make Big Snapper’s Rest their new home, and guide the faithful through appropriate rites… which include “do not feed the crocodiles.”

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New Korasoon
(Region 174)

Spoiler: People

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New Korasoon is a far western colony for the Gotezhar and Mer of the Builder’s Union to come together. As such, there are a mix of peoples within the region, but those two species are the predominant ones. While the majority of New Korasoon are from the Builder’s Union, a few Lysimia from Lux-Glossian waters, have made their home near the border of Narcis’s Rest.

Spoiler: Geography

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New Korasoon seems to be endless slopes and dunes, with no sign of any thinking creatures and little vegetation save for a single, widespread variety of sweet-tasting plant. It makes it ideal for colonists to move in, but quite a bit had to be imported at first. After their arrival, it was noticed that there are the occasional schools of fish that come through, but they appear to be seasonal. Still, with proper planning, this - and the Sugarweed - does give the new inhabitants of the region enough food to live on.

The Colonists had a long, far, swim, through many varied seas; yet they planned for their arrival, and brought a number of building materials with them, quickly establishing towns and villages within New Korasoon. The Mer among the colonists took over duties of administration, and the Gotezhar spread out in order to find the best clouds.

Though there is little remarkable about the region, to the north and northwest, the waters grow very cold. This amuses many Gotezhar, who are used to far more temperate waters, but seem mostly unbothered by the lite chill they experience… so far as they don’t cross beyond the borders into truly glacial waters. Additionally, there is one spot to the southeast that houses a large coral reef. It is here that even more fauna can be found, but it is still a calm place, lacking almost any predators, which the Mer colonists find particularly unusual.

Spoiler: Resource

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Export: Sugarweed grows everywhere in New Korasoon, almost strangling everything else. On it’s own, it makes for a staple – and plentiful – crop that can be eaten simply by picking up the short strait stalk from the ground. The roots and stalk separate cleanly, allowing the Sugarweed to grow back untended. The stalk itself can either be eaten raw, or squeezed of the contents. The spice inside is sweet, and can be added to other dishes.

A single Sugarweed is about two globes in length, but barely a few bubbles in width. They are straight, almost grass like in appearance, but bulbous, hinting at the sugar-like powder that grows inside each stalk. Their roots are much bigger and stronger than grass, and because of this, the colonists guess that there was no room for other vegetation to grow easily.

Required Resource: ??? {Not yet determined by GM Team}

Spoiler: Faith

Show

As colonists of an otherwise empty region, the Builder’s Union faithful brought their own religious beliefs to New Korasoon.

Holy Site: "Middish Fields"

A single Middish scribe - one Gaspard de Saulx - joined the caravan that brought all the colonists here. The Middish storyteller and recorder hopes to earn their title as sage of the Ironkelp Order by acting as a Chaplain for the faithful in the region. When the caravan arrived, de Saulx asked that they be allowed a large set of fields to himself. It is from here that the Middish (acting) Chaplain personally built a small open water stage area, from which they hold weekly services. de Saulx discourages his fellow faithful from referring to him as 'Chaplain' until someone from the Ironkelp Order officially confirms his appointment.

Approved! You can add these entries to the Waters of the World, and since you've already settled these, you can change the DIs

Submitting a technology for approval:

Indah's Embrace

Effect: Allows traversal of Depth 1 regions.

Requirements: Aragonite/Calcite or other superhard mineral composite, Graduated Symbiosis.

Compelled to follow Indah's grand endeavor to the depths of the Maw, the Mistresses of the Lambent Syndicate fund a number of prospective inventors seeking a solution. The most promising proposal, in a strange twist of luck, emerges from the territories of Glistering Mistress Kirana, whose stewardship of the Khandeeps had previously served only to feed a growing blood lust. However, cultured strains of the extremophiles found in the vicinity of local aragonite clusters proved capable of establishing a symbiotic link with the mineral composite, grafting the organisms to aragonite constructs to allow a continued source of heat to maintain the crystal's structure and also providing a flexible pressure seal whereby such hardsuits could be fitted. The transparent armor of the Embrace, radiant with its residual heat, provides ample protection at depths previously lethal to the kucen and their thralls.

Approved! Happy delving

Region for review:

Lapangan Zamrud (Region 24)

Spoiler: Geography

Show

Lapangan Zamrud (Region 24)

Spreading south of the crimson waters of Bloodhome and the Khandeeps, the rolling kelp forests of Lapangan Zamrud form a glistening veridian sea-within-a-sea. Their verdant expanses guided but never pierced by the stunted remnants of volcanic mountains, the tangled wilds can easily confuse and disorient those unfamiliar with their currents, leaving more than one weary traveler vulnerable to the dapple-furred sea tigers that make the place their hunting grounds. Those fleeing to the sandy surface are no safer, for venomous, sapphire-hued urchins often cling to the holdfasts of the groves. Occupying one of the shallowest expanses of the tropic waters, the waters above the rolling forests are often speckled with strange ghost-lights from the surface, and Lapangan Zamrud’s inhabitants are some of the few brave enough to have laid eyes on the mythic “sun.”

Spoiler: People

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Merfolk

Wedged between great kingdoms of corals, the mer who call Lapangan Zamrud their home have long prospered in careful anonymity. Weaving hidden villages in natural valleys and dales, they have farmed the forests and hunted its bounty for generations. Loosely organized into tribal groups, conflicts between these settlements were rare and highly ritualized, with all involved aware of the greater danger of exposing their hidden fastnesses or drawing greater attention from ravenous sea tigers through rampant bloodshed. Most arguments and grievances between the scattered villages were addressed at regular conclaves of tribal leaders, these conclaves forming the nearest thing to a governing body in the region. However, the rise of the great powers in Lapangan Zamrud’s orbit spelled doom for this way of life.

As conflicts raged and tropical kingdoms sought to become powers, the dregs of a dozen armies were left adrift in the uncaring sea. Many of these forces, driven from their homelands by the expansionist ambitions of Syndicate, Lighthouse, and Unity, saw in the kelp forests a place to lick their wounds and consider the future. At first, this trickle of outsiders was seen as no danger to the forest tribes, and some were even welcomed to prove themselves and thus gain a true home. But what began as a trickle soon became a flood, as entire shattered divisions reconstituted themselves beneath the banners of one of a dozen petty warlords. The native population found itself besieged, their forests now fully infected with armed bands who navigated the hidden ways thanks to collaborators willing and unwilling. These bandit groups extorted the hidden villages to fulfill their base desires, while adopting the fundamental rule of the forest - to hide. Woe to them, that this proved insufficient to blunt the Syndicate’s ambitions.

The invasion of the Lambent Syndicate brought true war to the great forest for the first time in recorded song, as bandit clans made a stand against the unified fist of the kucen’s slave soldiers. Had they commanded the loyalty of the people, they might have prevailed, for the forest held as many dangers for the invaders as for the occupiers. But the Syndicate is ever one to couple the thrusting spear with the subtle knife, and beneath the haze of battle sirens in service to the great Mistresses made contact with the local tribes. Eager for freedom and seduced by the siren’s honeyed words, the tribes betrayed the secret ways, the hidden fortresses, and the supply caches of last-resort that the bandit clans had relied upon, and so their oppressors were finally defeated. To signal the peace they offered, the Syndicate’s soldiers bound all the captive bandits in fungal cages bound to the kelp, breaking their limbs and leaving them as living delicacies for the swarms of bottom-feeders drawn to the carnage. This ring of the living dead stretched the perimeter of the forest, and offered a chilling warning against further resistance.

Now, the tribes stand liberated but not free. Their confederation now meets in a location of clear-cut forest where the Syndicate’s intricate coral palaces might take root, under the watchful eyes of a siren. The subtle knife has been sheathed, but one need only look at the field of bones that now surrounds Lapangan Zamrud to know they are a conquered people.

Spoiler: Resource

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Fibrous Kelp

The vibrant fields of Lapangan Zamrud are made up of a variety of species of kelp, but none is more prized than the durable bull kelp that the local mer rely on for building materials and textiles. The tough strands can be woven into fibers of great strength while still alive, providing living cocoons in which to shelter from the elements. Moreover, the natural processes of the heterokonts serve to filter the surrounding waters of impurities, suggesting more advanced uses for the resource.

Resource Requirement: Military Labor

Forced to spend a generation under the control of greedy despots, the people of Lapangan Zamrud log above all else for a return to the security of their prior anonymity. To that end, each village has taken up a collection to procure their own defenders, independent even from the Syndicate’s distant enforcers.

Spoiler: Faith

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The Gyre: With their daily lives so intimately entwined with the kelp forest, the mer of Lapangan Zamrud have long deified both the kelp itself as well as the often mercurial currents that set it to its strangely graceful dance. This animist belief system, whereby the souls of all departed mer sprout anew and whisper their old wisdom through the water, is collectively identified as “The Gyre,” and is venerated at innumerable small shrines. No central locations for worship exist, but concentrations of tribes in the East and South have great influence over the rites practiced by the villages radiating out from them.

Approved! You can add this entry to the Waters of the World

Region review

Budak Perak
Region 18

Spoiler: Geography

Show

To the east of Binar Fajar lays an idyllic stretch of land that glitters under the light of day. Such a twinkling buffet is a flower's deceptive poison though, for the slightest disturbance of the surface can cause ruptures of deadly gases and particulates from underground. A complex network of interconnecting tunnels, veins, and geomantic cross sections have created a madman's journal beneath the clean surface of Budak Perak. Most make their home on floating debris and elevated nomadic structures. Occasionally drifting whales will disturb the land and create devastating "poison riptides" which have been mythologized in scale.

Spoiler: People

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Migrant Kucen from the countless wars in the west settled in these lands. Their lives are nearly entirely nomadic and migratory, circling the edges of Budak Perak on crude barges made from broken vessels and floating debris. They chase the current in the hopes of harvesting the shiny treasure of their home without suffering the deadly aftereffects. As a result, they have no formal stationery government but an inconsistent and unofficial council structure of tribes and families. One tribe holds particular ascendancy for their ability to lay root and act as a buoy for others. Their leader, dubbed The Silver Surfer for their elegant attire and swift pirating skills held nearly uncontested power in the region until the fanatics of the Lighthouse arrived. They promised no noticeable change to their way of life, save for the opportunity to leave their home behind, and make a living as cutthroats and sellswords in sea lanes far away. They still meet at the Silver Shack yearly to discuss and handle local affairs, though now their collections are more competitively shined, and a number of Kucen have taken up the incredibly dangerous and foolhardy challenge of mounting local wildlife in hopes of emulating their goddesses endless hunger. The presence of the Endless Eel has created a constant disrupting natural disaster that the locals have had no solution for.

Spoiler: Resources

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Galena: This crystallized mineral is found predominately in steam vents and veins but also in shattered crags and treacherous caves throughout the region. Most of the "harvesting" done by the locals is just changing hands of the same sparkly material, however. It's too soft to use as a proper bludgeon so ritual implements are its man use.

Required Resource Skilled Labor: The dangerous living conditions of the land cause a toll on the elderly and skilled populations, forcing the locals to constantly improvise, and scrabble for expert hands in urgent matters. Things like doctors, artisans, and crafters are more valuable than raw goods to the people of Budak Perak

Spoiler: Faith

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The Silver Shack is the only concentration of minds and influences strong enough to count as a "Holy Center" though the words are a bit of a stretch. The Shimmers of Unseen faith has placed roots in the community long back but with the Forest of Astral Yearning trampled and no official head in place the faith has grown stagnant and slightly terrified of the giant goddess rampaging through their land.

Approved! You can add this entry to the Waters of the World

[Gengy]

@Lapis

Here are the updates I have made to the previously approved regions. Submitting for final approval.

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(137) Gosto G'cor

Export: Wild Armored Gharials [...] Though difficult to come across - or make happen - deceased Gharials can be disseminated for creating arms and armor, toxins, and various esoterica.
(reason for change: section was not explicit in what the Gharials provided. GTZ will at first use Gharials as esoterica, but likely use their scales as a pre-req for armor down the line)

Required Resource: Spices
Ghotezhar settlers primarily came here because they heard rumors that they would be able to taste whole new flavors. It is why the region is called Tasty Colorland. The disappointment that the region is perhaps no longer as flavorful as it used to be (even if the rains have a uniqueness about them) has created a desire within the Gotezhar settlers for various Spices.
(reason for requested change: while the existing 'Religious Materials' DI makes some sense, the influx of Gotezhar settlers looking for new tastes likely overwhelms the minority looking for religious stuff)

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(174) New Korasson

Required Resource: Tools
While the settlers were able to make do with what they had already prepared, further building and laborious tasks will require more refined and complex tools.

[Silent_Interim]

It is with my deepest sorrow that I must announce that I am going to be stepping down from my role as unrest GM, hopefully on a temporary basis, but possibly indefinitely. It has become apparent to me that I simply do not have the time, energy, and attention to manage everything in my personal and work life while also helping run this game. I am hopeful that once I start on medication for ADHD that will change, but I do not want to make promises I cannot keep. If I do not end up coming back, I just want to say it's been an absolute pleasure and thank you all for everything.

[Lumaeus]

I meant to scale back further than I did, but this is what this new draft has ended up as. I remain Very Happy with it, and will continue to gladly consent to critique. We learn more, now, of the dire situation of the House of Trenché Bleu. They've been given more space, and a new narrative is now emerging: the Mer House was dominant before, but with Riftling dominion that acknowledged instead only fellow vermin as relevant, they have been afflicted with obscurity without even a direct coup. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Region 66
The Seas-Not-Yet-Dead

Spoiler: Geography:

Show

Tis an unweeded garden grown to seed / things rank and gross in nature possess it merely. -Hamlet I.ii

The Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, while not the sterile moonscape of the Dead Seas, are hardly liferich waters. Little native plant life exists, long since picked away by the Occupying Nativespicked nearly entirely away by the now myriad Chrysomallon Kiwa, who themselves are few and far between. Much like the neighboring Dead Seas, there seems to increasingly exist but one trophic level, that of the Chrysomallon Kiwa, with no extant life above or below them on their food chain. The remnants of the House of de Trenché Bleu rely on their ever more overburdened serfs who fail more drastically with each year to keep production of food at even a subsistence level.

How can such a place have gone so far to seed? The waters of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead are no longer the unpolluted crystal of those of their neighbors but instead agrow irregularly dim with cloudy fogs that rise more and more, interrupted these days by rotting chunks that churn quietly through in the slow, enormous gyre that provides these waters no outlet. The ultimate resting place of the detritus of its neighbors, the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead are, despite their name, a rich rotscape, a necrothalassa of choking thicknessclearly trending deathwards, the cast-offs of the Ennead to the north ever more polluting these once vibrant waters.

The great stinking churn of filth settles has begun to settlein thick layers, and nothing anythinginanimate stays uncovered for longis beginning to risk sinking under. Layer after layer of rich decay settles in stultifying strata, stunting any effort to erect edificesMer efforts to clear fields and maintain even their limited palaces. Dunes of death stretch so far as the eye can see--which in these waters is hardly half a fathom.

Spoiler: People

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Is the breath of Her hot in thy hair? -Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Doleurs)

Near a century back, the Mer House of Trenché Bleu came to settle these lands. The House was never vast, but assumed control over many estates each a fair few miles in breadth, width, and depth. Of the remaining natives, the House gave little care. Minuscule, vile, and likely idiot, there was little intercourse between the two worlds. Then, the Ennead distant and nascent, the waters were clear. Then, the Chrysomallon Kiwa not yet swollen to their current multitudes, the lands were thought empty. Then, the rifts sealed over, there were no places where a breath of the water meant death.

Thank the Mother things have improved in recent decades.

The Chrysomallon Kiwa are a unique race, cancrine mollusks whose cutting claws are coated in near-luminous hair. These extend three inches--half their body length--forward from their main shell, from which their reamining eight over-articulated legs riot outwards, between which a cancerous mass of eyes peer dimly out. The shell under whose rim these endless eyes squint slopes thickly back, glinting with specks of the same gold of the clawhairs, but otherwise the rude black of unworked iron dominates their greigite-based exokeleton.

The Chrysomallon Kiwa, proper to a place without property or permanence do not know any stability or structures beyond their holy sites. Instead, the only permanent features of their vast, unsettled lands of the region are the Writhing Ways. All across the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, ever shifting, rising, and dying with the currents of the glacial maelstrom above, the seabed is shot through with shining bands of gold. An observer tolerant enough of the chokinginconstant waters to swim down to observe would find the Chrysomallon Kiwa in their millions, an endless vein throbbing with the slow shift of the seas. Hundreds per square metre, this crawling congregation clambers and creeps, catching cast-off chunks of rotting flesh that flow unceasing with ever more frequencydown the invisible river. Though the awful nature of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead Ennead's explosive growthis such that the Corpsefall Drift, as it is known, sees now more days than not fleshbergs many times the size of the relatively diminuitive Kiwa avalanche quietly downstream, the cutting claws of the crabs skillfully excise proportioned chunks on which to feed, the rest of the grey-hued hulk drifting on.

Until thirty years ago, the nature of the Kiwa was as it now is, but their number exponentially lower. The Corpsefall Drift enjoyed only the natural dregs of the waveborne detritus, and though still the ocean's trashheap morgue, the spotty nature of actual corpsefalls meant that the cancrine population was much sparser, an infestation in its many thousands rather than its billions. Since the rise of the Ennead in the north, more and more flesh feeds the throng, and the Writhing Ways have gone from a spotted line to a gilded ivory highway grown fat on the mutilated meat of Mer and monster.

The ebb and flow of the Corpsefall Drift mean that the Chrysomallon Kiwa occasionally cross over the (up until recently stoppered) Maternal Fonts. In these waters, though the Mother's Breath has only since the annexation begun to again fill the sea with her noxious blessing, the edges of the rifts hold a treasure unique in all the seas: sulfer jelly. The crabs feed on this ferrous slime, laying their eggs in its place. In so feeding, they find their hairs coated in both the jelly and the Mother's Breath, and it is on this that their third great food resource feeds. The clawhairs of the Chrysomallon Kiwa are a great orgy of feasting bacteria, and their bodies and byproducts serve as reserves when the shifting waters see branches of the Corpsefall Drift fall still and the Kiwa are forced to scuttle blindly in search of the new paths.

Spoiler: Government

Show

Nothing is yours. It is to use. It is to share. If you will not share it, you cannot use it. -Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed

Students of recent history would name the House of de Trenché Bleu the recent rulers of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, and by certain calculus, they would be right. A cadet branch of one of the great mer lineages of the north, the de Trenché Bleus had indeed for some decades laid claim to these waters. They fought constantly with the decay to build structures that would last. They sent messengers along the Corpsefall Drift to declare to the Kiwa their dominion. They sought to find legitimacy through marriage pacts with local nobility from the Cathedral.

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of the house's wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.

The fall of the house is well documented in recent history. As the seas woke in those first years of new era, the mysterious Riftlings made their imperial ambitions known, word buzzing from the mouths of vermin swarms. What the nature of these reclusive residents of sterile seas might be was yet unclear, but defense would have to be found. The House was not mighty but it was of good blood. Their leader, a Duchess, sought swiftly a promising marriage pact with the peaceable and sage Congregation to the north. Unlike abyssal aberration, one could be assured that the venerable mer sages of the Scintillating Ceiling would be versed in matters both diplomatic and spiritual. This was a match which would see the House of Trenché Bleu returned to international discussion and to protection of international community. Never would the monsters to the west seek past their isolation to find allies, and never could they understand the drive for peace and cooperation.

Oh, how mistaken they were.

Somehow, the abominable swarms of endlessly angry polyps, screeching endlessly about their sacred biological superiority to all other creatures found more sympathy than Mer of the blood! In the polar seas be monsters, and the body snatching octopi of the north, the possessed herring to the northwest, and the sentient weeds of the west spurned reason and boosted the clouds' cause. The wisdom of the Pattern was exterminated. And, worst of all, the Kiwa, who had been an occasional and silent apparition in the waters before all this madness, grew endless and quickly added their own small voices to the cause of these Riftlings. Never were the estates of the House of Trenché Bleu attacked, but as things soured over the years, their diminishing voices have been brushed unceremoniously to the wayside. This was no coup. It was the recognition as sovereign of those who had before been invisible to the aristocracy and the international disregard for the previous rulership.

The Chrysomallon Kiwa know no government for to each is given what is needed. Food floats down the Corpsefall Drift, springs from the Maternal Fonts, and generates even on their claws. Their only claim to power is the Riftlings' recognition of them as the occupying authority, but with the Riftlings unquestioned for decades as the true powers in these waters, that is enough. The cancrine creatures see the fall of nobility and quietly continue their rave.

Spoiler: Resources

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Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. -Dante Alighieri, Inferno

There is but on resource in which these waters are, increasingly, rich: death. Even before the awakening of the Ennead, the oceanic currents brought strange remains to the borders of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead. Here, the bored children of the House of Trenché Bleu worked their talents and soon a great art was born: the art of grafting flesh long dead into new life. Their descendents, these Graftsmer congregate in the northern waters to this day, working the best pieces of a Corpsefall Drift grown richer and richer as Ennead enormity only waxes. Their health may be waning in these times of filth and of sulfurour secretion from the earth, but such is the price of art.


There is little comfort in the lives of the former rulers of this place. They seek luxuries, lest they grow belligerent.
A visitor to the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead from a life-blighted sea would know at first only the creeping horror of what is absent. Neither plant nor beast, but merely the Writhing Ways of endless cancrine feasting, below a sluggish drift of indistinct meat that make the waters, there is no other word for it, chunky. Instead of proper religion, veneration of deities, there is only the mad worship at pits of poison.

Such a visitor is blessed, for they have not yet glimpsed the brave new world. Oh woe it is to know what is to be known, to see what is to been seen! In the northern waters, before the snapping claws of the writhing way dissect the truth of the Corpsefall Drift, great bloated masses loom in the frigid waters. Almost unrecognizable as mer, these tragic composites and hollows form a portrait of suffering unlike anything known across the many seas. Most, by some foul grace, are dead, and those that cling to torturous life do so dumbly, sentience driven out by crude surgeries, by slow death, or by the merciful madness brought by pain.

These are the Pelagic Graftsmer, the seaborne cast offs and discarded remnants of Ennead projects. Some drift south absent of key parts harvested by avaritious tentacles; some come suffocated under the weight of parasitic additions unspeakable and unbearable. These make rich the Corpsefall Drift, and the Chrysomallon Kiwa are ever thankful.

Spoiler: Faith

Show

Now that we are sending you to The End / That great god / Tell him / That we who follow you invented forgiveness / And forgive nothing -W. S. Merwin, For a Coming Extinction

The House of Trenché Bleu remain adherents of the Pattern, but they know well that they owe their survival to their ability to keep that on the down low.

The Occupying Natives once held to a disorganized collection of beliefs centered around the Fundamental Principle: Life calls to life. Born of a biology possessed of magnetic sclerite, the constant pull towards each other and to the ferrous concretions that over the Maternal Fonts--sites where life-giving sulfer jelly accrued--gave easy evidence to the belief.

It is no wonder that they took so easily to a faith centered similarly in union. The Chrysomallon Kiwa see the Eternal Communion not as a foreign faith, but as a deeper elucidation of the philosophy under which they had already operated. When their holy sites were revealed to be stoppered Fonts, it only confirmed for them that these Riftlings' Mother perhaps had grace enough for a second species as well.

Holy Site 1: The Low Rock
Once upon a time, there was a great sulfrous concretion, rust red and sunken near ten fathoms. As the slow fall of fleshdust sank ever more into the obscured Font, the pit around the Low Rock retained its depth--a unique depression in the otherwise level sand. Now that the font is opened, the rock shattered, it is still seen as holy. Here, the Mother breathes life to Riftling and Chrysomallon Kiwa alike, and the red rocks scattered around that gaping maw retain their wonder.

Holy Site 2: The Budding Fields
Across the empty waters, where the Corpsefall Drift is absent, there is no food to be found. This is the rule. Yet here, in what had seemed otherwise uninterupted barreness, sulfur jelly bubbled to the surface, saving the lives of many migrating Kiwa.

Now, this is a web of thin rifts, reopened with the coming of the Riftlings. The salvific wonder of the fields remains.

Holy Site 3: The Bounteous Atrocity
The current sweeping from the north brings the blessed detritus to these lands, but ever more with the rise of the Ennead, that bounty has grown rich. Mangled bodies of mer, lacking parts or possessed of tumorous blooms of additions, tumble ever inward, and here in the north of the Seas-Not-Yet-Dead, a becalmed doldrum waxes and wanes. Thousands of corpses dangle aloft, out of reach of the Chrysomallon Kiwa, a promise of the bounty to come.

EDITED FOR DI

[mystic1110]

Military Tech Proposal for this round:

Memetic Reprocessing

Fluff: Consciousness is merely a construction of interlocking memes. Isolates want to consider each of their constructions unique and individual, but statistical analysis and closer inspection of grey matter upon expiration proves that they are not - memetic overlays can be documented, downloaded, repurposed and reuploaded.

Mechanics: After a battle roll 1d4 for every unit lost during the battle. On a 4, roll an opposed intrigue check against its owner (unless you already own it), if successful gain a unit.

Slot: Combat Drugs & Medicine

Resources: Memetic Hazard Generators and any resource symbolizing additional minds (animals, non-skilled labor, skilled labor) for metaphorical additional computational power for storage of memetic constructs for reprocessing.

Balance: This is a Tier 2 tech but despite and because of it's randomness and tying into additional Int check, its bonus is effectively a weaker version of 20% causality reduction.

[Kythia]

Could I just re-raise this please. I think it got overlooked when I went AWOL and it could be relevant this round.

[Rolepgeek]

Could I just re-raise this please. I think it got overlooked when I went AWOL and it could be relevant this round.

I can approve that as good, sorry for not getting to it previously.

[Kythia]

I can approve that as good, sorry for not getting to it previously.

No worries at all, I'm sorry if it came across as pushy

[Epinephrine_Syn]

Can I use Piezo crystals as a luxury? I'm not sure whether they count for that or not, being pretty, shiny lights, and wanted to check before I roll an impress based on that.

[Kythia]

@Anyone has the war deadline passed?
@Corona your inbox is full

[Lumaeus]

War deadline is the second Thursday of the round, so it's now passed.

[Kythia]

War deadline is the second Thursday of the round, so it's now passed.

I thought so, just wasnt sure with the longer round. Cheers.

GMs - The war I was part of has been cancelled. I'm still sending my troops as the deadline has passed but they're just gonna attack anything there and I'll deal with the diplomatic fall out later. I'm assuming I can refluff the war actions without changing them mechanically?

[Gengy]

Not a GM This Game but from previous games...

Cancelling War Actions (removing them entirely) is one of those things that players can do after the War Deadline has passed. Especially if all other involved players have cancelled their WAR actions as well.

WAR Deadline was implemented as a way to forestall one-up-manship and penalize aggressive 'last minute changes' (such as having only 1 unit attacking for most of the round, and then Sunday morning, changing it to 10 units).

Removing your attack entirely - while all other players are doing the same - shouldn't cause an issue. Another way of saying it is: If there are no other players involved in this battle, you should be able to change your action without issue.

[Kythia]

That makes good sense. Thank you.

I'll drop this here in case it is needed as audit trail:

Spoiler: this

Show

OOC - OK, for all four of these military actions I am expressly NOT in a coalition with Lojan - these will be three way battles. If I win tactical manouvering then attack the Lighthouse. If I win that, attack Lojan (if anyone else shows up, attack them too). If the battle between Lojan and Lighhouse has finished, attack whoever is left. In region nine, if everyone else is dead, the two units will attack each other. My boys came to fight and they're not going to let pedantic nit-pickery about who exactly they should be fighting get in the way of that.

1)Miltary - Fight in Region 7
1 unit led by Tiny (Mil 7) attempting to use Carnage
Route: 10->6->7

2)Miltary - Fight in Region 13
1 unit led by Mil 4 subcommander attempting to use Unyielding Force
Do NOT use the Eel
Route: 10->13

3)Miltary - Fight in Region 6
1 unit led by Mil 4 subcommander attempting to use Unyielding Force
Do NOT use the Eel
Route: 10->6

4)Miltary - Fight in Region 9
2 units led by Mil 4 subcommander attempting to use Unyielding Force
Route: 10->9

but change the actions to something else.

[Corona]

@Corona your inbox is full

Cleaned up, thanks for the headsup!



I'm guilty of it this round, but I think the war deadline should maybe apply to cancelling attacks and defenses too, as was my assumption before I was corrected. Just like one can spring a "surprise defense" on someone, as mentioned by the rules, one could devise a "surprise non-attack" by declaring an attack for most of a round and then not attacking, wasting any actions used for defending the previously attacked regions. It can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, true, but I think it be better to disallow it in general and make individual exceptions to encourage everyone to sort out wars early.

[Rolepgeek]

Round close (and subsequently, round open) is being delayed by another week as a result of irl circumstances for the GM team. Round 13 will now close on Sunday, October 22nd. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

[Kythia]

Round close (and subsequently, round open) is being delayed by another week as a result of irl circumstances for the GM team. Round 13 will now close on Sunday, October 22nd. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

I recognise I'm rather new to this game but I have been in previous ones and, well, if there's any grunt work or similar I can do then do feel free to shout up. Work should be managabelt until mid December now

[LapisCattis]

Really sorry for the long delay on approvals and responses, guys

@Lapis

Here are the updates I have made to the previously approved regions. Submitting for final approval.

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(137) Gosto G'cor

Export: Wild Armored Gharials [...] Though difficult to come across - or make happen - deceased Gharials can be disseminated for creating arms and armor, toxins, and various esoterica.
(reason for change: section was not explicit in what the Gharials provided. GTZ will at first use Gharials as esoterica, but likely use their scales as a pre-req for armor down the line)

Required Resource: Spices
Ghotezhar settlers primarily came here because they heard rumors that they would be able to taste whole new flavors. It is why the region is called Tasty Colorland. The disappointment that the region is perhaps no longer as flavorful as it used to be (even if the rains have a uniqueness about them) has created a desire within the Gotezhar settlers for various Spices.
(reason for requested change: while the existing 'Religious Materials' DI makes some sense, the influx of Gotezhar settlers looking for new tastes likely overwhelms the minority looking for religious stuff)

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(174) New Korasson

Required Resource: Tools
While the settlers were able to make do with what they had already prepared, further building and laborious tasks will require more refined and complex tools.

Looks good! Approved

Can I use Piezo crystals as a luxury? I'm not sure whether they count for that or not, being pretty, shiny lights, and wanted to check before I roll an impress based on that.

As they're fluffed in Lt. Murgen's write-up, they're more tools than luxury so I'm ruling no

[bc56]

I would like to request the following Tactical Doctrine:
Just Do Better: +2 to battle

[Epinephrine_Syn]

This is more for later, once the round opener and org actions are finished, but I would like to at some point make a technology related to Umblemished Wreckage. I'm just not sure whether there's any special rules for that, or things left to be unveiled now that I've bought the tp, and everything.

[Tychris1]

Tech for Approval;

RADIANT SPHERES
Requirements: Indah's Embrace Technology, Gems
Effect: Access to Depth 2 Regions

Building upon the personal-sized designs of the Indah's Embrace technology the gang leaders and fanatical thugs of the Lighthouse have expanded the crystallian-based technology into small house-sized projections. Dimensions fitted for small crew operations, with storage space for both weaponry or civilian tools, and a refracting system utilizing the artificially enlarged gem base structure to light the path in the deep darkness. When utilized in combination with Indah's Embrace these mass-produced synchronized vessels can attain unseen depths.