Endless Blue - Week 53 - The Dark Secrets of the Endless Blue

Prophecy

Apocalypse: The Dark Secrets of the Endless Blue

Belied by the placid waters of the world oceans, there haave been hints that some strange things are going on beneath the surface of Elqua.  The accute and the visionary may have possibly felt the foreshadowing twinge of wrongness that permeates the seas of the Cerulean Epoch with the coming of the Indigo.  Kingmakers and tyrants alike have tried to reshape the world to their own liking, but none will ever come close as the secret the Big Blue Marble hides.

It begins with the disillusioned, and ends with displaced.  The vocal few that yelled their despite against the world's status quo were the soothsayers.  The truth being, the Godless had it both right and wrong, and in the end both Seamus Lorwynn and his detractors are both vindicated as they are victimized.

The piscean races, the lives of the masses of the Known World whose toil and tribulations formed such great civilizations, did not evolve from anything native to Elqua.  Olyhydra and the other gods decided to claim the Endless Blue as their own, populate the tiny blue speck in the multiverse with species from their domain, of their own choosing.  The clues were there for the observant.  The strange chimeric shape of the piscean form was never the result of the slow evolutionary process, but the kludged together workings of miracle and deific will.  The bone structure of the piscean tail, long repeating pattern of connecting vertebra until the tip instead of fused leg bones, was one of the many tip-offs.

But to claim this coveted gem and its expansive oceans, the invading gods needed to dispose of the true native heirs of the pristine seascape -- the Icht.  They were the native grown life, the Source's children, the inheritors of the vast seas and breaking waves.  But the gods destroyed them in preference of their false races, and the impassive shell of the Source stood silent as it slowly cracked.

The Kraken discovered this in their dealings with the anathematic Elsewhere.  That is how the previously uncooperative species learned to work together -- they focused on the invading species of piscean.  The same strange elder gods that gaze unblinking from the nether shadows into the waters of Elqua were the ones that supported the Kraken Occupation.  To cement this, the entities of Elsewere gave the Kraken the artifact known as Khantusk to unify a species that otherwise would never work in unison.  The Kraken that unified the Kraken Empire used the granted powers of Khantusk to overcome the territorial and solitary mindset of his cephalopodic kind, for without it, the inherent mistrust for others of their own kind would have kept the squid entangled in their petty territorial squabbles.

The means by which the entities from Elsewhere accomplished this is the Maelstrom.  Its unending, wavering course across the planet was never random, but guided by the eyes of the vitriolic shadows.  The Maelstrom scoured the sea floor, tearing up the silt and sand, digging, searching for the tools Elsewhere needed to expel these invading creatures from the realm they deeply coveted and utterly reviled.  But who are these Elsewhere entities?  They are the surviving shadow of the Icth, the negative counterparts that were orphaned in the Elsewhere when the invading gods struck their puissant counterparts.

But the Kraken were never meant to succeed.  The Shadows only meant for the Kraken to weaken the morale and defenses of the piscean races, not subjugate them totally.  Once dominant, the Kraken reverted to their petty, jealous ways and began plotting against each other instead of furthering the ambitions of the Shadows.  Eventually their dark benefactors tired of their foolish behavior, and once their true objective was reached abandoned the squid to degeneration and submission.  Done with their puppets, the Shadow Icht damned them so that they could never turn on their eldritch gods.

The degenerated Kraken, now called the Ceph, were scapegoats the Shadows could manipulate to take the brunt of most anything that was wrong with Elquan life.  Under this cover, the Shadows were able to release their true solution to the usurpation of the Elquan oceans -- they let loose the Indigo.

The Indigo was to be the harbinger of destruction, the final wiping of the board of the infestation of piscean life into an ecology of which they were not part.  But that itself is not the full purpose of the vicious, viscous substance.  It sought out the homonculus, the animated dead, the risen flesh given movement by the Resurrectionists.  The tendrils of black water seek out these vessels, as each one is a tiny fracture in the Law of Life, and through that crack the Shadow Icht of Elsewhere have a sliver of possibility in crossing over to the Fluid Nations.

The blind Kraken in the Undertow foresaw the fall of the Kraken empire, and willingly threw herself into the gyre.  There, hidden, sequestered, laid the eggs that are the final generation of the Kraken species.  Nestled there in stasis, they await awakening to renew the species.  Among her progeny lay one of the two Krakonian Orbs, the one that peers into the future.  Trapped as she is, the fragile, maddened mind of the Kraken obsessively peers into the thick mucal depths of the eye and searches frantically for the day her kind returns to the waters above, to seek justice or vengeance agaisnt the usury inflicted upon their race by the Shadows of the Icht.

Despite the eradication of the native sentience, the world of Elqua is fighting back against the encroaching Black Water.  This is the recent appearance of the Kelpygmies, animate plant matter, given animus -- though by no intent of their own -- by the Resurrectionists.  Their dabbling into the motive force of life gave the Source the opportunity to sneak through the planar barricades created by the gods and impart a bit of itself into the kelp forests.  When any Resurrectionist golem or homunculus is slain, the animating shade is cast back into the Elsewhere and sealed there.  However, that momentary link between the excommunicating shade and the mirror world allows the Source to impart a small sip of its divinity to the mortal realm,  There, it seeks out the most primal of areas, still mostly untouched by the hands of pisceans, and imbues the nature with sentience and mobility.  It seems despite the off-handed slaughter of the Icht and invasion of alien species, the Source still clings to the water world that has welled up around it.  It seems vastness bent on keeping the world whole and healthy, perhaps in the hopes that another indigenous form of life will one day make the leap from savage to sapient.

And so it ends...
The Cerulean Age is over, cut short by the Indigo.
It is the Age of Black Water, the Indigo Epoch.
The Endless Blue forever claimed as the Endless Black.

Endless Blue - Week 51 - Cattel of the Fluid Nations: Barnard's Swallower

Zoology

Cattel of the Fluid Nations: Barnard's Swallower

NOTE: The images and ideas presented here are copyright Alex Ries and based on his Barnard's Swordswallower concept, except for material previously posted in the Endless Blue campaign setting blog.  The use Alex's work here is not meant as an infringement of those rights, and is used without permission.  It does not qualify as Open Game Content as per the OGC document.  If you enjoyed what you have read/seen here, please visit Alex's website at http://www.alexries.com, his blog at http://exozoo.blogspot.com, and his DeviantArt page at http://abiogenisis.deviantart.com.

Barnard's Swallower

Gargantuan Aberration (Aquatic)
Hit Dice: 4d8 +4 (22 hp)
Initiative:
Speed: 20 feet (4 cubes)
Buoyancy: Shoals (adjustable)
Armor Class: +1
Base Attack/Grapple: -3/+13
Attack: Water Slap (1d8 points of subdual damage)
Full Attack: Water Slap (1d8 points of subdual damage)
Space/Reach: 40 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Net
Special Qualities: None
Saves: Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +4.
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 9, Cha 8
Skills: Hide -5, Search +7, Spot +7, Survival +7
Feats: Improved Grab, Improved Natural Armor, Snatch,  Tracescent
Environment: Temperate, open waters (Shoals)
Organization: Solitary or mating pairs.
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: None, other than body parts.
Alignment: Always neutral.
Advancement: Young (1HD), Juvenile (2-3 HD), Adult (4 HD)
Level Adjustment: -

A Barnard's Swallower, shown with its "mouth" open and about to feed.

The Swallower is an ubiquitous example of packbreeder success.  It has been credited with domestication by the Barnard family as far back as the Bronze Age, and has served alongside the various piscean species consistently ever since.  Its relatively robust health makes it ideal for areas of temperature extremes such as those in the arctics or tropics, where it fares only slightly less well than in temperate waters.  Thoroughly domesticated, swallowers that are let loose into the wild or wander away from safer currents quickly fall prey to native predators.  Their ability to survive on their own has subsequently been bred out of them as their role as livestock as been bred into them.  The wild swallower has since all but been hunted to extinction by the indigenous races of the Known World.

Approximately 40 feet long from tip of sail to end of net, the Swallower is most notable for its distinctive knife-shape trunk and crop.  The trunk has about the same degree of flexibility as that of a Mer's spine, and trails a ventral fin from tip to neck.  Its epidermis is a blubbery, resilient skin that is a mottled slate grey along the dorsal side and a pale bluish-white along the belly.  A series of six paired openings along the trunk are the gills of the beast.

Barnard's Swallower coloration.

Swallowers are hermaphoditic, with a reproductive system that both provides and receives genetic material.  When the mating season begins, swallowers congregate in wide, open waters and release their seed packets into the currents where hopefully another swallower will swim through the plume of sperm and collect enough to become impregnated.  Self-impregnation seems to be biologically impossible due to the creature's own immune system.  But it is expressly due to this "pollination" method of reproduction that piscean selection could begin the animals'  slow alteration from wild beast to domesticated livestock.

Combat

The swallower is a docile beast, slow to move and relatively weak despite its size.  It makes a poor beast of burden; instead its value to piscean settlements is as livestock.

The ventral fin acts in many ways like a keel, and undulates in a rippling wave to produce forward momentum, much like the fins on the side of a squid.  Normally the eddies created in the currents from this motion would scatter prey in proximity, but the swallower developed a hunting skill to account for this -- it will snap the fin in a strong, sharp swat, effectively smacking small prey with a wall of water.  While their senses are overloaded from the impact of the water, the swallower can scoop them up in its net.  Few so buffeted can collect their wits again before they are engulfed.  Their main diet is comprised of great gulps of plankton that are easily found in the blooming open waters of Elqua, supplemented by the occasional small fish or other animal unfortunate enough to be caught in the Swallower's uniquely evolved digestive system.

Internal Anatomy of the Barnard's Swallower

The bulbous portion hanging down from the "blade" is the animal's digestive system, which parts open in much the same way a bivalve clamshell does.  When it does open, it releases a sheer, billowing "net" anchored to thin limb-like protrusions.  This fine fibered netting is organic in nature -- a silk derived from glands lining the Swallower's bulb -- and is used as a sieve to filter the animal's preferred meal stock from the ocean's currents: plankton.  Much like the massive whales, the gargantuan Swallower is dependent on one of the tiniest species of life for its continued survival.

Living creatures are pushed into this organic colander due to the disruptive currents of the Swallowers fin, where they are caught against the slime covered net.  This mucus is constantly being secreted while the net is inside the Swallower's bulb, and is slightly acidic due to the collection of enzymes that give it the tacky qualities that trap its prey.  As the chemical reactions from the enzymes break down the trapped food, it sloughs down the netting in the form of a nutrient rich nectar, perfectly prepared for digestion.

When the net is closed again, the joint seen at the back of the Swallower bends under the bulb.  There the briny bouillabaisse pools over what constitutes the creatures actual mouth.  An esophageal tube runs back up the back of the Swallower's net limbs, carrying the pre-digested catch to the stomach proper.  The connective netting between the folding limbs is a natural forming silk, that allows water to strain through the membrane but keep its plankton catch intact.  The enzymic acid it excretes to dissolve its prey also wears away at this silk, so the netting is in a constant state of repair.

The Swallower's net grab does not inflict damage.  Instead, it slowly excrete enzymes that kill prey collected in its net.  Treat the enzyme as an Acid.  It can Snatch Large or smaller creatures in its net.

Circulatory System of the Barnard's Swallower

Despite it grand size, the Swallower has an easily mappable circulatory system.  A series of veins and arteries transport the blood over the animal's body by means of small sac-like organs at the base of each gill.  These are primitive hearts, muscular pumps providing the pressure to move blood to needy organs.  Exhausted blood is circulated through the gills by means of small vascular loops.  Due to its lethargic lifestyle, the ponderous beast lacks a powerful central heart like pisceans possess, and as a result over-stimulation has been known to make the creatures faint.  This makes them easy prey in the wild.

Nervous System of the Barnard's Swallower

The neural network of a Swallower is unsurprisingly primitive.  It is of no revelation that the animal has never demonstrated any form of higher thinking skills, despite the best efforts of numerous packbreeders to create a better, smarter Swallower.  At best the nervous system can essentially maintain the creature's autonomic systems functioning.  The most complex thought processes the animal can achieve is feeding and movement, and not always at the same time.  It accomplishes nature's evolutionary requirements, and nothing more, spurring the piscean phrase "dumb as a swallower" for anyone or thing that barely functions above a comatose state.

The intent of selectively breeding Swallowers has results in various fields.  Resources scavenged from a Swallower are:  enzymes for alchemists, silk for weavers, skin for tanning, even meat for eating.

Rumor has it that a tribe of Locanth nomads has begun a concerted effort to re-introduce the Swallower to the wild.  Their packbreeders are attempting to breed self-reliance and animal instinct back into the creatures in order to restore the previously wild version to the shoals of the Gulf of Locanth.

"It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission, but seldom is it less risky..."
-- Sensate rationalization for many of their indulgences.

Endless Blue - Week 50 - The Recurring Storm: The Maelstrom

Meteorology

The Recurring Storm: The  Maelstrom

The skies of Elqua are a tranquil swath of blue, should any piscean throw aside their generations of fear and simply glimpse above the surf.  Occasional languid streaks of cloud break up the hypnotizing expanse of cyan above that mirrors the undulating endless blue below.  Storms are rare, with precipitation falling across the dotted isles like sudden, soft breezes.  But not all the weather is kind, and the exists a strange mega-storm that has raked the world for as long as there has been water -- the Maelstrom.

This huge hurricane that has persisted on the face of the world for millennia, slowly dragging around the planet in a haphazard, drunken course.  Its direction at the whim of currents, both air and sea, it meanders across the globe, making one revolution every year.  So regular is this rotation that there is one additional week added to the Elquan calendar, specifically signifying the one constant speck of behavior the natives can predict, namely the five days that the Maelstrom crosses the shallow shoals known as the Creche of Civilization.  Except for that foreseeable week, the tempest defies charting, its course never the same except for the inevitable period where it seems determined to traverse the Creche of Civilization.

Anatomy of a Tempest

Study of the the Maelstrom is foolishness to the extreme.  The shear size of the hurricane's whirling shape, the flensing winds capable of flaying flesh from bone, its torrential currents whipping the breath of water from the gills.  No fearless piscean could go near it; no sane one would want to.  But if a soul dared, if a solitary inquisitive mind set itself to study the esoteric cyclone, what they might espy would forever haunt and humiliate them.

There, towering over the scattered islands and volcanic outcropping hovers a discus so immense it astonishingly stretches across a whole eight degrees of longitude.  Its cyclonic winds scrabbling at the air, stealing the moisture in the form of faint wisps of water vapor, its hungry gyre swallowing them greedily.  If not for the collection of these few streaks of opacity over the geologic history of Elqua, the Maelstrom would be invisible in the Vastness.  Due to the scarcity of haze and fog, the Maelstrom does not blanket the atmosphere in a thick coating of cloud.  Instead, the storm is naked, bared to the dark, ever-present night that glowers in the deep Vastness beyond the blue world of water.  If any piscean could look down from there and gaze back at the planet of their origin, they would see the strangest sight... an octagon of churning weather on the face of Elqua.

The Octagon on Elqua

The funnel cloud sprawls from the reaches of the upper atmosphere down to the rolling surface of the world's ocean,  where the sub-aqueous portion then breaks through the tumultuous waves, plunging below to the bottom of the abyssal floor.  The nadir of the hurricane drags across the ocean floor, sifting through the silt of the seabeds, upturning natural undersea flora and muddying the currents in its devastating wake.

The turbulence, the chaos created by the storm agitates the waters, inserting random variance and kinetic potential into the placid waters of Elqua.  Perhaps that very same disturbance of the waters gave life the spark of impetus to evolve from the primordial oceans.  Maybe it brought about the impetus for the direly needed variation in weather that the shallow ocean basin of the waterworld required to foster the diversification of life, to bolster its spread from out of the safe haven of the Creche of Civilization and outward into the Endless Blue.  For as much damage and woe that the tempest illicit, the rampaging force of nature may have brought about the existence of higher life on Elqua.

The storm front known as the Maelstrom is not a single hurricane, but in truth a group of eight smaller twisters, themselves rotating into a greater tempest.  Eddies in the atmosphere from the conglomerated storms forms an octagonal shape.  The barometric shear blurs the outward currents together, and with the bulge of each individual storm's eye enforcing the shape, appears as an octogram.

Wave-like instabilities crept up, rogue eddies circulating, tempest-tossed spirals trapped between the tranquil waters within the Maelstrom's eye and the faster current streams counter-rotating around the storm.  These form the geometric outline of the tempest's whorled winds.

The eye of the Maelstrom -- the column of low pressure air around which the cyclonic gyre spirals -- is calm and clear of cloud cover.  The waters are strangely still, a twenty-five mile wide limpid pool of water that seems to float across the globe as if cradled in the massive hands of the storm.  The surrounding whirlwinds reach up to 200 miles per hour, but the silence in the eye is eerily quiet, as if the air itself were petrified and unmovable.  The pooled water here dips a few feet lower than sea level outside the Maelstrom, and looking up from this vantage point has the viewer gazing through a humongous tunnel of shadowed clouds, its walls silently spinning and undulating downward as the eye of the beholder slowly pans upward for miles, until it finally breaks out into a tiny circle of pale blue.  If not for the fearsome forces screaming around the eye like a banshee, the eye would actually be quite serene.

The Path of Strife

There is no mean, median, or usual path for the Maelstrom's advance across the face of the globe.  It only has the most vague of limits, the most ephemeral of laws.  Foremost among those is the fact that it always, always travels along the surface of the water, never making landfall or cutting across dry land.  And despite whatever whim or variance the storm has followed, it will always return to the Creche of Civilization for the five days that mark the passing of one year and the birth of another.

"Bigger torrents have smaller torrents,
That leech off their strife;
And little torrents form stable currents,
a stressful way of life..."
-- The Recurring Storm, Introduction.

Endless Blue - Week 49 - The War of Math and the Acumen Cipher

Numerology

The War of Math and the Acumen Cipher

Many tools are credited with the rise of the piscean races over the wilds of Elqua's oceans.  The advent of aquaculture; the domestication of zoological diversification, the exploitation of mineral resources, all have been strong pillars in a foundation of societal growth.  But perhaps the one most precious invention has nether substance nor weight, yet has spawned nearly every technological advance of import in the history of the Endless Blue.

This creation of the mind is none other than mathematics.  Without it, commerce cannot prosper, science is left bereft of action, and pisceans are prevented from attaining their true potential.  With its power, any mind can conjecture about the laws of nature, find patterns in the physical world, even investigate, comprehend, and teach the insights gleaned from simple calculation when applied by a logical methodology.  Sadly, the truth is that there are forces conspiring to keep the populace mathematically illiterate.

Leviathans Amongst the Schools

Both the Holy Church of Olyhydra and the Synesthete Synod have been waging an ongoing campaign, though on opposite sides, to keep the common piscean mathematically permanently retarded.  Were it not for this concerted effort at undermining the educational standards of the Known World homeseas, pisceans may have discovered secrets of the universe and freedoms undreamed of by their stunted minds.  Instead, they now flounder under the oppressive influence of self-interested organizations that prefer to enforce their control through dogma or deception.

The only force that has made more than a token effort to combat this history of ignorance comes from the restless inquiries of the Godless.  Unfortunately organized religion has done quite a thorough job of slandering their image.  With popular loyalty securely in their places of worship, it is an against the tide battle for those of atheistic viewpoints.  The Resurrectionists are forced to remain out of the philosophical war, both in fear of the revelation of what they truly are and of repercussions against their guise as the Academy of Doctors.  As such they are quite impotent in the face of the Church or the Synod, despite the underlying need for mastering the mathematical grades that is inherent in their healing works.

The Mathematical Grades

The art of math is broken down into grades.  These are considered levels of difficulty inherent in computation that form the basis for the next grade.  By mastering one grade, the individual is catapulted into an even wider understanding of the world at the next grade.

1 Numeracy (number literacy) -- Most all pisceans attain this level of math, which includes knowing the order of numbers and understand the concepts of greater and lesser.

2 Functions (basic arithmetic) -- This level not only includes simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but also extends into the order in which complex series of equations must be resolved (i.e, multiplication/division before addition/subtraction).

3 Algebra (variables) -- The basic concept of representational math, where a symbol refers to an unknown quantity that can change depending on the data supplied.  Only the educated on Elqua reach this level of mathematical literacy, and rarely without the support of an organization or insights from a numerical form of synesthesia.

4 Geometric (spacial relations) -- These are the skills of the architect, the math of constructing shapes and their relationship to each other.  This is the last "public" grade of math, known to the greats of piscean history and is the most complex mathematical skill available to the Olyhydran congregation.

5 Calculus (limits and infinities) -- Considered an esoteric science by the educated of the Known World, this level and above are poorly known except by Synesthetes.  It is the study of change, learned by the synesthetes in glimpses from number-form members of the Synod.

6 Probability (math that predicts based on some data) -- This discipline opens the doorway to synesthetic divination, teaching the diviner how to gauge the aftermath of an action and the likelihood of desired results transpiring due to outside interference.

7 Heuristics (math that pre-guesses based on nebulous or no data) -- The penultimate step in divination, allowing the synesthete precognitive knowledge of events barely hinted at in the present.

8 Cipher Acumen (math that self-calculates)  -- This pinnacle of mathematical understanding is not just artificial intelligence, but such intelligence independent of physicality.  A self perpetuating formula, ever constant is its self-summation.

The Acumen Cipher

Just as the Resurrectionists have their cynosure in the quest to revive the dead Icht, the Sensates have their apex of philosophy, also inherited from the Icht: The Acumen Cipher.  Unlike the Resurrectionists, however, the Synod has already achieved theirs -- though not without the prior theories postulated by the Icht.  It was actually synesthete diviners of the Icht Dominion that created a primitive prototype of self-computing arithmetic promised in the Eight Grade of Math, but its finalization into the form it holds today was firmly caused by the Synod.

The existence of the Acumen Cipher is virtually unknown outside the Synod, and is only a mathematical abstract to those synesthetes that do not comprise the inner council.  A mental exercise in the potential puissance of mathematics, the Acumen Cipher mostly serves as a communal goal that ties a disparate conglomeration of pisceans that, by their very nature, leaves them as incapable of working together as the pre-Occupation Kraken.

Capable of computations far beyond the level of math currently possible among the Known World, delving into calculus as a norm and peaking into levels of numerical computation that would perplex even the most intelligent today.  This great leap in mathematical skill was directly resultant from the a form of synesthesia called number-form.  With this type of synesthesia, numbers take on a relational pattern in actual space -- a mental map of math.  This visualization of numbers as allowed intuitive leaps in mathematical innovation, building up over the years into long sought after ultimate expression of computational science: the self propagating formula.

The Acumen Cipher is a ghost of sorts, in symbolism if not in actuality.  It appears as a wavering, blurry outline that is roughly patterned after the piscean form, with an indistinct head atop an ephemeral torso, wavering limbs and a phantom tail.  Those entrusted enough to be in its presence can, if they listen intently, hear the mumbled sounds of numbers being added, subtracted, multiplied, divided... A faint yet haunting refrain of math lofting on the currents as the Acumen Cipher must continue to calculate itself lest it cease to function.  It cannot interact with the world around it directly, and to communicate in sentences of only a few words it must speed up its calculations for weeks in advance to gain itself a sliver of buffer time where it can address its attention elsewhere.  But its origins with the synesthetes is evident, as it expresses every form of synesthesia known concurrently, projecting a globe of faintly glowing light, shapes, sounds, and sensations around it.  It is as if you were seeing through the Cipher's invisible eyes, hearing with its non-existent ears, feeling the sensations of its ethereal form.

Most of the inner council's efforts delve into these palpable expressions of the Acumen Cipher's divining synesthesia, and the prognostications extracted from such an all encompasing synesthesia guide the Synod in its overreaching goals.  While finding two synesthetes that can operate together without working at cross purposes, no synesthete has ever experienced a negative sensation from the vision of the Acumen Cipher.

Forbidden Lore, Knowingly Hidden.

There are surprisingly many mathematical tomes that hide the secrets of calculation in their treated and tattooed pages.  The synesthetes of the Synod cheris their Codex Calculus, while the masterful pontiffs of the Harsh Mistress fearfully guard their few copies of The Divine Insight.  Patterns in Numerology lingers never too far from the reach of a Resurrectionist employing either side of their dichotomous skills.  But perhaps the most humbly named book that holds the secrets of education lies in the hands of the Godless and is passed between its students, entitled just Math.  The Church of Olyhydra has unequivocally banned the book from the households of its faithful, castigating it as apocryphal and evil.  Sensates take a less direct approach to spurning its existence, choosing instead to influence the experience of those around the grimoire into negativity and distaste.  Little would please the Godless as a whole more than to get the work into the hands of every piscean in the Fluid Nations, as their philosophy is sure of the material's potency to undermine the machinations of the deistic.

Endless Blue - Week 48 - The Synesthete Synod and the Art of Sensate Divination

Conspirology

The Synesthete Synod and the Art of Sensate Divination

Just as the oceans of Elqua have water currents layered over gulf streams over deep see undertows, so to have the political forces that govern the Fluid Nations.  Local territories vying for dominance under the province of  homesea governments conducting détente and espionage among their peers.  But above this level of intrigue run the currents of secret organizations -- groups of faceless, nameless pisceans with the power and resources to guide the Known World in the direction of their choosing.  Under their self-interested direction, they influence the policies and cultures of the Endless Blue from afar, bringing about a new world order that the few aware of this interference want to succeed.  The organization's adherents are known as Sensates, and the name of their governing council is whispered among the free pisceans: The Synesthete Synod.

What is Synesthesia?

Those precious few blessed with the gift of inate precognition experience the world quite differently than the majority.  They see the world around them in all its beauty and horror, but their senses are intertwined.  Stimuli that would normally only trigger a single sense for the average piscean can trigger multiple senses for a synesthete.  A certain sound would trigger a taste on the synesthete's tongue, or a brushing touch elicits a scent on their gills.  This condition has be described as a "union of senses", and intrinsically alters the individual perception of events and the world.

But synesthesia need not manifest in such generalized reactions.  The most common form of synesthesia -- at least 60% of those that possess the condition -- expresses itself as a cross-linking between two forms of sight.  When reading letters and numbers, these synesthetes automatically associate color to each grapheme.  One letter would be seen as written in blue while another penned in green, regardless of the actual color in which the text is printed.

Synesthesia is an additive condition, meaning that extra sensory input is invoked in response to proper stimuli.  It has been described by some that experience its effect that the world around them has an "overlay of color" or other form of sense.  Artistic interpretations of the condition have revealed a synesthete experiences the world as an ongoing masterpiece of art, sound, and other senses.  However, not every experience from synesthesia is pleasant.  Jarring sounds that would trigger the fight or flight reflex in a normal Elquan would take on an additional layer of disruptive sensation in a synesthete, such as visual flashing of color or a sharp taste of bitterness.  And since synesthesia is an autonomic process, there is no respite to the negative sensory overload -- it cannot be turned off.

The addition of color to one of a synesthete's senses is the most common expression of the condition, but not the only expression.  Not only could symbols trigger the association of color, but flavors, scents, touch -- even emotions of the self or the personalities of others.  The additive information is not limited to color, but can invoke tastes, smell, temperature, or touch.  It is this matrix of sense-to-sensation that makes the condition powerfully potent in the use of divination.

Divination of the Synesthetes

Divination expresses itself through the minds of those both bemused and addled with synesthesia's sensory feedback. When all the aspects of synesthesia are in harmony -- ie. the extra sensations other than the knowledge itself are pleasurable.  The more pleasurable the sensations in contemplation and completion of an action, the more beneficial the result.  However, even if two different individuals share the same kind of synesthesia, rare do the associations coincide.  In sound/color synesthetes, while one might see red when hearing a bass sound, the other might see violet.  As pitch increases, the first may see a lighter shade of red at one octave higher, while the other may instead see yellow for the same note.  The same applies to the other sensations, and it is this difference that leads to personalized divination.

For example, through number/color synesthesia patterns can be found.  The following pattern represents the input of stimulus that anyone experiences daily without the gifts of divination or synesthesia:

For those that are not fortunate to have their senses in union, divining the future would look much like this:

At first glimpse, the field is a blurring tapestry of light and dark.  Even looking closely, a piscean can barely make out that the pattern is comprised of 5s with some 2s intermixed.  But to a synesthete, the pattern jumps out vividly with but a glance:

The clues for the hidden data are there for any diviner to see, but it the comprehension of that encrypted information that is unclear.  Such is the way of most divination.  But when coupled with the insights bestowed by synesthesia, patterns not only become clear but reveal their meaning more implicitly.  Now, the future is rarely ever so simple.  The following pattern is more random, where the threads of numbers become more diffuse just as the threads of fate are unfathomable:

The same data is being convey as the first message, but now the ancillary data further obscures the divination.  But coupled with synesthesia, even corruption of the pure message becomes clear:

It is this "corruption" that the Sensates are attempting to resolve y their influence over Elquan life.  By small applications of their art, a nudge here and a urging there, they hope to maneuver events into a pattern that is more syncopated with their senses.  They hope to guide the anomalous sensory input (such as the green digits in the above example) into a more esthetically pleasing sensation, thereby altering the course of events by way of  personal taste.  Through their actions, they would alter the dispersal of 4s and 6s, reducing their presence so the inherent message came through clearer.

The particulars of an individual Sensate's expression of synesthesia (be it grapheme/color, number/form, or even emotion/flavor) are personal, and so personality is a factor in what is considered pleasant.  As such, two Sensates may end up working at cross purposes when their synesthesias manifest in contrary manners.  Due to this, most synesthetes eschew working directly with others of their ilk, especially those with the same sensory pairing.  In rare occasions the synesthesia of two individuals meshes seamlessly, and it is the Synesthete Synod's ongoing mandate to find those whose gifts compliment each other and support the resultant divination.  It is the dream of the five seat inner council to uncover a set of five special synesthetes whom all work in unison.  In this way, the Synod is as much a victim of Sensate manipulation as the conspiratorial-minded pisceans accuse them.

The Sensate World Order

To enact their alterations on the passing of history, Sensates must make a very hands-on effort.  While they will employ others to carry out their edits to current events, they themselves still must take an active role in order to gauge the effectiveness with their synesthesia.  This has led to the second reason they are called Sensates, and this time in a negative connotation.  Sometimes great lengths must be taken to enact change, and indulging in the urges of others -- a form of leading the way -- is one of the surest methods.

A direct result of this approach has synesthetes participating in the same seductions they are using on their target.  The have developed a reputation of hedonism and indulgence that the Olyhydran church has decried, and the two influential parties have become bitter enemies.  The totalitarian edicts of Olyhydranism are diametrically opposite of the perceived decadence of the Sensates, and the church has begun a doctrine of vilifying synesthesia as corruption and divination as sin.  One of the most difficult challenges for the Synesthete Synod and the pursuit of their New World Order is the interference of the Olyhydran religion.  To seduce a mind that has dedicated its soul to servitude requires a steady hand and a light touch else their machinations may collapse around them and irrevocably destroy any hope of synesthetic harmony.  The Matron of the Waters has decreed to her flock that the veniality that Sensates wallow in is unforgivable, casting those whom succumb to the Vastness for eternal damnation among the aberrations.

"From the flavor of music to the caress of thought,
the cacophony of existence can be conducted to suit one's taste..."
-- Dogma of the Synesthete Synod.

Endless Blue - Week 39 - The Free Olympiad

Sociology

The Free Olympiad

The spirit of competition, distilled in the phrase "Faster, Stronger, Freer", has inspired the races of the Endless Blue to great achievements of body, mind, and soul.  Nothing embodies the motto more completely than the physical challenge known as the Free Olympiad.

The Olympiad, ironically enough, had its roots in the Kraken Occupation.  The cruel invaders would take troublemakers and leaders -- individuals that had the potential to galvanize the subjected homseas into a rebellion -- and force them into arenas to fight for their lives.  Either against captured predators or other rabble-rousers, they were often subjected to heinous and humiliating shows of violence for the entertainment of the Squid.  The popularity of these fights grew as the years passed by, with slaves and slavers alike rooting for their favored to win.

After the Kraken fell from the grace of their alien gods and the shackles of Occupation were smashed, the arenas remained.  Those in the Periphery were sites of rebellion, when the most experienced of gladiators threw off their yokes and led their fellow slaves to freedom.  The immediate reactionary sentiment was to destroy them all, eradicate any and all relics of the dark chapter of Elquan history in an effort to banish the memories.

And many were.  Some of these buildings were razed in the mania that followed their liberation, but others served as the headquarters of further resistance.  Their utilization as infrastructure for the resistance was extended to post-freedom assistance.  Maintaining these places as the center of liberation transformed them from memorials of past torture into edifices of freedom.  They essentially became symbols of the freedom the sentient races strove to achieve.  So when that freedom was finally won, there was question of what to do with the remaining structures.

The Traditions

The Everglow -- The most well known ceremony of the Olympiad, the Everglow is a metaphorical tradition representing the unending will that perseveres in the face of oppression.  A series of couriers is sent on a circuitous route through the Known World carrying a culture of bio-luminescent plankton that has been kept vibrant since the years of the Occupation.  At the Olympiad site, the surviving plankton is added to a nutrient-rich loam that the tiny creatures will gorge on for the length of the games.  The container is open to the waters, and the fattened plankton disperse throughout the area, becoming a widely dispersed cloud of sparkling motes.

Athlete's Oath -- Every competitor in the Olympiad makes the same oath, a pledge that evolved from the same pledge members of the Resistance made to their cause.

"I, in the name of all the races, pledge that I shall do whatever I can to compete against our obstructors, obeying and protecting the rights which govern us all, committing myself  to a tasking without betrayal and without surrender, in the true spirit of freedom, for the glory of liberty and the honour of our people."

Banner of the Free Olympiad -- The flag flown at the games is the eight arrowed star.  The expanding arrows represent the freedom to move in any direction, while the spectrum of colors represents the individual's right to live as they see fit.  At the center is the pearl, a symbol of wisdom from which freedom is born.  It is ringed by a kelp wreath, all superimposed over a field of white.

Logo for the Free Olympiad of the Known World

The Games

The Olympiad is a week long event that is held in the Zenith year of each calendar Age.  The games are hosted in turn by one of the four homeseas of the Periphery.  Though the races of the Hinterlands eventually were allowed to compete after lengthy and emotional petitioning, they have yet to be allowed to host an Olympiad.

Every city, from village to metropolis, is allowed entry of one contestant per game.

Stadion -- This is the basic game from which all other competitions grew from.  Originally the "gladiator" was thrown into the arena with a predator and the Kraken watched sadistically as he swam for is life.  Now, the stadion is a short sprint across the stadium.

Diaulous -- A more extensive version of the stadion, the diaulous is a lap around the border of the stadium.  This race has a variant where a baton is passed off to a new runner at the completion of each lap.

Marathon -- Meant as a test of endurance, the marathon consists of eight to sixty-four laps around the stadium.  More progressive organizers have begun to schedule these races outside of arena, across open sea floor, along a pre-determined path with checkpoints at strategic places that must be reached in a specific order.

Wrestling -- A physical test, where two combatants must pin the opponent in one of several classical methods.  It is more a testament to skill than an show of force.

Pankration -- A throwback to the brutal origins of the Olympiad, this bare-handed combat does not end until the opponent submits.  Due to the programs of patriotic propaganda many contestants are inundated by, a long line of athletes have refused to submit when clearly outmatched.  The list of the dead dragged from the arena are both a shameful waste and a tragic reminder of the Olympiad's origins.

Unguis Fighting -- This is essentially a fencing match with thin, flexible javelins with blunted tips.  The game is graded on control of the ungues to strike precisely at vital spots.

Synchronized Swimming -- A tandem sport where complex acrobatics are married to the graceful movement of swimming.

Weightlifting -- Weightlifting in an aquatic environment is more difficult than the simple motion of picking something up.  It is the balancing of an items buoyancy, the ability to keep the weights from rising as well of sinking.  Two bars are used, both identical except for having absolutely diametrically opposite buoyancy -- one positive, the other negative.  The two bars are connect by a pair of fragile cords that break easily if pulled in opposite directions.  The athlete must keep the two bars within the length of these cords, and will be disqualified if either cord breaks.

Controversy

Despite their lofty intention, the Olympiad has been mired in controversy for as long as it has existed.  The earliest of these controversies is the charge that the mere existence of the Olympiad is a validation of the atrocities levied on the helpless populace during the Occupation.  Some charge that by continuing this barbaric ritual the piscean species are no better than their conquerors.

The games were also charged with racism.  While the Chelon that organize the Olympiad had little problem with this accusation, there was massive backlash for ages that the exclusion of the primitive races were barred entry into the games.  Supporters of the exclusion cited the general belief of Kouton collusion with the Kraken as reason enough for their exile, but the other side argued that if Locanth, Sahaguin, and Yaun-Teel gave their lives for the freedom of all the piscean races, then they should have the right to participate.  Eventually a compromise was reached, with the all primitive races -- including the Kouton -- allowed to join the games.  However, to this day, the Ceph are still excluded, with the usual rhetoric that they lacked the piscean form and thus were not equals.

The death of many contestants has become yet another contentious point against the continuation of the games.  The core of this argument stems from traditional patriotism versus morality.

Perhaps the most controversial aspects of the games is the recent movement to separate the species.  Historically, certain races have dominated particular games.  The swimming games have been locked by the Locanth since they were finally allowed to compete, and the Orcan have won the strength based games to the exclusion of all other races since the games began.  One side argues that even the fittest athlete cannot compete against a species that has evolved to excel at something they themselves did not evolve.  The other counters with the tenants of the Fluid Nations Accord, that all pisceans are created equal, and as equals should not be segregated.

"The Olympiad is a monument to all competition, not just for the winning.
It honors through its glorification the sacrifice of every individual that gave
their life to free us all from our subjugators, not just those that survived the war."
-- Opening commencements of the first Free Olympiad

Endless Blue - Week 37.7 - Muses of the Five Senses

Sociology

Muses of the Five Senses

As long as pisceans have lived, they have felt the need to express themselves, to share a part of themselves, their beliefs, their understanding, with the rest of the school.  Words, not always adequate in themselves or the individual's mastery of them, are replaced with innovative ways, communicating through other senses what seems impossible by speech.  By nature, muse is subjective, dependent on the skill of the artist to produce, the readiness of the patron to accept ideas, and the social expectation of how the individual should behave.

Art -- Muse of Sight

Art in the Endless Blue is an extension of fabrication.  It is the need to create something solid through a physical medium.  The earliest pieces of art were scrimshaw carvings in flotsam or coral.  As the level of technology increased, art expressed itself in newer mediums, such as through architecture, sculpture, and painting.   Painting through water is a difficult task, and requires specialized pigment that are pliable enough to manipulate with relative ease but resist the environment's constant solvency to wash it away.  The creation of a waxy pigment led to the birth painting, and the pinnacle tool of the trade exists in the form of the greasemarker.  The cultivation of animals led to the use of canvases made of hide, the expression of fashion through the wearing of iridescent scales and mined precious metals.  Packbreeders took wild species of aquatic spider and sea worms that produce small amounts of silk and bred them into textile marvels, just as they grew the oyster and the abalone into giants for their opalescent treasures.  Anything that is made by the hands of a craftsman can be utilized as the basis of art.

Music -- Muse of Sound

Music is as integral part of piscean life as any other artistic expression, and in a world wrapped in water music takes on a life of its own.  The acoustic properties of water are perfect for propagating the reverberating sound waves produced by musical instruments, but require more energy to initiate their tones.  Water carries sound further because it is a denser material, thus can impart the vibration faster than the thinner medium of air.  This means any instrument that can be developed can have an aquatic counterpart.  The musical instruments of Elqua can be broken down into five categories:

Cordostrings -- Instruments that make sound through vibrating a stretched string.  Examples are the violin or lute.
Hydrocurrents -- These instruments produce sound by blowing a column of water through an echoing chamber.  The flute or the common horn are examples.
Idiopercussions -- Represented by a child's rattle, a cymbal, or the xylophone, these instruments elicit sound by striking, scraping, or shaking.  The notes produced are short, and cannot produce extended notes.
Membranedrums -- Similar to idiopercussions in that the need to be struck to produce their notes, these instruments are stretched membranes over a hollow space that serves as a reverberation chamber.
Vocalsong -- The piscean voice, regarded as the most versatile and pliant instrument.  The Orcan versesingers are renown for the haunting beauty of their whalesong.

Through combination of some or all of these types of musical instruments, the waters of the Known World vibrate wonderfully with music.  And in response, somewhere deep within the piscean psyche, is the impetus to dance.  It is the audience's reflection of the expression, the language of agreement, that conveys a deep resonance to the music.

Food -- Muse of Taste

If there is one activity that is common to all the races of the Endless Blue, it would be the need to eat.  Survival, be it as an individual or as a species, is critically dependent on the consumption of nutrients to maintain health.  Without food, there is no energy; without energy, there can be no life.

Culinists are the artisans of this muse, crafting works of culinary magnificence to delight even the most jaded of palette.  They do so by manipulating the taste buds with sensations that can be divided into five categories:

Bitterness -- Classically defined as an unpleasant sensation, the sensitivity to bitterness evolved as a method to detect toxic substances before they are swallowed.  It is best used in small doses to accentuate the taste of a dish.
Saltiness -- This is the well known taste of seawater.  Since every gulp of breath brings the same taste, salt as a spice is usually rare.  It does come into play as a preservative of meat in the process of jerking.
Savoriness -- Savory flavors are those of meat, a heady sensation released during mastication.  Some culinists say that herbivores lack the ability to sense this flavour, which has prevented their evolutionary ascendancy.
Sourness -- Considered the opposite of sweetness, sourness developed as a method of plants and animals to avoid being eaten.  However, in small amounts it can be an interesting counterbalance to a light meal.
Sweetness -- The taste of suger, the food produced internally by plants.  It is the basic source of energy used by not only piscean biology, but most every form of life on the planet.

Sex -- Muse of Touch

Next to the need to feed, the need to breed is nearly universal.  Nature has very cleverly bred the need to spawn into the very flesh of life, under the principle that the more offspring produced betters the chance of one surviving to reproduce itself.

Many of the religions of Elqua, notably the Olyhydrans, use dogma to shame its constituents, twisting their minds to believe that sex is a sin, a horrible temptation that needs to be resisted.  Sex is only sanctioned in the case of matrimony, and then only for the sake of procreation.  By instilling a moral taboo on a natural process, the churches have used their parishioners own guilt to sheperd them into the flock.  Their own guilt tells them they are unworthy of grace, and the church offers them absolution if only they ask for it.

More primitive spiritual systems, like those of the Locanth and the Yaun-Teel, embrace sex as a natural part of being piscean, of being alive.  In these cultures, sex is viewed as any other social activity, bereft of shame.  While the Yaun-Teel revel in their hedonism, the primitives like the Locanth, Kouton, and Sahaguin simply view it as another facet of life.

Between the two extremes fall the rest of the civilized races, trapped between the social taboo of lust and the undeniable yearning to fulfill it.  In these societies, the profession of prostitution has blossomed as a solution for the moral dilemma.

Thought -- Muse of Understanding

A new muse, many traditionalist refuse to accredit its validity.  To simply think is hardly an expression, they say.  But to the imaginative, the inquisitive, the investigative, the need to understand is as fulfilling as any other sense.  They would tell you that that the need to understand is the impetus of all the other muses, for they all seek to open the mind to sensation.  The openness of thought this philosophy espouses is tantalizing for the likes of the Godless, and as a result they flock to it.  But the movement has garnered strong opposition from those that benefit from rote tradition, whom see this dangerous thinking as the beginnings of dissension.

Endless Blue - Week 37.1 - Hue of Flesh and Shade of Scale

Geneology

Hue of Flesh and Shade of Scale

The diversity of life in the water of Elqua has blossomed over the epochs into a complex ecology of living beings.  The piscean races are not immune to the glacial drift of geneology, the passage of traits from one generation unto its children.  The most visual of these inherited traits, the color of skin, of scale, of hair, help define the various ethnicities of the Fluid Nations.  As son resembles father, as cousins share more in common than strangers, societies of species share certain visual resemblances that mark them for the tribe that spawned them.  These chromatic clues, or coloration, are consistent to any given species, and in many cases are one of the dominant factors in identifying race.

Piscean Complexions

The matrix below charts the most currently establish credentials for ethnicity in the Known World.  Each row across corresponds to one race:  In this case, the Cetaceans, the Chelon, the Lumulus, two rows for Mer, and so on.  Each sphere in the row represents a different ethnicity, with its own unique coloration, that is passed down to their offspring.  These are the sub-races.  They are minor cosmetic differences that set it apart from other ethnic variations, yet still similar enough genetically to allow interbreeding.  The final column represents individual from the race that were trapped in the Undertow, and through time have lost the coloration pigments in their epidermis and have become albino.  Victims of the Undertow, an over powering vortex in the Abyss of the Chelon Sea, suffer from this achromatosis, though albinic offspring are not unheard of in the waters above.

Each sphere represents an individual ethnicity, and the coloration inside is a loose approximation of the prevalent pigmentation of the species.  The shade and hue can vary to a certain degree, but the basic coloration is the same.  Red may express itself as pale rose in one and as a darkened crimson in another, but is always some cast of red.

Decoding the Matrix

Indetification Key for the Colorization Heraldry

The sphere is the broken down into the dorsal color (the crescent shape) and the ventral color (the oval shape).   These represent the coloration of the back and front of a piscean, respectively.  For example, Orcan coloration is distinct, with their backs the classic black expanse and their chest the striking white.  Not all species have a different colloration along their belly as along their spine, or the change in color is a continuously gradual fade.  In these cases, the full sphere serves as the body's coloration and the belly oval is neglected.

The three circles within the sphere represent the markings.  Marking are patterns or shapes distinct from the dorsal and ventral coloration.  Thins like spots, stripes, and other patterns are perfect examples.  The uppermost cirlce is the Primary Marking,  This circle represents the coloring of a marking that is shared across the race, regardless of intermingling.  Every Orcan has the white spot on either side of their head, though the shape and size of that spot vary from individual to individual.  Likewise, while the color of the primary marking is consistent, the shape or pattern of the marking is a unique family trait that is inherited from the parents and slightly modified through genetic drift.

The next circle is the Secondary Marking.  These secondary markings, if any, are not frequently expressed across the whole race, but are specific to a family tree.  They do not define what it means to be of a particular sub-race, but is more akin to having "his father's gills but his mother's eyes".  In cases of mixed parentage, where the mother and father come from different ethnicities, the coloration of the dominant parent trait would be the primary marking, and the other parents' marking would become the secondary marking.  This is especially common among the Mer, who despite the most distinctive and vibrant coloration of all the piscean races, inter-marry as suits them.  To represent this, the secondary and potential third markings are left as hollow circlets, for the player to decide upon during character creation.

The final circle is tertiary markings.  Such markings are rare, but do surface, especially in families renown for their wanderlust as young adults and falling in love with the local pisceans.

Primary, secondary, or tertiary markings filled with a spectrum signify the species has the ability to alter the pigmentation in their skin, be it purposefully or passively, to other color(s),  The Ceph, masters of camouflage, are capable of producing any mixture of dorsal, ventral, and marking coloration.  A transluscent spectrum marking, like the secondary marking of a Kouton, signifies that while pigmentation changes may occur, they will not alter the basic shape and distribution of the markings.  This is the Kouton "blush", the flushing of the skin with certain colors that reflect the emotional state of the individual, but the pattern/shape of the markings still shows through the colored tint.  For markings that only occur on the dorsal or ventral side, such as with the deduced coloration of the extinct Icht, the portion that overlaps the crescent or oval is occluded.

Some colorizations and mottling have notable histories attached to them, and as a result have been given names.  These famous colorations take on a meaning of their own, and serve as the heraldry for the family, used on flags and on aegises pledged to their cause.  These are the standards that wave in the currents over great armies, clashing tooth, claw, and blade to decided the future of their bodies of water.  They bring fame; the bestow fame.  They attract loyalty of the common piscean, and demand that loyalty be returned.  In many ways, the color of a normally detached, civilized, evolved piscean is still slave to their baser instincts, driven by visually triggered biology to prefer that which is pleasing to the eye.  This fact is not lost on those that use power, and they cultivate their colorization's social image with great care.