Endless Blue - Week 44 - The Ur'qwal'she: Perfection in Form

Archeology

The Ur'qwal'she

The Ur'qwal'she are a series of artifice construction projects that began secretly the Bronze Era of Elqua.  The current Ur'qwal'she -- the eight in the line of improved attempts at the perfect hippoideal form -- is almost ovoid in shape and about three meters radially.  An access lock on the outside of the oval casing is specifically designed for the triangular arrangement of the Lumulus' three fingers, which must interlock around the latch in order to open the hatch ingress.  Picking the lock is a nearly impossible task achieve without some form of divine intervention or arcane boon.

It becomes obvious upon opening the apparatus that this is not simply some dearthsteel shell.  Inside are strange pods, space for four masses roughly the size of pisceans.  These pods are interlaced with conduits, chains, ligaments, and cord, working into the very walls of the shell like fabric.  Inside the first two pods, at about the same location that a passenger's gill slits would be, are a series of ten sigil-less levers, and the bottom of these opened eggs lays a layer of padding around a central spool.

History

The inquisitive and the diplomatic have long tried to understand the minds of the incomprehensible Lumulus, and rarely has there been any success.  But the same is true from the Lumulan perspective looking outward at the homeseas of the shell-less.  Unshackled by the constraints of religious dogma, the alien minds of the Lumulus have contemplated tirelessly about the intrinsic metaphysical questions that the other races do.  It seems to be one of the few things shared in common with the rest of the piscean species, but even that commonality is not enough to catch glimpses into the inconceivable thought processes that ruminate in their chitinously encased craniums.  Without spiritual doctrine to dictate their direction, Lumulan philosophers turned to more logical methodology to glean the answers they sought.  In the quest to solve the enigma of why life exists, the Lumulus stepped into the role of Creator and chose to determine how.

The birth of the cultural quest known as  The Ur'qwal'she -- Perfection of Form -- began in the Bronze Era.  Developing the art of smithing metals not only gave the Lumulus an unsurpassable  edge in economical development, but gifted them with the medium in which to forge the most ambitious  agenda of any species in the known world.  The final objective of their progressive plan was to produce the perfect reproduction of the Lumulan morphology, and to attain that goal they began construction on a machine that would obsess their culture for millennia.  Individuals willing put aside their own aspirations for themselves, their families and their forgeclans, and instead targeted their attention on learning the skills and knowledge that would be needed to complete their great experiment.  The shaping of metal, the mixing of alchemicals, the assemblage of an almost never ending series of interconnecting clockwork parts was deemed more than an honor, but a duty more dear than loyalty to their race.

The beginning form of the Ur`qwal'she was simplistic, even austere.  A rough lozenge shape that could barely fit the two pilots elected to operate it during it's test trials.  Once cramped uncomfortably inside, the activation of the machine began a series of physical rearrangements of it's constituent pieces, like a revolving puzzle.  Three short, pole-like legs on each side, a pair of clumsy and cumbersome claws extended from the front, below the hemispherical portholes, each beneath a short but slim shaft of metal.  Behind it the rear extended in sections, lengthening the craft a half-times again before unfurling into a fluked rudder.  The deployed state corsely imitated the idealistic form of the crustacean-like shape of it creators.

Despite its auspicious beginnings, the inaugural launch of the Ur'qwal'she met in disaster.  Failure of the first incarnation was brutal and stunning, leading many to think the task was beyond the reach of Lumulan minds.  But in the end rugged determination won out and the project was renewed.  The second incarnation began reconstruction, cannibalizing the form of the first incarnation in much the same way a Lumulus might consume a previously shed carapace.  The Lumulus learned from their early mistake, improved upon the Perfect Form, and eventually were ready for their second attempt at creating perfection.

It failed.  So too did the next attempt, and the next, and the next after that...  Several generations of apparatus have been forged and re-forged, only to have nature prove the whole attempt to be in vain.  But each failure only further tempered the Lumulan resolve, and the pieces that were to become the artifact Ur'qwal'she were collected and started anew.

No incarnation of the Ur'qwal'she has ever been lost.  The closest came during an outbreak of the Shellback skirmishes when aggressive Chelon forces occupied the area secretly storing the apparatus' bare structure for several months.  During those few months it took every ounce of Lumulan ingenuity and dedication to finally drive back the invaders whom it is believed never found the hidden workshop that stored it.  Quickly the Lumulus moved it to a more remote location on the fringes of the Lumulus Basin and the Spine of the World, in the Antarctic Circle.  There it lay dormant and undiscovered as the Kraken Empire rose to prominence and dominated the Known World.

With the fall of the Kraken Empire, the way was cleared to rescue the Ur'qwal'she from banishment and continue the creation.  Today, the octal incarnation is near completion, in part due to the same "deal with the devil" the Lumulus made with the Chelon to defeat their common masters.  Now armed with the secret of lumulating dearthsteel, the Lumulus are convinced this is the ultimate achievement, and success is all but ensured.  Once activated, it will the culmination of a geas felt through the entire species for nearly as long as there is written record of history.

Campaign Use

The Ur'qwal'she is not a simple magical item to be given the players as payment for some undertaken task.  Indeed, only under the most dire of circumstances would a player character even be let near the artifact, let alone been given control over its function.  However, threats to the artifact's location or existence are prime opportunities for interaction with the players.  The potential power of the craft is another angle, and the player characters might be enlisted by a concerned faction that the Ur'qwal'she will be used as weapon of war, or even a blue print for further creations.  Such a mechanized navy would make the LMSDF or some other agency an unstoppable force, completely unbalancing the state of affairs among the Fluid Nations.

Powers

Constant

- Gazing through the porthole "eyes" of the Ur'qwal'shi grant those viewing with ultravision up to 60 feet.
- The claws possess the vorpal and keen weapon qualities.

Invoked

- The craft can ignore the effects of any current or buoyancy altering spell.
- The body of the vessel can be made to shed ultraviolet light equivalent to daylight so that those inside may see out the porthole "eyes".
- The apparatus virtually inhales in water like any other living creature, sustaining a breathable liquid for those inside.  It automatically filters out any toxic or poisonous substance carried in that inhaled water (such as Ceph ink, red tide toxin, or other contaminant), but does not provide breathable water where there is not (such as in a brine lake or above the surface).  This power prevents the passengers from using any type of currentsense within the confines of the craft.  The apparatus can seal off the flow of water from outside its hull and essentially "hold its breath", leaving the occupants to breathe enough stored fresh water for four to eight hours, divided evenly among the number of occupants.

Resonating

- The apparatus resonates with those parts of itself re-incorporated from previous incarnations.  As a result, the octal incarnation has a primitive "race memory" imprinted on its alchemical conduits and eldritch mechanisms.  This imparts upon the pilot of the vessel an almost empathic link with the craft, and passes on rudimentary emotional cues like fear and anger when face with conditions similar to those that destroyed it in previous incarnations.
- The artifact is capable of consuming prey caught in its pincers.  This act helps repair any physical damage to the craft first, then nourishes the passengers inside.  While inside, the passengers do not succumb to hunger or thirst.

Curse

- The rigors of using the Ur'qwal'she slowly drain the animus vitae of those inside.  The immediate effect is the doubling the need to trance (or sleep for non-Lumulus).  Long term exposure results in permanent point loss to Constitution, and eventually death.  Bodies left inside the Ur'qwal'she after death become perfectly mummified, preserved right down to the intact hair follicle.

Suggested Means of Destruction

It must be piloted to the surface and let all it vital fluids drain out onto the dry soil.
It must be crushed between two colliding islands that move.
It must be made to peel the hull from itself with its own pincers.

Endless Blue - Week 42 - Garment Couture: The Fashion Aesthetic

Sociology

Garment Couture: The Fashion Aesthetic

Elquan fashions favor the simple over the complex.  While craftsmen are more than capable of (and do) producing the most intricate of work, the tendency of water to obscure light and detail means such astounding detail is lost.  Clothing and jewelery with fine detailing can only be appreciated in the Shore areas, where light can most easily penetrate the water's natural absorption.  As a result, many refer to those that wear detailed clothing and finery as "wanting to be deep fish in the shallows", referring to the vain desire to appear imposing in one's small area of influence.

Textiles

Fabric is a well known technology beneath the waters of Elqua, with records of woven fabrics dating back to the Bronze Epoch.  While cloth of that time originally had only the natural coloration of the plant or animal material from which it was derived, eventually dyeing became possible with mated containers.

All cloth is made on machines called looms, a moving interleave of thread that meshes together to form a continuous plain of fabric.  Thread itself is an extension of the creation of rope, refined and reduced to a more manipulative state.  Thread is comprised of the fibers of plant matter and/or the hairs of hairy aquatic mammals*, spun around each other to form a contiguous length of string.  The thread is then loaded into the loom which forms a criss-crossing lattice of interwoven threads.  The product is cloth.

A variety of cloth (and supple leathers) are used in Elquan fashion.  Indeed, cloth weaving is not limited to just organic materials.  Lamé -- a fabric made with a metallic weft --  uses a thin metallic yarn that is wrapped in a metallic wire or ribbon.  So fine and skillfully spun is this mineral thread that is becomes nearly as ductile as cloth without loosing the luster of precious metal.

Hides and skins of sea fauna are also used in the fabrication of clothing as it is in the creation of nautiluses, but where the latter uses tanning methodology that produces stiffer material, the former concentrates on softening the skins.  Fish skin comes in a wide variety of natural coloration and scale composition, and these gradations are used by seamstresses to produce incredible works.

Articles of Clothing

Clothing is the shaping of fabric into objects that can be worn on the piscean body.  Not every species in the oceans is equipped to survive in varying temperatures, and as such sometimes need extra protection to shield them from the elements.  Over successive generations clothing has evolved from just being "shelter that is worn" into an expression of art, tradition, culture, and personality.

Cap-- This is a generic catch-all term for anything worn essentially on the top of the head.  They can be kept in place by any manner of means, be it a tight headband, pinning in the hair, or strapped under the chin, jaw, or ears.

Choker -- A choker is like a necklace, but instead of hanging loosely down from the neck and shoulders, it is more snugly around the throat (but not too tight as to constrict breathing or swallowing.  It can serve the same role as a belt and can be what keeps the chemise (below) in place, but is differentiated by the need to keep the weight demands low as to prevent choking.

Chemise-- A chemise is an article of clothing that covers the torso of a piscean.  They may be as form fitting or formless as desired, and they need not include sleeves -- but may have them at various lengths, also either tight against the arms or more loosely draped as taste dictates.  The creation of chemises always needs to keep in mind the location of the picean gills along the lower ribs, and must keep that area free of obstruction lest they endanger the wearer with strangulation.

Glove -- The piscean glove is a bit more complicated than the gloves of our world.  Most pisceans have varying lengths of webbing between their digits, and natural ungues at their tips.  While this stretch of skin aids in swimming, it makes tailoring gloves more difficult.  A slit is cut in the fabric of the gloves where each finger connects to the hand and is extended outward to the second or third knuckle.  A piece of cloth is then folded over and sewn into the hem of the slit, and the seem is reinforced with stiffer materials to keep the glove form fitting.

Belt --  A loop around the major axis of the piscean body, belts are perhaps the most varied of all the articles of clothing.  They can vary in ever conceivable way -- thickness, width, tightness, color, even the method of wear is exceedingly flexible.  While traditionally worn perpendicular to the central anteroposterior axis, belts can be jauntily skewed over the hip, across the chest like a bandoleer, or even interlocked like a harness.  They are the most functional part of Elquan dress and the most universally utilized in every way of life.

Ephod -- The ephod is the article of clothing that covers the main trunk of the tail.  Like the shirt, it can be as basic as a cloth hanging from the waist to as complicated a network of interwoven fibers enshrouding the tail.

Caudalet -- Much like the choker, a caudalet is worn around the end of the tail right before the tail fins spread out from the piscean form.  Also like a choker, a caudalet can be used as the connective part of the lower end of an ephod or to anchor tail flippers (see below).

Flipper -- The lower counterpart of the glove, flippers are pieces of clothing worn over the pelvic and/or tail fins.  They are usually made of sterner stuff than gloves, as they must endure the constant wear of continual swimming.

Accessories

Accessories are differentiated from clothing in that they are usually comprised of harder materials than fabric, usually metal.  This material would be uncomfortable, even detrimental to the wearer is used like cloth.  They are instead used to accentuate and supplement the garments worn by a piscean.  Common forms of accessories take the form of jewelery such as earrings, torcs, bracelets, and rings.  Elquan tailors have taken to incorporating jewelery into their garment designs, making buttons, clasps, and buckles decorative as well as functional.  Other materials used in Elquan jewelery is abalone, crystal, gemstone, sea shell, and perhaps the most pervasive accoutrement of all, pearl.

Fashion by Historical Culture

Culture enforces as much influence on fashion as whimsy does.  Areas of high ethnic concentration will contain greater numbers of  traditionalists, whom bring the "old ways" of dress with them.  Part of being accepted into a society is the adoption of their customs, and adopting the apparel of the local populace is the primary visual means of integration.

The Yaun-Teel maintain a practice among their orthodox members of keeping their bodies fully clothed as much as possible.  This sets them apart from their slaves, whom are usually divested of all clothing early on in a method meant to humiliate and break the will of their "indentured servants".

With their culture very much entrenched in the martial tradition, it is unsurprising to find that the Orcans in a martial fashion, incorporating nautiluses into a style of dress that expects the struggle for life and death to erupt at any moment.

In many ways, the amount and intricacy of clothing worn by the Chelon is an indication of their social standing, with the more powerful and affulent affording complex outfits that fly in the face of function.

The Ceph both eschew clothing and are rebuked by it.  Their non-piscean forms make many of the articles of clothing useless to them, which is just as well as it would interfere with their natural camouflage abilities.  Ceph clothing must be specially made for them, usually consisting of a huge glove with eight fingers on it, caps, and belts.

Locanth and Sahaguin, cultures diametrically opposite oceanographically as well as philosophically, strangely share a common aesthetic when it comes to clothing.  They will dress pragmatically, opting for clothing that is functional for an intended purpose.

The strange Lumulus connect their clothing directly to their chitinous exoskeletons, anchoring them with piercings in the hardened plates.  Their quizzical clothing incorporates the unique metals that their culture is renown for into a way of dress that is both clothing and jewelery simultaneously.

The Mer are the most mercurial when it comes to clothing, as they are a species fascinated by fashion.  Fads come and go across all of the Mer currents quicker than a Kouton hides a secret, and they take their inspiration from whatever aspect of the mode of dress from other cultures strikes their fancy.  What is chic one day is dull the next, and whatever little feature of culture that captured their attention at one moment could cause social expulsion by the time you learned of it.

Speaking of the Kouton, they prefer to wear loose fitting robes and cowls that cover most of the body, obliterating any distinguishing features that may betray knowledge to others.

"Clothes make the Mer, so long as other make the clothes..."
- a snide comment on the way Mer reputation for dress.

---
* -- Despite being referred to as "mammals", these animals do not require air to breathe.  Like the cetaceans and dolphinidae of the setting, aquatic mammals have gills and never developed the blow hole, nostrils, or any other form of in taking the atmosphere into their bodies.

Endless Blue - Week 32 - Senses Despite Darkness

Spectroscopy

Senses Despite Darkeness

While life may have genesised from the water, it could not have begun there if not for the light bathing the world of Elqua from its sun.  Without that energy, the most basic link in the food chain -- namely photosynthesis -- could not metabolize, and sans a method of creating food the earliest phytoplankton colonies would have died from starvation.  Sans light, the smallest creatures of the oceans could not survive long enough to evolve into the immense and varied ecosystem of today.

In order for life to flourish, light had to be available for it.  On land light is plentiful, and even the most passive of biological constructs can soak in its bounty.  However, water is much less forgiving medium for transmission of light than air is, and some unique situations developed from the water's special qualities of reflection, refraction, and absorption.


Layers of Water

Just as there are vertical zones in the bodies of water on Elqua -- colloquially known as the Shore, the Shoals, and the Shelf -- there are also horizontal layers.  These layers are defined by the amount of light that can penetrate the depths.

The uppermost layer of the ocean is where almost 75% of all photosynthetic life on the planet exists.  Named the euphotic layer, it reaches about 300 feet from the sunbathed surface of the water.  By definition, the Shore is always in the euphotic layer.

Below this layer of life is the disphotic layer, it stretches downward to about 3,000 feet deep, and is dimly lit.  Animals can easily survive here, but it is rare for any botanical life to survive due to the inadequate amount of light to complete photosynthesis.  The Shoals reach from the disphotic layer up through the euphotic layer to the surface of the water.

Finally is the aphotic layer, where no light penetrates at all, and this layer accounts for a stunning 90% of the entire ocean area of Elqua.  The Shelf includes all three photic layers, the euphotic, disphotic, and aphotic layers.

Elqua's zones and layers intersect in a step pattern:

The Euphotic Shore	The Euphotic Shoals	The Euphotic Shelf
	The Disphotic Shoals	The Disphotic Shelf
Elqua's Sea Floor		The Aphotic Shelf

Color absorption roughly to scale; water depth is not.

That is a lot of water for light to shine through to reach the life living at the bottom of the sea.  But before the light can even start its journey through liquid, it has its first obstacle to overcome: reflection.
The water's surface has a property called albedo, which effectively reflects a varying amount of the light shining down onto it back into the atmosphere, affecting the planet's weather and climate.  The shape of the water's surface determines how much sunlight can penetrate through its surface into the depths below.  Rough waters reflect less light while calm seas reflect more.  It is the rolling tidal motion of waves that results in the wavy light effect that can be seen in shallow costal waters -- the wavering bands of light that dance along with the rise and fall of the waves.

Once the albedo barrier is pierced, light then has to penetrate through the optically more dense medium of water.  It is here that the individual portions of light -- the eight colors of visible light -- begin a process of attrition.  As light penetrates lower and lower depths of the oceans, the more difficult it becomes for white light to filter through the water.  Called refraction, it is the natural tendency of water to break up light into its component colors, which are thereby absorbed by particulate matter and the blue wavelenths are bounced off water molecules' own intrinsic though subtle shade of blue.

Colors with shorter wavelengths – greens, blues, and violets – are able to penetrate deeper into the water than those with long wavelenghts.  While eventually all color fades to darkness at the aphotic layer, the various colors can reach different depths.  Under the best of conditions (i.e., clearest water, sun directly overhead, etc.), red is the first color absorbed by the fluid surroundings; at a mere 15 feet red looks at best as a muddy sienna or burnt umber.  Orange is faded at 25', while yellow peters out at around 45 feet down.  Violet is absorbed at nearly 100 feet, followed by green at 135'.  Blue, curiously enough, is not absorbed until significantly deeper -- at about 300 feet.  This anomaly in the pattern is due to water's inherent blue tint, which scatters the blue wavelengths of light instead of absorbing them.

Note that these distances are measured from the surface of the water directly to the colored object.  The distance from that object that an observer views from is cumulative for determining what color wavelengths can be discerend.  Thus:

Object's distance from surface + object's distance from observer = total distance of color absorption.

For example, a Mer gazes at a goldfish from ten feet away from him, and they are both ten feet below the surface of the waves.  The light from the sun penetrates the water's albedo and travels 10' to bounce off the goldfish and then travels an additional 10' to reach the Mer's eyes.  That's a total of 20', which is coming close to orange's maximum absorption point.  The goldfish's color would appear muddy and bland in the surrounding blue.  Had the goldfish been green, however, its coloration would still have maintained its vividness to a point where the distances between the Mer. the "greenfish", and the surface of the ocean equaled approximately 135 feet.

This demonstrates the benefit of portable sources of light beneath the waves.  Bioluminescence is a poor but unfortunately the sole viable source of light generation under the sea.  Shedding light barely greater than a lit candle, it can barely illuminate the immediate area with its weak radiance.  Stronger light sources can be achieved through alchemy, and these light sources make discerning colors much more practical, and the distance light travels would use these alchemical lamps as the starting point to measure color absorption instead of the surface of the water, effectively exposing color to layers of the oceans that cannot normally be appreciated.

With vision such an integral sense for exploring one’s environment, other methods of “sight” evolved to fulfill the role of the primary sense.  Such established methods like infravision still exist in Elqua, though in this case infravision is severely truncated due to the light- and heat-absorption properties of water, and so is only useful on the surface and in Shore areas where light is barely refracted.

Dive deep enough, all color eventually disappears, leaving most creatures in the dark without any wavelength of light to stimulate their optic receptors, save for the ultraviolet.  Water is perplexingly transparent to ultraviolet rays, which can reach down to almost the aphotic layer.  What this signifies is that even though these depths would appear as an almost inky blackness to our eyes, there is still enough light to see with eyes that can peer into the ultraviolet range.  Perhaps the most successful adaption to deal with this depth-blindness was the evolution of ultravision.


Ultravision

The Kraken’s innate camouflage abilities, while formidable, would make it difficult to find others of their own kind if they did not possess a form of vision that enables them to spot each other despite their best disguise.  This sense -- known as “ultravision” -- works on the principle that while camouflage tends to be uncanny in the visible spectrum, the chemicals used to duplicate the natural coloring of the surroundings do not share the same make-up as the surroundings.  While skin tone can be recreated in a painting, the pigments used in both complexion and paint are not the same compounds, expressing different properties when exposed to the proper stimuli.   In this case, light.   When exposed to a special light source, these chameleonic pigments fluoresce whereas the natural coloring of the surrounds remain unlit, making detection as easy as looking in the right direction.  However, ultravision is a passive medium. meaning it is dependent on an outside source to function correctly.  Ultravision would be a useless quirk of vision without special illumination, and such sources are immediately detectable by those that have ultravision as if it was a normal light source of the same size.

It wasn't until the historically antagonistic Chelon and Lumulus both realized the Kraken Occupation was a greater risk to their survival that either one of them were to each other.  The despite that propelled the Shellback Wars to wage over and over had to be put aside for the greater continuation of piscean life.  Only the Chelon's mastery of mystic might and the Lumulus' expertise at smithing metal could come together to form the ultimate tool for freedom -- ultraviolet enchanted dearthsteel.

Unguis/Nautilus Abilities

Ultraviolet – An item with this quality gives off the kind of ultraviolet light that enables ultravision to work.  The magical bonus equivalent bestowed on the item by the enchantment varies according to the intensity of light shed: from +1 for a glow of a candle to +5 for the pure amount from full sunlight.  Further, an item’s size also limits how bright a glow the item can cast.  Tiny items such as daggers can only shed the weak +1/candlelight equivalent amount of ultraviolet light, with the capacity increasing by +1 for every size type larger an item from there.

Unguis/Nautilus Bonus	Illumination Level	Illumination Range	Unguis/Nautilus Size
+1	Candlelight	5 ft. (Shadowy)	Dagger, bracer, buckler
+2	Lamp	10 ft.	Short Sword, halmet, cestus
+3	Dancing lights	20 ft.	Longsword, half-spear, shield
+4	Lantern	30 ft.	Spear, quarterstaff, large shield
+5	Sunlight	60 ft.	Polearm, Lance, double weapon *, tower shield

* -- Except quarterstaves.

Ultraviolet Burst -- Upon a successful hit on (for an unguis) or hit by (for a nautilus) a target capable of camouflage, the striking/struck item releases a massive momentary burst of ultraviolet light that stuns the pigment producing cells and temporarily stuns them for 1d6 rounds.  In order for an item to be enchanted with ultraviolet burst it must already possess the ultraviolet ability before it can be give ultraviolet burst.  It is a +1 bonus equivalent ability.

The magics needed to permanently enchant ultraviolet abilities seem unable to anchor themselves to xanthellae, so the war ravaged Chelon needed some other source to attach their spells.  Conversely, no Lumulan has shown the ability to coral shape, so they lack the mental discipline to cast the ultraviolet spells into their own metal, dearthsteel.  Through espionage and betrayal, threats and machinations, the Kraken had for the most all of the occupation kept the two shellback races at each other's throats.  It was finally the Orcans that mediated a cease fire if not peace long enough for the two arts to merge into the last chance the Known World had for freedom.  So unprecedented was the merging of these two quarrelsome factions that the alliance had as much to fear from internal back-stabbing as it ever had from their encephalopodic enslavers.


Echolocation

The aphotic Shelf, where the water is so deep that no light reaches, requires other senses to take up the slack from the now useless sense of vision.  The foremost among these is echolocation.  Most notably expressed by the cetaceans, it is an active system of vocalized “pings” that radiate out through the water and are reflected back when they come in contact with objects.  The reflected sound will sound slightly different in each ear as the soundwaves bounce back to the caller, and it is this stereophonic effect that gives the creature the ability to envision his environment around him in full three dimensional perspective.

The primary organ used in echolocation is the melon.  This is a roughly ovoid shaped organ found in the forehead of such creatures that can located by sound.  It is the melon that gives the Orcans their broad forehead and prominent brow.  The interior of this fatty organ is coated with a waxy oil called parmaceti, which is used in biosonar as both a focusing apparatus for the initial sound and as a receptor for the reflected sound when the consistency of the fatty tissue matches the surrounding environment, aiding in the transfer of sound vibrations to the inner ear.

Since sound travels better in water than through air, this is an effective method of vision.  However, since it requires the possessor to actively create sound pulses, creatures with echolocation can be detected by any creature through a simple passive Listen check with a Difficulty Class of 15.  An interesting side effect of this is that any creature with echolocation themselves can use the pings of active echolocation to determine the distance and direction of the sounds origin.

This curious discovery was frequently used by the Orcan barbarians, whom would spread out to surround an enemy on all sides, then a single warrior (usually the pod alpha) would make a whalesong that all others in the pod used to determine the whereabouts of the pursued prey.  From this, the Orcans learned that their whalesongs need not be the source of soundwaves detected by their melons, and have adapted to using other sources of sound as their "ping".  This takes a Listen check at a DC of 20 to succeed, with a modifier of +1 for every mile distance the original sound is made.  A failed test cannot be rerolled, but new rolls can be made if the sound lasts for more than a round or is repeated.

Rumor has it that some special Orcans have learned the ability to use echolocation without the need to generate an echo, relying instead on the ambient sounds that fill the oceans constantly.  Most like such stories are tall tales told to magnify the cetacean's sense of glory, as no Orcan has ever demonstrated the ability.


Currentsense

Currentsense is similar to echolocation, but disparate in two key areas: First, currentsense works on the sense of taste instead of hearing, and Second, the sense needs only a moving trickle of water to operate.  Without some form of currentsense, it is nearly impossible to track a target effectively in a featureless, three dimensional environment.

The most primitive form of currentsense is called bloodtrace.  This is the sense that sharks possess, the ability to detect even the smallest traces of blood in the current from great distances and home in on their origin.  Creatures with bloodtrace gain a +5 circumstance bonus when tracking a bleeding target.
The second form is called tracescent, and it operates like bloodscent, but can detect a greater range of trace compounds dragged along the currents, like recently consumed food or bodily waste.  The +5 circumstance bonus from this method of currentsense extends to any substance that leaves a residue for the currents to carry away.

The final form, true currentsense, can detect its surroundings purely by the eddies it has caused in the current. The character’s sense of touch has become so acute it can feel the lightest eddy or divergent current around him.  Similar to the tremorsense ability many of the eyeless aberrations above the waves exhibit, it allows the character to comprehend its surroundings completely without the benefit of sight.  These individuals are to be treated as if they could normally see in a well-lit area of sunlight, and enjoy the +5 circumstance bonus to tracking regardless if the target is leaving substance traces behind or not.

None of the primitive nor civilized races of the Known World of Elqua possess a form of currentsense, though they may temporarily gain them through magic or employ domesticated animals that themselves have the skill.  Such animals are highly sought after, and packbreeders have been known to be able to improve the currentsense in successive generations of those species.

"Swim fast; swim silent; swim deep."
-- the best advice for swimming closer to the Source

Endless Blue - Week 13 - Lumulus

Biology

Lumulus – Alien Minds from the Ocean’s Floor

Swarming along the floor of the Lumulus Basin, between the weeping chemical seeps and bellowing thermal vents are the strange crab-like race of the Lumulus.  Avoiding interaction with other races, they keep behind their side of the border, and keep others on theirs.  Through strange rituals and enigmatic practice they dip into the volcanic apperatures that dot their homesea and produce wonders of art and war that the Known World covets.

Personality: Familiarity from any other source but another Lumulan is offensive to them, and could result in an immediate assault or a later planned ambush.  Otherwise, they tend to keep to themselves, vacillating between periods of slothful inactivity and bursts of manic activity.
Physical Description: Short, squat, and wide bodied, the Lumulans are covered from head to tail in a natural chitinous armor that must be molted every year.  Their hands are a peculiar radial arrangement of three powerful digits, and a series of three more primitive digits alternate between their gill slits.  It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish between male and female Lumulans and gender-confusion is common, so the Lumulans themselves preferred to referred to as the neutral “it” in a further attempt to keep the promiscuous piscean races at a distance.  What is easily discerned is which of the subspecies a Lumulan belongs, by simply noting the coloring of their chitin: the red r’hakol’va (rakova), the blue j’hastog’ke (jastog), and the black m’horst’ki (morski).
Relations: Most other races of Elqua are treated as somewhere between untouchable and feared.  Inter-racial dealings are avoided at most times, with this instinctive avoidance being ignored in brief spurts of trading.  Metals are rare beneath the waves, and those that do not corrode due to the saline water even more so.  This gives the Lumulans a huge economic advantage as they produce metal and glass items for general consumption.
Alignment: The thought processes of the Lumulus are so different than those of other pisceans that they may seem to be chaotic in nature, but the truth is that they lean more towards the lawful part of the spectrum.
Homeseas: The Lumulus Basin is a deep basin buttressed against the Spine of the World.  The floor of the basin is covered in geothermal vents that spew heat and chemicals into the stagnant waters of the lowest levels.
Religion: As hard as it may be to glean the mind of a Lumulan, it does become pretty clear that they view theology as much an alien concept as other Elquans view them.  If they have any faith at all, it would be in the power of science.
Language: Lumulans speak their own complex language, guttural in nature and punctuated heavily with clicks and chirps.  Learning the language is so difficult for non-Lumulans that they must spend two skill points each to learn how to speak and write it, but will be utterly incapable of becoming fluent as the manner in which Lumulans converse is cryptic and obfuscated.  A Lumulan can always tell when a non-native attempts to communicate in this tongue, and it is a dead give-away for individuals trying to disguise themselves as a Lumulan.
Names: There seems to be no gender bias in Lumulan nomenclature.  There are only eight clan names in the entirety of the Lumulus, but sharing the same surname does not indicated close relation.  An apostrophe (‘) in Lumulan is a gulping click from the back of the throat produced by slapping the vocal cords together.
First Names: A’klan’tlo, G’qwash’u, N’kos’zna, T’thikol’she, U’ua’ka
Forgeclan Names: G’dlu’mauex, J’warh’abvo, K’honk’coshe, M’zims’he, N’dlan’gisa, Q’oma’ithi, T’dlang’athi, X’hamel’af
Adventurers: Lumulans make strange party members.  They are difficult to relate to, work alongside, or even communicate with.  For a group of adventurers willing and patient enough to put up with the strange quirks of Lumulan existence, the pay off can be immeasurable.  The few Lumulans that achieve some kind of synergy with non-shellback races still keep them at arm’s distance.

Racial Traits

Ability Adjustments: Dexterity -2, Wisdom +4, Charisma -2
Automatic Class Skills: Decipher Script, Intuit Direction, and Speak Language.  Additionally, Lumulans are the only species with access to Profession (metalsmithing) and Profession (glassblowing), but they are not automatically known.
Skill Bonuses: Appraise +2, Decipher Script +2, Innuendo -2, Sense Motive -2.
Bonus Hit Dice: None
Natural Armor: The shell back of a Lumulan affords them some resistance to damage in the form of damage resistance 2.  This resistance will stack with any other form given by items or situation.  Shed shells are usually kept and consumed in a special ceremony commemorating the experience gained in the past year.
Natural Weapons: They hands serve as crushing claws, dealing 1d6 crushing (bludgeoning) damage as the Lumulan’s fingers constrict and crush whatever is caught between its digits.
Movement: Medium creature (1 cube tall), base speed 20 cubes.
Senses: Ultravision
Buoyancy: Shelf (adjustable)
Trance (Ex): The physiology of the Lumulan brain is so utterly different than that of other pisceans, and that fact is expressed most succinctly in their need to trance. Lumulans do not sleep; instead they enter a meditative state where they are completely aware of their surroundings, but completely incapable of acting on that knowledge.  It is impossible to rouse a trancing Lumulan from its meditative state and they are considered helpless until the required period of trancing elapses.  After any strenuous or extended activity (exiting combat initiative, taking 20 on a skill check, or spending any power points), a Lumulan must succeed a Will save DC 10 plus their level or immediate slip into their trance for a period of time equal to event that triggered the save.  For example, after a combat of four rounds, a 10^th-level Lumulus must make a Will save DC 20 or trance for four rounds.  Events that overlap (such as using psionic points during combat) will not cause the trance to trigger until all qualifying activities have ended.  Otherwise, a Lumulan must trance for four hours to achieve an equal rest to that of a Mer’s eight hour rest.
Improved Grab (Ex): Whenever a Lumulan makes a successful unarmed attack, it may immediately start a grapple as a free action that does not invoke an attack of opportunity.
Favored Class: Lumulans are the only race of the Known World with the ability to affect the waters around them with mere thought.  As such, they can take psionic classes, and do not count any such class against their multi-class levels.
Social Flaw: Xenophobic
Base Height: 3”9” (+ 2d4 in.)
Base Weight: 130 lbs. (+ height mod. x 2d6 lbs.)
Automatic Languages: Lumulan
Bonus Languages: Any.  Lumulans are so adept at languages that they can achieve the epic level feat polyglot as soon as they meet the prerequisites.  They still pay any extra skill points necessary to learn the foreign language.
Level Adjustment: None

The whole nation of the Lumulus Basin is divided into eight smaller states called forgeclans.  More than a family or a nation, all species of Lumulans co-mingle in the populace but maintain a clear respect of individual class and relation.  Each forgeclan specializes in a different aspect of national infrastructure, such as defense, agriculture, health, and so on.

Lumulan individuals are free to belong to any forgeclan they wish – heredity nor wealth play any part in the determination of their forgeclan surname, and a Lumulan may change affiliation multiple times in its lifetime.  This switch may illict ill feelings between individuals on a personal level, but socially it is as common as starting a new career is for other races.

Along with the Chelon, the lobster-like Lumulans are known as shellbacks, and an ongoing hostility has existed between the two races for as long as most can remember.  The Lumulans are just as much the aggressors in these wars as the Chelon, but more due to economic taxation than territorial annexation.

Their natural xenophobia is practically foremost in their unfathomable minds, and they will even relocate a settlement rather than co-exist with other species.  This extends even to themselves, as no Lumulan ethnicity would ever mate with a different one.  Keep in mind, this xenophobia does not originate out of fear or hatred for other races.  The closest it can be explained is that Lumulans cannot “think right” around others.

“Nothing natural is ever seen by looking into the eyes
of  a Lumulan, let alone through them…”
A common Chelon racist remark

Endless Blue - Week 10 - Species of the Endless Blue

Biology

Species of the Endless Blue
Scholars divide the races of Elqua into the civilized and primitive nations.  Claiming enlightened criteria, this dichotomy forced on intelligent species in actuality is an arbitrary and elitist separation based on homeogenic qualities that the societies among the Periphery and Crèche of Civilization share in common: namely a non-representative alphabet, an educational system, a lack of ethnic diversity, and an abandonment of Pantheon worship.  Some hypocrisy remains in this division of higher evolved grouping, as two of the four Civilized races still reproduce oviparously (via egg production) instead of viviparously (live birth); conversely, two of the primitive races carry their children to term.

Civilized Races of the Periphery

Chelon [kappa sapien] – The Chelon are a race in decline, having long ago reached their nation’s height of power and now suffer through the long, agonized slide into obscurity.  Chelon live to great age, but for far too long their birth rate has been outstripped by their natural death rate.  So old is the race that whatever ethnological variation they may have had homogenized into the sole race known of today.   Aristocratic in nature, they gave the Known World many of its inventions, and the Chelon Sea is believed to be the birthplace of magic.  They have chevron-shaped heads with a flat cranium, with small, inset eyes on either side of beaked mouth and a weak chin under that.  They possess a shell from their stooped shoulders that covers their back and most of their notably short tail.  Their skin, while not a bony as the shell on their back, is toughened with calluses.  Along with Lumulus, they are sometimes referred to collectively as “Shellbacks”, and the on-again/off-again war between the two distant nations has been coined after that appellation.
Pl. Chelon; adj. Chelonite

Lumulus [rakovica sapien] – Xenophobic and withdrawn, the Lumulus are the most alien of all the sentient races of Elqua’s Known World.  Masters of heat and the rare metals and glass of the ocean societies, these beings from the Lumulus Basin participate in a detached yet heavy commerce with the other bodies of water.  They possess a haunched, banded exoskeletal shell that they must shed yearly to grow.  Lumulus never stop growing, but only the rarest specimen has ever grown nearly as large as a Mer.  They have two main arms that end with three fingered hands that are heavily yet naturally armored, and a series of three “digits” interspersed between their gill slits.  Their eyes are completely black, and they possess long, fine, wiry hairs from their upper lip.  Perhaps the most notable feature of the Lumulus is their blue blood.  Their society is broken down into eight forgeclans, with their three ethnicities (rakova, jastog, and morski) freely intermixed.   Even though they are separated on either ends of the Known World, the Lumulus and Chelon nations have engaged in hostilities for most of their history.
Pl. Lumulus; adj. Lumulan

Mer [piscean sapien] – A race in ascendance despite some truly tragic self-induced calamities, the Mer are coming into their own.  Half-mammalian and half Piscean, the Mer were the most varied in appearance and were organized into thirteen tribes called “currents”.  These currents each form their own autonomous yet interdependent state under the banner of the Mer species.  At the present time, only eight of those original ethnicities still exist.  Despite this seeming turn toward extinction, the remaining currents are thriving, and now consider their expanse of the known world to be claustrophobic and have begun to look outward for more breathing room.  The Merfolk are perhaps the most diverse coloration (which determines in which current they belong), with a myriad of patterning that varies from family to family.
Pl. Mer, Merfolk (antiquated); adj. Mer

Orcan [cetacean sapien] – Considering themselves to be the first race of Elqua, the Orcans are warrior poets descended from the once marauding Cetacean barbarians.  Their skin is smooth, yet thick, with a rubbery texture that belies the practiced lethality of their martial history.  Ridged folds of skin contract from their where their lower lip would be down over their broad, barrel chests to their solar plexus. Strict vegetarians, this ruffled skin expands on their distendable jaws to swallow massive volumes of water, and the plates hanging from the back of the throat strain the great amounts tiny plankton they need each day to survive.  This does not mean the race is toothless, as they posses a series of similarly spaced out, pointed incisors that can inflict a vicious bite.  Indeed, one of their two subraces – the Narwahl – still feature the pair of dental tusks that jut from the upper lip which the Cetacean Barbarians were so well reknown.
Pl. Orcans, Cetacean (antiquated); adj. Orcan

Ceph [vulgaris sapien] – These are the degenerate descendants of the dominating Kraken.  Considered lower than the Primitive races of the Hinterseas, yet found collectively among even the most effluent societies, the Ceph have proven they are survivors, if anything.  They fill any niche they can, desperately trying to eek out a living in the face of the bigotry leveled against them.  Heightening this estrangement is the curious fact they are the sole intelligent race that does not share the torso/tail morphology common to the sapient races, and instead appear as larger, more advanced octopi capable of speech.  They also posses three subspecies, differentiated by the ridge patterns formed on their foreheads by their cuttle bones.  They all posses the eight limbed form and strange “w”-shaped pupil form of their forefathers, but at a greatly reduced stature.  Ceph do have an interesting natural camouflage ability that helps them hide even in the brightest lit waters of the Shore.
Pl. Ceph; adj. Cephic

Primitive Races of the Hinterseas

Kuoton [kaeru sapien] – The Kuoton are an old race that has harassed the other intelligent races for millennia, using many forgotten secrets of dangerous evils that dwell in the oceans beyond the Known World.  Their form is roughly amphibian, resembling a frog, with slimy skin hanging loose around inflatable jowls and a mouth filled with tiny, needle shaped teeth, giving the species an appearance of having it face smashed flat.  Their blunt snouted head is diminutive in proportion to their bulging, wide-spaced eyes that each posses a sideways nictitating eyelid.  Their arms and tail are thin, but strong, and their hands appear webbed like their tail flukes.  Over all, their oily bodies are reedy except for a paunch around their pelvic flukes.
Pl. Kouton; adj Koutonese

Locanth [peixe sapien] – The Locanth are still a nomadic race, just as their ancient forefathers were, migrating around the Gulf of Locanth in pursuit of their traditional meals.  They have dim, oval eyes on either side of the skull like herbivores, yet they maintain a mostly carnivorous diet.  Since their gaping mouths lack any teeth, and their slender fingered hands do not end with claws, the species on the whole are not aggressive and tend to distrust outsiders.  Large fins sprouting from their arms and sides of their tail work in conjuction with their pelvic fins, making Locanths perhaps the fastest intelligent race on Elqua.  There is little to tell the difference between the male and female of the species other than the dark markings around the female’s egg sacs.
Pl. Locanths; adj. Locanthic

Sahaguin [vis sapien] – Sahaguin are a primitive race, larger than any other of the Known World races save the Cetaceans.  They also have extended fins along their arms and tail like the Locanth, but the more predatory eyes and mouth like the Kouton.  There is little to no fat on the body of a Sahaguin, and the muscles underneath their heavily scaled skin are visibly rippled, like coils traveling from the head down to the tip of their tail.   Over all, they are superbly fit for their predatory lifestyle, and their aggressiveness knows little restraint.  They have maintained a constant animosity to the Mer to such an extent that the two cannot co-exist in the same living area for long before hostilities break out.  They are deathly secretive about their children, and any inquiry about their noted absence results in violence.
Pl. Sahaguin; adj. Sahaguani

Yaun-Teel [anguiliformes sapien] – Originally thought to be an offshoot of the Mer, the Yaun-Teel will usually be mistaken for Mer with a casual glance.  However, upon closer inspection, their subtle eel-like features betray their origins.  Their bodies are lithe and agile, with slender necks and tapered fingers.  Perhaps the most telling feature of their form is that their eyes never blink.  They are a guileful and manipulative race, believing without exception in the superiority of their bloodline.  As such, any adept race other than themselves is considered fair game for slavery, including their close cousins, the Mer.
Pl. Yaun-Til, adj, Yaun-Til

Keep in mind, while these are the races of the Endless Blue setting, they do not define the nationalities beyond the area of the Known World the races first began.  Outside of physical limitations (i.e., the Shelf of the Cetacean Oceans) and national dogma (the xenophobic Lumulus Basin), there are cross border bloodlines: Mer that have lived in the Chelon Seas since the original thirteen currents, or Narwhal in the Sahaguin Lagoons, and the Ceph in nearly every body of water.  Individuals of these multicultural upbringings will have mixed their biological heritage with their societal surroundings to form towns, even metropolises, of unique character and vision.