Flooded Realms Lore Dump One

High Concepts

This is first of the lore dump posts for the Shallow Sea. The setting lore has been edited to bring it more in line with the ACKS II cosmology, and game play expectations laid out in the Judges Journal. I have also taken this time to clear up some personal quibbles I’ve had with my own earlier world building. Largely having to do with religion in the setting. This article is just a brief overview of a few key areas, more detailed articles are to come soon. Hope you enjoy.

High Concept

The Shallow Sea is the central region of the Flooded Realms. It has seen host to several large maritime kingdoms, many of whom have fallen into obscurity. Prior to being covered, it was a center of an advanced magical civilization which has lead to many strange relics and creatures inhabiting the waters and islands.

The Realm

The Flooded Realms is a troubled Celestial Sphere. All habitable land is contained to small micro-continents and islands floating in a vast ocean. Worse still, this ocean is charged with Arcane Energy, filled with mighty beasts, and still bears all the normal hazards of sea travel. How the Realms came to be this way is unknown to its inhabitants, it is known however that somewhere in the vast Pelagic Plane, there is a connection to an Elemental Sphere of Water, which is alleged to be the source of the strangeness. While this connection has been proved by the arcane delving of wizards, no one has ever located it physically. Those who travel out on the Pelagic Plane return changed, if they return at all.

The Sight

The Sight is the ability to view the mystical currents that swirl and eddy off of the ocean. These currents, while not dangerous in and of themselves, carry useful information about the goings on in the local region. They might warn of snap storms forming, or the approach of some deep sea predator, or the sudden appearance of a whirlpool. While The Sight is Arcane in nature, not all those who posses it are spellcasters, and not all spellcasters posses it (though most do). Many people are born with it, and they are invariably taken to one of the Glass Towers to be tested and taught to manage their gift. Others acquire it later in life, after interacting with power sources of Arcane Energy, generally in the form of an Artifact or Locus. These are often driven insane from the new sensory input, though some survive with their faculties intact. Often, the best and most prized navigators acquire The Sight in this manner, as an existing inclination towards adventure is perquisite for such an acquisition. Navigating the seas relies on having the Sight, and a device capable of aligning the ship’s own energies favorably with the existing currents. There is some debate among Navigators whether such alignments physically affect the ship’s path across the ocean or not, or if they instead affect the actual route itself, bending it into a more predictable shape. Regardless of the truth of the matter, Navigation is reliable enough for shipping lanes to exist and for time tables of various routes to be known. Navigators will often try to explain the process to those without the sight, but invariably these efforts all fail. Phrases like “Orthogonal Aural Vector” or “Ethereal coordinate bearing” have no meaning to one who can’t see the Currents.

Regional Information

The world was not always covered in ocean everywhere you looked. Historical and Mythological sources disagree wildly on whence the Deluge came, or how any land was spared its wrath. According the Histories of the Sodden Wastes by Heon the Mystic, the Shallow Sea was once home to great and proud league of mages. They, seeking to tap a source of Arcane Power beyond any yet seen, cast a great incantation that caused the flood. The sacred carved coral spires of the Dwellers states that the waters were a punishment from their god, who vomited up the seas to drown the blasphemies of the surface-walkers. The bedtime stories of peasant children everywhere speak of a man living in through a seemingly endless drought who begged a cruel djinn to put a stop to it. These histories and more abound, some closer to the truth, some further away. But all do agree on one point, the Shallow Sea was the start. The epicenter of the waters, from where all the other fountains and wells draw their source.

The Shallow Sea was once a normal continent, but is now subsumed by the waves. The depth in the region only reaches around two miles at its deepest point (the Dweller’s Capital of Benthia), with an average depth of only 3000 ft. This keeps the region protected from the true sea monsters of the Pelagic Plane, as only the smallest of beasts can bear the straights and channels for long. The Arcane nature of the oceans is also subdued somewhat, meaning travel can be concocted reliably between the various dry land areas of the region. Requiring only a navigator with the ability to read the mystical currents (The Sight), and a device capable of aligning the ship’s own energy along the most favorable routes. Each race has their own version of such devices, some more reliable than others.

Races and Factions

Humanity

Humanity fared relatively well in the post-deluvian millennia. Always adaptable and dependable, they set to building ships and learning the ins and outs of traveling. Their method of Navigation relies on a series of candle created with wax infused with arcane reagents. It is the most flexible of the various methods, allowing humans to Navigate towards danger rather than simply away. Because of this oddity, humans have essentially free reign on the open ocean, and often sail beyond known routes in search of new land. This allows them to expand rapidly and claim territory they can’t always hold.

1. The Kingdom of Salmaeus
   

   A human kingdom, once flourishing, now dealing with the effects of a large population with limited resources. While the Royal Navy commands great respect on the open waters, internally people starve in the slums of the Seven Cities. It’s ruler is king Barristan IV, whose seat is in the Royal City of Argos nestled in the bosom of the Sharks Maw Mountain range. Under him are the six Dockdukes, rulers of each of the lesser cities (Highgarde, Idletwine, Falsmouth, Dawnsport, Bastion and Kingsbelt).

2. The Grande Company
   

   The Grande Company is the official mercenary arm of the Kingdom. Those interested in becoming privateers, delvers or other not strictly legal professions that still need doing may sign up with their local chapter-house. The Company is responsible for beginning the settlement of King’s Grasp and creating the settlement of Gleamshottes Folly. Members receive tax incentives, so sign up today.

3. The Church of the One
   

   Worship of the One is a somewhat complicated affair. Most of the laity, if asked, would say that they worship Aquanea, god of water, poisons, and justice. However, the priest class of the Church would explain that the truth of the matter is that Aquanea is one of two overseer spirits of immense power appointed by the One. However, one of these spirits, Sulfuras, rebelled against his duty at some point in the past. Mankind, and indeed a portion of all the mortal races soon followed in rebellion. In light of this, the One departed from the world, promising a time in which he would send a savior. As a parting gift, he set Aquanea over those who had remained faithful saying that for the time until the savior arrived, he was to be their protector and provider. The Church is the only recognized Lawful religion and while most of its authority is concentrated among humanity, there are adherents from every race. It is generally respected throughout the shallow sea.

4. The Seven Towers
   

   The Seven Towers are the collection of magical scholars scattered across the land. The magicians who inhabit it are part of an order informally known as the Glass Order. The is due to their peculiar habit of adorning their towers with enchanted glass of various kinds. Each of the seven cities bears one of these towers, as an outpost of Arcane Learning. These are: The Clear-Glass Tower in Argos, the capital of Salmeaus, The Steel-Glass tower in Idletwine, The Shatter-Glass (a broken and incomplete tower, unlikely to ever be repaired) in Dawnsport, The Smoke-Glass tower in Bastion, The Harvest-Glass Tower in Kingsbelt, and the two most impressive towers the Sea-Glass tower in Falsmouth, and the Fire-Glass Tower (a tower bedecked with Obsidian) in the order’s capital, Highgarde. The Seven Towers are invaluable in enforcing the Edict on mind-altering magic, and ensuring those with the Sight are properly trained to manage its side effects.

5. Bloodwater Bay
   

   Pirates, outcasts and scalawags. The various men (and beastmen) of Bloodwater Bay live outside of the jurisdiction of Salmaeus and practice piracy and poaching with wild abandon. It’s most noted establishment is The Drowned Merwhore a tavern of ill repute and ill omen. Traditionally run by the self-styled pirate king, this bar will serve all customers, even the odd navy-man out for a bit of slumming. It is rumored to hide a portal to a distant land in the basement behind powerful illusion magic.

Elves

The elves are the only race who can remember the land before the flood, if dimly. Their numbers have dwindled vastly, but the various enclaves are able to communicate across vast distances via scrying pools known as “Moon wells.” However, they are poor travelers. While all elves are born with the Sight, attempts to influence their energies while on a voyage are intolerable to them. As such, when the Flood waters came they built colony ships. These consisted of huge, magically lacquered hulls that completely isolate the environment inside from the world. The interiors where able to support around 2000 elves in perpetuity. They floated this way, blind to the world and the world blind to them, hoping to strike habitable land. Many never did. Some of these ships float still, and finding one is cause for celebration. With this in mind, it is cause for wonder when elves who have land choose to travel away from them via other means. When they do so, they often board human vessels, and are legendarily sea-sick for their troubles. Some high merchant ships who do business with elves have special isolation quarters for their guests.

1. The Lunar Circle
   

   The remains of the Elven Civilization in the region. They live on two giant semi-stationary mangrove swamps. The circle has been engaged in a cold civil war for the past hundred years, primarily over their unfortunate relationship with the uplifted lizardmen tribes. Currently ruled by Lunarch Altimer, there has been staunch resistance and outcry from his fellow Lunarch Terras. Terras wishes the elves to re-involve themselves in the world, first by riding it of the lizardmen, whom he and his cohort consider an abomination and stain on the elves honor.

Dwarfs

1. The Iron Clans
   

   Of all the civilizations in the region, the Dwarfs fared the least bad initially. They stopped up the tunnels to their mountain homes and began digging up. It is whispered that the ant nest of tunnels crisscross the entire Shallow Sea, but that traveling them is dangerous. Perhaps even more so than the open ocean. Dwarven Settlements tend to take the form of towering stacks of steel and stone, often known called “sea mines.” These outcroppings often from major points of resupply for long ship voyages. However, dwarfs have a major weakness, they flatly can not gain the Sight. This naturally means they have difficulty traveling over the ocean on their own. In recent times they have begun developing crystal devices capable of doing the job, however these are notoriously unreliable and often a ship using one is eaten.

Monstrous Races (Playable)

1. Lizardmen Tribes
   

   The Lizardmen (more properly called Istamenosaurs, literally “Standing Lizards”) were originally all savage monsters. They built no villages, dwelt no-where and struggled against nature for their every meal. However, they were strong, bred rapidly, and their essence malleable. The Elves of the elder days, fearing the more numerous mortal races, saw a potential weapon. Decades of experimentation and Arcane Cross-Breeding with stock acquired from other races eventually lead to a race of intelligent beings who retained much of their progenitors strength and ferocity. Even more time passed, and the breeding proclivities of the uplifted lizards went the way all slave races go and they rebelled against their elven masters. Eventually winning their own sections of floating mangrove forests, and small swampy islands to call their own. However, their savage forbears still remain. Both are dangerous, though it is arguable which is more so. The savage Istamenosaurs kill on sight, while the so called Civilized Lizardmen might be willing to talk. But often, talk leads inevitably to violence.

2. The Dwellers
   

   Known more commonly as Merfolk or Fishmen (depending on one’s attitude) the Dwellers are an amphibious race who make their homes in the sunken cities below the waters. Little is known about their culture, as visiting one of their strongholds is difficult, and they would not be too keen on a person showing up uninvited. However, it is known that the consider themselves to be of the same stock as humanity, only degenerated with the state of the world. The Dwellers are a religious folk, all paying some homage to their god, Wiltoko. According to them, Wiltoko watches from the sky, one eye the sun, and the other the moon. They contend that Wiltoko vomited out the oceans and cursed them to live beneath it in a fit of rage over some blasphemy (the details of which they refuse to share with outsiders). They also believe the Wiltoko will eventually once again dry up the sea, and grant them claim to the land again. In preparation for this, they often make long pilgrimages on land, acclimating to life above the waves. Dwellers on such pilgrimages are common sights outside of the protected areas of Salmeaus.

Unique Flora and Fauna

A selection of some of the Flora and Fauna unique to the Shallow Sea.

Flora

• Quick Pine (Pinus Celere): A gift from the Lunar Druids of the Floating Grove during the time of the Tri-Fold Compact, Quick Pine is capable of growing to full height in only a single season of growth. A staple of the Salmaen Shipbuilding industry, it can easily over take entire regions it not carefully maintained.

• Leyline Fungus (Cantharellus Arcanum): A semi-natural fungus that occurs in regions of high Arcane alignment. They are very important alchemical reagents, and can also be rendered into a paste that once consumed may grant a person The Sight for a short time, or suppress The Sight in one who already has it. Gathering mushrooms is often a task given to novitiate mages of the Seven Towers. This process is made complicated by the existence of False Leyline Fungus (Hygrophoropsis Hypnum) a fungus that is completely useless for magical purposes and is often guarded by an unfriendly species of giant beetle.

• Sentient Seaweed (Cualerpaceae Sentis): An uncommon type of green seaweed whose interleaved structure carries light pulses from a central mass. It is believed to be able to perceive the world in much greater detail than most plants. Many seasoned sea captains carry tanks of it as a sort of good luck charm, claiming that the more patches collected from and added to the colony, the smarter it grows.

Fauna

• Diamond Oyster (Pinctada Adamantis): A very rare form of giant oyster. These live at the very bottom of the Shallow Sea and filter the ocean floor. They often pick up Gold, Jewels and other valuables as irritants. They break these down into a lump of lucre. Several noble families were founded when their patriarch recovered such an oyster, making the Oyster a common noble crest.

• Speaking Fish (Exocoetidae Dicans): Also known as the Oracle Fish, this species of Flying Fish has a throat pouch similar to that of a frog. With this unusual vocal organ, it is capable of making several words in common. Stranded ships whose navigators were killed have been known to teach them “Yes” and “No” and used them to set a course for land. This method of oracular navigation has middling success, although Glass Order scholars claim this practice is mere superstition and that the fish is incapable of actually performing navigation.

• Salt Boar (Sus Salis): The Salt Boar was an experiment in meat preservation. Bred by an insane mage of the Sea-Glass tower, the Salt boar is meant to drink salt water for a few weeks before slaughter, thereby preserving the meat without need for processing. However, this didn’t work at all, and instead Salt Boars instead are capable of filtering immensely salty water and passing clean urine. The excess salt is stored in deposits under their skin. They are prized animals for long travel, but having to rely on their abilities for a ship’s only source of clean water has caused more than its share of mutinies.

Foes of the Shallow Sea

A few of the named creatures that dot the Shallow Sea, as well as a selection of the more numerous and “mundane” creatures.

Named Creatures

• Thunderer: A Hydra located in the Coasts of Conquest, an unclaimed archipelago of which King’s Grasp is just the first island. Thunderer lives on the neighboring island, and is named for its immense bellowing.

• The Watchman: A massive stone being located near the northern most Sea Mine. Normally still, and disguised as a mountain, the watchman will occasionally become animate and smash a ship for the crime of passing near it.

• Mudscuttler: Mudscuttler is a giant crab who lives in waters around Bloodwater Bay.

• Wavemaker: A juvenile Kraken who occasionally wanders into the Shallow Sea. A big as a Salmean 100 gun ship, an encounter with Wavemaker is usually deadly.

Mundane Monsters and non-player monstrous races

• Coral Skeletons: Those lost at sea often do not find their rest. Their spirits wander the foam and waves while their bones are consumed and reborn into shambling coral colonies. These walking reminders of the perils of the ocean wash up on shore occasionally, but are more often drawn to places of high Arcane activity. Sunken Mages Towers, Islets thrust up by a sudden withdrawal of the water, a rumored Necropolis where even the dwellers refuse to explore are all prime locations for one to encounter these. Be sure to take care, as the living nature of coral afford these skeletons a certain hardiness not shared by “normal” necromantic beings. As such, they enjoy an AC bonus of 2 and are turned as undead of hit-dice 3 instead of 1.

• Beastmen: Various beastmen tribes exist, though notably they are quite rare on mainland Salmeaus. It is unknown for sure where they come from, the most commonly held belief is that they are born of poison mud leftover from particularly filthy sections of ocean receding. All the standard types my be found across the Shallow Sea.

• Dockdrakes: Dockdrakes are actually related most closely to Monitor Lizards, and incapable of breathing fire. However, they are vicious hunters and reasonably trainable. Used most often by dock masters to prevent vermin from growing too numerous.

• Hydrascorpions: An entire genus of scorpions ranging from about the size of a hand to the size of a small dog. Hydrascorpions are notable for their numerous tails, sporting up to ten. Contrary to popular belief these tails do not grow back when severed, but instead serve as both a delivery mechanism for deadly poison and a nursery. Hyrdascoprions bearing young are easily identified by the egg sac or young clinging to the length of their tails.

• Giant Clans: With the exception of Ogres (whom most giants would not consider true giants), the various clans of giants do quite well. Fire and Frost giants live semi-nomadically, taking up residences of islands for years at a time before building fleets of outrigger canoes and departing again. Why they do this is not known, but it is rumored they are searching for something. Stone and Hill giants are more sedentary, and live primarily around Dwarven Sea mines. Storm and Cloud giants also survived, as their customary floating fortresses are little affected by the conditions of the surface. However, they are more aloof than their kin and their existence is not widely known.

Locations of Import

These are areas which are important, but not necessarily connected to a race or factions homeland directly. The locations are often the subject of rumor and speculation, even the occasional expedition to them.

The Displaced Tower

Early in the construction of Gleamshottes Folley on Kingsgrasp Island, a mage banished from the Order made some trouble by magicking away an entire guard tower, and placing it on a tidal sandbar. Then challenging anyone to come and reclaim it, promising a great reward. The tower itself has become an important landmark on the way from Salmeaus to Kingsgrasp, and many a sailor has drunkenly claimed to have stopped there and approached the tower, only to find it locked and no entry possible.

Firegrass Isle

A volcanic island in the Northwest portion of the Shallow Sea, Firegrass Island has recently become the home of a tribe of Fire Giants. They have started an exaction work at the base of the mountain which can be seen from the ocean. The dwarves of the Northern Seamine have long claimed that Firegrass was once the site of a mighty metal works, powered by the blood of the mountain, but that the entire thing was flooded and ruined.

Wavestone Keep

Wavestone Keep is an oddity. A large structure made of Wavestone (a stone similar to Basalt, but much more buoyant), it was originally the work of a Salmean nobleman who wanted a mobile castle. This didn’t work and the structure was lost to the tides, only to be claimed by a tribe of savage lizardmen. It floats rather aimlessly, washing up on the shores of islands occasionally, which the lizardmen proceed to raid. It’s been said that the actual structure itself is poorly designed and would be easy to take and reclaim, but no-one yet has bothered.

The Marsh Ziggurat

On Bloodwater Island, at the very southern tip which juts into the Pelagic Plane, there is a large wetlands. In the center of these wetlands is a ziggurat of unknown origin. It bears Arcane symbols about its exterior, but these have never been translated. The pirates of Bloodwater Bay have organized sorties to delve the structure and recover any treasure there, but these have all inevitably lead to the death of all the participants.

Seasonalis

Seasonalis is the official designation for the island most people refer to as “Faelight Island.” Located on a very useful shipping lane between Salmeaus, the southern sea mines and the Summer and Fall location of the mangrove islands of the elves, this island gives off a bright light, similar to a lighthouse and warns of a series of coral reefs. This light changes its character by the season as the island also radically changes its appearance. Those who have landed there and returned report that it is desolate and barren however.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first look into the setting. The next post in this series will be more mechanically focused and be a realm breakdown of the Kingdom of Salmeaus as well as the human classes that go into the setting. Some of these are ported from the Auran Empire setting and re flavored, while others are completely custom. I plan to do one of these for each playable race, and also intersperse some monster stats and lairs here and there. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated!

E-begging:

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