Legends of the Dreaming Sea - Setting Lore
A collection of the journies you've taken, all recorded dutifully in the hidden journals of Jupiter whose veiled eyes watch the turning of the world.
* * * *
Volivat
Korien once called the shipyards of Volivat home. The strange city built on their superhuman genetics and trove of first-age infrastructure, only partially repaired and even less understood. Beneath the city, strange tunnels run for miles, filled with essence capacitors, the wires and broadcast nodes, and strange blue crystals, the swarms of tiny mechanical spiders which helped maintain them. Somewhere in the depths, though, Volivat has sprung a leak. Not in it's walls, but along the floor of the city - the one direction no one ever expected water to come through. The city has been doing it's best to keep it under wraps and has employed sorcerers to jettison the water while also fixing the leak. Anyone who speaks of this rumour also claims that the waters have different miraculous properties ranging from erasing memories to restoring youth. One woman claimed to have been a man prior to a jet of water bursting up from the ground and leaving him (now her) thoroughly confused.
CHAMPOOR
The city of night, a dark port on an ocean of miracles, and a haven for the roughest lot of sailors for leagues around . . . Champoor is all of these things and more. From its spiraling docks whose piers are lit with blue-flamed lanterns to the Veiled House of Whispers where small prayers are offered up to gods of thievery, death, and things darker yet, it is a city with a wealth of opportunity . . . should you lack the moral compunction that might stop you from seizing it.
The mistress Tenephesu holds ultimate sway here. She appears before her court as a quietly confident woman with alabaster skin, the tracks of black tears stained down her cheeks to frame a wry smile from plush, midnight lips. In her robes shimmer the barely visible images of every dark deed done within her city. Her true form, however, a massive, serpentine dragon whose body is cloaked in dark, undulating waves, has not been seen in centuries . . .
*People say that, once upon a time, the mistress of Champoor was lover to a Lunar champion. Though her paramour is long dead, it is said that, every few years, a man with a strong resemblance to her lost partner disappears into her home, never to be seen again.
*In the Nighted City of Champoor one can find anything illicit for a price, but even then some things are only hearsay. The merchants of the esoteric and strange in the city whisper amongst themselves of a shadowy seller of something even they themselves cannot deal in - dreams. And not only dreams, but a way to make those dreams a reality, instantly. The why and how change each night, as do many details, but one thing remains consistent - watch for the sign of the blue eye on the eastward wall under a bridge at two bells past midnight, turn aside the shadow, and find the stair to the Den of Dreams...
*Gourmand's Dragon - The 'Dragon is an eatery that caters to the few legitimate individuals left in Champoor. Or at least those who want to appear that way. The city isn't entirely composed of criminals, pirates, and corrupt officials and someone has to cater to those people. The fact that the owner's mother was a literal goddess of the culinary arts and that he produces the finest food this side of Creation has done a lot to help with his ability to function. As has the fact that after hours he lets select clients make use of the facility for business meetings, or to store all manner of perishable goods in the essence-chilled warehouse he maintains specifically to stock the restaurant.. on paper at least.
YSYR
The sorcerer kings of Ysyr preside over a nation shaped by the weave and weft of magic. Their power . . . their very forms, are shaped by it. In Ysyr, sorcerers are the masters, and all others slaves. Yet, in their grand vaults and libraries, they possess knowledge lost to the rest of creation, and in the shimmering waters of their scrying pools, they see much that transpires across the Dreaming Sea.
Palanquin
*In Palanquin the people believe they are nearer to the gods than others, and the city is full of shrines, temples, and offerings as a result - and of course none deserve more than the Incarnae, for their seats in Heaven are thrones from which they may rule the cosmos. And yet, in that city close to Heaven, the grand temple of Ignis Divine sits dusty, nigh-empty. Dilapidated, disused, staffed only by a few sorry priests, their relics nearly gone either from theft or used to pay taxation. Yet the few that remain are reputed to be some of the most steadfast, wise folk in the whole of the East. Either that, or the most foolish.
*The Auspice of Martial Glory is a monastic order dedicated to the protection of Palanquin and its environs from threats that cannot be deterred with spiritual propitiation or the city guard. A rowdy and boisterous bunch for the most part, with an intimate understanding that they might all end up dead from biting off more than they can chew but they'll give it a good try anyway. Well liked and respectable, but the extreme training in mystical lore and physical might make them a... Difficult bunch to join, unless you started at a very early age, but at least they're willing to take in any offered children in exchange for a promise of protection and the Auspice's support in any spiritual affairs for the next generation--so there's always a bunch of ragamuffins running around learning how to crush skulls with their bare hands. How cute!
THE FAR EAST
Ixcoatl is a nation 70 kings whose power is said to descend not only from their opulent wealth, but from an ancient grace granted them by the gods themselves. Their army of cleric knights garbed in garlands of feathers and helmets of gold serve their rulers with unquestioning zeal. The Ixcoatli elite cultivate library-gardens - places where vines knotted in their rope-writing and topiary serve as a spectacular medium for poetry and epigrams that the master of the garden wishes to express herself with.
THE DREAMING SEA
*Along the southern coast of the Dreaming Sea lays a massive formation of black marble shot through with veins of gold crystal and shaped -as if by the hand of a giant- into a great spout and bowl. From the spout flows liquid fire. Not lava, or hot water with red dye in it as Ember heard one of the merchants travelling there theorise. Actual flame turned to liquid. Because of this artisans and blacksmiths from around Creation will venture to the Burning Fountain to supplicate themselves before the goddess who claims the Demense as her own, seeking her permission to use on of the twenty-five forging stations erected around the basin that the spout of flame empties into. Most are turned away, many wait their turns.. and even more come to try and purchase goods forged in the unusual fires to then sell to Creation's wealthy for astronomical prices.
*Merchants ply the Dreaming Sea in droves, their ships racing to and fro under the sun. Those that don't with to risk the markets of Champoor, or simply aren't going that way, may chance their luck with the water-bound folk of the Raft Fleet, a motley and eclectic flotilla of ships in styles from all across Creation's waterways with only one thing in common: Family. The Raft Fleet consider each other their extended family, even where no blood connection exists. For them, the common life they share aboard their ships, constantly traveling the Dreaming Sea for trade and defense, is all they need. When they are on the move each ship has their own Captain, but when the Fleet is anchored and their ships and rafts connected and bridged they function more like individual homes, and the buck stops at the Admiral. The current Admiral is Orange Chaudra, so named because of her particular affection for the color in her fashions and decorating. The Raft merchants will buy and sell just about anything, trade being their lifeblood, and they aren't particularly squeamish about smuggling and fencing less than legal things either, making them a favorite of thieves and other smugglers - and also producing most of their various run-ins with the law, though few officers want to take on a whole fleet of angry boat-folk with who knows how many weapons. They have a rough reputation and are slow to trust, but make friends and they'll be friends for a long time.
*"The demon lord Chathhavee / plies a dhow on the Dreaming Sea / Inside the dhow a painted box / Beside the paint are forty locks / Beyond the locks a crystal clear / Within which no single tear / Is shed or sorrow be / In the paradise of Chathhavee." But whoever cannot answer Chathhavee's forty riddles, it is said, shall be imprisoned into another crystal, a prison of torment.
*The Dreaming Sea is full of problems--and many of them gather at the secret port of Savorai--a place where any rogue god, bold faerie, or menacing demon can find the rarest and most valuable contraband the Direction can offer--where anything can be found if only a suitable price can be paid, ruled by a mysterious figure known as the Daimyo of Abyssal Passage.
*The Eternal Isle - "Its true I tell you, the Eternal Island is real. I washed ashore there after the storm destroyed the Sea Swallow. At first it seemed like a paradise the sea was always calm, the weather always fair, the terrain easy like the manicured grounds of the estate." The elderly sailor shuddered at the memory and Korien politely ordered another round, as he replied "It doesn't sound so bad, what went wrong." The sailor to a deep swig from his mug before continuing "Nothing changed there, I couldn't even cut down the trees to make my raft, had to use driftwood that washed ashore. No food, no water, for some reason the thirst and hunger didn't affect my body, but they tore at my mind. The worst thing though was this feeling that I was being watched, that I wasn't welcome and every day the feeling grew until I thought I was going mad. I don't know how long it but eventually I gathered enough materials to make that raft you found me on, even when I thought I was going to die in the storm... I just felt relieved to finally be off that accursed island."
*The Dreaming Sea is a colossal encroachment of Water in a field dominated by Fire and Wood--almost as far away as you can get from the Pole of Water without actually leaving the borders of Creation. It is said by some that a terrible spirit of water was chained here in prehistoric times, and from its blood spilled a great ocean over what was once a colossal wound in the world, creating a new and wondrous place that captured the attention of many great sages from ancient times.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:41, Wed 17 Oct 2018.
