Endless Blue – Week 100 – The Shore: Illustrated

Aesthetics

The Shore: Illustrated

The world beneath the surface of Elqua’s waters is by no means a homogeneous horizon.  Not only is the sea bed littered with myriad biomes, but the sea floor itself varies.  Pisceans categorize the waters into three different zones.  These zones, based on the depth of the sea floor, determine the purpose of the territory in each homesea.

The first of these zones is the Shore.  It is comprised of the area stretching from where water reaches the land to the depths at which the warmer colors of the spectrum naturally absorbed by the surrounding water.  At 15 feet, the wavelengths of the color red are filtered.  It takes another 10 feet for orange to fade, and around the 35 to 45 ft mark, it becomes yellow’s turn to wane.  This depth of water, where lighter colors taper off and the darker one close in, marks the boundary between the Shore and the next zone.

Following the lessening wavelengths of light is important for aquaculture — the science of growing food submerged in water.  Plant life, be it based on the green chlorophyll found in phytoplankton or the purple retinal used by rhodoarchaea, needs light to photosynthesize.  If the plant cannot make food from available light, it inevitably dies.  This makes the areas of the Shore where most all of the sun’s light penetrates prime land for raising crops.  Deeper than the Shore, and not enough light reaches the fields for the plants to grow significantly.  But despite this, the Shore is not a farmer‘s paradise.

So close to the surface, the aberrations of the Vastness prey upon the flora and fauna of the Shore.  With waters so clear you can see to the sandy bottom, pisceans must constantly keep themselves and their livestock protected from predators above the waves.  The sky lancer is an example of a surface aberration that can spot prey from above and dive down into the water to skewer it.  Unfortunately, many of the aberrations above eclipse the sky lancer in size and reach…

The Shore by Domenico Neziti

Here we see an example of the shallow waters of the Shore, colorfully illustrated by Domenico Neziti.  Domenico has done work as a colorist on Dust Wars for Image Comics, Star Wars: Empire #38 & 39 for Dark Horse Comics, and more recently illustrations for Green Ronin Publishing.  Working for the Endless Blue, I think he’s outdone himself here.  The rippling of the water above, and the criss-crossed refraction of light on the sea bed are amazing!

Check back next week for more of Domenico’s work, and a glimpse into the next zone of life in the Endless Blue!