Aesthetics

Kouton: Illustrated

The Kouton have a natural “blush”, a change of pigmentation in their skin that betrays their emotional state.  The blush is autonomic and is a dead give away of their temperament.  In the traditional culture of Kouton Bay, denizens wear long, loose robes and hide their faces behind a draped mask in accordance with the taboo of not letting others gain insight into your mindset.  After all, being able to visibly tell what another is feeling gives you an edge in negotiating with them.

However, there are Kouton in the Endless Blue that have immigrated from the Bay of Kouton into the other Fluid Nations, and some of those, as Naiche Washburn has illustrated here, may have chosen to turn their backs on that ancient tradition of hiding their bodies.

Kouton Female and Kouton Male, by Naiche Washburn.

You can visit Naiche’s Wix Gallery to view more of his work.  This is just a portion of the work he’s done for the Endless Blue setting: there’s more to come!

Theology

Suminarae, the True Lie

Suminarae is a contradictory Goddess that makes sense.  She is Goddess of beauty and peace, the lie of the outside belying what is within.  Not all that is beautiful on the inside is reflected on the outside, just as inner peace does not quell the unrest of others.  That is where the trickery comes in, the subterfuge, the lies.

She espouses the lies that heal, the passing falsehoods that make up idle talk.  The perfect false self protect the flawed true self from harm.  This is the image of substance, the protection of deceit.  This is why She believes in keeping the populace ignorant, as ignorance is blissful peace.  The romantic metropolis as opposed to the true city, the beautiful seascape versus the monotonous blue, there is ugliness in the truth, and balm in the lies.

It was Suminarae that found the world of Elqua for the Pantheon, that slaughtered its indigenous pisceans to make room for the Pantheon’s immigration.   The race that loathed itself, that denied their own worth, beckoned to Her from across the planes.  They were practically begging for sweet release, and it is Suminarae that now lies about that horror, that covers it up with the lie of omission.

But the Insidious Doubt has more secrets that define Her.  Perhaps the most unexpected lie of Suminarae is that She is not whom Her flock worships.  She is, in fact, the shard of Trishna known as Tornesh, the male twin/face of the Binity of Desire.  Be it the seduction of lies, the lust for the beauty, or the luck of random chance, Tornesh is now a twisted falsehood of His former half-self, a fully free Goddess at peace with Her lies.

Suminarae, the Omission, the True Lie, the Hidden Truth, Insidious Doubt, She Who Knows, Malvy of the Deceit

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Symbol: Pearl clenched in a scorpionfish’s mouth.
Domains: Chaos, Healing, Luck, Travel, Trickery.
Preferred Unguis (weapon): Spine
Clerical Unguis of Choice: Spear
Cleric Alignment: Chaotic evil, Chaotic good, chaotic neutral, true neutral.

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In the fall of 2013, I had the pleasure of commissioning a series of nine digital paintings by Vincent Coviello (V4m2c4 on DeviantArt).  Each image has a tight line drawing, a full color illustration (as seen below), and a final background composite.  Many of the magnificent details in these drawings came from Vincent himself, and his input was spot on.  During the whole process I could not help myself from checking my email compulsively for the newest sketch or update.  I may have suffered a little bit of withdrawal when he finished the project.

Illustrations of the player races in the Endless Blue Campaign Setting.

 

This and some of his other work has been recently featured on IO9.com in the article “Can We Please Have More Diverse Dragon Designs Like These?”  His hard work and talent are plain to see.  It was a pleasure working with Vincent, and hopefully, someday I will again…

Sociology

Societies Submerged in Shadow

Just as there are great dangers lurking in the dark of the ocean abyss, there are conspiratorial organizations hiding among the pisceans of Elqua.  Spoken of in hushed tones, these manipulative groups seek power and wealth for their own purposes, and are quite willing to sacrifice anything, or anyone, that tries to impede them.  They are the shadow societies of the Endless Blue, the moving dark that works for its own sake.

Economics

The Pecuniary Stream

The major flow of trade amongst the Fluid Nations takes place via a route known as the Pecuniary Stream.  This jet stream is like the Silk Road or the Oregon Trail — a lengthy yet well-travelled course across the Known World that caravans frequently follow, bringing trade goods to settlements along the path.  The branching route covers over 9,000 kilometers and has tributaries in each of the eight homeseas, making it a major factor in the flourishing of civilization on Elqua.

Biology

Vitruvian Sahaguin

Prowling the waters south of the Creche of Civilization are the aggressive Sahaguin.  The area is known as the Sahaguin Lagoons, and is most notable for its shallow, submerged plains.  These plains support a disproportionate amount of life that straddles the border between the waters and the Vastness.  Great trees grow up out of the water, breaking the surface and blooming in the Vastness.  The ecosystem here has evolved in such a way as the lines between surface aberration and aquatic society have become blurred.  Great, massive creatures, like extraterrestrial dinosaurs, wade through these waters.  And among their footsteps, the Sahaguin hunt.

Biology

Vitruvian Kouton

Secretive and reclusive, the Kouton originate from the south-western part of the Known World, but have since migrated to the other Fluid Nations.  Despite whatever settlement or society they choose to dwell amongst, inevitably the instinctive Kouton secrecy keeps them from becoming fully integrated.  Not anti-social, Kouton still find it hard to form intimate bonds with others of their own kind, let alone the other sentient races of Elqua.  The deep seated compulsion to hoard information, collect precious secrets and obscure knowledge, makes a Kouton seem cold and difficult.  They simply do not profer details unbidden.  A charismatic speaker that knows how to frame questions that illicit more information from a listener will find an easier time conducting a conversation with these reluctant people.

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For those hesitant to read through the ENDLESS BLUE website and its in depth exploration of the water world known as Elqua, I have provided a short synopsis of the 9 playable races you can choose from in the game:

Elqua is a unique world in many ways.  Larger than our own, it possess only a fraction of the land surface, and thus life had little choice but to develop fully beneath the waves.  The result of this isolation produced not one, but nine sentient races to colonize the planet, each one vying with other eight for resources, opportunity, and even simple room to grow.

Physics

The Colorful World of the Endless Blue

“A big blue marble in the Vastness” is an obvious image of Elqua, the world of the Endless Blue Setting.  A world covered 95% in water, the seas appear as a single all-encompassing ocean.  When so little land breaks the surface of the planet’s encompassing oceans, such expansive swaths of blue veritably swallow the world into a giant sphere of blue.  But such a bias is unfair to the spectral wonders of the world, because Elqua is home to some of the most colorful vistas the mind could ever imagine.

Ecology

Occlusion of the Pristine Sapphire

Supporters of the Source and to a lesser extent Pantheon worshipers have recently come into opposition with the church of Olyhydra over many ideals other than dogma, but one in particular seems to be a dividing line: the environment.  Olyhydrans push the progress of piscean advancement through the sacrifice of nature, resulting in pollution that is having an impact on sealife and sentient life alike. Pantheonists and Source believers are pushing for a respect of the natural order through the elimination of wanton waste and increased sanitation.  The Lumulus are partially to blame as well as the Olyhydrans due to the handiwork of their oresmiths, while the Kelpygmies are unknowingly on the same side as the Pantheonists.