Sociology

Fashion Regardless of Form

For some reason, there is a persistent notion that an aquatic race would not wear clothing, that fabric adorning the body would impede their ability to function in their natural surroundings. This is a mistaken assumption.

Just because a species evolves in a specific environment does not automatically make them immune to the effects of that climate. We see this seeming contradiction to be true in nature. When the sun goes down for the night, many animals cluster together for warmth. Others build shelter to protect them from the elements, despite having adapted to their biome through evolution.

Sociology

Elqua Calidus — the World Scalders

Little else instills such terror in pisceans as the thought of being boiled alive.  The searing pain as the vital water needed to survive cooks you from within, the blistering of flesh and scale as the animus vitae is leached from your body, all the while helpless to do anything to stop the enervation of your body.  It is the stuff of nightmares for fry and adult alike.  This is the dread of boil magic, and it banned across the oceans of Elqua.  Yet there are a few who embrace the boiling and wield it willingly.  These are the Elqua Calidus — the World Scalders.

Sociology

Cruor Druids: Wielders of the Red Tides

There is seldom ever been a culture that did not produce some disenfranchised soul.  Elqua’s Fluid Nations are no different, except perhaps in the form those radical elements coalesced.  They call themselves Cruor Druids, wielders of the red tide, and they have no love for society.  What drove them to despising the modern world is inconsequential.  In all cases it is basically the same intrinsic idea: society is ruining the world.

The common trait shared by all Cruor Druids is the dismay at society’s disregard for the natural order.  Each sees some fatal flaw in their culture’s belief system that, left unchecked, can only result in the ruin of their species.  That same society has turned a deaf ear the druid’s pleas for a return to a more conducive time.

Their warnings unheeded, Cruor Druids inevitably feel pressured into leaving the civilization that created them and instead live in the wild.  Preferring to remain in the seclusion of nature, the unyeilding expansion of Fluid Nation cities into wilderness brings them back into contact, and conflict, with the Cruor Druids.

Sociology

The Vexillifer — Chronicler of the Tides

The oceans of Elqua have run red with blood just as often as they flowed their welcoming blue.  From the unpredictable outbreak of the Shellback Wars, through the rise and fall of the Cetacean Hordes, to the world-shaking domination of the Kraken Occupation, conflict has left devastation in its wake.  No nation has been spared the catastrophic havoc of war.

The disruptive effect of warfare led to the creation of the Vexillifer.  Chaos in the heat of battle leaves even the most hardened veteran disoriented, and the aftermath of that combat definitely leaves those living in those places bewildered and traumatized.  War destroyed their homes, broke apart their families, and left them adrift…

Bringing order to that strife is the purpose of vexillifers.  Vexillifers are essentially witnesses for navies.  They have the responsibility to keep their company in cohesion, to chronicle the tides of battle, and to codify for posterity the consequences of war.  They are also burdened with the responsibility of notifying the next of kin of their fallen comrades.

Sociology

Fugu Spines

Fugu spines are the defensive spikes used by the pufferfish to deter predators.  A spine, when removed, appears like a shallow tripod made of calcium with an long extruding tip.  It is this tip that is used to prick the epidermis of the piscean tongue and deliver a small dose of tetrodotoxin, or fugu, into the bloodstream.

The tetrodotoxin causes a sensation of intoxication, light-headedness, and numbness.  This makes the drug a very good candidate for blocking pain.  It was this usage that first introduced the drug to the homeseas of the Known World, when ancient Sahaguin mariners would employ it to keep their minds clear during battle. Witnessing a frenzied Sahaguin warrior hyped up on fugu is a terrifying sight to behold.

Today, there is little difficulty in procuring fugu — a piscean need only hunt one down in the wild — and there is only a modicum of negative stigma associated with spine use.  While the alien physiology of the Lumulus inures them from the either deleterious or advantageous effects of fugu, other pisceans must be more careful to avoid a lethal dose.  However, the Church of Olyhydra, steeped deeply in its dogma of suffering and servitude, is vocal against its use.

“Fugu is a bet with your body;
your life is the stakes…”
— unknown

Sociology

Vastness Hunters

There are those among any society that seek the thrill of physical exertion.  When sane means of reaching a physical high have been depleted, they seek activities only the mad would entertain.  A form of extreme sports, meant to be the ultimate adrenalin rush, the idle athlete might turn to becoming a Vastness hunter.

Vastness hunting is the most lethal incarnation of safari hunting.  But instead of just preying on the most dangerous game swimming the Endless Blue, they take on the aberrations that scour the Vastness above the waves.  It is a very lethal sport, and the aberration gets away more often than not.  Still, the specter of death is not enough to deter the truest athlete.

The original Vastness hunters were a group of sahaguin anatomists that simply sought new animus vitae to autopsy.  While much of the allure of the extreme hunting is for the thrill and notoriety, there is strong impetus to understand how life above the water operates. As expected, anything having to do with the hell above the waters is considered the greatest of taboos.  Even the Sekolahite Church denounces the hunter’s actions — a church whose clergy participate in hunting monsters as part of their service.

Those Vastness hunters that are not Resurrectionists themselves will sell the corpses of their hunt to other anatomists.  The anatomists, in turn, sell the skin and claws to black market artisans as exotic materials for their crafts.  Such items are general reviled in public, but will fetch a high price for the indulgent collector.  Maelstrom cultists are one of the few organizations that will bear Vastness-sourced items with no regard to social stigma.  Otherwise, these items have no intrinsic difference in quality or ability from a mundane version.  Penalty for owning/selling such items or materials is generally excommunication and ostracization.

Sociology

The Discordants

There are many in the Known World that envy the Cetacean’s ability of whalesong, and vainly wish they themselves would call out across the waves.  Wherever there is something someone wants, there will be someone there to sell it to them.  Some unethical Resurrectionists claim they can implant a prosthetic that can duplicate the whalesong ability.

Those that pay for the procedure are called Discordants.  As part of the transpiscean movement, non-cetacean individuals have had baleen grafted to the roof of their mouth and their vocal cords altered by anatomists.  It is an expensive operation, so only the most wealthy piscean can afford the procedure.  Because of this, having the implants is considered the cutting edge of fashion daring in the traditionally trend-setting Mer Currents.  There are many, such as the Church of Olyhydra, that outright damn those that get the body modification.

While there are claims, so far there is no proof that anyone that has undergone the surgery has gained the ability to utter whalesong.  But the effect on the voices of those affected is unmistakable.  For those with dreams of becoming a versesinger but were not born cetacean, this may be the only hope.

Sociology

The Cryptic System

Information Demands Freedom

The Kraken ensnared the Known World for centuries in their constricting grasp.  Through the use of their innate power, the artifact known as Khantusk, and a pact with eldritch beings, the Occupation dominated Fluid Nations and ravaged them of their resources.  During those dark centuries, it is charged that the Kouton government collaborated with the occupiers, betraying the other piscean nations in order to lessen the devastation of their own homesea.  Despite no real proof, the stigma has lasted to this day.  But not all Kouton should be labeled traitors.  Some worked against the Occupation, smuggling vital information about Kraken deployment to the dwindling rebellion.  Those Kouton went by the eponymous anonym “The Cryptic System”, and were true unknown heroes of the Rebellion.

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.

Sociology

The Art of Submerged War: Navies of the Known World

The Known World of Elqua may have a superficial resemblance to a placid paradise, but nothing could be further from the truth.  The Fluid Nations have been at war with one another for most of their history, and only recently as there been any relative peace between the powers.   The Cerulean Era is name such for the very fact that the Endless Blue had entered into a period of unprecedented peace if not prosperity.  But that idyllic time is coming to an end, as the homeseas have grown too large for their borders, having slowly settled outward into the treaty-enforced spaces between countries called no mer’s seas.  Skirmishes have begun as swimming space dwindles and foraging territories shrink.  The voices of the growing populaces are loudly demanding more water, more space, more freedom, but there is no more un-proportioned water to be had without expanding outward into the influences of their neighbors.