The Upper Layer

Home of Monsters

With The Chains tethering people to the ocean floor, The Ice Walls, The Void and The Garden bounding the cardinal directions there leaves only one direction to go: upwards. After all, an underwater world must have a surface. Unfortunately, that question has never been answered. The Upper Layer, or as its sometimes know The Upper Limit, prevents the answer to a surface from being found. Located 18.3 miles, or 96,624 feet above Hallow on average, the Upper Layer is a continuous layer of water of unknown thickness. This water itself is not special in any way, but it is the creatures that reside in which make it interesting.
The Upper Layer is home to thousands upon thousands of sea monsters, called Guardians . Some of these range from crabs the size of a wagon, to eels that stretch miles long. These animals attack any and all who attempt to pass through the Upper Layer into the regions beyond. The animals will even attack inanimate objects, such as floating bits of wood, or the occasional rock launched by an underwater volcano. Some have speculated that the monsters attack anything that attempts to pass through the other side as well, if there is one, as occasionally debris will rain down through the layer. This debris is collected and prized by many, as it shares the same characteristics of relics that ocean floor salvagers find (see Ancient Salvage). Some say this debris is merely launched upwards through the layer by some undersea current or volcano and after some time it circulates its way back down to the ocean floor again. Others however, choose to believe that these scraps are an indication of a civilization above the Upper Layer, though any and all attempts to contact such a civilization have failed. Even attempts to teleport above the layer have failed, resulting in the loss of many a research team as they teleport away to never return or be heard from again. In other cases the teleportation spell fails altogether, leaving the exploration team alive, but badly injured from the mishap.
Ultimately, breaking through the Upper Layer and finding out if a surface exists lies as the goal of many a brave explorer, although none yet have managed.

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