Abysid (ah-biss-id)
Summary
The dark depths across Veltrona are both vast and terrifyingly unknowable. Deep into the crust do the oceans stretch, entire continental shelves disguising immense underwater worlds in their own pockets. Indeed, if one goes far enough, they very well enter the domain of the Underworld proper. A thin veneer separates the waterborne life and the actual 'underground' life, neighbors so terribly close together yet forever separated. It is in this bizarre and altogether different place that the abysids inhabit. Unlike the more fish-like shermadi of the light-filled oceans, the abysids are cephalod-like shermadi who have adapted to the deep dark. Some are descendants of shermadi tribes exiled into the darkness, others the descendants of wayfarers who long became lost. A few even claim lineage to vast and mysterious goddesses. There is some debate, thusly, if they are an entirely separate species or a race of the shermadi. As there is yet some rather close connections between the two, they are often considered a race. Contrary to popular belief, the abyss is full of life, mana, and wonders beyond imagination to the surface dwelling peoples. Bioluminscent flora and fauna light up the darkness, obstinately proud in their loud declarations. Life of all kinds mire about, competing in brillant combative displays, or solemn, light-devouring emptiness. Terrible underwater volcanoes spew magma and heat incessantly, offering dangerous bastions to the soul-crushing cold otherwise pervading everywhere. Massive corpses litter the bottom floor, titans of old and recent alike becoming veritable feasts that sustains many. It is this wondrous place that the abysids call their home. Resources are a premium, and while mineral wealth is great, life-sustaining stuff is harder to come by. The first settlements were little more than guard posts built around farms near volcanoes. By securing edible flora and keeping predators away, they expanded their numbers, and built ever-greater fortifications. The first stone cities followed, each block slowly carved and secured with arduous effort. For, without the luxury of surface fire, the abysids had to innovate entirely new ways of crafting virtually everything. Magic, as a rule, became their lifeline in making the impossible, possible. So it is they grasped a way forward, and their cities filled the dark depths around the volcanoes. The abysids fashioned terribly powerful forms of magic, both to build and destroy. For, in the depths, there are great beasts more than capable of destroying their cities with an idle thought. These leviathans are ever-present threats, even if bountiful in what their corpses can provide. Where they come from no one ever really knows, only that one's approach is a harrowing time. Indeed, it is from the loss of many of their cities that the abysids wept bitterly, and their mages committed to studying ever stranger magic. It could be argued that, when one clade of them eventually discovered it, they found a form of necromancy. Rather than raise undead, however, it returned life to the dead. In other words, they'd discovered a form of resurrection magic. As long as the body was sufficiently intact, and the departed no more than two or three weeks dead, they could be resurrected. This breakthrough completely changed the paradigm the abysids toiled under. Great heroines arose, given the mightiest equipment, the most powerful knowledge, and anything else they desired. In turn, these heroines ventured into the depths, slaying the leviathans and other dangers. If they themselves died, their companions retrieved them for resurrection. In many respects, they were profoundly successful at their jobs. The traumatic experience of dying, resurrecting, then going out and dying again and again, however, broke many of them. Few could endure the harrowing experience, so the heroines often had short service lives. Still, their sacrifices meant many, many more could survive. The abysids flourished, growing vast. It would be, unaware to them at the time, that ages of exploration had begun on the surface world above. So too did piracy and warfare follow, and mighty ships sank beneath the waves. Most ended up in the depths above, but some sank far, far lower. With them came the corpses of people, and the abysids were shocked when they saw such terribly alien creatures. Even more surprising, they could resurrect them with their magic! There were, of course, problems doing so for air-breathing people at the literal bottom of the oceans' abyss. Some rather quick innovations followed, allowing them to forcefully adapt the surface dwellers to better live along with them. It is from these people they 'saved' that the abysids learned of the many, many different parts of the surface world. They, who regarded the sun-filled oceans as a natural barrier, had their figurative bubble pop. All sorts of interest spurred on, for the abysids came to love these strange creatures and their oddities. They wanted to see and experience more, learn greater truths, and find friends. Yet their world and the surface one were two vastly different things, and the abysids had trouble breaching the barrier. Still, a purpose filled their many cities, and all their intellectual minds went to work tirelessly upon it. Despite their enthusiasm, progress crawled along, and their passions simmered down more and more. All the while, new ships sank into their arms, the crews revived to live among them. In that way, at least, abysid hybrids and anaxials soon flourished among as well. It would be one of these hybrids, strengthened by the blood of surface dwellers, that found a way to head into the light-waters. Fashioned with a suit of stone-and-metal, Karol'iq of the Light alone ventured into the surface oceans. There she met with terrified shermadi, who thought her a horrifyingly unknown beast. A brief fight resulted, but to Karol'iq's own great surprise, the shermaid were terribly underequipped. It became clear the abysids had innovated far, far more into technology than their above-world kin ever imagined being possible. Once her mission of peace became clear, she might with a broader shermadi tribe. Soon, she became the first abysid to meet with actual landwalkers, the shermadi acting as an in-between at a port. Although unremarkable to the landwalkers, the meeting made Teranlo a place of great importance when Karol'iq returned to the abyss. All sorts of fierce debates broke out among the abysids. The journey into such waters was neither cheap nor easy, and only some of them had the fortitude to endure it. They did make friends with one shermadi tribe, and others followed. Upon the cliffs that often separated their two worlds, they could much more easily meet, and so trade opened up. The abysids offered up items of metal and fine stone, creations the shermadi struggled to make on their own. In return, literature, knowledge, and all kinds of foodstuffs were traded. It became a lifeline for them both, forming the bedrock of a solidly prosperous underwater world. Still, differences being what they are, although simple to read, the progress made is still yet slow and gradual. It took many decades for Karol'iq's legendary feats to spread across the abysid world in its entirety. Many more still for other abysids to, themselves, venture into the light-waters. What will ultimately come of it is yet a mystery. Some seek conquest, others to expand their territories and fashion greater cities. More still choose seclusion, hiding in desolate places even by their standards, beholden to strange desires or purposes. As every seafaring nation would come to know, however, is that something did, in fact, lurk at the bottom of the ocean. Fears easily surrounded the unknown, and the abysids soon were steeped in tales of terror despite their amenable natures. Superstitions soon followed those who would fight at sea, warning that if they died there, the abysid's would claim them forever. A fate not too terrible for some, admittedly.Basic Information
Anatomy
Also known as abyssals, deep sea dwellers, abyssal shermadi, and deep ones, abysids are shermadi adapted to the extreme depths and darkness of the dark abyss.
Unlike their sunlight dwelling cousins, abysids inherit from the cephalopod family for their lower bodies. Comprised of anywhere between six tentacles and two exceptionally long ones, or eight equally sized tentacles, this allows them a greater control of movement in their predominately three-dimensional environment. Fin-like growths aid in navigating their waters, while the multitude of arms enables them a dexterity that, frankly, outclasses their living environment. Unlike other cephalopods, there is no 'beak' or other orifice between their lower body's tentacles–it is purely a mass of very versatile muscles.
They are mildly sexually dimorphic, with the females possessing enlarged breasts, wider hips, and longer fin growths. Males have slender body with sharper, pointer fins. The finer, more sensitive parts of their bodies (e.g, nipples), are naturally retractive and shelter inside beneath their generally thick layer of flesh. They do have fleshy 'hair', similar to kelp in nature but with a texture consistent of their bodies. How this hair grows and is stylized becomes a large cultural hallmark of theirs. It ultimately serves a purpose similar to heat transference, as the 'core strands' of the 'flesh hair' have blood vessels for heat exchange.
Abysids are predominately pale in coloration, with fantastically alien greens, blues, purples, reds, blacks, and golds. These colors become 'flatter' in hybrids and anaxials, being more rigorous in nature.
Biological Traits
In addition to inheriting all of the standard shermadi attributes, abyssals uniquely have the following:
Bioluminescent – The complete darkness of the abyss has pushed them into creating light themselves.
Extreme Eye Specialization – Their eyes are specialized toward detecting the faintest of light sources in pitch black conditions. They can easily suffer permanent damage from exposure to typical light sources, such as sunlight, if their eyes aren't protected.
Maneuverable – Their tentacles give them absurd agility in the still waters of the deep sea.
Minor Telepathy – They communicate with one another and other creatures through a magical telepathy.
Specialized Vocal Cords – Thanks to their telepathy handling most close senses of communication, their vocal cords have adapted to produce haughtily beautiful songs that can carry through the deep for long range communication.
They are intensely physical, as touch can be as vital as sound in their environment.
Civilization and Culture
Relationship Ideals
Despite their intense physical needs, abysids tend to be profoundly monogamous once they've fond a suitable partner. They are always looking for someone 'fun', in the sense of being attentive and interesting. There is not much to regard in the deep, so the qualifications of personality become that much more interesting. One must sing a song beautifully; one must 'strobe their lights in a way no one else has seen'; and, finally, one must possess good taste (in the bodily sense, as abyssals love licking/nibbling on each other).
In the case of non-shermadi ending up with them, the aquatic adaptation principle of the shermadi also comes true. However, it is far more extreme in nature, as their non-shermadi partners change to survive the crushing depths and infinite darkness of the deep sea. While presumably a former land-dwelling person could return to doing so, it is rare enough to not be widely known.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
In contrast to their sunlight dwelling cousins, the abysids have made great (if limited) strides in technological development. Their sea-stone cities are perhaps the only places the idea of 'safety' can exist in the abyss. They also aggressively farm a variety of crustaceans, algae, kelp, and other plant matter to complement their fish hunting methods. Thanks to their relative closeness to the planetary core, they also have access to open-vent magma streams from volcanoes, the heat of which allows them a crude form of metalwork.
Altogether, they are perhaps the most naturally advanced sea-dwelling race, both in technology and cultural mannerism. Their telepathy enables a relative closeness other species (save the petrakin) cannot match, though they are by no means 'mind readers'. Their singing and bioluminescence form a core aspect of their communication and culture, with fantastic displays of both simply being the norm to them. Art is largely regarded as transient, with artists being responsible for the ever ongoing recreation and creation of it. The few pieces that are made permanent tend to become cultural landmarks for a city or area, depending. With advents of technological marvels like refined kelp-paper providing literary development, they would perhaps develop even faster were it not for aquatic restrictions of their environment.
Despite what might be called their friendly disposition, they are fiercely competitive and have a strong dominance streak. Resources in the deep sea are scarce and fiercely fought over; those who can grow things such as food, even more so. Their wars are almost always violent exchanges of prime hunting grounds and cultivated farm land, with the greatest powers being those who command both. Gems, deep sea ore mines, and other material goods are a distant but distinct second, and the prestige of a city can be measured by its usage of such materials.
They are, however, not completely isolated in the deep. Although the sunlight-filled ocean is mostly out of their reach, they have loose trade and communication with the border-dwelling shermadi. Through this tenuous bond, they've heard of legendary tales about land dwellers, and those who easily traverse the blinding waters with fantastic vessels of iron and steel. Many of their intellectuals and leaders are enamored with this strange world, and make great strides to acquire anything and anyone they can from it.
It isn't unheard of for the particularly unlucky light dwellers to sink to the bottom. Those who travel through the crushing depths and lightless journey will quickly find themselves hunted by the abysids. Whether from the commands of their betters, or just agitation of their territory being impeded upon, these other worlders become hotly contested prizes. Not even the dead are necessarily safe; as corpses arrive the most, they use an extremely rare magic that can resurrect the recently deceased. These people often have aquatic adaptations imparted upon them, so that they can live in the abyss much better. The price of these same adaptations, however, end up keeping them in the underwater world just as much.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
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