Selkie Shallows

  There is a long history of Squiddle community-building, Crabcow ranching, and settlement here. Until just a few centuries ago, this was the cradle of a thousand squiddle nations who thrived and gardened amidst the massive fields of seagrass. That changed in the 1600s ME, when the Elder Leviathan known as Apex began to dominate the waters. The great Apex was unable to kill Kailio, but was too strong to be fully slain either - and it stubbornly refused to leave the Great Otter alone. Apex has bitterly resented its early defeats at Kailio's paws and has worked to pollute these waters with its heinous ideology and influence. "Only the strong shall survive," it preaches; wherever Apex reigns, predation is made a virtue. Over the last century, Apex has managed to plunge the seagrass plains into chaos and bend countless nations to their will.      As Apex has grown in power, the Squiddles loyal to Kailio have radicalized as well. They now worship the Great Otter as the chief of all gods and the source of all good, and go so far as to punish any who question the Otter's whims. This is the Dohobeb Priest-State, which controls the waters around the Khilaian Isles. Dohobeb is mostly ruled by the cult-attendants of Kailio known as The Heart, who rule through an army of warrior-priests and administrator-priests known as Tendrils. The Heart is based out of the sea mountain of Kailopali, the home of Kailio himself. A military sub-cult known as the Spear-Tendrils rule Fort Otterspear, the Southern reach of Dohobeb, as an automous military clique. Most trade and immigration moves through Otterspear, and they act as the gateway to the sacred waters.   The Empire of Lashes is a very recent polity forged by the brutal Squiddle warlord known as Ten-Lash. The Empire of Lashes is built from what was known as the "Hundred Nation Horde," a group of small bands and ethnic groups that were conquered and dominated by Apex a century ago. While many bands of the 'Horde' are not very happy with their sadistic Leviathan master, Ten-Lash has brought them back in line and has moved to conquer and raid beyond their borders. The Empire of Lashes has been extracting tribute from the Reeflords of Monososi to the South and regularly recruits from the divided Redgrass Flatwaters to the Northeast. Apex has increasingly drawn warriors from the Empire of Lashes to other fronts of the great oceanic wars of domination, making this place something of a logistics hub and recruitment ground for fighters elsewhere now that Monososi has been subjugated. Ten-Lash keeps the pressure on Dohobeb but is smart enough any direct confrontation that might antagonize the Otter. While Apex may find it amusing to throw the Lashling's lives away to annoy Kailio, Ten-Lash has other designs. The warlord-emperor wants to make something permanent here; he wants a legacy. He has built a temple-city around the ancient Skulltemple - a massive boneyard of Leviathan, whale, and human bones collected by ancient cultists and repurposed as a place of sacrifice and war-glorification by Apex cultists. Now it is Lash-Light - City of Bones, cradle of the Spear-Father, Palace of the Skull Throne - a palatial complex with a warrior bureaucracy that the aging warlord hopes will keep the Empire together when he finally dies.    The Reefwaters of Monososi were once the richest and most bountiful of the region's aquatic realms. Once, they were ruled by the supposed 'wisest of the reefs', selected by the local order of scholar-monks. The scholar-monks sang chants intended to connect the cephapeople to their ancestors; tradition was everything. This realm accepted Cephapersons of all kinds as long as they followed the culture of the reefs: strict age-based hierarchies, rituals for work and daily life, and an obsession with measuring and honoring the passage of time. The Monososi were the last holdouts against Apex, who helped the Otter-worshippers defeat Apex's "Horde of a Hundred Nations" a century ago. Now, the warlord Ten-Lash has humbled them, cut down their leaders, and stolen their riches. The Monososi now pay tribute to the Empire of Lashes - though they are not yet Apex-worshippers themselves. A new order of intensely xenopobic monks now control the scholar-monastic orders, while much of the political power is in the tentacles of the "reeflords" - petty landlords who control various resources and patches of reef, essentially. Fragmented and humiliated, the Monososi may crumble into pieces if they are not given a new hope.   The Godwastes are comparatively barren and rocky and lack the vibrant seagrass flats and reefs that the other realms depend on. Sedimentary flows from the coastal regions - and washing in from the deeps - form poisonous flows of dense dirt that flow in the many canyons and depressions of the Godwastes. Huge pillars and sharp igneous croppings are common here, creating a dramatic and scenic landscape. This has created a common belief that these were the homes of the ancient Gods who fought a great and terrible battle in ancient times. This belief led to cephapeople across the Western oceans sending their Ghosts here, making these waters uniquely haunted and adding to the sense of magic and mythology people have assigned these waters. That doesn't mean that mortals are not present here - small herding bands are fairly common in the Godwastes and there are a number of Cuttlefolk here who gather shellfish from the poison sediment flows and mine obsidian from the ancient volcanic chasms. These waters are under the protection of Kailio, and Apex has not seemed interested in contesting that claim.    The Redgrass Flatwaters are a region loosely controlled by the Empire of Lashes, but is less verdant and still mostly autonomous. The seagrass here is known for its red and orange coloration.