Elavandor
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
Elavandor is a living archipelago of reef-cathedrals, blue-glass trenches, and whale-back mesas adrift in Aquallor’s upper deeps. It’s both atelier and admiralty: a place where undersea art is grown rather than built, and where tide-law is argued in chorus rather than shouted across decks. Currents hum like organ pipes, dolphins write calligraphy in bubbles, and memory-pearls record reconciled feuds and rescues worth remembering. The realm serves as a neutral forum for sea peoples and a forward bastion against predators that would turn the oceans into a hunting ground.
Customs
Salt Guest-Right binds those who share salt, water, and a name beneath a reef-arch to safe conduct and honest speech until the next tide-bell, with lies tasting of brine and stumbling in the throat. The Lifeline Rule commands every crew who sees a wreck to cast their lines, earning them the favor of the sea before the next moonrise. To Make, Don’t Mar is to understand that coral art, woven kelp, or pearl-script are more than decoration, they are contracts as well as beauty, within which malice falters and vows grow strong. First the Song ensures disputes begin in chorus, case, countercase, and witness sung to tide-chords, before they move to trial of skill or arms. Finally, Mercy of the Deep dictates that any supplicant who asks quarter must be granted safe passage, restitution, or service as set by council, never by spite.Geography
The Coral Courts are vast basilicas of living coral, coaxed into soaring vaults and luminous rose-windows by song and the careful grazing of fish. Their friezes shift with the seasons rather than by chisel, reflecting the ocean’s rhythm of change.
Whale-Back Mesas drift slowly through the deeps, great leviathans that carry waystations, gardens, and treaty-lodges upon their living backs, never truly still.
The Blue-Glass Trenchways are undersea faults fused into sapphire by submarine lightning, their walls echoing like cloisters and carrying voices of parley clearly for leagues.
Pearl Looms rise as reef-terraces where nacre spirals into shape, each pearl preserving songs, treaties, and acts of mercy within its shining heart.
Dolphin Roads, warm and swift streams, braid the realm together; swim them in rhythm with a guide and they carry you across days of sea in but an hour.
Above lies the Sky Below, domes of clear water that open into the Overblue, where sky-galleys moor in air-harbors that hang impossibly upside-down from the sea’s ceiling.
Notable Locations
The Orcas’ Way
Patrol routes of the Orcas’ Fury, marked by low thunder and breach-sign; raiders whisper about the “black-and-white courts.”The Cathedral of Waves
A pelagic cloister where the nave is open ocean; hymns in Old Pelagic calm tempests and seal oaths.The Glass Girdle
A ring-reef etched with lex tidea; speaking the laws aloud grants esteem in parley across Aquallor.Harbor Everkind
An oath-bound port that appears in storms to those who rescued strangers this season, offering safe mooring and quiet repairs.The Thalassarch’s Hold
Basalt halls atop a whale-back isle where storm-duels are fought to first lightning and safe-conduct is granted by rule.Elavandor’s Pearl Looms
Terraced nacre gardens where pearls of memory grow around grateful songs and reconciled debts.The Orcas’ Way
Patrol routes of the Orcas’ Fury, marked by low thunder and breach-sign; raiders whisper about the “black-and-white courts”.Travel and Portals
The Moon-Canal opens on full nights as a silver current flowing straight to Crescent Grove, carrying weddings, farewells, and reconciliations. High gyres braid with Syranita’s wind-ways to form the Feather–Spray Lattice, where a willing djinni or aarakocran guide can trim the seam for pilgrims. Pearl Parliament Routes allow engraved barge-pearls to unlock flotilla moorings wherever the lex tidea, aid the wrecked, honor parley, count the dead. is spoken aloud. From Sylvania, the Sea-Steps rise when its gate-town keeps revels three nights without brawl, its fountains brimming with brine that forms stairs to Elavandor.Localized Phenomena
Vengeful Squalls pursue oath-breakers of Wreck-Right, marking them with salt-scars that no port can mistake.
Name-Gales rise when a sea-burial name is forgotten, scattering charts and clouding memory until the name is spoken whole again.
Harmonic Surges swell when crews sing or work in chorus, slackening squalls and steadying lines, while silence under strain invites tangles and snapped spars.
The Sargassum Courts, mats of living weed, entangle raiders but open for those who honored the Lifeline Rule.
After council sessions, Pearl Wakes gleam faintly in the water, dolphin-light trails that guide the faithful to safe moorings—or to those they once wronged and must now face.
Shanty Casting strengthens spellwork woven into song, steadying minds aboard reefs and decks; overt harm loses the harmony’s grace unless it clearly protects life.
Oath-Swell empowers sending, tongues, protections, and courage cast in service of rescue or fair parley, carrying them farther and heartening those named within.
The Calm of the Cathedral blesses sanctified harbors and cloisters, where magics of reconciliation and soothing rage take firmer hold in service of tide-law.
Pearl Remembering ensures that truthful acts near the Pearl Looms are preserved more readily, as memory-pearls form to capture testimony for future councils.
Finally, the Counter-Riptide strains or unravels coercive bindings, slavery magics, and terror-pacts, for the sea itself favors bonds freely chosen.
Fauna & Flora
Inhabitants
The Petitioners of Elavandor are reborn Sea Elves, pearl-divers, lifeguards, healers, and honest corsairs, restored to their prime. They act as mediators, charting pilgrim currents, tending coral art, and keeping balance between peoples. Among them dwell Azatas and Agathions: bralani lead storm-relief and daring rescues, lillends preserve sea-song and oral law, while dolphin, orca, and albatross-hearted agathions guard guest-right and guide the lost. The realm also welcomes good-hearted Fey of foam and spray, sprites, naiads, and lantern-lure fae who delight in helping without harm. The Delphions, Sashelas’s clergy, serve as envoys, archivists of tide-law, and builders of sanctuaries, often accompanied by dolphins who act as co-mediators. Allies and neighbors arrive from beyond: Syranita's messengers from Whistledge, Sehanine's envoys from the Crescent Elves, and tide-wardens from Aquallor’s Pearl Parliament, all drawn by shared vows of sea and sky.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Normal gravity in the water and on solid surfaces (reefs, whale-back mesas). Buoyancy lessens effective weight below the surf; in the “Sky Below” air-harbors, a gentle two-way pull lets sky-galleys moor upside-down without spilling crew or cargo. Cloud-roads of the Overblue feel light and driftlike, favoring long glides and soft landings. |
| Time | Normal. |
| Shape & Size | Infinite. |
| Morphic Traits | Strongly sentient-morphic to vows, songs, and tide-law: coral grows into contracts, sargassum parts for those who kept the Lifeline Rule, and parley spaces arrange themselves for audibility along blue-glass trenchways. Deep Sashelas shapes freely; Delphions, azata admirals, and Pearl Parliament councils can petition small, lasting changes through rite and chorus. |
| Elemental Energy | Water Dominant. |
| Alignment | Chaotic Good |
| Magic | When woven into work-song, rescue, or honest parley (the realm’s “shanty casting”, oath-swell, calm cloisters, and pearl-remembering all help such workings carry farther and hold truer) are enhanced. While coercive bindings, slavery magics, terror-pacts, and necromancy that harms life, the sea strains, frays, or quietly refuses them are impeded. Travel magic favors declared purpose and timing (“appointment travel” riding currents and moon-canals) over casual flitting, and summons that would weaponize cruel denizens of the deeps find fewer anchors. |
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