So, it's been a couple of months. I figured it was time for an update. This update will mostly cover natural cycles and the human endeavor known as the Gran Cacería. But first, more art:
Océano de la Vida at night, during Presagio de Viento
(The water of Océano de la Vida will be known as
Agua from now on.)
Fish/Bacteria Symbiosis
First of all, fish are not what they appear to be. It is unknown whether they came from another world and were utilized by the already-existing bacteria, or if they evolved alongside them, but their systems are far too complicated for their simple task of eating Mugre and surviving off Agua. Whatever the case, they are reliant on them for both life and death.
As I explained before, an Oak Tree is a complicated network of reproducing fish eggs and bacteria that convert Mugre in the rock to nutrients. The fish begins its life as one of these eggs, deep within the trunk of the tree. It will grow and evolve with its sisters through the branches of the tree. Every twig of the tree is a place where a fish has grown fully and left the Tree to begin its mobile stage.
The fish now carries symbiotic bacteria, and lives with Agua and a thin stream of Mugre from Segundo Mar that the bacteria cause to appear. It is worth noting that this is the same bacteria that infects missing human wounds, which I will cover soon. The fish will carry a single egg, which will be one of its sisters that it dominated when it was still in the womb of Oak. Its purpose is to find a mate who will change the DNA of the egg, but not in the way you'd expect. Fish live for hundreds of years while the bacteria within them slowly take over their body. The fish have no bacteria of their own other than that one kind that creeps within them, slowly biting into their tissue while Agua heals the wound.
In case you haven't guessed, since fish reproduce asexually and carry with them an egg who is identical to them, and Agua cures mutations, there is only one exact genome of fish, all female. The purpose of finding a mate, then, is not to change the genetic line of their sole egg, but of changing the genes of the bacteria that live within them. The diversity of bacteria in Océano de la Vida is unnerving, and it's better that the people who live there don't know about it.
Fish will take hundreds or even thousands of mates over their lifespan, all of which add some of their bacteria's genome to the bacteria residing there. This is not a random process; the bacteria will actively take only certain parts of the donor genome and discard others though by what process they do so is unknown.
When a fish has reached the end of its lifespan, it will find a new underwater island and burrow its way deep inside. Fueled by the crystals, its single egg will awaken. The bacteria, meanwhile, will branch out their network through the rest of the fish and kill it. As they cannot live without Vida, the network will wait for the egg to reproduce, with its eggs flowing through the network and the muerte it summons as they grow, forming a new Oak tree which can often be thousands of miles away from where the original fish began.
The Cycle of Underwater Islands
Segundo Mar is not a flat seabed. It is a swirling morass of peaks and troughs of Mugre at the darkest depths of Océano de la Vida. Deep within it are disturbing processes that form crystals, which I will cover under the Gran Cacería section. For the sake of this section though, know only that crystals are formed below.
If enough crystals are within a peak when it forms, it will break off. Most of the mugre (about 90%) will fall back into Segundo Mar, but a certain amount of it will remain, kept from dissolving by the crystals buried within. As the crystal's influence continues, the mugre of an underwater island will become harder and harder, like rock. Fish are also likely to lay their single egg at the beginning of an underwater island's lifespan. During this time, more and more of the mugre will turn to gold, but never will it be more than a fine dust, and never will it be enough to be visible. The crystals will also change subtly, Onyx breaking up into Sapphire chunks, Sapphire becoming Amethyst, and Amethyst becoming Ruby. As they do so, the island will rise towards the surface, steadily becoming harder as well.
When an underwater island reaches the surface and its mugre is exposed to air, cracks will begin to form in its surface, dividing it around crystals. To witness this process is very rare, as it only lasts a few hours within the hundreds-of-years cycle of underwater islands. The hardened mugre is a material known as
Blackstone, as hard and undisolvable as crystal, but without its powers. Blackstone is, however, porous, and will take in air from the surface world for several hours, clearing out the water within it.
When a Blackstone chunk is full of air, it will suddenly and violently sink back into Segundo Mar within the span of seconds, powered no doubt by a new transformation of the crystal within. If there is Oak on the surface, it will violently break apart as well, scattering half-grown fish in all directions. As they are not mobile, they have no choice but to be carried by the pressure of the sinking Blackstone. That's the lucky ones. The unlucky ones are slowly eaten alive by their symbiotic bacteria and unlike mobile fish cannot do anything about it, so the process happens over several weeks rather than hundreds of years. Once the bacteria have killed the fish, they too will die, and the whole thing will become muerte that sinks into Segundo Mar.
Cycle of Floating Islands
Deep within Segundo Mar, the air-filled Blackrock from now-dead underwater islands will undergo many disturbing processes, and the crystals within will turn to Aquamarine, as the blackrock will turn white. Fueled by the Aquamarine, the air within the Blackrock will cause it to explode into strands of Cloudsilk. The newly born floating island will shoot up from the Segundo Mar as violently as the Blackrock did to get to it. Except when it hits the surface, showering water in every direction, it will continue floating up, coming close enough almost to touch Mar Tercero above.
Blackrock is nowhere near homogenous, so when it expands into Cloudsilk, there will be many indentations within it, which trap water and muerte as the floating island rises from beneath the waves. Blackrock also expands to a ridiculous size, from the size of a chair on average to the size of entire cities when it becomes a floating island.
Under the influence of Aquamarine which slowly turns to Emerald, Cloudsilk will slowly shrink into Silkrock. As before, the muerte collected in its indentations will vaguely turn into gold, but never enough to make a substantial difference. Lechugo and other vegetables will send their spores into the island and grow there. Muerte and a weaker verson of Agua will be replenished every few years by the Tormenta Empíreo.
As Cloudsilk becomes Silkrock, it will sink. Silkrock pieces may break off and become smaller islands, leaving the purer Cloudsilk Islands to float back up, though those too will turn to Silkrock over time. Eventually, a floating Island will be composed of so much Silkrock that it crashes into the surface and will sink back down into Segundo Mar. This is the only time when it is possible to collect Amber, the final stage of the crystal transformation cycle. Even then, most of the crystals in a no-longer-floating island will still be Sapphire and Aquamarine.
The floating island, crystals and all, will sink back down to Segundo Mar.
Gran Cacería
Within Océano de la Vida, there are four main types of people that evolve in the closed paradise that it offers:
* The Hedonists, who spend their time enjoying the bounty of Océano de la Vida and one another's company. These do not last long.
* The Suicidally Depressed, who were once Hedonists who now spend their time trying to find a way to kill themselves and each other in an environment that is designed to resurrect them. These last far longer than they want to.
* The Prisoners, who spend their time trying to find a way to leave Océano de la Vida, possibly with Agua and Gold.
* The Explorers, who spend their time exploring and developing Océano de la Vida.
The Explorers and the Prisoners work closely together and are generally the only sane group in Océano de la Vida. Whatever their motivation, they seek to unravel the mysteries behind Océano de la Vida in their pursuit of the unknown known as Gran Cacería. These are the ones that originally built the Tent city (and yes, most of the originals are still alive) and developed the technology and materials science of this limited world.
Gran Cacería -- The Sea
Creating a massive boat out of the trunks of Oak, six explorers set out to explore the farthest reaches of Océano de la Vida. This was when Silkcraft was still crude technology so they didn't yet have a way of flying there. It was right after an Tormenta Empíreo, so the wind was not enough to move their boat, and they could row it directly towards the sun and then away from it on the way back. They had been at Océano de la Vida for three years, arriving at a Tormenta Empíreo and now leaving at one. They would go towards the sun for exactly a year, and return for another year so that they would not be hit by another Tormenta Empíreo. Of the seven, there were four men, one wife of one of those men, and one concubina. The concubina was one of the few who had lived on Océano de la Vida all her life, and sought to see the world talked about by the others.
What they discovered on their journey was -- nothing. For the hundreds of miles they traveled, the world was exactly the same. Near the end of their journey, they found a floating island that had hit the surface due to an earlier Tormenta Empíreo. Exposed in its multicolored surface were pure amber crystals, which they had never seen before. They collected these treasures and headed home, with nothing otherwise useful coming out of their journey.
Gran Cacería -- Mar Tercero
As Silk technology developed, and more people became stranded at the heaven/hell known as Océano de la Vida, people began to live on the floating islands, cultivating Lechugo and other vegetables. To get there, they created balloons of Silk. One group decided they would try to reach Mar Tercero itself and see what lay within, so using a giant piece of Cloudsilk suspended over a boat of gold and ruby, they created a balloon known as the Gran Globo.
As the society had evolved, creating Silk was a role that men did not wish to touch, so it was a team of three women that took the Gran Globo on its flight. They started from one of the newer floating islands, one that was nearly the size of a mountain. From living on this floating city through several Tormenta Empíreos, they knew that Mar Tercero was only about a mile above their heads. They decided to go for only a single day and night, arriving home on the second day.
When they returned two weeks later with a psychedelic-colored balloon unable to speak, the people of the Tent City knew that something strange existed up there. It took them nearly a year to recover and for their memory to return, but before it did, another balloon was created and this time two men and two women investigated it. They decided they would only stay for a few hours. They returned also several days later, unable to speak with a look of complete terror on their faces that no amount of Aqua could cure.
Several months later, the second group had recovered. What they described was a world of shifting colors and blinding lights. It was random, but ordered. They felt as though they were being watched by millions of people, no,
entities who would move around them. And every so often, the patterns would line up into an infinitely-long tunnel that stared at them malevolently.
They tried to leave, mere minutes after they had arrived, both from the combination of what they experienced and the violent winds of multicolored dust that they couldn't choke away. But instead Mar Tercero toyed with them. It would pull them out of the balloon and hold them apart from one another, and then put them back in. It too would keep the balloon from falling, no matter what they did. But at some point they could feel Mar Tercero diverting its attention away from them, and the clouds of the storm were if not peaceful, at least no longer malevolent. So they returned.
When the first group recovered, they reported the same thing, except in their case they were much higher up when Mar Tercero awoke, so it took them much longer to get back to the surface.
The Tormenta Empíreo that year came nearly an earth year early, and its ferocity was unmatched. Huge sections of the tent city blew apart and floating islands were ripped to shreds or toppled over. But this too did not last forever, and Mar Tercero directed its attention elsewhere.
Gran Cacería -- Segundo Mar
Segundo Mar had always been avoided, both in exploration and casually averted in conversation. Everyone knew -- this was the place where life came from and where death went to die. The source of the many wonders of Océano de la Vida. Those who went to gather crystals, especially onyx, would look into its depths with awe but never venture too close to it. The other explorers of Gran Cacería knew it would have to be explored at some point, but did not wish to rush it. And after the experience of those who visited Mar Tercero, it was a long time before a group was ready to go to those depths. But they knew that if there was any way out of Océano de la Vida, it would have to be through Segundo Mar.
Two pieces of technology provided for it.
The first was the Sirenas, those who had developed meditative techniques and gotten their body used to the concept of drowning. Over time in the Tent City, it was this group and their disciples who almost exclusively went underwater for supplies. They had become master fishermen and had learned ways to cut off pieces of Oak without disturbing the fish within. This group also had the best success rate of having children, and raised them in the art of Sirena rather than letting them become Concubinas like most of them ended up. They also did not avoid Segundo Mar in conversation nearly as much, but rather simply respected it.
The other piece of technology was Amber. Amber would give off light in much the same way Ruby gave off heat. Amber usually started out as a completely spherical crystal which was extremely hard to cut, even with Onyx, but it was discovered that if it was in a certain long and thin shape it would give off lightning that was persistent and highly illuminating. It was theorized that there were quantities of Amber present in Mar Tercero that were responsible for the persistency of its constant lightning flashes. Especially at night, when the lightning would morph into strange shapes rather than disappearing as lightning should.
Amber was difficult to harvest because it could only be gathered in small quantities when a Floating Island had completed its life cycle, or very very rarely it could be found in floating islands close to the surface. It was therefore extremely valuable, but really only useful underwater due to night illumination.
The Sirena were, however, easily able to trade for almost all of them because their skills couldn't be duplicated easily. Armed with their Arc Flashlights, they would naturally be the ones to explore Segundo Mar. But they lacked the motivation.
Until one of the original balloon explorers discovered a very interesting property of gold.
Gold Dust
Since Gold dissolved instantly in water, it was a mystery for the longest time how mugre that was brought up from underwater could contain gold, or why the gold hue of Golden Silk didn't wash out. Gold could be extremely useful underwater or could even be used as a decent currency if it didn't dissolve instantly in water.
When one of the original Gran Globo explorers returned and recovered, she got back to working with Silk, still creating balloons. Like all Silk workers, she used an Oak bowl with gold in it that Ruby would heat up, turning Agua into steam that would take Aquamarine dust and fill the pores of Cloudsilk. She was so excited for the Gran Cacería that she didn't notice when she was making the Gran Globo that the steam coming up had a golden hue to it. It was during mid-day though, so the entire sky was a golden hue.
However, after what happened to her, she started working exclusively during the night, fearing the brightest Mar Tercero of the day as something evil, and trying to become a Sirena during the night so she could escape its wrath. So when she created a large balloon during then that was going to be used to lift a giant Oak tree from underwater, she noticed that golden hue coming from the steam rising off the Oak boat she was using as a bowl. Logically, this shouldn't happen, because Gold is Muerte, and Agua destroys Muerte regardless of its form, but here the two were getting along just fine.
Curious, she collected the steam in an upside-down Oak bowl. When it condensed and cooled off (via Sapphire of course), there was a vaguely glimmering pool of Agua. After straining it a few times through Cloudsilk, she got a thin gold powder that refused to melt together, be burned by Ruby, and did not dissolve in Agua. It was, for all intents and purposes, Vida.
This powder had another strange property. If an arc from Amber hit it, it would immediately space itself along the arc and keep it persistent far longer than the amber itself would. The arc would also morph into various strange shapes, much like Mar Tercero did at night. And at the end of its cycle, the gold dust would follow the arc back to the amber and collect around it.
It wasn't hard, then, to create what she called a Tercero Stick. A thin piece of amber coated in this gold dust that would turn into swirling lightning and last for whole minutes at a time, before returning to itself. Completely unaffected by water. And only she knew how to make this dust.
She talked to the Sirena about it, and promised to make some for them, provided that they use it to explore the Segundo Mar -- and take her with them. They agreed, so she learned to fully become one of them.
Conclusion
So yes, I'm obviously not done with this -- I have yet to cover what happened when they entered Segundo Mar. Which I'll probably do in the next few days.
Thoughts so far?