lostbows

[lostbows]

To The Substitute Art Teacher - Jordan Bolton

[lostbows]

Spooky Self-Portrait for Mab's Drawlloween club day one. Gouache on paper, 6 x 8"

[lostbows]

Christ this is so fucking cool

[lostbows]

As my first post of my worldbuilding ideas here's one of the fantasy races I'm working on that i think deserve a lot more love: Tritons, or as they call themselves 'Oceanids'.

They are a species of sea people devoted to the protection of the sea. They are natives to the Ocean but can also live on land as long as they're sufficiently and abundantly hydrated. Their "Collective" consists of 5 city-states or Polis and small groups of sea-nomads and corsairs or pirates who rarely go against the Collective.

The 5 Polis are:

Atlantis, the Capital and biggest city situated in a remote place in the ocean. It is known for its magical dome that makes part of the city an "airspace", making it possible for non-waterbreathing foreigners to visit... as long as they get there. It is the heart of the industry, politics and culture of the Collective, as it is the oldest city. The Armada is trained here and where their ships are built, huge sail-less galleons that travel both as a submarine and a surface ship.

Caribdis: an archipielago in warmer waters, there's life both on the land of the islands and in the reefs that sorround the city. It is the city with most human and land-walker population, mostly refuggees that found a safe and beautiful place to live. Caribdis is a perfect mix for diverse cultures and comerce. Any foreign ship must get a supervised pass through the reef if they want to stop and trade in Caribdis or else they'll face the voice of the Sirens.

Schilla: the smallest city, consisting in a gulf neighbouring a human kingdom in the north and the cliffs that surround it. Its waters are cold and the wrecks of many ships make the recycle homes, ships and ports of these Oceanids. The waters here are the most dangerous. Schilla is mostly a ship cemetery, the nexus of pirates and shady-comerce, whatever benefits the tritons. It is home to one of the most feared factions in the sea to any human pirate: the Orcas, a paramilitary group of corsairs interested in "retrieving" what they consider to be out of place in the sea... usually human-made, and repurposing it as an artifact or part for the next ship they make.

Fauces: this Polis sits in the depths. The Abyss, where the Ancient Gods sleep, is situated to the west. To the north there's a volcanic infernal rift; and to the south, a toxic brine pool. The ocean's most secret beasts live here, and no nightmareish monster that you'll see here can compare to the horrors that sleep in the Abyss. The Sirens that study in the Arcaneum in Fauces are experts in sleeping magic, just in case...

Calypso: once the seat of beautiful monuments and palaces in the shallow sea of Mèsine, now in ruins after the toxic spilt from a human kingdom that started a war in the seas. Slowly it has been cleaned, but the damages from the war are still present and these waters can only be occupied by the Armada and smaller groups of builders.

The Oceanids are technological and magically advanced, they've gained much knowledge from the temples their Ancient gods left behind. The mages are known as Sirens, who use the "voice" for their weather magic, protective wards and barriers (like the Atlantis dome) and the most powerfull form of hypnosis that can bend the will of others, and induce a deep sleep. It is said this is the magic they stole from their Ancient Gods and what they used to break free from them, inducing their slumber in the Abyss...

They don't worship a pantheon in the traditional way, instead they pray the gods never wake up. They study the ruins and temples left behind from an era of Leviathans, trying to anticipate any "wakening" and keep studying the art of the voice.

All oceanids share a magical talent to communicate telepathically through this "voice", it is what they use to speak underwater, and even when in an air-space, but they can also use "mouthspeech", however they lack a language of their own in mouthspeech, they mostly learn a foreign one, like the common dialect spoken by the land-walkers of Caribdis.

#fantasy #worldbuilding #tritons #dnd #fantasy races

[lostbows]

[lostbows]

an incomplete collection of tweets i consider to be short poems