Tria Archipelaga

Template:Breadcrumbs Pelithos > Thalassa Velos

Overview

In the volcanic Kyterian Ori the fury-born Azer face the question of whether to keep their old allegiance to the titans, or forge their own path. They clash with the Trident's pirates for influence in the Thalassa Velos, and titancults plot among them. The wild mountains and rocky wastes are filled with wealth and charon, savage titan-born beasts, and the deep paths down to Erebus.

On the coasts of the inner sea stands the Symmachia Velos, the Wreath's alliance of cities. A pillar of the war effort, they are now falling into intrigue and jealousy, abetted by the schemes of the Viper. Rogue pirate lords of the Boreals have begun to prey on their former allies, and the Saltbound kampoi of the Maelstrom are eager to drag down sacrifices for their titan masters.

Mute ruins of the Arcadian neriads dot the barren Southern Isles. The treacherous city of Sidaphos is the only port between New Aletheia in the west and the isles of the Dragon's Tail in the east; it grows rich on piracy and ruinous tariffs. Southernmost of all is Mavros, the Vaultisle of Death, covered with the shadow-haunted ruins of Arcadian cities, its seas teeming with skeletal sea life.

The Boreal Archipelago arcs over the northern end of the Thalassa Velos, a spawling, seemingly unchartable sprawl of isles. They are dizzying in variety, large and small, ranging from the warm Western Reach to the chilly isles half engulfed by the Frozen Expanse. The Trident has proclaimed his sea-kingdom to rule its waters, but he has yet to make this claim stick. This was the heartsea of the Arcadian neriads, and their ruins lie above and below the waves. Their triton descendants are returning, some staking claims to it.

Regions

The Southern Isles

• scattering of smaller isles, sparser than in the Dytikan or Boreal archipelagos
• taciturn fisherfolk, pirate coves, psarikampoi/titancultists
• south of the Maelstrom in the open ocean, lightly inhabited, remote

History

• colonized by neriads by the end of the Arcadian age. still kinda remote
• with the Godswar and the growing Maelstrom and kampoi threat, most neriads decide to withdraw back to the Boreals. Wreath Hekuba inspires her followers, the Unyielding Seven, to stick it out. Goes poorly, spiraling into obsession and Strange death. Isles largely abandoned to the Strange and the kampoi
• later in the Shattered Age, as the Aphxanamos and Frozen Expanse make it tricky to sail from Dytikos to Antolikos, the isles begin attracting colonists from Epolosia and the Dragon's Tail/Bay of Pearls, and some from Aletheia. Some clashes and rivalry, and frontier battling with the kampoi.
• The Maelstrom batters the isles in the Titanomachia. Death star falls on Mavros, black ships sail.
• The Fall brings disruption to the Bhrygan temenos and an Archon comes to manage it, is eventually captured and tormented by the Fathomless.
• Titanwrack and tree-ship sailing leukrotta from the Aphxanamos begin to show up in the isles. Kampoi remain strong.
• islanders cut off from their homelands, grow lean and hard, piracy spreads. Sidaphos becomes a hive of scum and villainy, Deadwater forms. Mastigos adopts them as a major market.
• Acrolon conquers Sidaphos as part of their effort to envelop the continents, gives them a waypost on the way to Calcaria and a place to launch attacks against the Epolosian coast.
• As the Asphodel spread in Epolosia, some refugees take to the isles.
• With the fall of Calcaria, the Hegemony pulls out of the isles, back to Aletheia, leaving the pirates in charge of Sidaphos again.
• Vasileian / Bay of Pearls nations send an expeditionary fleet to break the pirates and make trade through the southern isles more viable.

Geography

Bhryga

• swampy, salt-marsh
• stalked by kampoi; they send mists and currents to draw people to it (or to steer towards the maelstrom) to murder and sacrifice.
• graveyard of lost ships
• ancient neriad stone structures from the gilded days (when the maelstrom began to form, they mostly abandoned the southern isles and kept to the boreals). the swamp has gone nuts since the local major temenos went untended after the fall, life and death warring in the swampy decay (spawning weird critters). servitor (what type?) came to be an archon, was imprisoned/crucified by the kampoi within an old neriad temple. they do alchemy with its blood, trying to further pervert the temenos
• mad shipwrecked survivors grovel to the kampoi, worship the titans?

Ammodis

• desert, miserable isle, few inhabitants, little water, threat of kampoi, salt elementals
• pirate forts/hangouts, a place to watch for passing ships
• neriad structures

Sidaphos (si-DAH-fohs)

• grassy hills
• some herding, farming
• pirate haven/seedy port/hive of scum and villainy, its the only half-decent port in the southern isles (and the only sizable/decent harbor on the isle), and thus the only stop on the way between new alethia and the bay of pearls. hefty payments to the port's rulers can buy a degree of immunity to piracy, but their influence is imperfect. port is unruly, full of vice, plunder, slaves, rarities wrested from the jungle coast, asphodel, maelstrom charon, etc
• Sidaphos is often used to refer to both the isle and the city, though the city's full name is The Haven of the Southern Winds (back from Elysian times)
• haven's power is backed by a titancult: ocean/death cult, assassins, seafarers, the kampoi don't like them (often attack), secular and not really interested in the titan's agenda. they have captured one of the Mavros shadow ships, serves as their flagship.
• Mastigos has a standing presence here, buying and selling slaves
• Nighthold Corsairs are a new presence, but they're forced their way in, despite the stigma of being Acrolonian
• ancient neriad structures around and on the isle
• the more powerful captains and merchant/pirate princes have fortified manors dotted around the isle, claiming lesser harbors and coves as their private ports

Mavros

• Southernmost of the Southern Isles

• deathvault, dead Elysian ruins, living shadows, skeletal sea life swarms its waters, shadow ships prowl the waters at times, sometimes sailing far away to terrorize
• port's deathcult comes here at times to harvest power, do rituals, etc
• no asphodels grow, those are authority magic
• when the Titanomachia came, the shadow ships sailed for the first time, gathered in a great fleet. They brought sickness and decay to the shores they struck. They still sail, but have never gathered again.
• there are undead memories wandering the isle, their flesh stripped away, but memory and soul lingering on
• the Mad Caduceus was intrigued with the deathvault, create a flesh giant to explore it who could resist its power. it crawls, naked, blind, and starving across the land still, its flesh calcifying and sloughing off, only to spring up into gibbering flesh-things and roam until the land kills them.
• Mavros is full of Elysian ruins become perfect white marble mausleums. Its waters are patrolled by skeletal sealife, its shores silent and still. The silent shadows of mortals and beasts slip across walls and fields beneath wan sunlight.