Deepwater World
Oolamara
Floating ports above, glowing cities far below.
Oolamara is dark, deep ocean almost everywhere. Floating ports bob on the surface; pressure-layer civilisations live at different depths, each sure their layer is the correct one.
Bioluminescent mega-life drifts in currents wide enough to carry islands. Some shapes under the waves are far too large to be fish.
The surface is a patchwork of raft-cities lashed together with rope, cable and old treaties. Down below, each depth layer has its own government, its own language and its own very firm opinions about the layers above and below.
Trade runs up and down the water column in pressure lifts. A fish dinner on the surface might have been caught by someone who has never seen the sky.
Atmosphere
Humid, salty, always the sound of water. Below: crushing, beautiful pressure.
Local quirk
Onobo did not pack swim gear. He never packs swim gear.
Regions · proposed names, not locked canon
Deepwater World
The open ocean and its giant currents.
Floating Ports
Raft-cities and trading docks.
Abyssal Settlements
Pressure-layer towns in the deep.
The Glowline
The depth where sunlight gives out and bioluminescence takes over. Divers say it's like falling into a city at night.
Hazards
- ▲Crushing depthEvery hundred metres adds pressure. Without an envelope, ships fold like paper.
- ▲Mega-currentsCurrents wide enough to carry islands can drag a ship halfway round the planet.
- ▲Very large neighboursMost leviathans are gentle. Most.
Visitor tips
- ✦Check your seals twice.
- ✦Say hello to the leviathans. They seem to like it.
- ✦Bring towels. Bring more towels.
Local life
- ●Pressure-layer peoples
- ●Glowing leviathans
- ●One Meep Rock that sank and seems fine
A day on Oolamara
On the surface, days are bright, damp and noisy with gulls that aren't gulls. Raft-cities drift slowly on the current and occasionally bump into each other, which is treated like a social visit.
Below, there is no day at all, only the slow pulse of glowing currents. Abyssal folk set their clocks by the passing of the leviathans.
Locals & customs
Phaffling sky-docks
Floating Phaffling platforms drift above the reefs. Their harbour masters keep a picture of Whale Crusher pinned up, just in case.
Harbourmaster Quillo
Runs the biggest floating port. Has eight arms, four clipboards and zero patience.
The Deep Choir
Leviathans whose songs travel hundreds of kilometres. Nobody knows what they're saying. Everyone agrees it's beautiful.
Pebble's cousin
The Meep Rock that sank years ago and now lives at the bottom, quite happily, eating the seabed.
- ◆Never ask anyone what layer they're from. Wait for them to tell you.
- ◆Raft-cities that collide must share dinner.
- ◆Surface folk throw a coin into the water for luck. Abyssal folk have a vault of them and are very confused.
Legends & history
The Drowned Moon
Oolamara once had a moon. The stories say it fell into the ocean and is still down there, glowing at the bottom of the deepest trench.
Nobody has reached that depth. Onobo has drawn three designs for a ship that could. Zamfyr has volunteered to drive all three.
Crew log
“I said 'close the door'. I definitely said it. Possibly only in my head.”
“Very deep. Very wet. No swim gear.”
Story seed · in development
Meep in the Deep
A Meep Rock sinks to the abyss and starts eating a deep-city's foundations. Onobo builds a pressure envelope. Zamfyr forgets to close the door.
The Meep isn't hungry, it's lonely. It is eating the foundations to reach another Meep trapped underneath, and the crew has to free both without the city falling in.
Earthward stakes
An organism bound for Earth's seas is safe at depth but dangerous in shallow water.
Related lore