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Part of that World

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Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Part of that World

Post by Perram Riptide »

I swim to the secret trove all my own, of tomes archived to study the ancients.
They say to be a reader of myths and archaeology takes great patience,
But sagas of pharoahs, of vikings dreaming in their tombs,
are no chore for my passionate soul to peruse.

Tales of classical heroes of the bygone civilizations; if you don't care for these, what could you miss?
Only the epic of Ky—oob'LhraBurt wielding his pearled macehead scepter of gods in his struggles against Ssilikarn, the unrelenting sand goddess.
Many a story of majestic realms there is to tell,
Ky—oob'LhraBurt encountered a two-eyed cyclops in the caves of Seaorsi that he felled,
and braved the hydrothermal vents of Kraalhalla to boil arcane crabweed that he did.
Can you imagine scenic vistas of the ancient world so splendid?

floating in this mystical grotto
I'm reading my treasures; which I collected alotto.
The knowledge, excitement, adventure is calling me;
It stirs my heart as I absorb it all longingly.

I was born in a sea of evils and wrongs,
is there a place I better belong?
In the times of these old gods I feel better suited,
Not the modern sea, which I'd rather be excluded.

Or perhaps out of this ocean, something more exists
out in the air and through the boundary mists.
Pondering what could be
moves my mind with unsolved mysteries.

The universe outside our aquasphere is remarkably bleak,
the ocean submerges even the highest rocky peak.

To explore the air above has no purpose,
for cold winds and blazing sun awaits to greet those who dare surface.

It is the forests and coves of the seafloor you'll find wondrous creatures,
Mollusks and polyps and cnidarians with colorful features.

Beneath the waves is where the sea's bounty is rife,
for water is the source of all life.

There is nothing beyond the mist, our rulers say.
But maybe I can imagine, maybe just today.

There are places above this saltwater prison,
beyond clouds and stars that exotic beings live in.

Imagine what exists beyond the sky's bright shining pearl,
and if I could transcend the tides above to be a part of that world.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
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Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: Part of that World

Post by Perram Riptide »

I was up late in one of my intense reading sessions, enamoured with the classical cultures of the world. I intensely worked through my fatigue to finish a chapter, and afterward, as I was lost in wonder, I heard a thought reverberate in my mind:

Entering Dreamstate.

My surrounding environment felt lighter, and I stumbled over, unable to keep my balance. I was simultaneously sleeping in my grotto, and awake in a place far away from the sea I know; it was a surreal, yet cognitively stable dream. It was an ornate plaza of white stone, and the sky was... below me? The world is upside-down? I dipped my hand into the sky beneath the edge of this platform, and feel... a deeper wetness? At this point I realized I was in the sky, above and looking down at the sea. So that is why I feel such light pressure and... dryness.

I clumsily crawled about to explore the dream and get used to locomotion in this environment. I thought about a tool to help me walk steady, and I felt something heavy fill my grip with a thunk. I clasped a calcite rod carved in the shape of a seahorse tail adorned with a pearl for a macehead. It was the pearl of Achth'ii sitting on the tail of Ky-oob — the mace of waves and the signature instrument of the merman demigod Ky—oob'Lhraburt. Steep slopes and the increased influence of gravity forced me to become adept with my unfused tail-legs to behold more of this wondrous dream.

I found many doorways with exotic symbols inscribed in their archways. I was drawn to the flags that were the aqua color of the sea, marked with the triangular symbol that was serifed on each corner. I wander the halls aimlessly until I find a staircase where my mind spoke out to me:

"This way to the library."

Every step up the stairs required me to exert more effort than I am used to in this waterless space. I enter a large room ornamented with strange, twisted white coral or shell-like objects set into columns, and along the walls were many colored scrolls covered in characters that were foreign yet legible to me, though I could not understand the context or purpose of these lists.

The most bizarre thing in this room was the creature that stood before me. I believed it was a living being, but it stood still as a statue. It was humanoid with a wisteria skin tone and two large folded fins on its back that were unlike any fins I ever knew. They had sleek, fluffy scales with protruding tips tightly attached by a thin base. Its coloring fins reminded me somewhat of headless chicken monsters, but it clearly had bilateral symmetry like myself.

I should have been terrified, but some mental intuition told me this being would do me no harm, and I dared to vocalize to get its attention, and it responded back to me in my own language; or rather, we were using a shared mental language via some telepathic communication.

Her name was Zhara Haqi and she welcomed me to The Dream City of Underlight.

She promptly went back into her trance, and another humanoid named Jasper entered the library. He was unlike Zhara, and he was no merman, either. He told me that I can learn many things and that actions are more complicated here. He said he was a teacher. He taught me how to push things with my mind, and gave me a tour of a museum to see the relics of dream city on display. An object that caught my fascination was a harp with torrents of water manifesting in front of it. I competently played a somber tune even though I have little musical ability when I'm awake.

After our tour, another humanoid named Em'et arrived in the library; another teacher. He is a travelling storyteller from a war-torn shard, which piques my interest because I love legends of gods and heroes, but he tells them as payment for food and a place to stay. Perhaps I can trade stories with him someday. Evidently, I am a "DreamSeer" with a strong inclination to "Insight." Em'et successfully taught me to locate new dreamers, and attempted to teach me an art called TransFire. He said it was a basic technique, but I could not wrap my mind around the concept of "flame." He hurled some of this inconceivable "fire" substance, and I observed it dancing in some basins. It gives off sweltering heat, and fills me with both wonder and dread.

I told him I live underwater in my shard and this was surprising to him. Try as we might, I could not learn "TransFlame." The art is unfathomable to my imagination and antithetical to my nature. When he asked me if I wanted to continue with the fruitless endeavor, I declined.

Back in the library, I met another humanoid; white and glowing with long ears. She said she was a half-elf named Duck, and explained that Underlight is a hub connecting creatures dreaming from various shards: the worlds that exist within the boundary mists.

It has been confirmed; my shard — Mecc'Odell Ktlaloc'hra — is not the entire universe.

We told each other about our shards. She had a father named Drizzt Do'Urden, and her shard is full of "islands" with forests and palm trees. I asked what a tree was, and from her description, it is a long anemone that grows outside of water. It is difficult to comprehend that life can exist without water, and the sea can be under the sand "islands."

She took my pearl mace and englufed it in a magical "flame." She said she "improved it" with some enchantment. I thanked her, and I felt myself stirring awake....
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
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Perram Riptide
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Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: Part of that World

Post by Perram Riptide »

Entering Dreamstate.

I returned to Underlight and encountered new dreamers named Huthut and Flower of Cienne. Flower of Cienne said she could show me the "palm tree" I was curious about that exists in other shards, and she led us through whimsical, mysterious passages through the dream. Having water beneath my feet was an oddity in this ethereal realm. We ran past monsters called "nightmares" which ruptured my concentration as they gave chase. My physical projection destabilized and I became a "Soul Sphere." Cienne used an art to restore my focus and restabilize my appearance.

We walked through many false walls and hidden portals. It was easy to get lost here, and there was a horrific chamber with a sea of blood beneath us. We got to a broken bridge that required us to jump. I could not do the sky-swimming known as "flying" and taking so much energy to lift myself up with a leap only to sink down too fast to maintain the height was something I was not used to and a bit disorienting, but the fissure was narrow and I cleared the gap.

We arrived at what is called a "beach." A place where sand and water meet at the same level. The way the waves crest against the sand was mesmerizing, and feeling hot, dry sand in my toes was phantasmagoric. I saw the palm tree, planted on the sand. This polyp or crinoid-like thing had no locomotion, but I could sense it was living. It had a hard, brown base, with flat, green tentacles as big as a shark. The thing was at least as tall as three mermen. What a bewildering and awe-inspiring spectacle. This thing could somehow sustain its living existence in the heat of the air without water.

Cienne told me a meeting of dreamers to talk of events in the city was about to commence. We attended the forum and Duck was there, with her father Drizzt Do'Urden, and her mother Shalandra. They were evidently important figures delivering speeches and meeting minutes. Is she a princess, perhaps? I asked her if I could be introduced, and after the meeting we both got up on stage.

I told them I was eager to learn all about them and their shards. But it is only polite that I tell them where I come from first. I was saving this story for Em'et, but with the spotlight on me in dream city, I told everyone I am Perram Riptide Ommaya'hra, a Merperson of the shard Ktlatol'lhra, and told them one of the genesis myths of my shard:

In the beginning, there was no sand, no coral reefs, no kelp forests or volcanic trenches. There wasn't even sky or water. Thee was only darkness surrounded by the boundary mists. In the center of the darkness lived Mecc'Odell the giant cephalopod. The darkness was the ink secreted by Mecc'Odell, and he was content to float in his own ink for eternity to block the boundary mists from his sight. He had been trapped in the void and gave up attempting to break through the mists he could not breach. He believed he was the only being alive, until another came from beyond the imprenetrable mists.

The lady Ktlaloc came through the mists, looked upon the black void of ink, and said "let there be light!" Not seeing the cephalopod through the darkness, she opened her shell and threw her shining pearl across the void and smashed the monster Mecc'Odell. Mecc'Odell's blood became the ocean, his breath became the sky, his tentacles became the kelp and anemone forests, his brains became coral, his shell became sand and rocks, and his skin and organs was split in two halves. Ktlaloc's shining pearl was the last thing Mecc'Odell saw before it split him apart, and thus, the light-bringing aspect of the pearl remained in his vision, swimming high above surveying the world.

Ktlaloc, not aware of Mecc'Odell's presence and believing her shell would simply cast the ink away, looked down curiously at the world that was created before her. She retrieved her pearl, that she found between the remaining halves of Mecc'Odell's flesh. Seeing that the skin and organs were sapient, she asked them how this world came to be.

"You shattered me," said the skin, "and created this world from the pieces of my body."

"But I am immortal," said his organs, "and shall continue to live in this way."

"It is a shame this world exists," said Lady Ktlaloc, "with only us to swim in it."

"Yes," replied Mecc'Odell's flesh, "I was satisfied being alone here forever, but that was when there was nothing here to admire."

"Now," said his skin, "I desire there to be beings with thoughts and senses like us to make this world lively.

"I have an idea," said Ktlaloc. She wove a pouch using the skin, and laid her eggs in it. The organs, understanding her intention, poured his bile into the pouch.

"The eggs are too cold," the skin said, "they will not hatch."

Ktlaloc took Mecc'Odell's stomach from his organs and buried it in the sand.

"Oh," said his stomach, "I'm feeling hungry." The stomach growled angrily, and the earthquakes created the volcanic vents, spewing heated bubbles into the world, giving the eggs warmth to hatch.

A geyser of life erupted from the skin pouch in a triple-helix formation. Ktlaloc swam up to the mists and when her shell is open, her pearl can be seen as the distant orb that brings light to the ocean and banishes the ink of night. Mecc'Odell's eyes, also swimming around the world, swim within the remaining ink to keep Ktlaloc's light from blinding them, and they pull the tides up and shine their own light upon it to get the best view of the sea they admire.

Thusly, Ktlaloc and Mecc'Odell progenerated the Triple Helix of life and carved the world Mecc'Odell Ktlaloc'hra*—Offspring of Ktlaloc and Mecc'Odell!


After my speech, I pointed out that many of our people believe the mists are impenetrable, but according to the story, Ktlaloc came from beyond the boundary mists. Our people can only explore the sky with a tool called skyfins that enable air swimming. We call those explorers divers, but nobody has ever breached the mists. I now know from my DreamState visits that there are many worlds beyond the mists, but I cannot bring back evidence when I wake up, and my family dismisses my euphoric ramblings for an overactive imagination. I asked if there has been any trans-shard travel outside the dream; Duck and Drizzt informed me that beings came from other shards to kidnap their people. Evidently, mist-travel, revolutionary as it is, has dire consequences.
Duck taught me of five of the houses of Underlight:

Alliance of the eclipse — Its emblem is a ring with three balls. It was once the house of peace one hundred years ago and dreamers had a hard time connecting to it. It is now a memorial.

House Calenture — Its symbol is spiny like a cluster of three urchins. This was Duck's first house and is now a house of fighters.

The Dreamers of Light — Its emblem has the appearance of two curved sickles overlapping each other, slithering like eels on a green flag. This was Duck's second house.

The Order of the Sable Moon — Its emblem is ovoid and slanted with three spikes at each side. It is the new house of peace. It is Duck's current house.

The Emergence Academy — The house of the cyan flags with the triangular serifed emblem. Something about it calls out to my deepest instincts to learn more.

Not much was revealed about house politics, but Duck lamented that House Calenture and the Dreamers of Light have changed in so many ways she does not want to go back to them.

Duck told me of the things called 'mares' that roam the city, which have six categories: nightmares, daymares, darkmares, datoken, kotoke, and nightstalkers. Upon inquiring how much is known about them, she told me that she has not done much research on the nightmares during her 102 years here! Perhaps they are of little interest to her among all of dream city's limitless wonders, but she said she would think on my suggestion of nightmare research.

I wonder if Em'et would be intersted to hear part one of the epic of Ky—oob'Lhraburt. I should get something good in exchange for that.

*Ktlaloc is the classical name of the goddess from Reefcsé mythology. Ktlatol is a renaming of her in the language of the Yöma empire that conquered the Reefcsésian, and the name of the world was mutated from Ktlaloc'hra (of Ktlaloc's egg) to Ktlatol'lhra (Literally "under Ktlatol", or "that which exists beneath Ktlatol," referring that her bright pearl that shines light above the world)
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: Part of that World

Post by Perram Riptide »

Entering Dreamstate.

Zhara Haqi has a sister named Samatha. She led me to a "stream" and told me the scales on her wings are called "feathers." We marveled at the horizon of underlight, which stretches farther than the sea, the sky, the mists, and even "space" itself. Her shard is called Aya.

Aya. What a beautifully succinct name.

Pondering on it, my shard does, indeed, have an animal with feathers. I wonder if feather stars can fly through the sky?
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
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