Part 20 of the Palaververse: The Oceans · 10:55pm May 3rd, 2016
Any worldbuilding worth its (sea)salt has to include some maritime matters. The oceans of the world got most nominations in the last post's comments, and as this series be one o' these fine democratic vessels, they be exactly what ye be given, ye scurvy dogs, yar, &c.
Usual rules for this series applies. Themaskedferret is the proofreader we all both need and deserve, so all deserved adulation should go her way. If there's anything you'd like to see elaborated upon, feel free to ask, and if there's another facet of the setting you'd like to see explored, do drop a nomination for it in the comments. If any topic gets more votes than any other, it'll form or be part of the next post.
Below the pretty picture, the world's oceans and all sundry sea serpents, krakens, pirates, and shameless China Mieville references await!
For old time’s sake, grab the hypothetical and much-abused observer from Ovarn and Bovaland’s entries. Direct them to walk into a dockside tavern in Theia. Any tavern in any place, whether in Equestria, Asinia, Ovarn, Corva, Zebrica, or beyond; and any time, whether today or a millennium prior; the particulars rarely matter. Past the carousing, inevitable hoof-fights and swinging from chandeliers, nautical terminology, naughty language, and all other dockside staples, they’ll hear the same sorts of sailors’ tales, endlessly retold. Tales of the deceptive tranquility of the high seas, ready to be whipped up by storms blowing from east or west and with waves raging higher than the highest clipper masts. Tales of bartering with the sea-serpents, of duels with corsairs, and of the corposant skyfire that flares around masts and sails in the dead of night. Tales of fantastic beasts that swim unseen just below the waves, of horrors that dream in the darkness of the deep trenches, and of all the mysteries that await past the sight of the smiling skies and within the unsounded seas.
Ask the observer to then try and divide the truth from the myths, and other than the inebriation of the tale-tellers, they’ll have little to go by. Sometimes, the two are just that indistinguishable.
Don’t actually throw the observer into the sea to ascertain the myths first-hand, of course. This would reduce your supply of observers, as well as possibly be unethical.
From earliest times until the present day, the oceans of Theia have served as a source of stories, resources, travel, and adventure for the sapient beings of the world. Of the greater world ocean, two subdivisions exist. The Black Ocean is the greatest and most mysterious of these, covering over one half of the world and unbroken on its surface save for the tips of the ruins of Antlertis. Eternal storms churn at its core and blot out its skies, stirred up by and mired in wild magic and sent blowing out to tear across the other side of the world. The next and smaller subdivision is the Common Ocean, ringed by the continents of Ungula, Dactylia, Ceratos, and engulfing all the smaller islands and landmasses in between.
Of the two, the Common Ocean is slightly more conducive to profitable travel and/or survival, and has been charted and sailed upon since the beginning of recorded history. The first recorded seafarers were the zebras of Zebrica in the heyday of Lower Zebrica, who first began sending laden barges and trade vessels out from the homely waters of the Neighle to ferry goods and explore south along the Dactylian coast just over two thousand years ago. This practise was arrested briefly by the chaos sown by the Night Serpent, but resumed in a larger-scale fashion after the unification of the Zebrican realms. Many coastal settlements sprung up and prospered, several small islands off the Zebrican coast were settled, and though the furthest rangings of the Zebrican explorers rarely went further than the island of Saddle Arabia (which in those days was quite correctly shunned by said explorers), the Zebrican realm found enough trading opportunities with the emerging realms of the Fractious Lands and their own emerging maritime ventures to make the whole practise worthwhile.
These early ventures also saw the first sustained contact between land-dwelling sapients and those that dwell within the seas. Sea-dwelling sapients are rare compared to their landlubbing cousins, with few species bearing the state and the communities of even those species rarely congregating or collectively working in anything recognisable as a nation or as a unified realm. The various cetacean tribes are amongst them. Schools of dolphins and pods of whales largely either curiously observe the goings-on of the land-dwellers from a safe distance or shun them altogether, communing amongst themselves in their own Deepsong, interacting with land-dwellers as little as possible in spite of any attempts to initiate friendly relations, and largely live in mysterious ways beyond easy observation.
The great sea serpents, however, are a different matter, and the historical records are mixed as to whether the zebras initiated contact with them or the other way around. Originating in the relatively gentle waters of the Cheval Sea, the stretch of ocean between northern Dactylia and western Ungula, the species existed then and largely exists now as a diaspora of individuals scattered far and wide, couples raising their young elvers in the safety of underwater caves or shallow trenches, and occasional small collective shivers under the rule of strong chieftains or petty kings, absent any central authority or collective sense of nationhood. Those collective shivers only tend to emerge in areas of the sea where competition from other seagoing creatures is especially rife and compels the local sea serpents to unite in the name of survival, with leadership passing to the strongest and oldest amongst their number. Otherwise, sea serpents live largely solitary lives. They learn from their parents in early life, accumulate their own experiences and tricks over the course of several centuries of life, and pass their own strains of knowledge and family lore down to whatever offspring they produce in turn. Courtship and reproduction occurs roughly once every decade between pairs who typically go their separate ways after their elvers have reached maturity, though particularly compatible couples may arrange to meet later for future sessions of reproduction and parenting. Constant migration is a fixture of most sea serpent’s existences, and most older sea sea serpents are scarred, canny, and knowledgeable individuals who’ll be more than happy to share said knowledge — for a suitable price, of course.
Many who encountered the zebras in those early days were able to mimic the Zebrican tongue with their own flexible vocal cords, and were quick to engage with the sailors and coastal communities they encountered. Many of these engagements were of a peaceable nature. Sea serpents offered safe passage for sailing ships against whatever other ship-threatening beasts existed on the open seas, such as krakens, or to dredge up resources and salvage from the seabed. In exchange, surface delicacies were sought after, or more specialised goods such as barding crafted to fit a particular sea serpent’s form, or even just stockpiles of surface currency for use in future bartering. Many especially sought out various cosmetics and jewellery that only surface-dwellers could craft or forge, due to a pronounced vain streak amongst many members of the species as well as a keen desire to seek appropriate mates sans any particular standards beyond good grooming. Not all such engagements were positive, with some sea serpents turning to overt strongarming or active piracy to get what they wanted from lone sailing ships. Only the largest of serpents or the efforts of organised shivers were able to succeed in such efforts, however, and for the most part, relations have remained amicable between sea serpents and the surface world. Some have even migrated up into the larger freshwater rivers of the continents, plying similar trades and relations with whatever riverside communities they find.
As time went by, the donkeys were the next species to make major inroads into unknown waters, initially under the thumb of the Capric Empire. The increasing technological sophistication of their own vessels soon saw the Empire knitting its coastal territories together, as well as firmly fixing the attention of donkeys upon the sea. As long-time dwellers by the coast, the donkeys had long held the ocean with a nigh-religious awe as a font of marvels and terrors in equal measure. Leveraging the resources afforded their territories in the name of Imperial projects provided the spark that set their sight upon exploration and exploitation of that same ocean, and their own latent ability to churn out increasingly-sophisticated vessels soon saw their crews making landfall across the Cheval Sea and in ports across Zebrica and the Fractious Lands. As events on Ungula unfolded and the Capric Empire fell apart, the newly-free Asinians were quick to venture out from the relatively homely and gentle waters of the Cheval Sea and into the rest of the Common Ocean, whether as explorers, merchants, colonisers, or corsairs.
The geography and nature of the eastern Common Ocean that the first donkey explorers found was dictated by the great volcanic archipelago of the Burning Mountains, raised out of the seas by eldritch draconic magic during the Capric Empire’s infancy. Volcanic ash and patches of rogue magic blew across the ocean for miles, giving rise to small wyld storms, hurricanes, and waterspouts above the surface of the ocean. Many of the sailors on those waters are no less dangerous than nature, with armed Asinian, Ceratosan, Gazellen, and Pachydermian ships frequently vying with pirates to secure shipping and trade. Many of these pirates are the dreaded and aristocratic corsairs spawned by Asinia’s Great Revolution, haunting the high seas centuries after the fact with ships clad in tattered heraldry and functioning as floating courts, accuring patchwork materials and augmentations from whatever Merchant Fleet ships they capture and put to the sword.
Beneath that surface, in waters where even sea serpents and cetaceans were reluctant to tread, all manner of wondrous beasts and unimagined terrors awaited the first explorers. Building-sized krakens and colossal whale sharks vied to assume the position of apex predator in near-surface waters, amidst swarms of undulous and skeletal bonefish, and angel sharks capable of flying briefly out of the water to snap unsuspecting birds or sailors. Below them, truly vast, island-sized avancs drift serenely on as the undisputed largest creatures alive, wearing or trailing their own ecosystems of coral, packs of grindylow, and spectral ghost shrimp amidst their huge forms.
And below even them, in the dark waters at the bottom of the world, only the most scattershot accounts have returned from explorers manning rudimentary bathyspheres. The abyssal plains around the Burning Mountains plunge into a mess of underground mountain ridges and ocean trenches. In these trenches, huge and sedentary cousins to krakens lie as parts of the landscape, hibernating peacefully for centuries at a time. Chaotic and primal magic still brewing up from the centre of the earth spawns Dwellers Below such as those found in the deep tunnels made by the Diamond Dogs, eldritch and hulking conglomerates of limbs and mismatched appendages. In a few trenches, hives of spider crabs have spun vast trench-spanning webs to ensnare anything that blunders in. Reports from the few bathyspheres to plunge into such trenches have been horrifying brief in their garbled contents, albeit quickly and mercifully cut off.
These deep waters and trenches run all the way around the Burning Mountains, and under the surfaces of the Asinial Main, Ceratos Sea, and the Bay of Ovarn; subdivisions of the Common Ocean spanning respectively east of Dactylia, north of Ceratos, and south-east of Ungula. Sailors from each nation with a presence in these waters (with Asinial sailors and pirates tending to be a constant fixture wherever saltwater exists) frequently either dredge up or evade the attentions of these high-sea perils. Yet in spite of that attention, which has been ongoing for over a thousand years, little is still known of the secrets held within the eastern Common Ocean, and all manner of legends regarding it are still endlessly told and retold. Some in Equestria are especially attached to the idea of a lost tribe of sea ponies, long-separated from their surface kin by the great migration that led the pony tribes to the lands of Equestria. Some of these accounts may be rooted in the shapes of the white horses allegedly seen in the crests of the tallest waves, while others may be rooted in the old accounts of the sirens, Antlertean-made monsters defeated by Starswirl the Bearded back in the dawn age of Equestria and banished to parts unknown. Although no evidence that sea ponies ever existed has ever surfaced, the legend endures to this day, and many of the more eccentric Equestrian adventurers hold out hopes of following the accounts of hoary old story-tellers, finding their lost kindred, and reuniting the four tribes at long last.
Perhaps they’re not entirely misguided. The depths of the Common Ocean hold all manner of unsounded depths and nooks and crannies, and new findings come in by the day to be eagerly pored over by land-dwelling scholars.
East and west of the Common Ocean, however, their waters give way to the Black Ocean. And there, some mysteries seem bound to remain as such. The chaotic and lively waters of the Common Ocean give way to endless abyssal plains, sloping gradually downwards into seemingly-lifeless darkness. Patches of dangerous wild magic grow ever-more frequent in the water the further into the ocean one delves, and the wyld storms that brew above the surface grow ever-more frequent and violent. Only the hardiest of sea-dwelling creatures can hope to survive in these environments, and in defiance of all expectations, some such creatures have been found. Deep-sea oozes cut little paths along the long plains, absorbing and consuming any and all minerals in their path, resisting all wild magic with a magically-impervious slime that covers their forms, and surviving quite happily for long millennia at a time in these conditions. One such creature was responsible for eating the creature Discord out of his cage amidst the ruins of Antlertis, and was adopted by Discord in his first moments of life as his best friend for life. In the millennia since, the creature has been carried across the world by Discord and casually left in different parts of it whenever Discord’s attention goes elsewhere, and has proven itself quite capable of happily surviving out of deep-sea conditions and of consuming all inorganic materials on the surface as well.
But beyond these creatures and the existence of the abyssal plains - as well as, of course, the existence of Antlertis’ ruins at the heart of it all - the Black Ocean manages to be even less explored than the Common Ocean. Both parts of the world ocean remains sources of mystery and adventure for those surface-dwellers with the boldness to put themselves at the mercy of its winds and tides, and long shall they remain so.
There is always more in heaven and earth than dreamed of in any surface philosophy, after all. And part of that ‘more’ shall always include the seas and all within.
Still love these history/geography lessons. As usual, very well done!
Discord's BFF is a beautiful origin story.
Vote for: Nightmares
It doesn't drip with pretentiousness so there couldn't have been too many.
Anyway, solid stuff. Honestly, with both the Dwellers Below and similar creatures at the bottom of the sea, I have to wonder what sleeps in the core of this world to spawn such horrors.
Interesting to discover that about the Smooze. Is that lifespan of his natural to his kind or a product of being Discord's friend?
Which is an excellent lead in for my continued campaign (and current vote) for an accounting of known Immortals and semi-immortals.
Interesting, as usual. :)
By the way, the image of the map included with the changeling post doesn't seem to be loading for me.
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Nomination for Nightmares noted! Glad you like it.
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Nomination for known immortals and semi-immortals noted! I'd say the Smooze's lifespan is normal for members of its species, though Discord's friendship certainly provided it with plenty of opportunities to extend/dramatically shorten that lifespan. It's inherently tough enough to resist most chaotic magic that could hurt it, its form is resilient and accommodating of a range of environments, and some inner magic can let it sustain itself near-indefinitely.
China Mieville's not without faults, I'll admit, but his Bas-Lag series has had far more of an unconscious influence on the Palaververse than I'd expected, and I'd recommend it as truly great worldbuilding to anyone reading. Any setting with a range of sapient species, magical perils aplenty, steampunk/modern-ish tech, and ancient empires screwing up the world ages after their demise can't help but have a few parallels.
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Glad you approve! The map issue may be a consequence of the site and Imgur not being on speaking terms anymore. Any ideas for alternative hosts?
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Y'know, it's funny. The first China book I ever read was Un Lun Dun, and I thought it was fantastic. Then I tried Perdido Street Station. I finished that but not without some considerable distaste. They're similar on the surface, but, I dunno, it just felt like all of the humor in Un Lun Dun was replaced with gritty 'maturity' in Perdido. As though reading should be about 'art' instead of a good time. I tried The City & The City to see if Perdido was just a bad egg, but I couldn't even get into that one.
Honestly, I would have assumed Palververse was influenced by Stephen Hunt's books, another setting with many sapient species, magical perils, steampunk tech, and ancient empires. They are not perfect, but much better than Mieville's stuff in my opinion
I like that the spider crabs are actually spiders. XD
GTFO
Okay, no, you included unexpected Smooze, I can forgive. :B
Fascinating stuff as usual, especially the biosphere of the depths. I've always been fascinated by deep-sea life.
I'd happily vote for something, but I'm not sure what's left. What other topics would you like to broach at some juncture?
I'll go for the nightmares and general dream stuff too. I'm sure you can weave something suitably Lovecraftian out of that.
Confound the Black Ocean and its perpetual mysteriousness. That said, all this vagueness is giving me hope that you will one day pen an epic, world-spanning tale based on all of these entries. That shall be a good day.
Now, based on preceding comments, I find the choice between the Nightmares and the known immortals for the next entry to be a tough one... But, since both are also likely to be shrouded in mystery and half-truths given their subject matter, I'll elect the known immortals/supernatural entities. That provides more opportunity for breaking new ground and the planting of more distressingly-tantalizing seeds, and I'm curious to see what folk tales and legends might pop up beyond Equestrian borders, besides the all-but-immortal dragons and Crown.
P.S. I appreciated the Lovecraft nod in this entry. Seeds, as I said.
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Un Lun Dun's rad, I can agree there. Different strokes for different folks if Perdido Street Station wasn't to your taste, but for what it's worth, I do recommend The Scar as my favourite among the Bas-Lag books. Much stronger and more taut than the other two, and a goodly amount of fantastical weirdness on display.
Not read much Stephen Hunt, alas, though I remember starting The Court of the Air once years ago. I should dig it out again and give it another go on that recommendation.
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In a setting where the timber wolves are made out of actual timber, I'm not sure what right-thinking human could have done but make the spider crabs out of actual spider.
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Deep sea life's a subject of interest to me as well. I have vivid memories of a Blue Planet video cassette, with terms like 'abyssal plain' with accompanying video and smooth David Attenborough narration utterly capturing an eight-year-old me's attention.
I'm also not sure how much solid stuff there is left for me to talk about, admittedly, though I'm happy to ramble about some more general things. One person asked for a overview of military capabilities in the distant past, and I'd be willing to dredge that up again, along with other general stuff like an overall look at various beliefs and superstitions, love and marriage and social customs, that sort of thing.
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Nomination for nightmares and dreaming noted! I'm sure Bloodborne's beaten me to a lot of the properly Lovecraftian stuff to be wrung out there, but I'll see what I can do.
3917501
Nomination for the known immortals/semi-immortals of the world noted! There's certainly a lot here I'm inclined to keep under wraps - partly for the benefit of not spoiling stories I might get round to one glacial aeon, and partly because an world with some mysteries around the edges always seems like a more intriguing one than one that's perfectly lined out.
Glad you liked the Lovecraft nod as well. Just as well these particular giant squid-beasts are a bit more benign than his.
3917519
Ooh, mark me down for beliefs and superstitions. Those always say a lot about their resident cultures, especially in magical worlds.
Well the comics did point to the realm of dreams to be a real tangible place.
3917532
Nomination for beliefs and superstitions duly noted!
3917539
Never been up to speed with comic canon, alas. I'd be inclined to keep the Palaververse's dream realm abstract ... but of course, when magic enters the picture, then labels like 'physical' or 'abstract' tend to become optional suggestions rather than anything binding.
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It has.
DANNYJ'S REVENGE PART II: THE REVENGENING
Ooh, update! Gotta love the horrifying imagery of Lovecraftian abyssal creatures. I vote for magic and magic systems, next.
3917388 Future MovieSpoilers
There was a post on EQD until Hasbro made them take it down about a Russian Brony Convention that received a presentation about the upcoming 2017 movie from Hasbro Europe. The basic premise is that the Mane 6 travel through the surrounding kingdoms looking for information about the movie's villains. One of them was confirmed to be the underwater seapony kingdom. So it was smart of Carabas to give himself an out on them.
Say Carabas any ideas about how to incorporate Ember, Torch and the title of Dragon Lord into your stories? Or are you just going to slap alternate universe on any story that involves dragon politics?
I new you could be trusted to get suitably Lovecraftian with the opportunities the sea presents, and you did not disappoint; well done indeed, my good Sir.
My vote this time, as it was last time, goes to the immortals.
Prime nomination for Nightmares, and if that fails, for Immortals and such!
Also, Whale Sharks in Equestria seem to be carnivorous instead of feeding on tiny things!
Lastly, clearly nopony has found seaponies because the sacred words have been lost. Yet, there are persistent rumors that Celestia has been known to go to a distant promontory, alone, and sit at the edge of the sea for hours on end, and nopony knows just what it is she does. Celestia herself has been quite mum on the subject. The most well-known - and most scoffed at rumor - is that she goes there to practice her singing.
Shoo be doooooooo, shoo shoo be doooooo~
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Hm. Well, I've used this service before for uploading images for use on a forum; it might work. I don't know if DeviantArt links work here, but, if you have or aren't averse to getting an account, that might also be worth a try.
Nice stuff, as always!
You mention China Mieville influences; what about Herman Melville ones?
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...You know, if there was an all-benevolent and truly just god out there, I could at least be satisfied that justice would pan out when you were sent to the special hell. Alas, as all theologians concur, the mere fact of your existence makes the existence of a benevolent god dubious at best.
3917713
Nomination for magic and magic systems noted! Glad you like the Lovecraftian influences in the depths.
3917820
I think it's possible to incorporate them relatively smoothly into the existing Palaververse, albeit with a tweak or two to what I've come up with for dragons. The Fire Queen having regional lieutenants to look over the dragons in a given geographical area would make sense, and naming them Dragon Lords would be fitting. Assuming that 'dragon law' consists of 'whatever the Dragon Lord or the Fire Queen say', then Torch having to stand down from his post after a given time and pass it to a competent successor would also make sense. He's a big, old, and powerful beast, after all, and if there's anything the Fire Queen can't abide, it's competition.
3918023
Nomination for the immortals noted! Glad the Lovecraftian stuff satisfies!
3918054
Nomination for Nightmares and/or immortals noted! I might be inclined to discuss the Nightmares alongside the immortal alicorns in any case.
As I said to PresentPerfect, timber wolves made out of timber. Spider crabs made out of spider. Whale sharks made out of shark. During proofreading, Themaskedferret even gave me an idea to make them even worse. They're not just giant sharks, but a conglomerate hive-mind of sharks that accrue in a whale-shape and which split off periodically to hunt and return prey to the hive.
3918072
Ooh, that looks promising! Thank you, and I'll give it a try.
3918115
Yet to read Herman Melville, alas. I'm woefully under-read when it comes to the classics.
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Part of the crew. Part of the ship.
I have no choice. This must happen to you.
Wonderfully evocative work as always, although I may be a tad biased -- I always had a bit of a fascination with the oceans. Caught the Bas-Lag reference, although I've yet to actually get around to reading those books. Love how smoothly you worke everything in -- being adapted for life in the Black Ocean would be a perfect explanation for why the Smooze is what it is. And the Sirens are the Antlertians' fault too, of course. I'm getting this image that, following an attack by a particularly out-there monster, people might just jot down a description in an after-action report as "probably Antlertian or something", because really, what isn't?
Gonna cast my vote for the immortals.
3918775
Nomination for the immortals noted! Glad you like it, and hope you enjoy the Bas-Lag books if and when you get round to them. As for the Antlerteans, I imagine ascribing responsibility to them has become a bit of a cliche in Theia's academic circles.
You keep making these and all it's doing is making me desire more Palaverse stories. The Wedding, Twilight's ascension, Tirek, and how those events are going to effect the international politics of the world.
Never thought I'd be stating I was exited by international politics. What have you done to me?
(nomination: Immortals)
Woah. Oceans. ... Do you have measurements for Theia's circumference and things like that?
We've already got... No, wait, how much do we have on the Underground, other than what was in Diamond Dogs?
We've got Space, though. ... Sky?
Whatever, I'm gonna vote for Magic and Magic Systems.
3918173
I notice the convenient dodge at confirming or denying any rooms about Shoal-side singing!
CONSPIRACY!
3918813
Nomination for the immortals noted! And I'm afraid I can only express pride at inducing such perverse international interests.
And new stories are underway. One for the Wedding's been started, though I'm focusing on finishing another adventurey piece before getting properly stuck into it.
3918828
Nomination for magic and magic systems noted! Not much else for the Underground beyond what was covered for the Dogs, and while the Skies haven't been covered too much, a relative lack of stuff for them means they'd probably have to come bundled with other topics. As for a planet circumference, I'm afraid my inherent crapness with sizes and estimates means I've got nothing more specific than 'on a par with Earth, though maybe a wee bit smaller'. 'As big as it needs to be' is such a universally useful albeit vague fallback.
3919005
I choose to ignore such accusations and shall instead post semi-related cool music.
I love the sea serpents, but what really got my attention was the idea that there are a race of smoozes that eat any and all wild magic. I realize they are mostly confined to the depths of the inhospitable Black Ocean, but still. If I was a gamer in this world, this is the chink in the armor I need to break the campaign. What is the single greatest threat to all sapient life across the planet of Theia? Wild magic, in storms, water, forests, everywhere. If those oozes could be retrieved, bred, and set on land near problematic areas.... that's a game changer. I mean, clearly they present problems of their own, but dead magic areas seem a lot less horrible to live next to than wild magic areas.
I vote for immortals!
3918575 Stop and listen friend: Right at the top of his blog post Carabas lays out his greatest weakness: His reliance on the Ferret with the mask. You must target and win over this mysterious mustiladae, then we can destroy him once and for all!
3919169
Nomination for the immortals noted, but would you stop conspiring with the living-proof-of-God's-malevolence already? You can walk a better path than his. Admittedly, the bastard lovechild of Attila the Hun and the inventor of the necktie could walk a better path than his, so it's not that hard a bar to clear, but still.
As for trying to game the Palaververse through applied Smoozing, the smoozes are merely resistant to wild magic, and eat any and all mineral matter rather than magic. Coating everyone with smooze juice might be a more winning prospect, but not without its own logistical problems.
3919184 I would like to change my vote from Immortals to the Smooze-cloth portion of the fashion industry.
And I'm sorry the forces of pure evil seem to be gaining a clear majority in your blog comments, but sometimes you just gotta join the winning team, right?
3918173
You're welcome. :)
3919169
You have started down the right path, but you've still much to learn, my apprentice. Yes, Carabas relies on the individual you propose to target, but what happens when she is gone? Without her support, he would surely fall into total despair, and then our actions will cease to have any meaning. If one lives in a pitch black void, then life cannot become any darker. Carabas must have hope in his life, so that each defeat remains crushing. Every new torment must be as fresh as the first. Otherwise, what's the point?
3919680 Ah Sensei, truly you have much to teach me. I am still young and eager, burning with the urge to choke out Carabas like an ill-fitting necktie. Just earlier today over here, I forced Carabas to realize that he had made an analogue to Donald Trump in the Palavarerse, and that he had made him a hero! Looking back in regret, clearly this was too extreme and cruel an action even by our standards, alas, the deed is done.
3919883
No, that was within bounds. It was a well-placed strike. The wound was not fatal, but he shall bear that scar forever. Exactly as it should be. But do be considerate of your capabilities in future, young one. Do not go all-out unless you absolutely must. Carabas can survive a great deal, but every man can be pushed too far.
Next week, we release ants into his house.
3919994 I've already begun mixing in meat with their sugar-water!
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Mere human words can't adequately express my horror and anger at this burgeoning relationship, so I'll settle for vomiting concentrated blood in your general directions.
3920213 Just for that, the next stage is training Molly to begin loudly barking at 3 AM every morning.
3920213
Vomit all the blood you like. It will not help you in the end. I will merely collect it for ritual purposes.
So that is how you get away with a seemingly flat-world common cosmology! Nice reference to Urohringr as well!
Implication observed: elvers achieve maturation to young adult in slightly less than ten years
Implied to be consequence of their preferred foods also migrating, or being over consumed.
Or in the case of the Everfree dweller, an inability to escape the magically shifting maze of river tributaries masked by the convenience of daily randomized selection of riverside snacks.
Where many ungulates say "as stubborn as a donkey", the donkeys say "as stubborn as the tides"
I hated that part of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"
In order: mega shark vs giant octopus , bonefish enemies from Nintendo, and Sharknado/Jaws combo reference.
Antlertis wasn't 'sunk' like a battleship! The continent's entire body was forcefully shoved into the planet's mantle as a unified mass, friction melting planetary crust to subduct towards Antlertis's impression for thousands of miles,!
Diamond Dog philosophy, however, is far superior about that sort of thing!
To create posts like this of your own, have a notepad file open, copy paste segments as you read, type response, continue read, repeat until end, copy paste notepad into comment box, add syntax, post.
3921278
Never read Urohingr or any of its series, alas. I would, but every time I pluck up the nerve, the sheer length sends me meeping away in terror.
I might borrow that 'as stubborn as the tides' phrase if you don't mind. That's pretty neat.
3921644
I figured most of the awe for the ocean was from a rich history of donkeys being beaten at their own game.
Huh, i had forgotten that was one of the book titles; Urohringr is the actual name of the broken ring world equestria lives on one segment of, and it has a Dark Side.
3921737
That's... a really cool explanation for a sloping abyssal plain. The planetwide seismic after-effects were probably really interesting.
3922354
I know! isn't it terrifying?
Vote for dream stuff.
Because Luna.
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Nomination for dream stuff noted!
whatever category Tirek, his brother, and Grogar fall into has my nomination
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The G1 villain spread! Potentially tricky. There's no one category for them all in the Palaververse - Tirek and Scorpan are creations of Antlertis, and they've been touched upon in the Old Equestria, Antlertis, and Immortals posts. Grogar's been recontextualised as the creator of the Capricious Crown, and he's covered in the Capra post. Not sure how much else I can say about them that's not already been covered in these, but I'm always open to elaborating on specifics.