MOVING SEA

MOVING SEA

An immensity of dunes that continually roll and break upon themselves like waves of varying tide, swallowing up those unfortunate enough to touch their surface. The intensity of its fury is influenced by the Moons of the world of If, including the Wandering Moon.
Sometimes serene, others terribly violent: such are its waves, as is the case with the oceans.
Unforgiving and terrible, the Moving Sea imposes itself as absolute lord as far as your eyes can see. This dangerous territory consists of a desert of quicksand with intense and permanent movement, interrupted in some points by mountains and reddish rocky platforms and geoders.
A creature that steps on its surface will begin to sink quickly in the same way as if it had stepped into quicksand – hence the name of the place. Its residents learned through painful trial and error how to build breezeships capable of navigating through the desert in relative safety, taking advantage of wind power.

Creatures of the Moving Sea

With such a peculiar geography, the creatures that live here could not be different. The fauna and flora are extremely adapted and endemic. There are a number of species of airishes that survive only here. Airishes are a type of “flying fish” capable of swimming through the air and naturally floats. This seems, however, to be an ability resulting from the animal’s interaction with the moving sea, since when removed to other habitats, they fall inert to the ground, just like a fish taken from the ocean. This is a magnetic ability of the creatures’ bodies constantly repelling the opposite magnetic charge from the surface of the moving sea.
The constant friction of grains of sand against each other makes the ground magnetically charged.

By manipulating small currents of electricity that run through their bodies, the airishes would be able to control the force of magnetic repellency against the ground, increasing and decreasing their altitude, as well as propelling themselves forward. A large number of airishes are voracious predatory animals with fusiform bodies that guarantee their aerodynamics, although many other strange shapes exist in particular species. Most of them are small and feed on other smaller airishes, however there are larger hunters that pose a great danger even to humans who are unlucky enough to cross their path.

Some types of airishes monsters:

– Makir:

its body is a thin circular disc whose edge is covered with sharp teeth with hollow points. They use their magnetism to adhere to the surface of the waves until they detect the presence of potential prey. When this occurs, they begin to float and rotate until they propel themselves at great speed towards the victim. When they reach it, they will remain stuck and use their hollow teeth to suck its blood. When they feel satisfied, they will quickly spin to detach themselves and flee the area.

– Spearish:

creature similar to a swordfish, but with a jaw full of sharp teeth. Its attack strategy is to fly at great speed and pierce its prey with the bone spear in its snout. As it falls helpless, the Spearish will devour it.

 

Climate

A type of meteorological phenomenon endemic to the Moving Sea that is extremely feared is the electrical storm. The continuous friction of sand grains against each other creates a large amount of static electricity. When it becomes excessive, an electrical storm begins, with lightning that shoots from the waves of sand towards the heavens. Airishes are able to sense the approach of these storms and usually take shelter before they arrive. It is highly inadvisable to sail breezeships during these terrible weather events.

 

Inhabitants of the Moving Sea

Flotis of Ta Kak

While the Flotis of Kau Kiek live peaceful lives among the towering purple-trunked trees, their cousins of the Moving Sea exist in a place of titanic challenge on Ta Kak, the great rocky mountain whose tunnels serve as their fortress. Ta Kak is the perfect home in the midst of such a hostile environment, as its robust stone walls protect against the heat and sandstorms from outside, in addition to its underground giving access to an aquifer that provides fresh water to these brave little ones. The Flotis of Ta Kak exhibit much bolder and more aggressive behavior than their forest counterparts, as it is impossible to survive the Moving Sea without scars – both physical and psychological. Ta Kak had once been an ancient fortress of a clan of Zards, which explains the serpentine face carved into the mountain’s brow.
Their diet is based on the cultivation of vertical gardens of giganuts (vines that develop very large nuts), as well as airishes caught by fishermen – although being a fisherman in the Moving Sea is infinitely different from the usual meaning of this profession (and even more dangerous). They also raise Dangos, fatty gallinaceous animals whose meat and eggs are great sources of protein. These animals devour the beetles and insects that live inside the mountain, which also makes them very useful.

 

Wandering city of Kelonia

Amid the sandy tides of the Moving Sea, a titanic creature glides with the serenity of a small canoe. Its gigantic colorful shell contrasts with the desert aridity around it. This is Keloi, the Pacific: an anomalous and completely non-destructive tarragorn, which lives by filtering the sands in search of nutrients, geoders and airishes. It sails across the surface of the Moving Sea and never dives.
Large tubar geoders grow on its shell, which are used as housing by the inhabitants of the wandering city of Kelonia, the nomadic “city”. Some of its residents are permanent, while another part of its population is floating. This last group is made up of travelers, pilgrims, smugglers and wanted people of all species, making this a place of fascinating diversity and adventure.
A few smaller tubars grow from the edge of Keloi’s shell downward toward the surface of the moving sea. They are occupied by Kelonia’s outcasts, particularly those who do not wish to be located or seek isolation. This lower “district” is called “the subtubars” and it is recommended not to explore it, as its residents are dangerous and the waves of sand crash into its tubars and the rope bridges suspended between them.

Raiders of the Moving Sea

Insane robbers prowl the moving sea aboard breezeships of all types, from the smallest to real war rafts with dozens of crew on board. The most famous and feared of them is certainly the Storm Engine, an immense breezeship powered by a wind dynamo that stores the energy generated by the wind in an arcanium gem that turns immense blades that propel the ship, in addition to the traditional fabric sails.
Its current lord is Captain Trivast, a 3-armed magibrute with a brace made from an animal’s jaw, which replaces half of the lower jaw he lost in battle years ago.

 

Tarkal Expedition

Bursting out of the granular tides, a strange spindle-shaped vehicle appears. It holds an expeditionary crew from Tarkal, who appear to be searching for something within the perimeter of the shifting sea. The vehicle itself looks much more like a submarine than a breezeship, which causes astonishment and admiration in anyone who witnesses such an apparatus emerging from the sand.
Some say it was just a geographic expedition, as the Tarkal are famous for their scientific minds and focus on acquiring new information, as well as studying and cataloging it. Others suspect that they are searching for some unknown artifact of strategic importance, perhaps of Zard origin.

 

Geoders of the moving sea

Copares

The Moving Sea has geodias called “copares” (singular “copar”) that are fixed on the rocky substrate below the ocean of sand and grow projecting tens of meters above its surface, where they develop a canopy with an almost straight top, the which makes them natural jumping platforms for the intrepid Flotis that live here. Some of them are connected by bridges, which are sometimes destroyed by sandstorms.
Sometimes they grow by piercing the water table and end up carrying water to their tops, making them true oases for the inhabitants of the Moving Sea.

Zingar

A curious type of geodia that consists of a spherical shape whose surface presents beautiful geometric patterns. They do not attach themselves to any substrate and allow themselves to roll along with the tides of sand, nourishing themselves from the ores present in them. They constantly sink and surface, and can be used as lifebuoys for unlucky adventurers who happen to fall to the surface of the shifting sea – but only for a short period of time, until they submerge again.

 

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