🎃PumpkinBat🎃

The vastness of the great oceans and Humor seas can be hard to comprehend. The sheer size and endless nature of them makes them feel like impossible forces. On top of that is their seemingly simple nature, just a whole bunch of fluid when you think about, which causes many minds to see the ocean as nothing more than an obstacle. A part of the environment that helps and hinders travel and trade. Folks rarely look deeper into it, either out of ignorance or fear. Perhaps it is a way to cope with its presence, to pretend there is nothing more, that it is just a big pond. Ships ride on it and fish are hauled out of it. It is easier to hold onto that illusion, because once you start diving down, both the knowledge and unknowns can be difficult to bear. What dwells beneath the waves? What sings from the dark depths? The seafolk have their superstitions and beliefs, but it is often to bury these uncomfortable concepts as they dwell upon the surface of this great void. For the Aquanauts of the Academy, they are ready to dive right into this abyss and learn the truth.

The Aquanauts of Veritas Mundus are the arm of the Academy that is focused upon the massive seas of the world. From the surface, to its deepest chasms, and everything in between. If it has anything to do with the ocean, they are interested. Some think their area of expertise is just about fish and things hiding in the abyss, but Aquanauts also look into weather patterns, tides, currents, the formation of Humor seas and much more. The ocean offers an endless amount of research material, allowing Aquanauts to study a wide variety of subjects. It may seem like an arm that only contributes to those who work upon the waves, but often their findings on the ways of the seas can offer insight to things upon the land. It may be hard to see, especially since Aquanauts spend very little time on solid ground.

There are jokes that the Aquanauts are the arm of the Academy that everyone forgets exist, even other Academy members. More like a forgotten relative that you check in on once or twice a year, maybe showing up for the occasional holiday. That is because the focus of their research can't be brought into a lab. They have to go to it. Aquanauts spend their lives on specially built research vessels or in coastal laboratories going through the finds of their latest voyage. They may sail off for months at a time, having very little contact with the rest of the Academy until they make it back to the dock. Stories speak of one research vessel that departed while things were good, only to return months later to suddenly find the world on fire and the Academy at war. Must have been quite the experience going into a dockside bar and obliviously asking the locals how things have been going. This disconnect isn't because they are uncaring of life on land, more because they are obsessed with the sea and the only way to learn more is to hop on a ship and get out there. Their ships are designed to support these long voyages and give them the facilities they need to collect, study and store anything they gather. Of course, they cannot be outfitted with all the goodies that Academy research halls have, only a simplified version. This is the point of the coastal facilities, where they can transfer their findings to better equipped labs for further processing and investigation. It is quite the far cry from the early days when Aquanauts had to sneak aboard whaling ships and fishing vessels, secretly collecting specimens as they hid amongst the crew.

The easiest way to identify an Aquanaut is to check if the ocean is anywhere nearby. Outside of that, their presence is given away by their uniform and equipment. While many arms of the Academy use basic bone in their constructions, the Aquanauts use abyssal bone and blue tinted fish bone in their designs. Obviously, when making equipment for the sea, it is best to use materials harvested from it. Byssus instead of silk, ambergris instead of corpse wax, all so that their gear can last in the wet and salty environment. Because of this, Aquanauts wear blues and grays in all of their uniforms, allowing one to identify them even if away from their beloved sea. The other giveaway is that smell, because living on the ocean, digging through its guts and wearing its chunks grants one a particular odor. Salty on a good day, rotten and fishy on a bad one. Aquanauts smell like a dock, resulting in the quip that there is a reason other Academy members aren't mad that this arm misses so many meetings.

It could be said that another reason the Aquanauts are not thought of a lot is because their progress in studies is slowed by significant hurdles. As it turns out, the ocean is a difficult subject and an even harder place to work. They can't just dig into the ground like an Antiquary and pull out specimens. The endless void and dark depths force the Aquanauts to spend a huge chunk of their time developing equipment for the research before they can do the actual research. Diving homunculi and swimming prosthetics have been great progress for their work, but there is still so much more to go. The intense environment of the abyss offers many challenges, and the Aquanauts work their fingers to the bone to reach just a little further into that darkness. Designs for diving bells, swimming constructs and submersibles are constantly drawn up, but the rigorous testing and tweaking means progress has been slow. There is no room for error in such an environment, thus many rejected ideas and failed experiments. But the dream one day is to finally be able to send an Aquanaut down into the abyss and truly see the world that hides within the dark. Man finally meeting the abyssal beings in their home, and witnessing the faith of the deep. A dream to the Aquanauts, a nightmare to the seafolk.

Due to their ties to the ocean and disconnect from the main authority, some would believe that Aquanauts and seafolk have common ground. For sure there is some respect between the two, and time has allowed past grudges and misconceptions to be cleared up, but these factions aren't exactly pals. They may work with the Aquanauts and benefit from their research, but contention still exists. Some seafolk believe having an Aquanaut onboard is bad luck, or they remain suspicious about the Academy's wants. Those of older tradition aren't fans of Aquanauts telling them what to do, scoffing at talk of "sustainable harvest" or "destructive practices." They have been living on the seas far longer than these stuffy researchers, they aren't about to change their ways. But one of the bigger points of friction come from the Aquanauts' desire to delve into the abyss and learn its mysteries while the seafolk would rather they leave it alone. The seafolk have a complicated relationship with the abyssal faith of the ocean, finding both comfort and fear in different aspects of it. There is reverence to the denizens of the deep and certain beliefs that align with them, but seafolk also have a healthy wariness on other parts. There are some things man shouldn't be sticking his nose into, yet the Aquanauts see no issue. This is all in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, they do not have time to be bogged down by silly superstitions. They are above such impractical faith....or are they?

There is a subject in the field of the Aquanauts that is....touchy. It isn't brought up often, and the Aquanauts themselves are quick to change the conversation if it veers that way. Some say it is because they are scared, or embarrassed, or maybe it is a subject even they are uncomfortable confronting. Yet, the Mother of Snow cannot be ignored. The goddess of death that the abyssal beings pray to, the effigy that the seafolks carry with them. The Academy is well known for scoffing at faith, believing there are logical answers to everything. Gods are only beings or forces we do not yet understand, the pursuit of knowledge will dispel the veils of divinity. Yet, there is the Mother of Snow. Surely she is just another organism of this land, a being whose abilities can be properly explained with the right knowledge, but....what if they can't? For one, the abyssal beings revere her, and trying to dissect their faith is a quick way to make enemies. Not a good idea if one wishes to explore the depths. But another thing is that certain aspects of her cannot be denied. For faiths that worship invisible gods and unseen forces, it is easy to doubt when no evidence exists. But the Mother of Snow isn't just in effigies and prayer, sightings of her have been documented, and of course one cannot forget her mad husband. His rampages show clear their presence and power, so what then? Could there actually be divinity to them, a power that cannot fully be explained? What does science do with a faith whose god stands clearly before them? The answer is not clear, but the Aquanauts charge onward regardless. They will find their knowledge in the deep, and that is all that matters. Just ignore the trinkets and effigies that they carry with them or stash in their cabins. There is little room for faith within the Academy, but when upon the temperamental seas, one may feel inclined to take all the luck they can get.

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