#futh

❤️ Red ocean. Is there a deep sea? Yes. Dominant species: Marine reptiles. The red ocean is the warmest of all oceans on Futh; that’s because it’s a volcanic area! Both on the land the red ocean surrounds, and inside of it as well. In fact, the shores of the red ocean not only have several active volcanoes, but wind tends to come from the shore of the red ocean, and continues to blow further inlands; as a result, the ash spewed from the volcanoes tend to cover the sky, making sun rays VERY rare. Despite that, there IS life on that volcanic area, and that includes inside the red ocean itself. On land, lifeforms have different ways to deal with the heat- underwater, creatures tend to have armor, exoskeletons or tough skin to protect themselves from not only underwater volcanic vents, and to protect themselves from predators. Because the latter is what makes the most of the red ocean’s population! That’s because in the red ocean, plant life is pretty much inexistant. Anything that looks like a plant is actually a worm of some kind. As a result, most of the red ocean’s native species have evolved to eat each other’s meat- even crustaceans and mollusks rarely feed off plankton or similar micro-organisms. Because of the lifeforms’ predatory and aggressive nature, the red ocean is never recommended to sail on or as as a vacation spot, despite being as warm as a hot spring. Not only the animals there are aggressive, but the merfolk in the red ocean are no exception. In fact, most of them have little to no speech abilities, feel no shame when it comes to cannibalism, and tend to follow a solitary lifestyle. If groups are formed, they tend to live in a tribal structure, with the leader being the strongest, and stays a leader as long as they aren’t defeated in battle- those being to the death most of the time. There is however someone is the red ocean that all merfolk, even the most aggressive respect- that person is considered ‘the leader of leaders’, and shows enough battle scars to show that their merit their title. Whenever there is a problem that affects all oceans, this person would be expected to leave in order to attend a reunion between all leaders of each ocean- it’s a tradition that all ocean leaders respect. Not attending it is considered an act of trahison against the other leaders AND everyone in their native ocean; so if that happens, everyone is warned by having public announcements, and having the word spread, even among the aggressive red ocean’s merfolk. The traitor, if ever to be seen, is to be killed. Since killing is a daily occurence for the red ocean’s merfolk, and despite having virtually no concept of society outside of strength in battle, it doesn’t bother them to perpetuate this tradition. But while the red ocean’s merfolk are aggressive, there’s something worse; the deeper one goes in the red abyss, the more ruthless lifeforms gets. Some even have less armor to protect themselves from volcanic activity, and having instead abilities to hunt their prey more efficiently. Also, you might see in the merperson example, the colors don’t allow any kind of camouflage; and that’s the idea! Camouflage is for prey! The only way red ocean merfolk accept to be prey is when they’re dying; otherwise, they fight until exhaustion. Another thing is that, despite having varied types of merfolk, the red ocean tend to not like hybrids. That being said, if the hybrid individual proves themself in battle, they’ll be left alone by anyone who witnesses the battle. But any hybrid should expect to be attacked based on the simple fact that they’re an hybrid…

🧡 Orange ocean. Is there a deep sea? No. Dominant species: fish. Despite being a little less warm than the red ocean, the orange one is not only pleasantly warm, but also have MUCH less predators. Instead, the orange ocean is home to many colorful creatures, and has a lot of corals, sponges, seaweed and the like to make pretty big reefs. As a result of the warmth and the beauty of its reefs, the orange ocean tends to be one of the most popular spots to go on holidays. The only reason that it’s not number one is because it’s next to the red ocean and its aggressive creatures, and the golden ocean, who’s WAY worse than the red ocean in terms of predators. So some tourists prefer to avoid the orange ocean altogether, fearing that creatures from the red or golden areas go out of their habitats. As for the merfolk, the denizens of the orange ocean are friendly and often curious, and it’s pretty common to see some of these merfolk coming to the shore to talk to tourists. They have a healthy amount of curiosity though, with not much individuals caring about what’s going on on land. There are several cities built by merfolk, and their society is open-minded, especially when it comes to merfolk hybrids. They also welcome merfolk coming from other oceans into their own communities. However, despite their friendly nature, the orange ocean’s merfolk and their leader aren’t too keen on helping other oceans- whether it’s a war or the result of a natural disaster, they prefer to not take part in such things,and don’t give military help or give their own ressources. They just prefer to stay out of problems that aren’t their own; but as you can guess, this isn’t always well seen by the ocean/people in need.

💛 Golden ocean. Is there a deep sea? Unknown. Dominant species: unknown, but probably something really big. Unlike the others, the golden ocean is never clear enough to see what’s inside. Even if you were to dip your feet on the shore, you wouldn’t even be able to see them. Even if inside, the visibility is VERY low. This phenomenon is due to the fact that the water is colored by a lot of sediment- which tends to be soil, plant particules, gold, and… organic matter, such as scales or buts of flesh. The gold comes from the golden ocean’s floor; where’s there’s coral-like formations of pure gold, that can be of varying sizes, from as big as your thumb to a fully grown oak. As a result, there’s people that try to dive in the golden ocean to get some of that gold- but there’s not as much of these gold divers as you’d think there’d be. Because, due to the low visibility, it’s pretty much impossible to see anything that could lurk around- until it’s too late. There is very few sightings of how creatures of the golden sea actually look like, due to the color of ocean and from the fact that there’s very few survivors. But one thing these survivors’ sightings all have in common is the creatures’ size- ‘bigger than my boat’ is an often-heard description, even from survivors with ships. Another common description are ‘white eyes’- the latter being probably because those creatures rely on other senses that sight, and ‘strange’. When asked to explain, the survivors would tell things among the lines of ‘something that wasn’t born right’. Because even on Futh, creatures with three mouths, with one being useless and not even able to close or bite properly, isn’t common. But what about merfolk? Is there some in the golden ocean? Well! It’s up for debate. In the sense that, sometimes certain people fake the fact of being a survivor of the golden ocean, and that others consistently report enormous, feral merfolk using their hands to pick up and eat entire boats.

💚 Green ocean. Is there a deep sea? No. Dominant species: moss. The golden ocean is the most dangerous one on Futh; and right next to it is the green ocean, the most peaceful one. Even the water itself seems to be at peace, being pretty much flat with barely any waves. In the green ocean, the most violent acts are tearing and munching on seaweed or moss. Those two things being VERY abondant, so much so that they’re what give the green ocean its color. The air around the green ocean is very pure, and some even believe that it can partially clean people’s lungs. There’s a lot of trees who put their roots into the green ocean, making the underwater area a ‘forest’ of roots. The green ocean isn’t very deep, but it’s wide- and as a result, there’s different kinds of underwater forests in it: as mentioned, the root one (think like mangroves in our world), seaweed forests and kelp forests. There’s also places that are covered in moss for miles, making it look like underwater fields. The native species of the green are all mainly herbivorous- the only predators are the merfolk, who are on the top of the food chain and helps regulate the populations. That being said, the green ocean’s merfolk are peaceful people that prefer to avoid conflict. They’re taller/longer that other merfolk, but tend to move more slowly- because they CAN be fast, but choose not to, and like to drift along the currents. It’s pretty common to see individuals with moss on them- they can use it for their own nutrition, or to have fish or crustaceans come and live around them. In both cases, the moss doesn’t hurt their host. Despite regulating populations in their ocean, those merfolk believe that all lifeforms should be treasured, because even ones that seem ‘useless’ can have a greater role than one can imagine. Some people from the land travel to green ocean, to learn of these merfolk’s way of living, or to simply be at peace on the shore- that isn’t covered in tourists or dangerous to be on. The green ocean tends to be the one helping other merfolk in times of crisis, and, if needed, can even temporarily house some communities, as long as they don’t affect the ecosystem too much. Also, in the green ocean, there’s strangely no coral or sponges to be found; only seaweed!

Turquoise sea. Is there a deep sea? No. Dominant species: fish. Between the green and blue ocean, there’s the turquoise sea; it has strange mountains and isn’t very deep- the maximum depth being only 16 feet/5 meters. But the turquoise’s sea floor is rocky, and covered in coral; making hard to sail on, but a great spot for divers. The only thing that keeps it from being a perfect holiday spot is that there’s barely any beach/shore, and the wind blowing on the turquoise sea is nearly constant, and can be a little cold. But other than that, there’s no much setbacks; predators in this sea can be pretty skittish and the real danger is if you’re one of these people who’d climb a mountain to just jump from it and dive. Don’t do that. As for the merfolk of the turquoise sea, they’re pretty friendly, and very energetic! They’re the fastest of all merfolk and love to race one another; and even like to swim with tourists. Sometimes, some of these merfolks can be seen trying to climb the mountains- it’s a bit of a sport game for them. However, one thing they don’t like is when people are trying to fish in their sea- they’re known to steal fishing rods, tear nets, and… Lecture fishers on stealing ressources that aren’t theirs. Another weird thing about the turquoise sea’s merfolk is that they tend to have high pitched voices, and can make noises similar to dolphins. They sometimes use it to communicate with one another, since certain squeals can have a more direct message than a whole sentence can; but they’re known to use it to annoy fishers…

💙 Blue ocean. Is there a deep sea? Yes. Dominant species: none; yhe blue ocean is home to many species and they’re pretty evenly spread. That being because the blue ocean is the biggest ocean on Futh, and in it, there’s a balanced ecosystem that don’t let any species be more dominant than the others. The blue ocean isn’t the coldest, but it’s still pretty cold compared to the other oceans. And it can have a few more storms too; but despite that, it’s the one that is most sailed on. In the blue ocean itself, there’s reefs here and there, but for the most part, it’s underwater rocky desert. The reefs are only present in the more shallow areas/near shores. I talked a bit about two certain kingdoms in the blue ocean here! And there’s a few other kingdoms in the blue ocean- but these are actually the ‘old fashioned’ parts. The newer parts look much like Futh on surface- cities that have neighborhoods (example pictured here)instead of houses crushed against one another like in the kingdoms. Even the society and culture are different- in the kingdoms, you have the pearl merfolk who are friendly to the people of the land, and the coral merfolk who try to drive away the ‘landlubbers’; and the other kingdoms not taking part in this argument. While the merfolk who don’t live in kingdoms couldn’t care less about anything that’s going on the land! Their underwater desert- often called the oceanic badlands, is too deep to have anything to do with ships from above. That, and those people tend to have their own issues; in the oceanic badlands, there’s a LOT of gangs- some have bikes, some ride on tamed, but fierce animals. Either way, those people are the one who rule over those badlands. Not all of them have bad intentions, and some CAN be decent people, but it’s just better to not mess with them in general. Those gangs tend to have ‘territories’, and drive/ride to make rounds in hopes of seeing no rival gangs or strangers in ‘their’ land. It’s pretty common to see gangs taking breaks in diners; the latter often having nudibranch employees, making their service the slowest on all Futh, but it’s said the wait is worth it. The gang problem wasn’t always there; the oceanic badlands have a democratic system- but given the number of bikers, the votes always go to other gangsters playing a politician part…

💜 Purple ocean. Is there a deep sea? No. Dominant species: jellyfish. The purple ocean is the second coldest of the oceans on Futh, and it’s also the one of the darkest as well, even without a deep sea, seeing your way through the purple isn’t easy. As a result, most lifeforms there have either developed bioluminescence, or they live around sources of light- the biggest sources being crystals. In Futh, crystals are pretty common- so much so that they’re as valuable as a mushroom (though some cultures DO use crystals as jewelry- but not because it’s rare and more because it’s pretty). And like mushrooms, some people like to go and have a bit of crystal for themselves- but just like with fungi, one has to be careful, because some crystals can have unexpected reactions to being broken. Some give a mild electric shock, some let out toxic chemicals, some explode… Crystal chiseling can be pretty hazardous. Also, in the purple ocean, there’s floating rocks known as the Mystic islands. On these islands are glowing structures/buildings- those being where the smartest people on Futh study and attempt to create new things. Those ‘things’ can be more evolved than anything else on Futh, such as vehicles to space travel or robots- the latter having failed multiple times and the former being very much a work in progress. The people there tend to be very serious and implicated in their work- so much so that they prefer to wait a few years before giving their inventions to the rest of the world, out of fear that there’s negative effects that can only be seen over time. As a result, phones and television is fairly recent in Futh, and isn’t present in all households. Some of the mystic islands have elevators that can link merfolk to their buildings- because the purple ocean’s merfolk aren’t very friendly- in fact they’re barely social, but they love to gain knowledge, and don’t mind going on ‘errands’ to get underwater supplies for chemistry purposes. The purple ocean’s merfolk are easily recognizable by the fact that their sclera is never white- and that they’re the only non-deep sea merfolk to have bioluminescence.

💖 Pink ocean. Is there a deep sea? Yes. Dominant species: Mollusks. The pink ocean is the strangest of them all: it has sugar instead of salt, the shores are made of sugar too, and its water is drinkable. The pink ocean is pretty small, and is only speckled with a few islands here and there- those islands are strange too, and their native life is unique and colorful. They even remind some of candy… Which isn’t 100% wrong- since all these lifeforms have sugar instead of salt in their bodies too. Though it’s not really recommended to eat any of them, especially the plants- it’s a nourishing and as fun as eating grass or a random leaf in your backyard. The same goes for the animals and people there; and in the latter case, eating people is actually never recommended, unless you’re in the red ocean. That, and it’s rude. Strangely enough, if you DO try to eat an animal or a plant on an island of the pink ocean, the taste will be that of meat if it’s an animal, that of fish if it’s a fish, etc. While native people and merfolk of the pink ocean will disagree, and say that the taste is that of whatever sweet the animal or plant seems to look like; if they eat a jellyfish that looks like a cookie, it’ll have the taste of chocolate, even if it’s jelly instead of regular cookie texture, and so on. And if one of these natives eat something that isn’t from their land, they’ll probably find it plain in best cases, or just gross. This phenomenon is thought be due to the pink ocean’s natives having different tastebuds, who’s evolved to have a sharpened sense of taste, in the sense that they experience taste more drastically than other people.

Polar sea. Is there a deep sea? No. Dominant species: Crustaceans. The Polar sea is situated on the north of Futh- so it connects with the surrounding oceans, giving it several water colors. That would be fun to explore, if it wasn’t for the fact that the water is very cold. Even Futh people who live in cold areas tend to hesitate to dive in there. Other than its it’s low temperature, the polar sea isn’t a bad place to be, in the sense that while there’s many lifeforms both in it and on the land it surrounds, they tend to be solitary; and the ones that live in herds (jellyfish, crustaceans and some marine mammals) aren’t commonly seen. What’s even more rarely seen are the merfolk of the polar sea; they even more asocial than the ones in the purple sea, and they actually have a language of their own (similar to the clicks of a sperm whale in our world), that no one but themselves understand- and they don’t seem to use their own language that much. However it’s possible to see more than one- some choose to stay together as a family; but that’s VERY rare. Another thing that play in their rarity is that they actually have a pretty short lifespan compared to other merfolk; only 40 years, while the rest of merfolk can live to 80. Their short lifespan is actually due to the fact that they tend to be very skinny- having as a result not much protection against the cold, besides their ‘fur’ (which is actually hair similar to the yeti crab’s). Even if they try to live near thermal vents, it’s generally not enough to protect them. Due to their solitary nature, they haven’t noticed that heavier individuals have less trouble with the cold and live longer. Also, merfolk of the other ocean and seas tend to come in various colors- the only exception being those of the green ocean, who tend to have dark, earthly colors. But those of the polar sea seem to always have pale colors, making them look even more sickly than their skinny bodies can let on- another defining feature, beside their amount of hair, is that they always have black eyes.

Eucothea wasn’t born in a royal family, but her parent’s social status was fairly high; as a result, she learned how to act/have good manners from attending fancy dinners with her parents and their rich friends. But she also learned to help those in need, since her parents had to work and get help themselves to get to the upper class. Her upbringing helped Eucothea be well seen by everyone around her- despite being an hybrid (some people in Futh don’t like hybrids). This led her to meet the prince of the kingdom (who’s an important character as well; but i don’t have his name or design yet); and the two eventually fell in love and got married; becoming the king and queen of their kingdom; located in Futh’s blue sea. Eucothea and her husband’s rule was peaceful, and had very few complaints, since Eucothea tried to help the lower classes, and her status as queen helped other hybrids fit in society.

But at some point, despite Eucothea and her husband’s kingdom being located on the seafloor and in the high sea, the peace of their kingdom was disturbed by a high number of boats; ones that were simply going from one place to another, and, more worryingly for the merfolk, fishing boats. The latter would often catch merpeople that were hunting near the surface; they would get hurt by the nets, and, while the merfolk would more often than not get released (in Futh, merpeople are a species like any other; while there’s a bit of mystery surrounding the sea dwelling types, they’re rarely treated badly), there were instances were some individuals would disappear. This would be very often due to the fact that the merperson didn’t want to come back; because of love or a thirst for adventure, the reason varies from individual to individual. But to the kingdom’s, and especially the king’s eyes, it very much seemed like kidnapping or murder. So one day, in a fit of rage, the king, his soldiers, and tamed beasts from the deep attacked the boats that would come above their kingdom. The king was hoping that these attacks would teach the people of the land that the sea was not theirs, and that they couldn’t take its resources and even less harm its people without consequences. But Eucothea intervened, saying that the land dwellers didn’t mean any harm, and that it would be much better to talk to their leaders. But the king disagreed, sick of having to deal with people from the land. The king and queen fought each other in their castle- their fight lasted for days, only to have the king and Eucothea make an announcement to everyone in their kingdom: whoever thought that land dwellers weren’t welcome would wear at least one piece of coral- while those who agreed with the queen and that they should talk instead of fight must wear at least one pearl. As a result of this, the kingdom was figuratively split; with some families separating over their differing opinions, and fights in public places were very common; almost everyone was wearing a piece of coral or a pearl. Those who didn’t take part/wore neither were driven away by both coral and pearl-wearing merfolk. Because of the queen’s opinion, attacks on boats were intercepted by pearl-wearers- so land people kept doing their business without suspecting of the issues happening below them.

The king eventually had enough, and decided to make his own kingdom instead of having to deal with Eucothea. He called all the coral-wearers, and took all the beasts that he could use against boats- and went someplace else, still determined to teach land dwellers to not mess with the ocean and its people. As the sole ruler of her kingdom, Eucothea decided to call it the Pearl kingdom, and teach everyone to have a good relationship with people of the land. She believes that it would be a very positive thing to share merfolk culture and knowledge to them, and to receive knowledge from the land in return. Eucothea encourages curiosity greatly; since she’s very curious herself! She loves to go to the surface with some of her people, greet sailors and ask them to explain how their world works and looks. As a result, even people from the inland knows about how curious the Pearl kingdom’s merfolk are; so much so that some sailors actually give the advice of crossing over the Pearl kingdom to avoid trouble. After all, Eucothea and her people saved sailors more than once... And actually, in Eucothea’s case, she might have done that even before her husband left- she might have even had a romantic relationship with a few...? While still being married at the time? She might have had a merman boyfriend as well and still see him (who’s also actually a character)? Eucothea might have done a few questionable things in her rule. She still does questionable things. She DID kidnap people who were taking a walk on the beach, hoping to have them answer her questions about the land more than once. Also, she openly admitted that she didn’t want to connect with any other merfolk kingdom- and that she didn’t even want to hear their opinion, whatever it may be. She’s very dedicated to HER and her people’s idea of how the land looks. But hey at least if you’re from the land, she’ll totally listen to you!! no special treatment towards people, as you can see...

I just want to explain a bit more on certain things:

Ever since the trade between Quibris and Cedra, no new god has been made; none has ever been replaced after their death (Quibris feels like it’s disrespectful), and after the trade, Quibris is too depressed to create anything- even less a god. As a result, after the trade Futh’s people look up a lot to the remaining gods, not only to fullfill their original purpose(s), but also to replace both Cedra and Quibris. Those two’s absence has really been felt on Futh, with Sekut, one of the moons, getting broken by an asteroid, (who used to be intercepted by either Cedra or Quibris), and on the damage the trade’s new lifeforms made on both the people and the environment. But at least, Quibris is no longer a forgotten deity, which is why they traded creation for destruction in the first place; but now they have a reputation they never wished for... There are still people and cultures that prey to the both Cedra and Quibris, hoping that they might reach their deities one day.

I also wanted to explain further about Cedra’s creations; all three generations‘ first instinct is to destroy things- it’s what gives them a reason to live, most of the time. Being unable to do so will put them in a depressed state first, and delirious one if the the need is not taken care of. The second and third generation CAN develop other needs and/or ways to be happy, but their destructive side will always be present. Also, wanted to explain the wording on ‘incubi have ways to reproduce’; that’s because they don’t actually have genitialia. Cedra barely even gets the concept of ‘organs’, so reproduction is a foreign subject for him... Instead, the incubi have only a muscle/skeleton/blood/vein structure, a brain and a heart (some might have 1 other random organ, but it’s not super common)- so since they have blood, they have cells. And some of those cells, found underneath the skin, and contain a higher amount of dna than normal blood cells- they can be expelled by the incubus when it wishes, but with a bit of effort needed. Those cells can float in the air like spores, and, if it comes in contact with another incubus’ own expelled cells, they can hopefully be fecundated, and fall on the ground, to grow into another incubus. Depending on what kind of ground the fecundated cells fall on, the resulting incubus can have additional features to those it inherits from its parents- for example, an incubus who grew on hard rock will be more tough than one who grew in comfortable, soft soil. But you might be wondering if the fecundated cells become on egg-... Nope. Instead... Imagine the cycle of an human fetus, but on the ground, with an added tail, who goes under the ground like a mushroom stub. Not very pretty, often even by the parents’ standards- who can try to have fecundated cells fall in soil they can put in a pot, in a safe and hidden place. But, how do hybrids between an incubus and a Futh species happen? Well, blame BOTH Cedra and Quibris for that one- Cedra, saddened by how his creations were failures as organisms, suggested that ‘maybe if they (the failures) mate with already existing species, the result would get fix everything’. Quibris agreed, and added a bit of their creation powers to the incubi’s reproductive cells- because if a Futh person able to reproduce put their own dna onto the incubi spores’ (this can be done by coming in contact with a strand of hair or fur (very low chance to succeed), with spit (50/50 chance to succeed) and a flap of skin with blood (very high chance to succeed). As gross as the two latter ones can seem, they tend tend to do be done in a manner that can remind one of a sacred ceremony. Because some Futh people would form  relationships with an incubus, and with some wishing to have a child with them. Those people form some kind of secret circle who goes all over Futh, and they more or less are aware of the existence of other members- they still exist after the disappearance of their incubus partner, and are protecting each others’ children from their respective cultures, very often intolerant on such hybrids. I should mention too that Cedra’s creation HAD to follow their creator; since Cedra put a bit of his power into each individual, he was aware if they tried to hide- and if they did, they would be severely punished, if not killed.

Meanwhile, Quibris’ angels are VERY different; while Cedra’s creations were originally made to live among other species, the angels were made as tools, as weapons- and they look the part too. Indeed, because while some can have flesh, they most of the time are made of biominerals (like bloodworm’s metal teeth, but instead of just teeth it’s the whole body). They also tend to be faceless/have very little to no facial features- that’s because they tend to not need any; they don’t have the same senses as regular Futh creatures. Instead, they perceive the world around them by ‘levels of impurity’- which is is determined if the subject had overall a positive or negative effect on the world around them; this can go for both organisms and inanimate objects (for example in the latter category, if a rock blocks sunlight from reaching plants that would feed other lifeforms, the angels would destroy the rock). But as result, it happens that angels meet each other and see that neither is actually having a 100% positive impact on the world- battle ensue from this; which is why Quibris’ healing tears goes all throughout their tower, since after Cedra left, all the angels are contained there, and fight very often. They have a very primitive way of functioning, despite all their strength and perceiving traits- they have little to no emotions, and and very few can speak (and even if they do speak, it’s laborious and basic); they also can’t reproduce, and were never meant to.