#jalcean

Venice and it's treatment of waterways running through a township,

Polignano a Mare for it's tight streets and soaring coastal cliffs with buildings carved right into the rock,

Hearst Castle's Roman Pool,

The traditional Funaya fisherman's houses in Ine Bay, North Kyoto, for their incorporation of bottom level boat garages,

The submerged ruins of Gaiola Island, for a structure left to decay in the tide,

Benagil Sea Caves in Portugal for massive coastal erosion.

These are cultures that have head to deal with the same weathering as this world and present how to deal with it when building. This architecture is firstly about living with the water, folding it into the townships not trying to divert or remove it. Streets are paved as much as they are canals.

As far as 'marvels' go that would be the underwater catacombs. The ocean has been very active in this area, rising and falling multiple times in human history meaning there are layers upon layers of human habitation surrendered and lost to the creeping tides. The bedrock is mostly limestone or marble and has within it natural caves and old volcanic chutes. These are routinely incorporated into the architecture at that level, creating a system of intricate tunnels and subterranean waterways. Spaces are tight in the rough terrain so houses spread up rather then out. A sprawling house, like one with water flowing through it, is a sign of wealth. Some of the grander current buildings have the ocean literally inside them in huge indoor pools and water features running through the house. To have water in your home to such a degree is a sign of opulence. Wells providing fresh water from the watertable are community hotspots and often the center of markets or religious places. Being close to the ocean, the main source of any income, is also a sign of wealth. In earlier times business owners and those who owned fishing fleets would live where they would do business, often having their own private wharves to receive boats and goods. These residences were also close to the places of worship and thus rendered those inhabitants closer to their gods.

Jalcean has two places of residence. The main residence is fairly lower-middle class with two bedrooms and three stories including a rooftop. His 'block' of houses is centered around a small communal well that leads to the watertable and a network of underground access tunnels. His second residence is a safe-house, a fishing shack built into a secluded cove. It is a two-story residence with three main rooms consisting of the bedroom upstairs, a small lounge-kitchen and a laundry-bathroom. Because of the angle of the cliff it's built in the second level [bedroom] lets out directly onto a small roof garden area that is the roof of the first story.

Currently the story only has a working title that serves to differentiate it in my filing system and I haven't established enough of the in-world language to give the nation a name. So that's a negative on names, ufortunately. Often things don't get titled by me until they're finished and this has been going for four and a half years so there's no name in sight.

The setting, to be broad, is a continent divided into nation-states, much akin to Europe. The story's particular area of focus is on a nation-state on the southern coastal area of the continent with a rugged, mountainous interior that leads straight onto sheer cliff coastlines.

The primary aspects of the world are the cultural connection to water- being a coastal state with three huge, primary rivers funneling into a single main basin. The interior is very rugged, either mountains and the extinct volcanoes that birthed them or impenetrable marshes, so most if not all settlements are on the coast or it's waterways. This strong cultural tie to water is prevalent throughout the entire story and state, shaping religions and society.