#trenchbound lore

Designed a nest harness for Ly since they need to be kept an eye on

Why?

Well, when your gf (who was a Goddess apparently) gifts you her immortality when she "dies," you kinda get really sad and miss her

When you miss her, your buddy, who was the leader of the commune, decides to work with his nerd boyfriend to clone your gf so you're not lonely

But his clones either fail or they don't care about you

When a hyper intelligent clone of your gf finds out she's better off without you, she kinda takes over the world.

Then, once she thinks about how you caused her to exist and that you're immortal, she kinda keeps you monitored constantly, worried you could do something to harm what she's built.

To start, Trenchlings are very freeform humanlike creatures, known for their large ears and design elements that come from real and fictional animals, except for strict mammals. Trenchlings are typically classified as Reptilian, Amphibian, Avian, Arthropodal, Marine, or Mythical. There has yet to be a Mythical Trenchling however that is of strict Mammal influence, all known mythical types have some sort of attribute related to the other classes. Hybrid classes are allowed, yet none have yet been designed. A trenchlings colors and patterns are not strict, a trenchling can be marked with any kind of design. Some trenchlings can also be made with bioluminescent marks.

A trenchling's anatomy has 2 states, damaged, and retreating. In each, blood is replaced by what is called simply "innards", which can be any kind of matter or energy; some trenchlings have thick liquids like slime, some can have a sort of ash filled air that erupts from them, some can be solid crystals, some can spew neverending energy such as flames or wind. These cannot be controlled however, and are only shown when a trenchling's thick skin is somehow damaged or pierced, they also inspire how a trenchling's tears, blush, and insides are colored and how they react. When harmed slightly and able to heal, a trenchling goes into a damaged state, in which they have bones and other organs. Their innards slowly begin to somehow heal the wound on the skin, via oddly colored scabs that match the color of the innards. Think of this being a cut, scabbing, scarring, and healing. However, if a trenchling is harmed immensely, enough to cause a human to bleed out and die, a trenchling's body goes into a retreating state, where they are able to dissolve into a mass of their innards. These innards can be placed somewhere safe, where a trenchling can slowly heal their body and come back fresh and renewed.

Trenchbound takes place in "The Trench", which is in theory an area for lost souls to rekindle a physical body in order to have a post-death therapy, be able to be comfortable to move on. The Trench is littered with structures, plants, and animals that are made to resemble ones humans would know, such as empty stores and homes that could be furnished.

The Trench itself was made by a god called "The Omni"

ID/ An image from the artists sketchbook of a creature known as Omni, depicted as a single large eye with a ring of light around it, with 6 squid like tentacles underneath; 4 arms and a pair of club tentacles. To the left of the image is a size comparison with the character Mari (who we will discuss next), in which The Omni's pupil is about as large as the character Mari, showing their immense size. Above the size comparison image, we see the face of the character, Mari, looking up and sobbing. END ID/

The Trench is domelike in structure, and at the top, there is a large needle known simply as "The Injector". The Injector works by taking in the powdered life of anyone that is inserted, known as Soul Dust, and injects it into the naturally growing sacs that fill the ceiling. Here, a trenchling is born. The injector also softly glows, imitating a gentle sunlight, helping a sense of time in the trench. The trench itself however is dark, only illuminated by bioluminescent plant life.

ID/ concept sketches of The Injector, a mechanical arm connected to a large syringe type needle. At the bottom we see how the sacs develop trenchlings like embryos, showing a closeup of 3 stages of development, starting from a typical vertebrate embryo ending at a young egged trenchling. To the left, we see a closeup of the first embryonic stage.

From here, the Trenchling was meant to develop until hatching from the ceiling, and caught by a caretaker. The hatchling's stay dormant after hatching for up to 1 month at times, before they wake up and regain consciousness from their past life. The top of the trench is a web like structure of walkways that would allow someone to walk through and check on each of these sacs. This someone isn't able to be the Omni however, so the Omni had to delegate one trenchling to be the caretaker.

That trenchling was Mari.

ID/ A symmetrical picture of Mari. Mari is a dumbo octopus inspired trenchling with the colors pink, cyan, magenta, teal, and grey. Xey have 6 walking tentacles with a teal webbing between them, with 2 hand tentacles. Xey have large upward tilted ears that have fins connecting the lobe to xyr cheeks, with 2 magenta spines and cyan webbing. Xyr main body is pink with a cyan line running laterally down each one of xyr tentacles, along with the pattern of a large cyan diamond with a smaller magenta in the center. Xyr arms do not have this pattern, and are instead a solid magenta with an arrow shaped cyan marking at the shoulders and the straight line running down over the magenta. The underside of all xyr tentacles is grey with suction cups. Xey have more cyan lines, one that separates the base of each tentacle to xyr hips, along with one that runs laterally on the front and back that connects the hip line to xyr neck. Xyr neck is marked with another arrow design that points down their body, and is a large cyan arrow shape with a smaller magenta one on the inside. On the back, this arrow points up instead. Xey have magenta top surgery scars that end in a downward angle where they end in the center of xyr chest, with cyan nipples. On xyr face, Mari has rounded cyan diamond shapes that outline xyr eyes, with a magenta arrow shape pointing upwards under the cyan diamond marks. Xyr pink ears have cyan insides, with a line separating the helix from the rest of the ear. Xey have long wavy black hair that's almost always put up in a bun, with a strand on the right side sticking out, partially covering xyr right eye. Xey have small round eyebrows, with eyes having purple scleras with lavender irises and pink pupils, with xyr pupils being horizonal with round bulges on each end. This image shows Mari after xyr right eye was blinded, making the sclera paler, the iris grey, and the pupil large, white, and circular.

ID/ a clothed image of Mari, xey wear a longsleeve, thin, white turtleneck with a thicker black tunic overtop. The tunic has a grey belt and is long enough to cover halfway down Mari's leg tentacles. The drawing itself is simplified in style and is symmetrical.

Mari is a complex character. Chosen by The Omni, xey were given a divine job to care for trenchlings in a maternal way and to lead them into accepting themselves, their past death, and moving on via a hole in the wall trench, which supposedly allowed them to move on. Along with this, around the circumference of the trench, a large castle like structure was made, filled with different watchtowers and storage units filled with goods that could be used for agriculture, science, infrastructure, it's large size made it have almost everything that would be needed for anyone.

Mari was not known for being kind, nor for being able to understand empathy very well. Mari had more brains than anything, taking an objective look at the world instead of a more emotional one.

The Omni instructed Mari of who xey were, what xyr job was, and that all the trenchlings will begin to hatch in 2 months time. The Omni then left, never to return.

Mari xyrself was a victim in death, having suffered severe trauma that xey do not go into. A trenchling's death in essence is not one that one needs to go into for their character, for the trench is also a place where one renews themselves. Mari was given the ability though to completely emphasize with another with just a touch. By holding Mari's hands, you and xem would completely go through eachothers memories together in a way of understanding eachother, also being able to reminisce about certain things together, sharing visualizaitons and thoughts. It's a beautiful ability that can be used to have very close and personal moments. This was The Omni's gift to Mari, knowing xey struggled with empathy.

Mari was accepting of this duty and happily began to care for each and every trenchling in their egg forms. However, one hatched early, about one week in. When Mari came to lift the hatchling off of the floor, a flood of the child's past life came to Mari.

Trauma, Pain, Suffering. Events that made Mari shudder and tear up in pain. Mari forced xyrself to not share xyr own memories, as to not hurt the hatchling. Holding the hatchling close, sobbing, xyr tears being ice cold. Unexpectedly, as xey held the hatchling, xey somehow, with a combination of xyr emotions, wanting all of this pain to not be on the poor hatchling..

Xey completely wiped the memories of the trenchling.

In a moment of shock and panic, realizing they just killed the soul of someone..

Xey had an epiphany.

"Why should someone be forced to live again with having gone through death? Why not end it and create life anew again? Why force yourself to heal from this when instead, you could simply remove the events, the memories that harmed you?"

With this philosophy, Mari had a new mindset. Mari could not care for these trenchlings, Mari instead needed to help them. Mari vowed for xyrself to remove the harmful memories of each trenchling, and to let them simply life a whole new life, where they would never learn about hate, pain, anything. This hatchling xey had now, xey kept in xyr own domain, and ceased xyr watchful eye over the sacs. Xey instead opted for reengineering the injector, trying to find out what exactly how it worked, what the soul dust truly was.

Xey planned to make a counter for the Soul Dust in the injector, and made a syphon to take small portions out day by day, for examination, using the makeshift supplies that were stored in xyr home. The sacs slowly started to hatch and fell hundreds of feet to the floor of the trench. Mari kept a close eye, knowing how long it took for the trenchlings to become conscious, however xyr studies on the dust distracted them, and they woke up on the floor, creating their own society.

Mari's hatchling however, the one prematurely hatched and mind wiped, grew and followed Mari in xyr studies. The hatchling was similar to a human child due to their premature nature, and would end up maturing slower than the rest of the trenchlings that hatched at the regular date. Mari's hatchling has no name as of today. They will be developed at a later date.

Mari had finished the counter to Soul Dust, and named it Star Dust due to its shimmer. It came in two parts, one part would paralyze the trenchling by making their brain think that they are being flashed with blinding light, while the 2nd part would make them go unconscious, as the dust ate at their memories. Combined, this could be syphoned along with the soul dust to alter the trenchling in their sacs, making them hatch without any of their past in their mind. However at this point, approximately 20 trenchlings had hatched and regained consciousness on the floor of the trench below. They stayed centered under the dim light of the injector and built a society there. Mari then knew what to do. Mari took a breath and entered the trench floor, obscured by the natural flora of the area, with satchels of the two stardust components on xyr belt. With a cloak that covered all of xyr skin, making xyr "gift" of forced empathy useless, xey took charge and grabbed every last trenchling by force, using the stardust components to paralyze and wipe the minds of each and every one.

Some trenchlings took it well, such as the first one with a spider like body, some did not, such as one with a snake like body that almost made Mari pass out from a blow to the head with their tail. The final trenchling did not take it well at all, Mari having used too much force and ended up severely injuring their legs, having to simply leave them like that before the wiped trenchlings regained consciousness

And then, the hard part was done. Mari then had one more job to do - the injector.

Xey started by finding a way to temporarily pause the work of the injector, xey did so by slicing a few wires (two) until hitting the main power one. This cut the lights of the trench, and unintentionally led to some of the sacs decaying, falling to the ground below. Mari then developed mass quantities of stardust. The creation of new trenchlings stopped in this timeframe, until 1 month later, when the hatchling grew slightly more mature and Mari finished xyr plan.

Mari asked for xyr hatchling's help in rubbing the light component of the Star Dust to lead a light to the injector, in which mari carried a long tube that would connect to the injector, slowly incorporating xyr combined Star Dust directly into each sac, along with their soul dust. A careful procedure as Mari pried open a hole, stuck the tubing in, then instructed xyr hatchling into starting the flow of Star Dust.

While fixing it in place however, the Dust spewed forth, contacting one of the sliced wires from earlier, creating a blinding white light that lit up the entire trench. This blinded Mari's right eye on contact, causing xem to collapse. Xey grabbed the tube in a panic for support but pulled it out on accident, causing the light to stop but Star Dust to spray for miles over the Trench. Regaining stability after an hour, Mari came to xyr senses on xyr mistake and fixed the tube in place, causing the injector to glow slightly brighter, and once xey reconnected the wires, xyr plan worked. Mari could see the injector start up and inject the next sac with the now glowing Soul Dust and Star Dust mixture.

In Mari's eyes, the world has been saved. Mari, victorious, left back to xyr home, relishing in xyr victory, and Mari could now raise xyr trenchling as well, almost like a parent and child. However, xey never plan on telling the truth of any of this to xyr hatchling.

Mari sees the world as fixed, and now stays in xyr domain with xyr hatchling. Xey stand atop watchtowers, unseen by trenchlings, watching them like an ant farm. Xey have a slight superiority complex to the trenchlings now, instead of xyr past maternal and caring view, however, xey still care, however not very visible.