The Depths of Darkness

"It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top." Hunter S. Thompson

Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man -- who has no gills. Ambrose Bierce

It is an important fact that very few people actually live or move across the oceans, compared to the dry land. Ships usually follow the main routes and the large majority keeps within sighting distance from land; those ships who do not are alone on the ocean, usually without any other human being or man-made artefact in sight. And very few humans have ever travelled through its real depths, most keep to the surface. Actually, mankind has a very tenuous grip on the oceans and their reality. While the Gauntlet on land and in the air are kept strong by the collective beliefs of people, the oceans are immense weak spot in the Gauntlet. It is no wonder that seamen still tell tales about strange beings or bizarre events they have witnessed, and that superstitions still abound on the sea. Of course, the reasonable land-crabs quickly discount all this as the result of boredom, natural phenomena and alcohol.

While the Gauntlet is weaker across the oceans, it becomes even more frail in the depths. Mankind have never visited many places in the deep ocean, and outside these reality is still original and alien. In fact, large volumes are immense openings in the Gauntlet, huge threats to the stability and sanity of the surface world. The beings who live here are even strange by the bizarre standards of the depths, and they swim freely between the oceans of the Umbra and Earth. The real reason creatures from these depths die when they are brought to the surface is often not the pressure or temperature difference, but simply paradox. They are things that should not be.

The surface layers are usually quite safe, at least as deep as sunlight dares to penetrate (at depths beneath 100 meters the only light is dark indigo, slowly fading into black). In the nights the Unknown creep closer to the surface, only to return at dawn. Certain kinds of shrimps and squids seems to follow these movements, perhaps feeding on the flows of Quintessence, and occasionally the black predators of the deep also gather to feed on the surface dwellers. Perhaps surprisingly the ocean floor is also relatively safe, the real danger is in the unmapable volumes of darkness above them. Here the darkness is only broken by the eerie glow from the few luminescent creatures, and most of them are predators preying on each other or the scraps from the surface. The sparse life here is strongly affected by the close presence of the Unknown, and many beings might even originally be from the outside. Most are grotesque but fairly inconsequential, but among them are some real threats.

The giant squids are some of the least understood denizens of the deep; only a few cadavers have been found, and all of them quickly decompose into ammonia-stinking piles of flesh in air. They can become at least 18 meters long, and cachalots and other whales are often seen with scars from their suckers. It is widely believed that toothed whales feed on the squids, but nobody knows for certain.

The truth is darker: the giant squids are actually not from our reality. They are intruders from the Deep Umbra, perhaps scouts from the Things Beyond, perhaps trying to establish a foothold (tentaclehold?) in our oceans. They are darkly intelligent but so far limited by the paradox of the surface world and the attacks of the whales. They are able to use their unknown senses to manipulate other squids and octopi (which might actually be descendants of their old servants), watching through their eyes and feeling through their tentacles.

However, they are strongly opposed by the true rulers of the sea, the cetaceans. Apparently the cachalots are involved in an immense war against the squids in the black deeps, driving them back to their own reality and guarding the openings to beyond. While whales and dolphins certainly aren't intelligent in a human way, mages who have had mental contact with them report that their minds are both agile and complex, but their alien environment and senses makes actual communication very hard; we simply have very little in common. However, they have abilities which sometimes seems to be very close to magick; at least the great whales are able to break through the Gauntlet into the Umbra, and many reports claim dolphins sometimes seems to have an uncanny knowledge (or control) over the weather, currents and geography around them, not to mention some kind of empathic powers.

Ironically, these abilities caused the tragedy of the whales. When the Technocracy began to understand in the 1700s how they could swim between realities, it was horrified and quickly decided to put an end to it. They strongly encouraged whaling, and through advances in technology they began a wholesale program of extinction against the great whales. It was very successful, and the technocrats congratulated themselves to a victory against the dangers of the Outside while the giant squids grew in power. Finally, in the 1960's a young Oceanographer realised the awful truth about the increased incidence of reality instability on the oceans and the extinction of the whales. His impassioned speech and irrefutable evidence stunned the symposium, and the Syndicate quickly made whaling uneconomic. Today the Technocracy seeks to understand the cetaceans better, in a late attempt to win some allies or at least find out what is really going on.

However, the dolphins may have their own dark designs. While they certainly appear friendly and playful, a few people have begun to worry about their presence and empathic abilities. Dolphins are appearing more and more as symbols, and many aquariums have been forced to close after the number of visitors have dropped inexplicably. Are their black eyes and toothy grins hiding something?

Other Powers

However, there are other beings at home in the sea than spirits. The faeries have always had a strong tie to the oceans, and the underwater courts use the ocean itself as a protection against banality. The faeries of the sea mostly keep to the bright upper layers, where they build their castles out of coral or explore underwater forests of kelp. Mermaids, sea monks and tritons roam these enchanted worlds, blissfully unaware or uncaring of the surface world and its banal inhabitants.

But the sea is cruel too, as many wraiths know. The border between life and death is thinner here, and during storms it can open completely in some places, as the crew on Marie Celeste found out. The spirits of all those who died at sea whisper in the waves, and the servants of Oblivion constantly seek to lure ships to their doom or into the frequent maelstroms. Some marine wraiths use their arcanos to inhabit sea birds, especially the albatross (giving rise to the myth that the spirits of dead sailors become albatrosses) The Flying Dutchman is just one of the best known ghost ships on the ocean.

There are also rumours of something else, something immense in the deepest depths of the ocean, both in the Umbra and physical world. Nobody knows what it is, but its awesome presence is said to be felt across the world by those attuned to it. Some mages call it Leviathan. Maybe its the incarnation of the unknown sea itself.

The Technocracy in the Oceans

Iteration X on the other hand sees the oceans as a vast untapped potential for industry and technology. They map mineral resources and encourage their exploitation in collaboration with the Syndicate, they develop robotic vehicles to visit the most extreme and dangerous depths, and discreetly plan for a total industrialisation of the oceans. The mineral nodules they have found across the ocean floor are making the syndicate really excited and could provide the boost necessary to make deep ocean mining economic. There are already plans for robotic underwater mining vehicles or deep sea factories, and the difficulties the Oceanographers have with scaling up their life support systems only encourages the use of machines instead.

The Progenitors have always been interested in oceanic life, but either the interest have been practical (as in increasing the efficiency of fishing or sea-farming) or purely theoretical (like the study of the deep ocean vents). They gather data and specimens from the other conventions, slowly developing a model of the ecologies of the deep. One area they have been very interested in is dolphin intelligence; are the dolphins truly intelligent, and do they share the abnormal abilities of the whales? Together with the NWO they have made various attempts at communication, with mixed results. Today they are fairly certain that dolphins are not as intelligent as humans but might provide a useful partner for exploration (some gengineers have suggested bringing dolphins to full human intelligence, but so far this has not been approved).

The New World Order does not care for the oceans in a physical way, they are just a lot of water. But they also provide cover; just about anything could be hidden down there. The nuclear submarines developed during the cold war provided an interesting way to study the psychology of small, closed communities, and NWO sociologists are quite interested in the ideas for underwater colonies.

The Syndicate is so far not very interested in the depths except for their mineral resources. Their main interest in the sea is simply shipping. And maybe for disposing their enemies.

The Traditions and the Oceans

Coastal Verbena (sometimes called the People of the Mists) are probably the most knowledgeable tradition mages when it comes to marine secrets. In many fishing villages the old superstitions still survive, and fishermen rely on the skills of the wise people to ensure good weather, bountiful catches and safety. Marine Verbena has learned to speak with the denizens of the deep, to intercede with the spirits of the waves and divine the weather, often using very different methods than their inland cousins.

Most other traditions have very little to do with the sea. To most of the high mages of the Order of Hermes and Celestial Chorus the sea is just an abstraction, a symbol for the subconscious or primal. The Cult of Ecstasy might enjoy cruising in the Caribbean or diving in tropical waters, but thatıs it. The Sons of Ether have a certain fascination for conquering the sea, and a few etherites build more or less bizarre exploration crafts.

Abyssal Research Station One

At the construct there are four research teams: Team Blue, which is a Oceanographer team devoted to surveying the north-eastern Atlantic, Team Green, which is a Progenitor/Oceanographer team studying deep sea biology, Team Red, which is an Iteration X/Oceanographer team testing new submarine crafts, and Team Yellow, which is an Iteration X team studying geothermal energy. Each team is led by a coordinator (Team Blue and Green are rather democratic, while Team Yellow and Red have a fixed command structure), and the coordinators work together with the station manager as a ruling council.

The construct is built out of cylindrical modules, 15 meters across and 20 meters high, which are linked together into a hexagonal pattern by airlocks. Currently there are ten such modules at the main construct, and two modules which are used as workshacks (one near the mid-Atlantic ridge where Team Yellow drills for geothermal energy, the other around 100 kilometres to the north where parts of Team Blue are doing studies of the Gauntlet). The outside is covered with searchlights, airlocks, girders and large tanks. The interiors are cramped and have a distinct submarine feel despite the best efforts (?) from the Iteration X designers. Outside the ocean floor forms an infinite reddish-grey plain, strewn with the occasional boulder and instrument package.

So far the research station has done well. It has mapped a large portion of the seafloor, catalogued the life in the area and begun some serious work on geothermics, although the last project have been somewhat hampered by unexplained equipment failures (Team Yellow is has noted some incidences of reality instability near the midatlantic ridge, but so far the matter has not been studied well enough). There is even talk about adding two modules more to the station to house a fifth research team to study deep ocean mining. However, the station manager Gordon Westing (A graduate from the Ivory Tower) is secretly worried that something is amiss. It could be his usual paranoia, but he is certain that there is something out there watching the station. He has stepped up the security measures just in case, and have scattered secret sensor packages over the ocean floor.

Proteus 5

The whole construction requires a crew of two to function, but there is room for another 10 persons (although it will be extremely cramped). The interior is decorated in a mixture of industrial romanticism (lots of bulkheads, pipes and decorative cast-iron statues) and futurism (abstract paintings of machines, chromed instruments and slashes of red, white and black). The laboratory forms the central room, with the pyramid windows allowing 360 degree vision of the sea (which can be lit by immense searchlights or bio-fluorescent radiation). Around it are crew quarters, the control room, a small pantry and the airlocks. Beneath this level is the machinery, powered by a ether generator.

The Gerault brothers travel around the world, exploring the oceans, sometimes sabotaging Technocracy activities like Captain Nemo did (it is rather obvious to anyone who has met them that they have read far too much Jules Verne). They are not particularly interested in ecology, and don't think twice about blowing up oil tankers if they get the chance (fortunately the range of the cannons is somewhat limited). Recently they have begun to become more and more obsessed with finding out what is going on in the real depths, exploring the deepest trenches. What they might find there could destroy them.

The Clearwater Institute

One of the lesser known projects is about dolphin communication. The institute owns the research vessel Delphinus 2, which it uses to meet the dolphins in their own environment and record their sounds. The ship is filled with advanced computers used to build databases of dolphin sounds and behaviour, applying sophisticated cryptographic algorithms to understand them. On staff are two biologists, a linguist and a cryptographer. One technique they have experimented with is leaving hidden recorders in the sea to listen when no humans are around. So far the project has yielded some intriguing information about the social life of the dolphins and a lot of data about their migrations.

However, the project is slowly moving towards a revelation. Within the computer memory are some songs which should never have been recorded by humans. If they are cracked by the team, the communications barrier will be broken. But they will also learn some secrets the dolphins would never have revealed voluntarily, and will do *anything* to keep secret. Anything.

Story Ideas

Vendetta

Exploration

The Thing From The Depths

The Island

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