Merian Almanac:
Geography
Mer is a water world. The relatively small amount of land that exists takes the form of numerous small (no more than a few miles wide) islands which are scattered across the surface of its oceans. Some of the islands are low-lying, nothing more than a swamp. Others are rocky, and rise sharply to high mountain peaks. Most are fairly dry, with coastal plains surrounding hill country. The oceans themselves are relatively shallow, no more than a few hundred feet deep across most of the planet, and are even shallower near the islands.
The skies of Mer are filled with an impressive array of heavenly bodies. At almost all times, the crown of an immense ringed planet can be seen jutting up over the horizon. This bloated red giant is called "The Fire Moon" by the natives of Mer, due to its red glow and the heat which it provides. There are two other, more proper moons, which orbit in Mer's skies. These are called "The Bright Moon" and "The Shadow Moon" by the natives. The Bright Moon is a silver sphere, which always appears full in the sky. When appearing at night, its glow adds to that of the Fire Moon and makes for a very bright night. The Shadow Moon is a dark body, which tends to blend into the night sky and be lost in the haze of day. Its presence is mainly known through its shadow, which can be seen when it passes in front of the Fire Moon, or eclipses either the Bright Moon or the single sun of the planet. In addition to the sun and three moons, the night sky of Mer boasts an impressive array of stars.
Climate
The presence of the Fire Moon, along with the numerous currents of the shallow seas, makes for a warm climate. Most of Mer experiences a tropical climate and warm waters. This makes for a near-constant growing season - a boon considering that the amount of farm land is extremely limited. The forests on the islands are more properly termed jungles, and teem with life. Humidity is only a problem in the jungles, as the constant breezes which make sailing easy also keep things cool. However, just because the climate is balmy, that doesn't mean it is gentle. The moons of Mer make for very violent weather and dangerous tides. Storms can brew up at a moment's notice, and certain channels of the sea actually become dry land during low tide. Most of the civilized lands lie in the broad tropical zone. Closer to the poles lies a more temperate zone, with arctic conditions only possible at the poles themselves and on the side Mer which cannot see the Fire Moon.
The omnipresent heat shapes every aspect of life on Mer. Resting (or at least slowing the pattern of business) is common during the midday hours. Bazaars are busy during the early morn and late afternoon. But in between they may be empty, save for a few dozing businessmen and half-crazed barbers flashing their blades in the sun. The most obvious concession to climate is dress. Loose clothing is preferred to tight-fitting styles. More importantly, the heat also affects a native's choice in armor. The heavy plate found in other worlds is a rarity here, used for occasional pomp and ceremony if at all. Full metal plate armor, encasing the body from head to toe, is virtually unknown. The reason for this is simple: heavy armor makes movement difficult and even dangerous in a hot (or aquatic) climate.
Culture
Mer is a water world. The natives live either on the numerous islands or else on the oceans themselves in fleets of clan ships. A minority of races live beneath the surface - be it wet or dry. But regardless of where one lives, the ocean is the foundation of life and civilization. The vast majority of food and resources come from the sea, and all transportation is done by ship. Since the islands are only a few miles wide, there is not a lot of open land for farming. Most islands in civilized waters support only a pair of villages, or a single large town. The lack of large areas of land has completely eliminated any concept of using animals as mounts. While pack animals exist, the thought of riding one never occurs to anyone.
Due to the relative scarcity of resources on the islands, much of the culture is focused on trade and travel. Many ships travel the sea lanes between the islands, carrying cargo for sale and trade. And of course, pirates also sail the lanes looking for plunder. This constant activity of trade has created a very active economy, such that there isn't really a peasant class. Everyone has the opportunity to be equal; all that matters is how much money you have. So rather than peasant and noble, there is merely rich and poor. (Thus, there is no concept of caste system, also known as station.) The culture is based on the gold standard (gold coins are called "krugars" and silver coins are called "glorns").
In addition to the pervasive nautical influences, the culture of Mer also shows strong Arabian overtones - particularly in styles of dress and speech. However, there are some differences from the typical Arabian setting. Religion is not as important as it is in most Arab cultures, nor is the belief in Fate. For the most part, it doesn't matter who (or what) a person is, only what they can do. There are two exceptions to this general air of racial tolerance. First, the monkey-birds are primarily looked down upon as nothing more than pets as they have been a slave race for centuries. The other exception is that women are not held in equal regard as men. This can lead to a man underestimating those few women who seek to adventure with their male counterparts.
There are three general political forces at work on Mer. The first is the islanders. For the most part, each island can be considered an independent city-state with it's own laws and cultural values. Occasionally, a few islands which lie close to one another will form a loose alliance - more for mutual protection than anything else. The rare exception to this isolationist attitude is the kingdom of Octopon. A full two score of islands pay tribute and pledge allegiance to the Wave Throne. The second political force are the ship-folk, also called wave riders. These people can be nomadic tribes, living on fleets of clan ships, who have no interest beyond their own clan; or they can be ruthless pirate lords, who claim vast stretches of oceans as their personal hunting grounds. The most powerful of these pirate lords is Bloth - who claims all of Mer as his domain and willingly violates the territories of the other lords. The third political group is rarely seen by the islanders or the wave riders. They are the under dwellers, the ones who either breathe water and live beneath the waves or shun both land and sea and live deep underground. These people have their own arrangement of kingdoms and city-states which is completely unaffected by the affairs of the surface dwellers. All of the political groups interact with each other as little as possible. The islanders merely wish to live their lives and ship their goods to keep the money flowing. The wave riders wish the same, while the pirate lords prey on both groups and each other. The under dwellers only occasionally interact with those on the surface, usually with regards to fishing rights or trade goods.
Given the aquatic nature of Mer, the ship holds great importance in the culture. The art of ship design and construction is very advanced. Ships are able to be built smaller and faster than their counterparts on other worlds. These ships are also able to take less crew to properly run them. Some ships are even built from unusual materials with no loss of ability. (The best example of this is The Maelstrom, the ship of the pirate lord Bloth. It's hull is made from the skeleton of an ancient leviathan.) After centuries of use, forests are starting to become scare - especially with the ravages of Dark Water. As such, many people are coming to value ships over people. As such, many of the pirate lords have begun forgoing the use of weapons which might damage a ship and instead are relying much more on boarding actions to capture cargo.
There are two classes of people who are held in high respect by nearly everyone - the shipwright and the navigator. The former is obviously important as he knows not only how to build new ships, but also the best ways for repairing existing ones. The latter is important due to the nature of the seas of Mer. Although the culture is old, and the locations of nearly all the channels and islands and hazards are known, paper is no substitute for actual experience. There are many places on Mer where dangerous tides must be sailed in order to reach one's destination. Also, with the coming of Dark Water, many of the old channels have become impassable and new routes must be found.
Due to the relatively isolated nature of Mer's geography, warfare - such as it is - deals almost exclusively with personal combat. Without vast tracts of open land, there is no need for large armies. Mass troop movement can only be accomplished by ship, or powerful magic. This also means that siege warfare is nonexistent. However, the large siege weapons still exist, as they are used to by the larger settlements (and some pirate holdings) to defend against attacking ships. As mentioned before, the presence of Dark Water and the growing scarcity of wood have combined to make ships more valuable than nearly anything else. As such, very few captains are willing to risk their vessels on direct assaults versus towns. Also, only the most wealthy or ruthless captains will use shipboard siege weapons against other ships. Therefore, warriors are trained in personal and small scale melee combat techniques.
This environment of man-to-man combat, combined with the general arabian atmosphere, has led to the development of specialized fighting schools. Each school has a different philosophy on how a warrior should conduct himself in combat. In addition to affecting their students' choice of combat maneuvers, these schools often influence their combat style. Many school-trained warriors seek to impress or humiliate their opponents (and spectators) before finally defeating or killing them.
As for warriors, the lifestyle of rogues on Mer is affected by its geography as well. The numerous island city-states means that there is always a new place to hide if things get too hot for a thief. As such, the concept of the thieves' guild never developed. Every thief is out for himself, and doesn't worry too much about muscling in on the territory of another. This individual mindset also means that there is no universal thieves' cant. However, given the generally small territories available to them, rogues tend to use two or three different larcenous methods, so as not to "overfish the pond" and either be out of work, or captured.
Bards are the most common type of rogue on Mer. Their primary source of employment is keeping the patrons of the taverns entertained with song. However, they are also highly respected as they are among the few people who are willing to travel between islands these days and carry news across the surface of Mer. Many a bard has been able to go for months at a time without spending any money by living on the gratitude of their audiences. Of course, this means that bards have to keep a good reputation, else they might actually have to spend their money every once in a while....
The religious philosophy of Mer is fairly simple. There are only four gods in its pantheon. The first, and most powerful, is Shanda, Goddess of Sea and Foam. All water and those that live in it are her domain. As with the sea itself, she is a moody and fickle goddess. The tides and currents move at her whims. The second god, who is only slightly less powerful, is Davron, God of Wind and Storm. The air and its creatures are his domain. He creates the breezes which move the ships; he also makes the storms which sink them. The third deity is Khunda, Goddess of Earth and Stone. She is viewed as the daughter of Shanda and Davron, and is the least powerful of the trio. It was Khunda who created the islands and allowed them to support life. Also, those rare creatures which live below the surface of the ground are her children. The final deity of the Mer pantheon is not worshipped at all. This is the Dark Dweller, the ultimate incarnation of Evil that used to roam the surface of Mer eons ago. Then, the powerful sorcerer known as Rul created thirteen artifacts that he used to capture the Dark Dweller and imprison him deep beneath the waves. (After this act, Rul went on to create the kingdom of Octopon.) Since this imprisonment, the Dark Dweller has become mostly forgotten, thought of as a moral or a bogeyman with which to scare small children. However, his presence has been acknowledged once again with the appearance of Dark Water. It is thought that this vile substance is both his revenge against Mer for being imprisoned, as well as the method by which he will eventually free himself and destroy the world. This threat, along with the recovery of some of the Treasures of Rul, has made this deity's existence real once again to the natives of Mer. Some desperate, or depraved, souls have begun to worship the Dark Dweller in hopes that they might be spared. The members of this cult are known as the Dark Disciples.
There are a small group of beings who, while acknowledging the existence of these four gods, do not worship any of them. Instead, they feel that while the gods created Mer, they should have no more business with it. Instead, they revere the world of Mer itself, and seek to harness the natural energy of their environment. The members of this rare cult are known as the Ecomancers. They make their home on the island of Andorus.
Dark Water is a horrific blight on the face of Mer. It is a thick, black sludge which floats on top of the water and consumes everything it comes into contact with. Only two substances - glass and the hide of the leviathans - are able to resist its effects, but neither is a permanent barrier. The size of the object does not matter; even a small patch of Dark Water can eventually consume an entire island. The sludge appears to have some sort of life of its own; it has been seen to move against the currents and the winds, as well as to reach out and grab at ships or creatures which pass too close. The one saving grace is that the Dark Water only occurs in patches; it does not keep growing to cover the entire surface of Mer. However, whatever does not flee from the approach of Dark Water does not survive.
Magic
The wizards of Mer are a very splintered group. While there are three main approaches to the use of magic, a wide variety of individual styles are used in creation and casting of spells. The first of these actually makes no use of magic at all, and instead seeks to harness the resources of Mer that already exist. They are called the Biotransmuters. These mages are a combination of alchemist and tinkerer. Their magic primarily exists through the use of potions and powders made from plants and animals. They also make use of living animals themselves. Sometimes the animal is merely put on a "leash" (such as the use of Dream Lizards in guns for their sleep gas breath weapon); other times the animal is enhanced and transformed into an entirely new creation (such as the hawk-knife, a bird with metal feathers).
The are three branches of mages follow the example of the priests (see below) and study magic in terms of its elemental associations. There are the Sorcerers, who cast their spells from the realm of two of the four elements. There are the Elementalists, who restrict their spells to a single element in order to gain greater power and mastery. The final group of elemental wizards are known as the Sha'ir. These spellcasters deal with the genies - the living embodiments of the elements - directly in order cast spells. While this last method of spellcasting is the most versatile, it is also potentially the most dangerous.
The final group of wizards are those who view spellcasting as a science like blacksmithing or ship building. These two branches believe in understanding exactly what it is that they are doing so that they will achieve consistent, and more effective, results. The first are the Digitologists, who believe that math is the secret to magic. Each spell is a numerical formulae which explicitly details what the spell will accomplish. The other are the Mechanicians (also known as Clockwork Mages). Much like the Biotransmuters, they do not cast spells themselves, but instead build intricate machines which cast their spells for them.
People of Note
Alomar - dragon sage and keeper of the Compass
The Atani - race of warriors which live underground
The Benjamar Guardians - keepers of the Bell of the First Sound; use sound as telekinesis
The Blight - ancient spirit of Disease and Pestilence imprisoned deep beneath the island of Andorus
Delpha Warriors - a group of vicious female fighters
Gronis - an undead pirate; first mate to Kressa
Keroptus - a demon and servant of the Dark Dweller; trapped in the Bell of the First Sound
Kressa - a ghost; female pirate lord who still sails the seas with her undead crew
Onda - self-proclaimed "Dagron Master"; has ability to transform people into dagrons
Slagon - a biotransmuter; lives on the island of Miragon
Teron - an ecomancer; tutor of Tula
Teng - an undead pirate; crewman of Kressa
Klink - A descendant of Konk, captain of the Blapshemy
Naya - Descendant of Primus, latest addition to the blood line, captain of the Zephyr, small time thief with big plans
Peyron - Monkeybird, of the Falcon-like subdivision, friend to Naya.
Karisha- Monkeybird, guardian of the Hall of Saviours, rather unmonkeybirdlike. A ranger whose favored enemy is the constrictus.
Creatures of Rul
CandyClams - edible shellfish
Constrictus - hydra-like creature
Corba Cat- Small dar kfurred feral cat, good at fishing
Dagron - a wyvern-like creature
Denoba Water Snake- poisonous adder from the Danoba coastlines
Dharga Worms - sea centipedes which eat anything
Emphicite - a fish which stores air in a transparent bladder; can be used as living scuba gear
Energy Leech - a three-tentacled life-sucker
The Ferrex - a magical mutant griffin/ferret
Grotto Crab- Deep dwelling crustaceans used in armor making
Leviathan - a sea-serpent; hide can withstand Dark Water
Mud Crab - a giant, armored worm
Mud People - natives of the island Miragon; masters of the bow; dissolve if get too wet
Nycra - acidic jellyfish
Piranha Clams - carnivorous cousin to Candyclam
Pooka - a chambered nautilus
Sea Suckers- Starfish like parasites, inject a paralysing venom into victim, used as weapons
Dream Lizards- Reptiles that exhude a thick smoke when frightened, smoke induces sleep and bizarre dreams, used in gunlike bottles as a weapon.
Pantera Cat- A large sleek, dark furred big cat, evolved on several islands when Corba cats began cgrowing and stalking larger prey.
Places of Rul
Abbey of Galdebar - monastary near Octopon; home of Alomar and the resting place of the Compass
Benjamar - island home of the Bell of the First Sound; surrounded by a circle of flying rocks
Cavern of Lost Souls - part of the Dark Dweller''s Domain
Dagron Island - home of Onda and source of the dagrons
Dark Dweller''s Domain - a series of caverns in the center of Mer
The Dragon''s Maw - an elevated river in Mer''s oceans; full of rapid currents and bordered by waterfalls
The Haunted Coast - area off the largest known island on Mer; realm of Kressa
The Island of the Pale Warriors - home of the Atani
Jundatown - "a more wretched hive..."
Miragon - swampy island; home of the Mud People and the Lo-Ac flower
Octopon - largest kingdom on Mer, a prosperous and happy place
Pandowa - island home of the monkey-birds
Straights of Hedron - dangerous passage
The Teeth of Motis - a volcanic passage; most direct path to Octopon; has an archway which goes completely dry during low tide
Undarr - flying island; home to race of compulsive gamblers
Denoba- Small trading port settled on a relatively lifeless island near the Teeth of Motis
Floating Barrier Reef- place where Primus' armada fell
Andorus- Home of the Vivatree, a pwoerful ecomantic icon, which, thanks to the rebirth of the Ecomantic art, has created a tangle of Mangrovelike root structures labeled "The labyrinth of eternity" due to the roots' constantly shifting nature.
Ships
Blasphemy Captain: Klink
Crew: Mix of NPC/PCs
Description: Unholy conglomerate of ship parts, reinforced wiht bones and skins from several different species.
capacity: 300 hands
Zephyr Captain: Naya
Crew:
-Peyron (Monkeybird)
-Karisha (Monkeybird)
Description: A swift little skiff once used as a fruit hauler and is now Naya''s personal vessal
Max capacity: Five people and 200 melons
