Avishraa Reloaded

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
**Note:** This article is only relevant in the //[[thuban:|Thuban]]// continuity.

**Nalamanagiji** (local old language for //earthen place//) is the name of a planet (insomuch as its inhabitants are aware that it's a planet, which they aren't) whose civilisation lives entirely underground. The inhabitants are not from a single species, but the result of a cluster of cultures coming together aeons ago, only for a cataclysm destroying the planet's surface forcing the survivors underground. With most of their prior technology simply no longer applicable to the new lifestyle, it fell out of disuse and was ultimately forgotten.

===== Mythology =====
The inhabitants of Nalamanagiji are mostly mythology-free, in that the majority of them go about their lives without believing in anything metaphysical, or taking the metaphysics that exists all too seriously. A few centuries ago, however, the situation was a little different, in that the culture went through a fresh mythological phase, the remnants of which still shape subconscious thinking in many.

To the people of Nalamanagiji, the Demon //Adrethyrian// (local old language for //a bitter life's equally bitter death//) swallowed the sun from the sky, stealing with it the day and forcing the culture into the deep caverns they now inhabit. As ways to the surface are not charted anywhere and it would take decades of research and exploration to find a way back out, the surface itself is mythological - as such, the notions of 'sky' and 'surface' and 'planet' are all equally ethereal to the Nalamanagijians.

The culture subsists mainly from the energy given to them by sunstones, luminescent 'rocks' that really are a collection of (hard and fairly crystalline) living tissue. The largest sunstones are given names, which in turn define the names of whole layers of caverns and subcultures. Mythologically, the sunstones are considered fragments of the sun, like breadcrumbs left behind by a particularly sloppy eater - though it should be noted that the same mythology doesn't go as far as to attribute the sun's //destruction// to Adrethyrian. Instead, in stories it is presumed the sun still exists in deeper caverns yet, where the world transitions into the presumedly literal belly of the beast, and a tentatively recurring theme in fiction is its liberation.

===== Layers =====
<fs small>Text mostly copied from [[http://wildcard.pinkgothic.com/encyclopaedia/Eclipsed|Wildcard's "Eclipsed" sim]]</fs>

{{ :thuban:nalamanagiji_layers.png?400|The layers of Nalamanagiji}}
Generally, each 'level' of the cave system contains one large, temple-wrapped sun stone. They're given fairly simple names, which then represent the entire level itself (e.g. Dusk houses the Dusk Stone), though the priests and priestesses responsible for them (one each) tend to have more personal names for them (which isn't to say they share them).

Due to superstition, the layers keep mostly to themselves - this is especially prominent on the larger scale, where layers band together to create strong sub-communities of the culture at large. The distinction is roughly by rock colour of the caverns. So, in effect, something about colour psychology could probably go here if I knew anything about the subject!

==== Depths ====
The Depths are characterised by black rock and fairly classical rock caverns with no shenanigans. The inhabitants tend to be spartanic... and a slight bit insane, but rarely to the point of malice. That being said, the inhabitants of the Depths often view their posts as some kind of martyrdom, and there aren't many of them.

...in fact, there's about five of them. Avik, Nata and Tathun and his helpers. Gasp!

Stealing them for a quest tends to work after some prying. They take their jobs seriously (obviously), but on the other hand, their lives tend to be //so// bland it's hard for them to resist the call of adventure.

=== Dusk ===
Dusk is best known for the **Lake of Sunlight**, which is... actually pitch-black, but according to mythology, where Adrethyrian banned the sun to. The lake sits in the bottom-most point of Dusk, irregular oval circumference spanning approximately two kilometres. Mythologically, in the tapered end of its depths, a tunnel is supposed to lead down and into another cavern where the full brilliance of the sun is held prisoner. (Of course there's no such tunnel.) The surface of the lake tends to be entirely undisturbed.

The majority of Dusk is defined by a barren landscape only rarely punctured by the light of a stray sunstone in its strata, rock sharing appearance with oil: A smooth, black surface, fairly reflective, as if it had gathered moisture.

The Dusk stone lies near the far end of Dusk, almost the furthest so-designated point from the Lake of Sunlight. A temple's been crafted around it, coarsely rectangular, crafted sturdily from the same rock that makes up the entire cavern. It's guarded by **Avik**, a black dracoraptorian with feathered wings and amber eyes.

=== Dark ===
Like Dusk, **Dark**'s rock is a glistening black and the landscape doesn't change much here. Coming from Dusk, it's hard to notice exactly where the one layer begins and the other ends. It seems entirely arbitrary, though the guardian of the Dusk stone, **Nata**, is quick to point out and insist on the //exact// border.

Nata and Avik essentially were arch enemies before Avik's death. Nata regards strangers otherwise with much the same unenthusiastic generic politeness Avik has... meaning they hated each other because they were basically the same. They even look almost identical, excepting the colour of their eyes - in Nata, it is green.

The Dark stone lies neatly above the Dusk stone, though of course separated by a large body of stone between the two caverns. It sits in an open shrine decorated with astonishing amounts of love, without a roof, but a slight amphitheatre-like half-circle of decoration.

=== Moon ===
This layer does little to break the monotony of the landscape. The most notable change in **Moon** is that it is easily the layer richest on water reservoirs. Traversing into some of its more interesting side caverns, one occasionally must swim under water for a good while. Additionally, massive flakes of rock protrude from the main cavern walls above the water, forming a myriad of semi-convenient platforms for the climbing. The colour of stone and frequency of sunstones remains unchanged, though.

The Moon stone itself sits not on the shoreline, but is embedded into the roof of the main cavern, only slightly removed from the centre of the cavern. The flake beneath it houses thin obelisk stones reaching up toward it with slight deviation, like a flower of rock opening out immediately beneath it. It forms a fairly effective cage, tips artificially laden with spikes.

The guardian of the stone is **Tathun**, who, unlike the guardians met up until that point, employs helpers - a necessity, as frequent trips must be made to the layers immediately above and below Moon, it being a primary source of water. Trips higher are actually less frequent and a simple check-up of the pumps that pull water up to Star and beyond, but water to Dark and Dusk is delivered manually and personally, due to their negligible population.

==== Thelix ====
**Thelix** is characterised by two attributes. For one, the rock in Thelix tends to have blue-ish hues. For two - and the source of the name - there are no real //layers// here that pinch or bottleneck, but there's more of a continuous, slowly changing landscape winding its way up in a lazy spiral through the rock.

The inhabitants at large are fairly spiritual. The highest percentage of those taking mythology seriously and literally can be found here. The inhabitants are largely non-confrontational, even if their beliefs are challenged or openly mocked.

Thelix inhabitants (Thelicians) tend to view those from Depths with a frightened flavour of suspicion. They remind them too much of Adrethyrian and their mythology in general, prompting them to call them 'demons' behind their backs. However, if forced to interact with them, Thelicians maintain their non-confrontational nature, albeit oft fear-strung.

=== Star ===
**Star** marks the first layer where a perceivable change in rock colour can be observed. The rock here loses much of its gloss and instead adopts an almost honey-comb-esque quality, frequently punctured by tiny pores. The cavern structure itself is also quite different, labyrinthine pathways winding through a forest of thick pillars.

The source of Star's name, though, is the frequency of sunstones in this area. It's easily the best source for about coin-sized sunstones - the entire place is lit with pinpricks of light scattered throughout the rock. A few sections of Star, having been mined for sunstones, are devoid of these, giving those areas a bizarre, dead feel, but at large the layer is riddled with tiny sources of light, granting the caverns an eerie resemblance to a night sky.

Because of the sunstone frequency, there are two tiny towns, one nearer to Moon and one closer to Dust. The structure of the cavern is quite delicate - the aftermath of some cave-ins can be seen here and there, testament to why exactly so few have taken up residence here.

The Star stone sits on the ground in a small glade of sorts, fungal growth patterning the ground around the fairly circular indentation and clearing between the pillars. A small non-luminescent stone sits at the foot of it, a rune etched into it for protection. It's guardian is **Estel**, a small female dracoraptorian, and of all guardians encountered up until that point likely the most sane and regularly welcoming and friendly. She is, though, an all-round sceptic and keeps to herself, so that she frequently asks people (nicely) to leave if they have no further business with the stone.

=== Dust ===
**Dust** is the first noticeably lighter layer, thus marking, for many, the proper transition into Thelix. In fact, the inhabitants of Thelix wouldn't care for Star if it wasn't so rich in sun stone.

Speaking of which, most of the inhabitants of Thelix //live// in Dust. The cavern itself has no real defining qualities - this layer sticks out like a sore thumb because of all the artificial housing scattered through-out the layer, especially around the Dust stone, which sits fairly close to Star.

The guardian of the stone is **Zeke**, a male pure raptorian, hide the colour of moonlit night and striped black. He has no feathers, but clear silver eyes, giving him a beauty and radiance despite the lack of plume. He's quite energetic, marking a change from the guardians in the lower levels with their fairly passive demeanours at large, mostly due to the fact that he's quite easily the youngest of the guardians. He has a wicked, cynical sense of humour.

The stone itself sits in the middle of a town plaza, embedded into the central piece of a fountain, but without that water ever touches it - the fountain was deliberately built around it, without damaging the sunstone itself. In fact, it has about an inch worth of 'breathing room' between itself and the inner fountain walls.

Excepting Zeke, the town is mostly populated by draconics.

=== Seed ===
**Seed** is the agricultural centre of the entire Eclipsed culture. Primary importers of Star sunstones, said sunstones can be found 'speared' (//tied// to thin rod, rather than stabbed by one) all over the pastel blue cavern.

Seed itself has only a few sunstone discs and flakes scattered irregularly in its cavern walls, though these help establish its feel, and their fairly large size and un-harvest-ability (being too thin, easily breaking) explain the roots of this layer in agriculture.

Additionally, the floor of Seed is covered in soil, much unlike all layers preceding it, and lush vegetation spills from it, densest immediately around the sunstone sitting at the far end, just before the transition to Spore. More decorative plants tend to be massive ferns that give the whole layer a bizarrely fantastic appearance.

The guardian of the Seed stone is **Tykar**, a perfectly tiny but magically potent western dragon. Despite his size, he's aged and wisened, though this does not stop him from enjoying scritches. The Seed stone is not protected or enshrined in any way, though it is arguably the least visible of all major sun stones, shrouded in the depths of Seed's agricultural 'forest' - Tykar happily takes care of it and some gardening on the side.

It should be noted that despite the carnivorous nature that dragons are usually depicted as, and the ancestors of the raptorian being meat-eaters, the entire civilisation of Eclipsed is in fact omnivorous (albeit meat is an extremely rare luxury, since there exists basically no fauna in the caverns) out of sheer evolutionary necessity.

=== Spore ===
Like Seed, **Spore**'s ground is covered in soil. Unlike Seed, it is not an agricultural layer, but simply a sparsely populated one. What grows here is not meant for consumption: Large mushrooms, their size easily rivalling most creatures living in Eclipsed, grow from the ground. Their most revered quality is their luminescence. Like sunstones, they glow brightly - but this is because they contain one, each, and transfer the light onward, strengthening it rather than diluting it. Short of Sun, this makes Spore the brightest of the layers.

Note that none of the mushrooms are poisonous. They are, however, flavourless and grant no notable nutrients, making them uninteresting. A select species, growing to particularly notable heights, is called 'Vision Mushroom' colloquially and, when ingested, acts as a hallucinogen.

Spore is considered primarily a place of religious introspection. Thelicians come here occasionally to meditate in the light - arguably, the overabundance of the rare commodity in the caverns is what grants them their general pacifism, sating them.

The Spore stone sits within one of a few grass, twig and clay huts that are oval in shape, like a lying, slightly sunken egg. They're usually uninhabited - the sparse few towns at the edges of Spore have different and smaller huts - and are intended for travellers.

The guardian of the Spore stone is **Taryr**, a scruffy-plumed but otherwise simple raptorian with a mottled green hide. This is someone you can actually hold an entirely normal conversation with.

=== Cinnamon ===
The smaller of the two communities in Thelix, **Cinnamon** is marked by transition rock strata, blue bleeding out into a more grey or sandy colour. Like Dust, the cavern itself is quite uninteresting and has no particularly notable features. It's inhabited largely by raptorians, be they dracoraptorian, feathered or plumeless, and other dinosaurians.

Many of the towns in Cinnamon turn out to be abandoned. The Cinnamon culture is nomadic in nature, but their lack of having much of anywhere to trek to has them switch locations //within// the cavern every generation or so. They rarely leave the layer for others - even then, though, the general population stays about the same due to just as many (or few) coming to stay here.

Of all Thelicians, the Cinnamon culture is probably the most isolationist. They prefer to keep to themselves.

Their main sunstone is classically //unguarded//, in a central plaza in their oldest city, once more fairly central to the cavern. They keep sunstones on themselves in the form of necklaces, both for luck and for practical reasons.

==== Kanopy ====

=== Dawn ===
=== Crystal ===
=== Fire ===
=== Sun ===

==== Surface ====