Varlyrio Guild Challenge 1A: Ein - Mýthos of Mervolk

[MaasEffekt]

Greetings!

Thanks for stopping by! I would like to present my first varlyrian vignette. It is for the Varlyrio Guild Challenge 1A- Family Affairs- Who's in charge.

Sorry, i do not have many bricks, nor skills. I tried to use all the advice you gave me on my other mocs.

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Mer- ry meet! I am Ein. Take a note on that, because you will hear it in the future, i guarantee! I am a blewe elf. Yes, i am not blue. I live in the blue. Hope it is not too complicated for you. Some others would know my kind as finvolk, or marmennill, or something like that. First of all, excuse my incidental grammatical errors. Your common tongue, is not my strongest skill. Usually, i prefer to pick up just elvish languages. Hope you will understand mer. Let's get started, shall we?

Mer father was born in the mernificent polis of Tethys. He swam in the waters of Kalypsō, what sadly, I didn't have the opportunity to do so. Came to this world looong after that dreadful catastrophe. You know which one i am talking about, right? The one that happened in the place you probably know, or heard of as Varlyrio. Mer home is the spectacular underwater city of Thalassa. Would be a fool to tell you the exact location. Keep it a secret for now.

About mer birth... What do you think? Are we from eggs or born alive? Like fish, or like humans? I will let you figure it out by yourself, if you can. Good luck with that dryskin! Haha!

So, where was i before i've got tidetracked? Oh, yes!

Mer father is called Ægir, Protector of the Blewe. Mer mother's name is Rán. Queen of the Blewe. I know, i know. Those titles are not very creative... Just for the record. They are not blue neither! I also have nine sisters- imagine that, but you don't want mer to list their names here. Would be long and boring believe mer, and i don't want you to know their names. You probably not even worthy to lay your beady little dust dweller eyes on mer beauteous sisters anyway. By the way, they have terrible personalities, and i am sure all of them are much older than you. Not to mertion nobody in their right mind would want to be their boyfriends. Not to mertion... husband. Enough of those margygurs! Let's talk about mer, merself, and i.

Grew up in the eerie waters of Lorelei Loch. Had an adventurous childhood. The Children of Ceto always stirring up the deep waters yonder. There weren't many boring moments i can tell you that. Fortunately these days, we have less and less problems with them. Guess what? Even befriended a few. Who could have foretell that. I will speak to you about them another time, i promise. If you behave yourself well. Be nice, you hear mer! It is no secret, we are not a fan of your kind. Maybe one day, this will change, but in the mertime i will tell you about mer useless titles. Yes, i have those, like mer parents have.

Let's see. I am the Lochagos of the Warriors of Vortex order. Lord of Lorelei Loch. Guardian of Thalassa. Have a few more, but those have no interest to you. Oh, i have one more, which is a "cool one"! Krakenslayer! If you were wondering about the scar around mer left eye.

While my dad is somewhere in the great waters of Ōkeanós on some diplomatic mission to contact other finvolk, i am trying to build connections with your kind. That is why i revealed myself to you. Do you want to know more?

EinIntro by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

Spoiler

IMG_2820 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr
 

IMG_2821 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_2822 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

IMG_2823 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

 - Many- many tides ago, there was Erda. The dust dwellers call it Varlyrio, or was it Valrylio, or Varilyo? Well, it doesn't really matter! Erda it is named in our ancient tongue. Two lands, one with an inland sea, what was known as Kalypsō. That is where our ancestors were born, in the beautiful city of Tethys. The water was crystal clean, and warm. Full of life in it, and in its vicinity. The drylanders didn't bother us much. Our neighbours, and distant relatives the Kolgari lived close by. Sometimes dwarves came to trade goods, and news in return for the fruits and rare treasures of the deep. Other than that no two legged people dared to walk those lands, and swim or sail those waters. Life was good, because the water was good!

Then out of the blue, cataclysm hit! Erda quaked, cracked, and shattered, deadly gases leaked from the deepest parts of the underworld into the waters, and up in the air. Soon, Tethys was destroyed. As the ground opened, most of Kalypsō drained. Ran down into a cavern that might wasn't even there before. Many of our volk swam for the last time that day, crashed on the rocks by deadly currents, or swallowed by hazardous maelstroms, engulfed by the abyss. But others survived and just let the flow to take care of them. The water takes, but it always brings.

So, they found themselves in this huge new cave, in a subterranean lake fed by underground rivers, and hot springs regularly. Other survivors of the catastrophe arrived too! Even the Kolgari couldn't continue their lives on the surface. They moved into this great cavern, we call Horthol. Those were hard times on them, and on our volk. On everybody, who found refuge there. Magic was used on a daily basis to help establish a new life. The Kolgari built an amazing place, what is known in the legends as Sunken City. We built our new home, the magnificent city of Thalassa, on the bottom of the lake we know as Lorelei Loch. We were lucky. Very lucky to survive. Water is vital for all of the beings.

With the new place, came new discoveries. Ones that changed the fate of our volk forever. Found waterways which connected our new home with the vast water Ōkeanós, so some of our brave ancestors departed.

Ōkeanós... The final frontier. Those were the longest voyages of our volk. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations, to boldly swim, where none one has swam before. To find new adventures, to meet never seen distant relatives. We also met new creatures, for example the Children of Ceto emerged from the depths of Lorelei Loch. Some of them were friendly, others are not so much. Water can be wild.

Recent times, the surface strollers constantly grew in numbers. Not just in Erda. Don't have much respect towards the land, towards anything! They spill, and drink the waters, even fighting over it! Kill, murder for it! Sometimes they contaminate the wells, springs, rivers, and oceans! Litter the whole world! All that matters to them, is what can they take, what can they destroy! Almost always at war, those dryskins! Want power more, and more. Want everything! It is never enough! They know nothing! Nothing yet...

Our volk are everywhere. We are watching. Where water is, there are we. Water is life, so we are! You cannot crush water, so you cannot crush us. We were here before you, and will be after you. We are the Elves of the Blewe!

blewelves2 by Erhard Maas, on Flickr

More pictures can be found in my Flickr album.

Edited December 19, 2018 by MaasEffekt

[Grover]

This is a great scene!  It's difficult to set up underwater scenes and you did a great job.  Never seen a white dolphin, but it looks really good.  Great job!

[en_zoo]

hahaha hilarious! (and a little scary..)  I love all of the lore, MER can't wait to know more about YUR kind! keep it coming!

[mccoyed]

Merpeople is a great idea to add to Varlyrio. I have some fish fig pieces too so I'll try to include a cameo from finvolk!

[zoth33]

Nice little scene and great idea.  I like all the mer-people.  The dolphin and crab are nice to see here.  Great story also.  

[Basiliscus]

Lovely little underwater scene, the orange goes surprisingly well in this context. Really like the concept of a merman culture in Varlyrio, will be interesting to see how that integrates with the wider families.

Look forward to seeing more from you!

[Henjin_Quilones]

Nice introduction! I am glad to see you introducing a new race into the mix of the Guilds. I hope you flesh out their culture extensively, as they seem quite interesting! As for the build, all of the green and orange serves well to tie into the colors of Ein himself, even if the textures seem a bit haphazard. 

[MaasEffekt]

On 11/23/2018 at 6:18 AM, Grover said:

This is a great scene!  It's difficult to set up underwater scenes and you did a great job.  Never seen a white dolphin, but it looks really good.  Great job!

Hello! Thanks! Yeah, i was thinking the same about underwater builds. They are hard. I guess i've made my life complicated with the underwater stuff.  Will do my best to create some nice mocs. I hope one day i will get the trans- blue dolphin too.

On 11/23/2018 at 3:09 PM, en_zoo said:

hahaha hilarious! (and a little scary..)  I love all of the lore, MER can't wait to know more about YUR kind! keep it coming!

Hi! Thank you! I love creating lore and stuff.

On 11/25/2018 at 3:33 AM, mccoyed said:

Merpeople is a great idea to add to Varlyrio. I have some fish fig pieces too so I'll try to include a cameo from finvolk!

Greetings! Thanks! I think so too. We can always use more diversity. There were water related species in Nocturnus too. The spoooky Drakarkan, and the Shkcklyk. But other than them, i could not find anything, so i went with the mervolk. But it is hard to build underwater stuff. I realized it after my decision.

On 11/26/2018 at 12:06 AM, zoth33 said:

Nice little scene and great idea.  I like all the mer-people.  The dolphin and crab are nice to see here.  Great story also.  

Hello! Thanks very much! I am glad you liked it!

On 11/27/2018 at 12:35 AM, Basiliscus said:

Lovely little underwater scene, the orange goes surprisingly well in this context. Really like the concept of a merman culture in Varlyrio, will be interesting to see how that integrates with the wider families.

Look forward to seeing more from you!

Hiya! Thank you! I am, and will try to use unusual stuff to represent the waters under the Sunken city and stuff. So it won't be just a normal underwater scene. Also have a plan on how to integrate the mervolk into Varlyrio's everyday life.

On 11/29/2018 at 9:45 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Nice introduction! I am glad to see you introducing a new race into the mix of the Guilds. I hope you flesh out their culture extensively, as they seem quite interesting! As for the build, all of the green and orange serves well to tie into the colors of Ein himself, even if the textures seem a bit haphazard. 

Hi! Thanks! I will try! At the moment I am better at writing (i think), than building, so will give you people some lore, that is for sure. Yes, i intentionally used the same colors. Yeah, i need to work on my rock works and stuff.

Edited December 10, 2018 by MaasEffekt

[soccerkid6]

Superb storytelling! The unique dialect of the blewe elfs is very fun to read

Great use of orange in the seabed, and the various animals fit the scene well.

[MaasEffekt]

Thank you! I love that "blazing orange".

[Rogue Angel]

Again, excellent lore and slang here. Your adding a lot to Varlyrio's oceanic realms!