The Emmalean States

Created by u/Bordeterre

### GEOGRAPHY

For the most part, the trench is a desolate place. With no sunlight, a pressure of a thousand atmosphere and a depth of ten kilometers, it’s not exactly the most welcoming place. However, there are a few hotspots, from two principal sources : hydrothermal vents and leylines. Around hydrothermal vents are a small pocket of bacterias, crustacean and sea slugs preying on them.

When the trench intersect with a leyline, an even richer ecosystem emerge. Magosynthethisers are a kind of fixed lifeforms, nor plant nor animal, festing on magical energy to produce their energy and organic matter. Around that are an ecosystem of animals eating those lifeforms.

In between those oasis, lies a barren desert. Food is scarce, only available thanks to marine snow and fallen corpses.

### BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY

The Emmaleans belongs to the cephalopoda class, and hexadecapoda order although they have only twelve arms, losing four of them. This class originated from octapoda with a duplication of number of arms, now separated into two independant rings. This allowed the two rings to specialize in different tasks (for most suborders, some instead joined the two rings into a single sixteen armed one ). Most suborders developed extra siphons to better oxygenate the added limbs. The hectocotylus is located on the primary ring (around the beak)

The duodecapodes suborder, of which Emmaleans are a part of, specialised their secondary ring into heighten mobility and cognitive capabilities, ranging beyond the simple movement control used by octopuses, possessing more than eighty percent of the neuron mass. The primary ring’s arm shrunk in

size and number (they are now only four of them) but both their senses of smell and taste were enhanced. They got 6 syphons, 3 on each side of the head. They usually have fewer offsprings than most cephalopodes but raise them

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The Emmaleans have a body of around one meter, their main arms mesure thirty centimeters, and their secondary ones measure more than two meters. Their chromatophores disappeared, leaving an uniform blue coloration, due to the color of their blood. Similarly, they lost the ability to produce ink, but their ink glands evolved into producing a nutritive substance, used to raise their youngs instead.The Emmaleans can only have one offspring at a time, by the way

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The Emmaleans have thirteen brains, one inside their head and the twelve others at the base of their arms, controlling them and processing tactile information amongst other functions.

The four brains around the primary rings are used to process and identify complex tastes and smells. As the hectocotylus is located amongst those arms

The principal brain is used to process visual information, regulate the metabolism, and as a coordinator between the twelves other brains

The eight brains around the secondary rings are the siege of memory, complex thoughts (meaning that the Emmaleans can run up to eight parallel calculations without any drop in concentration) and spatial awareness.

#### Quirk

All Emmalean share a surnatural connection with water, allowing them to perceive through water via their eyes. It could be mistaken as a night vision of some sort, but require absolutely no light. Beside, it can observe things at a tremendous distance, up to the surface of the water, in a straight line from the Emmalean eyes. If there is a transparent obstacle (glass or air, for example) between two layers of water, the Emmalean can still perceive the water from the other side

### HISTORY

The Emmalean Magocracy is, or perhaps were (Contact was lost and the magocracy population was shrinking) a totalitarian oppressive regime. Mages were a huge chunk of the population, around five percent. Obviously, the proximity with the nexus wasn’t enough to explain such proportions. The systematic slaughter of non-mages amongst mages family and the abusive savery against non-mages was a more correct explanation.

Five hundred years ago, a group of non-mages slaves made a decision to escape the magocracy up north. They were either marching to their death through starvation or, with an immense luck, going toward a peaceful place away from the mages. Either case, they thought it was better than that slavery.

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After fleeing for five years, barely surviving on whale feed and what little scrap they could find, the escaped slaves finally found the paradise they were looking for. The exodus was a success and up to this day, no contact was shared with the Magocracy

The Neûreids, original inhabitants of the Emmalean trench were a race of sentient bioluminescent jellyfishes, closely related to the Nêure, but living far deeper into the trench. Most of current Emmalean culture is borrowed from them, even though a part of it is the remnant of the old Emmalean magocracy.

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However, magic in not inheritable, and soon mages were born amongst the Emmaleans. They believed the right mindset and education was all mages needed to be to not be evil, but were wrong. One day, the mages took arm and exterminated most of the Nêureids in a single night. Well fed and not slaves anymore, the Non-mages lead a counter revolution immediately, and won, but with huge losses

The rest of the Neureids died the following centuries through a low population size that lead to genetic diseases. Now the Emmalean have banned magic, and within a few centuries, evolved into the civilisation we know today. Neûreids are supposed to be still alive in other, faraway parts of the trench

### SOCIETY

The Emmaleans are organised into five semi-autonomous representative democracies, placed where the leyline and trench intersect and thus where magosynthetisers are plentyfull. Tribes outside the states exist, organising around thermal vents, and are also semi-autonomous.

The Emmalean leaders then select their council amongst club presidents. Those clubs are very popular amongst Emmalean, and are a regroupement of various people around a shared interest. Entering a club can only be done with the approval of the majority of the other members and each club democratically elect their president.

Each year or during major crisis, leaders of each state, their councils and each tribe chief reunite into one of the five capitals, circling around them each time. There, they discuss about the states, and if controversy arise, vote amongst themselves. Only the five leaders can vote, the councils and tribe chief can only try to influence their decisions

### CULTURE

Being deaf, Emmalean have developed an unique sign language using their secondary limbs. At first, it can appear poor and inexpressive, due to to the low number of signs. However, when you take into account that each sign uses only one arm and that Emmaleans have eight of them, the combinations became endless, combining multiple bases sign into new words. Granted, this is to take with a pinch of salt, as most Emmaleans rarely uses more than three signs at a time.

Poets, or dancer as there is no distinction between the twos in Emmalean society, are incredibly popular and often employ eight signs at once, crafting words with complex, deep and nuanced meaning.

Emmalean writing system is based off their sign language, mimicking the shape and movement of the arm with a stroke on a rock, bone, metal or other hard substances.

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The Emmaleans believe in the Upper Gods, beings living above the trench, responsible for every sunken treasure. It was practiced at first by the Neûreids but quickly became popular amongst the Emmaleans. As a result of this religion, or maybe it was the other way around, Emmaleans are highly curious about the above world. They have entiere museums dedicated to relics, weird and alien to their eyes.

There is another religion, more akin to a cult, praying to the Outer gods, entity residing outside of reality itself and governing the laws of luck and magic. It was originally the religion of the old Emmaleans, but is now outlawed, and only secretly practiced by mages. It has some conection with the cult of voids entities, but more than half of the outer gods are made up and have no relation with real void entities.

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Emmalean loves clubs more than anything. There are clubs for everything, those based around poesy and the upper world being the most populars. Everyone, even childs, is part of at least one club, often belonging to multiple ones. Clubs are financed by their members and are the main way to socialize and entertain oneself.

Although they have thermal vents, Emmalean don’t really like to cook their food on them. They prefer to cook them by various types of fermentation and acidification. Some of their food contain high quantity of alcohol, but the Emmaleans are immune to its effect and can digest it.

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Emmalean count using a base 8. They have six types of coin, with a value of 1, 3, 5, 8, 24 and 40. Larger transactions are done with the weight of the iron

Magosynthetisers have thin floating roots like structures, popular amongst Emmaleans to make fabrics. They don’t wear them however, but rather use them as crafting and construction materials. Speaking of which, the buildings are often made of huge black stones (those are huge because the Emmaleans don’t have any cement, and smaller stones would then fall) and magosynthetisers fabric

They have developed metallurgy over thermal vents. They don’t have a lot of iron so it’s usage is rare, almost exclusively used for jewellery, coins and science stuff. Said science stuff include glass and metal working, simple mechanisms, some chemistry, and good understanding

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The pinnacle of Emmalean technology is the Pelagocraft, a vehicle designed for upwater exploration. In it’s basic form it’s a pressurised spherical hull, a sas, a dihydrogen balloon and some lest.

Inside the metallic hull are simple lever to release some lest or gas. There is also two jars of chemicals that release oxygen when mixed together. They have to manually do so in a third jar every hour or so.

The sas is well sealed, but each usage lower the hull pression as water is left flowing to the outside. The sas can only be used four times before any other usage drop the inside pressure below a comfortable point

There are also low-pressure-suits used for extravehicular exploration. They are heavy and force the user to walk instead of swimming, and have a respiratory autonomy of only one hour before needing to go back inside the main vehicle. They are made of metal and a rubber-like substance.

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Another of their feat is their precise polishing, using various rocks to obtain a very clean surface. That’s why all their building looks so smooth. Using that technique they are able to build complex astronomical telescopes (equivalent to our astronomical telescopes, but used to see the uppers layers of the sea)

### OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC

Magic is akin to a drug for Emmaleans. The symptoms include overconfidence and desillusions. With prolonged uses, a lack of empathy and sometimes even a lack of coordination between the brains can emerge

Most of them are rarely exposed to high doses of magic. A bit in magosynthetisers and trace amount in the water due to the leylines, but those concentrations aren’t enough to trigger the symptoms.

Some parts of certain magosynthetizers and some animals are rich in magic, and some Emmaleans use them as a sort of recreational drug.

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However, this is a completely different story for mages. Subjected to this drug full time, they succumb into insanity, feeling like gods amongst mere mortals, often wishing death upon non-mages. This lead to the old Emmalean magocracy oppressive regime, and to the Neûreids genocide.

The alchirudo is a specie of abyssal leech, capable of feeding from the magical energy from an organism. Native to the central area of the Emmalean trench, it is now used since the youngest age on would be mages. A leech can be used up to a week before needing to be changed. Would be mages are educated to fear the monsters they could become so that they don’t remove the leach. Beside, refusing to apply your leach is punished by death. There are a few side effect however, like the inability to use the racial quirk and higher rates of depression. Those would be mages are called “the blind ones”

Not all mages comply with the law. Practicing magic capable of altering and controlling the mind, the cult of the outer Gods is secretly plotting and scheming in the hope of restoring the old glory of the Emmalean Magocracy. Due to their low numbers and high insanity, they are however far from reaching their goals.

### Posts:

The Emmalean States

Cotia, Azca, Rabia, Aribea, and Uanuca, the five Emmalean States

First Contact