The Promise

Before the Sea of Tears was a desert it was filled with warm sapphire waters which the Tabaxi would fish and trade on. In this, their golden age they built floating cities and were famed for their seamanship and ingenuity.

At the height of their power, when the clans were united and ruled by a single family a royal prince *End of Summer* made a wager with a friend, that he could not only discover the location of the Triton capital deep beneath the waves, but that he would marry the most beautiful of their people and unite the two great ocean empires. The Tritons, ever secretive and distrustful of land dwellers tolerated the tabaxi in their waters and the two were even known to trade, it was during this annual meeting of the peoples that Summer made his move. Having gathered from across Alterias some of the finest wines, resources and magical trinkets he could find he offered them to the Tritons and asked only in return for them to tell him a tale of beauty.

Bemused, the Triton told Summer of the Empress Temura, an embodiment of the oceans unknowable mystery, her eyes like the deepest trenches far beyond anything anyone from the surface had ever witnessed. As they spoke, Summer listened and became emboldened. When the trading had ceased he sneaked inside the treasures he had offered and drank a potion to allow himself to breathe underwater. Few could see Summer when he chose to remain hidden and so it was he descended deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean, to unlock an ancient mystery.

History knows for certain Summer found his way to the capital, that he indeed found the empress and if the legend is believed, for a time she was taken with him. But while the legend may live on, what is certain is that what returned from the deep was not Summer, but vengeance. Over the millennia that have passed since the event, a few Triton who have made their way to land all tell a similar tale. Summer pleaded with Temura to come to the surface but the Empress would not leave her people. Relentless, Summer kidnapped her, maddened it seems by his desire to prove himself and forge his own legend. In his escape, the Tritons all seem to agree on one thing, the Empress Temura fell in the attempt and with her death, the Tabaxi golden age came to an abrupt end.

Her father, the Triton God-Emperor Valas Munolvath made a vow to the ocean, his vengeance would not be contained to the one who had taken his daughter, but to the surface world itself. A promise that never again would an outsider dare to step foot on Triton territory. He rose atop the oldest of the krakens, flanked by dragon turtles and creatures of the deep the likes of which had never been seen and may never be seen again. Using ancient magics, he decimated the Tabaxi empire, wiping out cities with great waves and the fury of the deep. When much of the Tabaxi race had been drowned, he found the one that had taken his daughter.

Summer, now a broken shell of his former self had witnessed countless die, his friends, family and too many more to count. the God-Emperor looked down upon him, no longer needing words. He turned, leaving the devastated prince alive and taking with him the seas**.** The once proud seafaring folk now found the remnants of an empire little more than scattered debris on a cruel and unforgiving desert. The Sea of Tears had been born.