Silt Gaulong

## Description

Silt Gaulong , also known as Gliding Mountains, are some of the largest known creatures in general. They appear as gigantic, broad, flattened crabs with short powerful limbs and claws. They live exclusively underwater in areas with flat , gently sloping sea floors, being held up by the buoyancy of the water. Silt Gaulongs owe their name to their beige-brown colour which blends them in with the sea floor's colour, in addition to them being covered in a thin layer of sediment at all times. Usually they expend little effort with walking, instead following the general direction of the currents while moving their legs only to stay parallel with the seafloor. Sometimes this leads to them stranding on a coast if the course is not corrected sufficiently, though usually they slide back into the water by themselves.

## Ecology

Silt Gaulongs have an extremely efficient metabolism and require less food than expected for a creature of its size. They indiscriminately eat anything they can get their claws on, which usually consists of seagrasses, kelp, large carcasses and large molluscs such as gigantic clams and snails.

These crabs are an ecosystem on their own, with small reefs growing on their carapace sections, attraction a variety of small fishes and invertebrates. They are followed by swarms of predatory fishes, which attract larger local predators and also human fishermen looking for reliable hunting grounds. There are entire professions dedicated to tracking the location of moving Silt Gaulongs to coordinate fishing fleets for the earliest access to these migrating fish populations as soon as the Gaulong reaches shallow water.

## Spirit

The Silt Gaulong is known to have an extraordinarily powerful field of influence originating from an innate divergence technique. In a kilometers wide radius around the Gaulong, the wind slows to a calm breeze even if it is the middle of a hurricane, and the water's currents circle around the Silt Gaulong in a calm, very slow vortex. Nutrients in the environment, such as those stored in sediment deposits, are extracted from the environment and enormously enrich the kilometers wide circle, allowing for plankton and algae to multiply and the moving ecosystem to flourish.

The extremely dense and strong spiritual influence Gaulong have interferes with other divergent techniques in the area, preventing most sorcerers from properly using most spells. This has lead to one Silt Gaulong specifically, named Tethys, to attain international significance. Tethys is the largest Silt Gaulong, at ~80 m wide and over 60 m long, with a Spirit influence reaching five kilometers in every direction. A large ship named Azure Peace is anchored to Tethys and remains in its sphere of influence at all times. Azure Peace functions as a neutral meeting ground for large governments and organisations, with Tethy's spirit preventing almost any magic from being used. This minimizes risk of surprise attacks on government officials and violent betrayal.

Most surprisingly, the intensity of Tethys' influence is sufficient to nullify convergence. Those who have attained a state of Nil or Convergence almost invariably end up a normal human near the epicenter, where Azure Peace is, so even they are subject to this area of neutrality.

## Statistics

Statistics are for average specimens. Difference between sexes is poorly understood. Might be unisex species.

**Carapace Width:** 40-50 m.

**Carapace Length:** 30-37.5 m

**Height**: 13 m

**Weight:** ~2000-2200 t

**Lifespan**: unknown