The Fathomless

The Saviour

The Devil

The Great Unknown

That Which Cannot Be Understood

The Fathomless is a Savage abomination under the Aberration classification that lies beneath the central City, but spreads throughout the entire archipelago. Its central body is at least 21 fathoms below sea level, and is so large that its size and maximum depth it reaches not been recorded. Due to its completely alien nature, distance, and peril it poses to those willing to research it, few have found definitive answers to the questions they seek about it - even its age and origin are unknown.

The Fathomless is responsible for hundreds of deaths every year. It mostly attacks creatures close to or in the sea, such as those on boats, floaters, or in shutaway towns. It is unclear why it attacks these creatures, as most are not dragged into the sea or eaten (the Fathomless has no discernible mouth), but are left wherever they were killed. It has been theorised that the Fathomless sees the sea as its territory, that it simply hates all creatures, that it wishes to kill, or that it harnesses the souls of its kills to stay alive. There are countless theories for why the Fathomless acts as it does, but none have ever been proven.

## Appearance

The Fathomless is, as its title suggests, large beyond fathom - at least 10 miles long in every direction, but perhaps longer. Its outer body is composed of a large, vaguely circular, central torso, with hundreds of tentacles and tendrils protruding from the central body. These tentacles can be several miles long and hundreds of metres wide, or much shorter - there is no prescriptive way of categorising or understanding them. The tentacles also vary in appearance beyond size: some are dark black, while some have streaks of purple, some are scaly, some are more evocative of octopi's tentacles, some have hairs or barbs, some are completely smooth, and the thickness and texture of the skin changes on a tentacle-by-tentacle basis.

The main body of The Fathomless is much more uniform than its tentacles. It is black and shiny, with purple streaks and tints on different scales. Some parts of the body are much more slimy, and produce slime much like a Hagfish's slime as a defence mechanism. No eyes, nose, or mouth has been detected yet. The main body seems vaguely spherical.

## Behaviour

The Fathomless' behaviour is erratic. There are days when it lashes out and kills anyone it can reach, destroying buildings and causing dangerous tidal patterns that kill many people by proxy. Other days, it is completely silent and subdued. Both of these extremes are rare, and usually it acts within a kind of middle ground, killing between one and 5 people per day, and a few buildings.

Interestingly, there seems to a pattern in who it kills. When looking at population demograpics of the Baitburn Islands compared to the kills by The Fathomless, Pseudos are most clearly affected by attacks, making up about 20% of the killings, despite being under 5% of the islands' population. When comparing these demographics, it also becomes clear that some Sapient races are more or less affected by attacks. Warforged, Gnomes, and Kalashtar are disproportionately attacked, while Elves and Dwarves are less proportionally affected. Additionally, for obvious reasons, creatures living in Two Sisters, Saint Mivar, and Jonobi (particularly in shutaway towns) are 10x more likely to affected in Fathomless attacks because they are more likely to travel via floater or waterway, which are on the sea, the place where over 90% of Fathomless attacks take place. This evidence is at odds with the racial statistics of attacks, because Humans predominantly inhabit shutaway towns, and are affected a normal amount based on that.

While its behaviour is erratic, some of its behaviour patterns suggest certain elements of its personality or beliefs that it holds. For example, during the Midnight Riots, a series of protests held by Guild workers during The Midnight Year, its activity was massively increased, even at one point smashing a large tentacle into The Swingway, killing over 100 rioters withholding a trade shipment across the bridge. It acted in a similar way throughout the riots, indiscriminately killing rioters, sometimes dragging them from their homes while sleeping, indicating that they were targeted attacks. Conspiracy theorists have argued that The Fathomless is a tool of the government of the islands, though the government have vehemently denied these claims, citing the property damage, murder of citizens, and limiting of trade as things that they would never purposefully do, as they are self-destructive.

It was not just during the Midnight Riots that The Fathomless has acted in this way - it continues to hunt for those willing to destroy the peace and unity on the islands. It has hunted and nearly or completely destroyed terrorist groups in this way, such as The Lamplighters, The UPF, The Buzzcorps, The Free Collective, Prime Evil, and others.

## Environment

The environment that The Fathomless inhabits deep in the sea is more akin to The Far Realm than a reef. It is pitch black, the only sources of light coming from the native creatures, or through use of magic. It is also intensely cold, to the point where without significant arcane protection, no non-native creature could possibly survive longer than a few seconds without instantly freezing to death. Strange plants and creatures float around the sea around The Fathomless, consuming bodies that drift deep into the sea, or each other.

### Aboleths

The most powerful creatures (besides The Fathomless) are Aboleths. Aboleths are Aberrants who believe falsely that in the Primordial Era, they were the gods of the Material Plane, until their power was stolen from them by The One's trickery. Abotleths are special in 3 ways: firstly, they have a shared hivemind but are completely disdainful of each other and have different personalities, meaning that they have a deep trough of knowledge and enough self-interest to use it to their advantage. Secondly, they can hypnotise creatures to be in service of them, meaning some, such as Korthrandur, The One Who Has Held The Universe Inside His Mind, build entire armies and can strike at greater civilisation. Thirdly, their souls are linked directly to the Elemental Plane of Water, meaning when they die, they are not judged by The One, but rather begin to reform and return to the Material Plane after a few years, with all of their memories intact. Aboleths use their power to control large swathes of the sea in this region, though many other creatures have control over their minds and are not controlled by the Aboleths. Many Aboleths worship The Fathomless as a God, claiming that it will defeat The One one day.

### Sea Creatures

Deep below the sea's surface, fearsome Dragon Turtles, Megalodons, Angler Fish, Cerebro-Dolphins, Merfolk, Nymphs, Anti-Shadows, Inks, Mania Nets, Sharks, Jellyfish, Sea Gazers, Skeletons, Wreck Mimics, Dire Octopi, and many other horrifying creatures live. They hunt each other, and often serve in the armies of Aboleths.