A beacon in the endless darkness of the depths, Umbra Dzaan is surrounded by marvelous domed walls with intricate ancient runes that protect its citizens from the hunger of leviathans. The city itself consists of structures grown from coral or carved from enchanted stones, culminating in tall spiraling architectures that allow for the passage of its swimming citizens through its many arches. The architecture itself is almost in its own ecosystem, the coral structure built upon older coral structures over time, millennia of growth allowing Umbra Dzaan to be a living historical record of its people’s lives. The city also contains a dock or paddock which contains a variety of sea creatures the inhabitants use for increased travel. Some of the larger creatures in the paddock also support structures on their bodies or shells in either a weapons platform or a traveling caravan. Since the growth of the Coral Protectorate, designated paddocks have been converted for the Batrian ships to dock.
The surface district, although it had been unused for millennia, had been reconstructed in the last few centuries. The district is made up of large sphere-like towers full of breathable air and interconnected tubes. The entrance of these structures leads straight into the ocean, protected by magical shielding that halts the flow of water from rushing inside, yet still allows the passage of creatures without disturbing this balance. The interior is much more familiar to land dweller visitors, with an assortment of taverns, blacksmiths, libraries, and living spaces for those that can breathe the air.
Underneath the city itself lies an enormous cavern that has been excavated. It is here that most of the produce is grown and tended to, this cavern being the lifeblood of the food supply for the citizens of Umbra Dzaan. Quite a diversity of both edible plants and water-dwelling fauna are found there, to tend to the variety of needs of the multitude of people that live within this safe haven. The cavern has been a cornerstone for the city's ability to be self-reliant in times of struggle against the endless dangers of the depths.
The Umbra Dzaan is governed by a council of elders made up of three tritons and three merfolk, paying homage to the traditions in which the safe haven was founded. The council currently has favorable opinions of the surface dwellers, forming strong trade relations with Coralis and Örndalur.
A Safe Haven Beneath the Depths
The great underwater city of Umbra Dzaan was formed from the unification of tritons and merfolk searching for a safe haven from the enormous predators and many dangers of the sea. Through the combination of intimate knowledge of the sea and powerful magic the two races were able to establish the foundations of what would grow into the mighty city it is today. Over time, people flooded from all corners of the sea towards this beacon of safety, and Umbra Dzaan become home to Sahuagin, Sea Elves, Water Genasi, and Sirens. Never before had such a huge population of people lived in unity beneath the sea. There are unforeseen consequences to building a mighty safe haven, for as the population of Umbra Dzaan grew, so did the magnitude of the predators that lurked in the depths. In a great calamity the city was nearly torn asunder by an inconceivably massive Kraken, Umbra Dzaan barely survived that day. In reaction to such terrors, the survivors constructed a great wall around the city, layered with runes that generated arcane shields strong enough to keep out any Leviathan of the depths.
One day, visitors came to the city from the lands above the surface– a place that had only been spoken about in folktales for most. Few citizens of Umbra Dzaan, who had spent their entire lives at the very depths of the ocean, even had a concept of life above the waves. These strange adventurers were invited, gawked at and studied by the seafolks and scholars. Originally, some of the council members wanted to slay the visitors outright, for fear of what dangers they might welcome, believing they must remain a secret from the surface dwellers. Fortunately for the visitors, cooler heads prevailed and the adventurers were asked to send a message to their kingdom to plant the seed of diplomacy. Months later, a company of diplomatic, scholars, and magicians journeyed from the surface and the seed flourished into an alliance. Soon, through great feats of magic and engineering, a great teleportation gate was built between the two empires, connecting them across the world. A new section of the city was built to support those visitors that could only breathe air.
Umbra Dzaan entered a golden age of commerce as trade grew between the great depths and the surface world. Near the main continents, smaller cities were established to trade larger objects with the rest of the world with ease, and ships that could be submerged via magic were crafted to reach the various cities underwater. Embris had never been so well connected.
Abandoning the Surface
The surface was always in a tumultuous state, its countries in ever-shifting relations with one another, but rarely did that impact the folks of Umbra Dzaan beyond simple ebbs and flows in commerce. Eventually, however, a great conflict emerged on the surface and one of the trade cities became a staging point for this larger conflict, the city was wrought with violence and terror before eventually both sides lost and the city itself was destroyed. This was just the first ripple of troubles for the folks of the sea, only a few years later another city was attacked by a wandering Kraken whom the inhabitants were unable to repel, and thus another city full of lives was destroyed. Alongside these troubles, the decline in trade with the surface world began, and eventually, the flow of commerce eventually came to a halt. The teleportation hubs were still and communication fell silent, there were no more new visitors from the surface.
The final nail had been struck, as the Great Chill had begun. Those who journeyed toward the surface in search of answers found that an impossibly thick sheet of ice had covered the world– an impassable barrier isolating Umbra Dzaan. Those few land dwellers that were staying within the city found themselves trapped beneath the ocean until the chill ended, which would be the rest of their lives. The Great Chill lasted over a millennium, generations and generations of sea folks passed by before the inhabitants slowly forgot about the surface world, all that was left was bitter histories of conflict and turmoil that they wished to not return to.
Rekindling Lost Ties
Across the millennia, this remained the status quo for Umbra Dzaan. The council forbade expeditions to the surface and as time went on the law never changed but the reasons behind it were all but forgotten. Although history was repeating itself, eventually other groups of people stumbled upon the city once more. To the surface dwellers, who lost a great deal of culture, knowledge, and lives to the Great Chill– Umbra Dzaan was a legend, a relic only spoken in the ruins of civilizations lost to time. First, it was the Coral Reapers, a group of privateers from the surface who had uncovered the ancient remains of ships left destroyed by forgotten conflicts. After great effort, they were able to uncover some of the ancient techniques used to submerge these ships and allow them to sail the undercurrent of the great oceans. Elsewhere archeologists explored ruins at the edge of Aeora and manage to revitalize ancient teleportation runes that lead them to Umbra Dzaan. Thus after nearly nine thousand years, the great underwater city of Umbra Dzaan was uncovered once more.
The council of Umbra Dzaan deemed to open the arms of their city once more to these strangers, allowing trade with these unsavory cutthroat pirates and once more exchanging knowledge amongst the surface scholars. Over the next few centuries, relations with the surface world grew stronger once more. The ancient transportation gates of ages past were no longer feasible in the current age, most unrepairable in destroyed ruins, and the techniques simply incompatible with the modern engineering of teleportation centers. Unwilling to repeat the past and build cities all along the coasts of the surface continents, the council of Umbra Dzaan opted for a great outpost on the surface, floating far above the underwater city, acting as the central point for teleportation travel to Umbra Dzaan. The outpost itself is a marvelous feat of engineering, a great spire was built to ferry cargo in airtight containers from the surface and down to the city.
The limited great Batrion ships of ages past that the Coral Reapers discovered eventually become the centerpiece of the Coral Protectorate fleet. Birthed from the fractured remains of the Coral Reapers over the centuries, some of its crews joined hands with the underwater city to establish an auxiliary navy for the city. These Batrion ships use ancient techniques to allow for sailing both above and below the sea, a technique that had been mostly lost to the citizens of Umbra Dzaan who lost usage for it during the Great Chill, and so only the limited number that the Coral Protectorate operate are currently in existence. Although there are rumors that the Kraus Initiative, a global producer of airships located in Örndalur, has begun exploring the potential market.
Ripples of Reckoning
Ever since the Primordial Coalesence, over fifty years ago, there have been tremors from the depth that threaten the stability of Umbra Dzaan’s foundation. The surface world was not the only part of Embris that was affected by the great rifts, the depths of the ocean were rifted with primordial turmoil that hadn’t been seen since the Great Chill. The Council has sent teams of folks to survey the foundations of the city and attempt to locate the source of the problem before it is too late. At the moment the council has stubbornly refused the direct assistance of outside help, although they have so far been unsuccessful in their endeavors.
The folks of Umbra Dzaan are familiar with the pantheon of the twelve seasons, although their individual traditions may vary from millennia of separation. A major faith unique to the ocean dwellers is that of reverence and fear for the Great Kraken Mother, a colossal beast beyond the incomprehensible size that no one has ever lived to tell the tale of. The underwater depths are cold and cruel, there are endless portions that have been unexplored, legends of places where one can swim downward forever and never reach the seabed. It is thought that by not leaving an offering a voyage would end in extremely bad luck. The size of the offerings is often based on how far a voyage is going or how large the party is.