The Shadow Seas

The Shadow Seas are the void in which the realms are bubbles floating in the darkness. The top of the Shadowlands are called the Sunlit Shadowlands, and it is here that the most easily accessed realms floatin the void. Below the Sunlit Shadowlands sits the Sunless Shadowlands, and below that the Deep Shadowlands. here are found the Ring and the majority of the Major Realms. Even lower sits the Bottomless and the Abyssal Shadowlands. In these regions float the last of the Major Realms and Hollow Heart. The Abyssal Shadowlands is officially the deepest region of the Shadow Seas, but no Psychonaut has found a lower edge to the Shadow Sea, so this remains in question. 

The Depths of the Shadow Sea

  • Sunlit Shadowlands
    • Liminal Realms 
      • The Ghostlands 
      • The Dreamlands  
  • Sunless Shadowlands
    • Liminal Realms 
      • The Ring 
    • Lesser Realms 
      • The Afterlife 
      • The Furnaces 
  • Deep Shadowlands
    • The Greater Realms
      • The Foglands
      • The Mirrorlands 
      • The Green Lands 
    • Liminal Realms
      • The Outer Rings 
    • Lesser Realms
      • The Furnaces 
  • Bottomless Shadowlands
    • The Greater Realms 
      • The Painted Labyrinth 
    • Liminal Realms
      • The Outer Rings 
    • Lesser Realms
      • The Furnaces  
  • Abyssal Shadowlands
    • Hidden Realms 
      • Hollow Heart 
    • Liminal Realms
      • The Outer Rings 
    • Lesser Realms
      • The Furnaces  

Stardust

Many small denizens move through the Sunlit realms, and fight and hunt and feed upon each other. The leftovers from the food chain of the Sunlit Shadowlands drift down into the Sunless Shadowlands, sparkling and glimmering like stars in the darkness. This stardust serves as food for the denizens in realms below the Sunlit Shadowlands. Psychonauts prize the Stardust and refine it into raw vajra. 

The Furnaces

The Shadowlands equivalent of hydrothermal vents are the Furnaces, vast conceptual chimney Realms that serve as a mythology analog to the realms of Hell in many cultural stories. Furnaces are not necessarily evil, but different furnaces are home to different beings. 

The Cold Star Beasts 

Great mysterious beasts lurk in the Shadow Seas. Most prominent are the Cold Star Worms, which seem to enjoy swimming through the void nearer to the Realms than other Cold Star Beasts. The Cold Star Beasts do not interact with the denizens of the Realms, but their appearance in the skies of any Realm is powerful omen and a herald of imminent change. 

  • The Great Beasts      
    • Cold Star Worms: Giant denizens resembling aquatic centipedes.
    • Cold Star Bottlebeast: Massive siphonophore colonies that prey on everything else in the Shadow Seas. Adult Bottlebeasts can be ten of miles long, but all are longer than a human is tall. 
    • Cold Star Ixodida: Giant Ticks the size of oceanliners, the Ixodida provide trasnport for desperate denizens between the realms. The Ixodida feed upon the membranes of lesser and greater realms, piercing them with their massive hypostomes. Denizens can crawl into the abdomen of the Ixodida 
  • The Luminous Beasts 
    • Cold Star Lanterns: Denizens resembling medusa jellyfish, bioluminescent, comes in many sizes.
    • Cold Star Corpse Blossoms: Death is common in the Shadow Seas. Upon drifting corpses, Corpse Blossoms grow. Corp se Blossoms are soft coral like colonies of polyps, which eventually grow into Cold Star Lanterns 
    • Cold Star Brittleflowers: Either drifting in the void and clinging to other structures, the Brittleflowers are anemones like and can grow to the size of a human.   
    • Cold Star Hydra Ferns: A sedentary denizen that resembles long kelp like ferns. They cling to the membranes of Realms and other structures and absorb vajra through their roots.
  • The Small Beasts      
    • Cold Star Void Wasps: Parasitic creatures, the jackal sized Void Wasps hunt virtually everything in the Shadow Seas. Creatures they can eat, such as human psychonauts are paralyzed and devoured. Creatures too large to eat, such as giant worms, are stung- causing local paralysis- and impregnated with the void Wasp’s eggs which will hatch and grow as parasitc larvae on the Great Beast.
    • Cold Star Amphipods: The rats and wolves of the Shadow Seas, Amphipods come in a variety of sizes from as small as a human foot to twice as a large as a human. Amphipods feed upon the Krill and Dragonets and the occasional Lantern.
    • Cold Star Krill: The smallest denizens of the open Shadow Seas, no larger than a human hand, they swim in vast swarms and are food for many other denizens. Krill feed upon Stardust and the occasional Star Fall in addition to grazing upon Hydra Ferns. 
    • Cold Star Dragonet: Oxen sized beings which resemble an oarfish or a giant eel, the Dragonet is a browsing feeder which feeds upon the luminous beasts such as Brittle Flowers and Hydra Ferns 

Star Fall

Nobody is sure what could kill a Cold Star Beast. perhaps they fight and hunt each other. Perhaps something more terrifying lurks in the abyssal void. The death of a Cold Star Beast is a massive feeding event that draws in so many denizens that a Star Corpse can cause the creation of a temporary minor Realm in the void while the denizens feast upon the flesh of the fallen beast. 

Mirror Bloom

Pools of a reflective material will occasionally form on the surfaces of other structures in the Shadow Seas, attaching to the exterior of Furnaces, Star Falls, and the realms themselves. Found beneath the Sunlit Shadowlands and most abundant on the exteriors of Furnaces and the outer membrane of the Mirror lands, Mirror Bloom will first congeal and then slowly expand outward. Psychonauts and denizens will seek out Mirror Blooms, as harvested bloom is an abundant source of Vajra. But if care is not take in handling the material, the Mirror Bloom can devour the unwary and use the psychic mass of the victim to spread the bloom further still. 

Blood Barnacles and Star Meadows

Blood Barnacles and Star Meadows are the most common denizens of the Shadow Seas. Blood Barnacles are sedentary mollusk like beings that hunt unwary travelers from the iridescent shells and tear apart the auras of Psychonauts unprepared for these ambush predators. The Star Meadows are vast colonies composed of Cold Star Brittleflowers that link together. The Brittleflowers are omnivores and although they do not feed upon denizens larger than the size of a human hand, watching them devours vast shoals of Cold Star Krill can leave Psychonauts less than comfortable walking through this meadow. 

Fern Forests

Hydra Ferns cling to most surfaces in the Shadow Seas. The Ferns can grow as large as a Redwood, and sway in the void like massive kelp forests. many denizens hunt and hide within the bioluminescent forests that light the darkness of the Shadow Seas.