Heaven's Fangs

[Bonito 2264]

The Heaven’s Fangs

 

 

Among sailors it is said nothing bites like the Heaven’s Fangs, a gathering of wrecks and ruins with the promise of lost riches beneath the waves. The tales circulating the region range from pale hands that drag you into the depths to a water beast that devours ships whole. Whatever the truth, this place is one rife with misfortune.

 

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Into the Deep

 

Artifacts and ancient records indicate that long before Iblees had torn the descendants apart, a prosperous city known as Taoul was built on the high cliffs of what would later become Heaven's Fangs. Here, the proud Bohra people prospered under the guidance of wise beings that endowed them with the knowledge to grow and develop. Mastery of the material, arcane, and beyond, many great things were learned and invented only to be lost for centuries. 

 

When it became clear that fate had decreed the Bohra would not prosper to eternity as they once thought, the brightest minds sought a way to preserve their home. One warlock who had sailed to many planes had a solution: to raise their city to the heavens where the decay could not touch them. For many days and nights the mages of Taoul worked tirelessly without sustainable results. What followed next has mixed accounts. It is believed an outsider came to the Bohra and granted a means of power sufficient to fuel them their endeavor. Who or what this outsider was, or what they gave to the Bohra in truth, has different answers. 

 

Some historians note the outsider emerged from the sea with a gift from the abyss, while others say they descended from the clouds with a piece of the stars, and the list goes on. Whatever the truth, it is certain this power failed them greatly. As the Bohra attempted to raise their city at last, the ground fought back. It shook and cracked before a great cataclysm obliterated them all, leaving massive chasms all across the land that would later form the rivers and fjords of the Heaven’s Fangs. Any traces of Taoul are few, and what truly happened on that day is a mystery.

 

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The Fjords

 

The Heaven’s Fangs are a collection of fjords on the western edges of Aevos. The waters are infamously difficult to trek, and an amateur navigator’s early grave. For this reason, the region is known to host shipwrecks and sunken treasure.

 

Located on the land are the ruins of a lost civilization over thousands of years old. Shattered sculptures and crumbled mosaic tiles depict men with boar heads engaged in various activities. Some are recognizable, like sailing and fishing, but others are more elusive, with boarmen wielding alien tools or riding some manner of unrecognizable beast or vehicle. It’s evident this was a highly advanced civilization. With a great deal of rubble under the waves, it is presumed by scholars that the larger portion of this city had been on the water, while the ruins on the land are but a small piece of the past. 

 

Within the ruins are carvings and depictions of humanoid shapes farming, building, and fishing. Structures built of rubble resembling shrines are scattered on the land. Simple stone tools and ornaments buried in the soil indicate various peoples resided in the ruins after its original makers. Old dolls and faded paintings show dark skinned fishmen of varying appearance. Some look relatively elvish with pointed ears, while others are more unusual: fish bearing the arms and legs of men, or women with their lower halves replaced by fish tails among others. Most of these aquatic entities are portrayed near the shore or swimming in the sea.

 

Some explorations have observed crevices on the cliff walls akin to entrances, but few have been pursued. Those that have are said to lead down labyrinthian tunnels or into rooms of cave paintings. Whether the residents on the surface had fled below or an entirely different civilization lived there is unknown. Tales of cataclysm and a long history of death have driven future explorers away from the area, and rumors insist the place is cursed; claims that spirits call passing sailors to their doom, or stranger still, that some presence under the water prevents all attempts at settling these lands. Some even say the dead can be spotted on the cliff-sides under a full moon.

 

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OOC Information

The Heaven's Fangs exist as an ambient piece of the map's story with a deeper, hidden history to unearth for those who enjoy exploring and piecing information together. It sets the groundwork for future events connected to themes of the ocean and the deep, as well as providing the means for players to host DIY events calling back to these elements of their own.