#underseas

[cosmotropic]

Hey everyone, sorry I've been posting less, midterms have been kicking my ass, but here's a drawing for an assignment where we had to design a suit of armor. I chose to make mine out of coral, so here's the Coral Knight vs Eldritch Horror!

[rollinwiththepunches]

How about you tell us some Marriage traditions?

Most noticeably you have the Illithid who have no conventional marriage traditions at all, instead privately entering a mental bond with their partner or partners. This bond allows them to share any feeling, thoughts or sensation with their partner and is the ultimate declaration of love and/or trust. Rather than spouse, these are referred to as bondmates, and it’s not unheard of for Illithid to have several bondmates and be involved in larger polyamorous-like relationships. It’s worth noting that bondmates aren’t necessarily denoting a romantic relationship, but a close-knit bond where the Illithid decided to share their life with someone. It is the closest they emotionally get to marriage. They will likely agree to a public ceremony if their partner isn’t Illithid, but the bonding process happens in private.

Duergar have recently had an upswing in progressiveness and younger Duergar are deciding to not get married at all and shunning older Dwarven society, preferring to focus on their careers. Dwarven weddings are world-renowned benders and one should consider themselves lucky to get to attend, the ceremony and reception happen at the same time and the couple getting married will forge arm bands together to solidify this union, which is by our standards, the actual ceremony. After the bands are exchanged, the party begins and lasts until everyone stops. Sometimes a day, sometimes three weeks. There’s legends of a Dwarven Queen who’s wedding lasted the whole year. 

Drow have strong marriage traditions and are heavily based in what they consider monogamy. Because of their history, it’s still common to find marriages with one wife and several husbands, it is the traditional way and is quickly being shunned by the younger generation who prefer to figure out their own relationship configurations on their own. Drow marriages tend to be for political power or monetary wealth and are lavish, expensive affairs lasting several days with an extremely rigid ceremony that happens in several stages over several days.

In Gith society, a legal marriage offers no legal benefits and is strictly an expression of adoration towards your partner. Weddings tend to be small and a wedding party over 20 people is considered bad luck. Gith have an odd courtship tradition which sometimes spans years where it is considered weakness to confess your love first and propose marriage, and you will get elaborate mind games as partners try to socially outmaneuver each other to get the other to propose.

The Orc Nations have some of the most tender and intimate weddings where the couple will meticulously dress each other and do each others hair over a process that takes hours as they devote time to celebrate their love through tenderly braiding their partners hair and participate in the ceremony to wed. Weddings are for the couple only and no one is allowed in on this process.

Svirfneblin marriages take years. The couple will set out to create a necklace for the other, and it is only when those necklaces are done that they are considered wed. The couple set out to find all the best jewels and metal and this process can take a very long time. During the process of the making of the necklaces, the couple are encouraged to get to know each other and live together and upon the completion, decide if they want to live together for the rest of their lives.

While the norm would be to stay within your own species, the international nature of their society means that cultures mix and blend and you can get any combinations of the above, even new traditions, and most combinations have happened. There’s no one way to do things and inter-species relationship are encouraged to find their own way of doing things.

[tales-from-the-underseas]

Illithid names

In the Underseas, Illithid names all follow the same template of Name’name, where the first name is a personal designation and the second is the name of the egg clutch the individual grew up and went to school with (Clutch Name). While this sounds like a First Name - Last Name kinda thing, it’s considered impolite to shorten an Illithid’s name to either the first part or last part.

Only personal designation is only socially acceptable to do within the clutch who all use the same clutch name.

If the Illithid uses a nickname, however, it’s normally alright to call them by that. Many Illithid individuals use nicknames and find their given names to be too impersonal, as they’re basically just random letters and they’re referred to as ‘personal designations’ and not names.

Examples:

Abster’sine Tuoor’sine Xalli’hion Uddik’hion Vesgi’doss Druzu’gex

[rollinwiththepunches]

I drew this as an epilogue to the latest Undersea session we had. During the crew’s hunt for the fabled Doomthreader, they were forced to temporarily ally with a refugee Githyanki named Lizthya. Things were tense but after Liz threw herself without hesitation and PUNCHED AN ABOLETH to save Abbie who had been charmed by it, everyone respected each other, and after surviving the hellish third act of the adventure and returning safely, Liz’ player and I discussed that Abbie would definitely invite Liz to stay on board as a crewmember.

This is the Apocalypse’s newest member; Medic Lizthya.

She’s a gith bastard, but she’s THEIR gith bastard.

[tales-from-the-underseas]

Fun fact; because of the lack of sunshine and photosynthesis in the Underdark, most plants we know can’t exist, including things like wheat and barley. Flour and the like are made from dried mushrooms and most vitamins and minerals you get from various algae plants.

Beer from hops or barley and wine from grapes has to be imported, but the Underdark denizens tend to stick to their own algae wine or mushroom spirits.

Illithids will, however, never enjoy surface beer as their Underdark-adapted physiology has made them incapable of digesting gluten or lactose. Duergar and Drow are so closely related to their surface counterparts that it poses no real issue, and while the Gith would prefer not to, it won’t kill them.

[tales-from-the-underseas]

Because wood is a luxury item in the Underdark due to its high import costs, only the truly wealthy can afford more than the odd wooden trinket. It’s not viewed as an efficient material to build from given the high humidity down there.

Ships and any kind of sea worthy vessels are built from metal and insect chitin harvested from the giant bugs that make their homes in the Underseas

Cities are more commonly built from stone and metal, with bone and chitin for carved details

Only the nobility are able to afford something like wooden floors and it’s an insane status symbol

Abbie’s ship has a steering wheel made out of wood that is meticulously cared for.

[matthewgrayguberloids]

Dallas Built-In Home Office Large transitional built-in desk medium tone wood floor and brown floor study room photo with green walls

[delicious-dream-before-the-storm]

Pilot fishes