Greentide District

It is here that many of the city’s aquatic people live and work, spending long hours maintaining the forest while the other races dive down to help harvest from it. Many of these ‘merfolk’ live in the foundations of the city's towers, carving out underwater passages and rooms for themselves, trying not to disturb the forest as much as possible. The forest is considered a holy landmark for its role in feeding the city and it’s caretakers constantly patrol it for signs of sickness or ‘unwanted’ predators.

In the deeper parts of the forest, where the city’s foundations give way to an ancient mountain, rumors abound of strange shaped ruins and bizarre figures moving in and out of them. Few have ever ventured down so far as the water pressure is enough to crush bone in these deeper depths.

The Coral House

Surrounded by trees and colourful coral sits the Kerela Affinity’s Guildhall. The ground floor of this majestic building is half-submerged into the sea, rising up to people's hips in some places, leaving all of it’s lower halls completely flooded with water. This is no impediment for the Guilds non-aquatic members though as they have access to a strange bubble system that lets them breath underwater temporarily. Each floor is dedicated to a different aspect of caring for the underwater forest, with the dry top floors used to store seeds, and the lower floors used to nurture young growths for planting in the forest.

If one believes rumors some of these lower floors are used to store away ‘extra’ or ‘stolen’ goods for use in enriching the Guilds less scrupulous members. The Guild is careful to ensure these ‘divergences’ do not greatly harm its reputation, if a few ‘luxury’ items go missing then there’s no harm. However swift and painful punishment awaits anyone that would steal food, for feeding the city is the guild's holy purpose and anyone who threatens that is dealt with harshly.

The Sacred Cenote, Akar

Devoted to the Nature Goddess Sang Mahsuri, the Sacred Cenote is a temple formed within one of the small floating isles within the underwater forest. Access to the temple can only be gained by swimming down to it’s underside and rising out of a pool, and though some hire water carriages to achieve this, most pilgrims regard the difficult swim as an important cleansing ritual before they set foot in the temple. Inside are numerous trees lining the walls with their moss covered roots covering the floor, and at the very end of the hall is a perfect white wooden sculpture of the Goddess. Though the statue is a human woman hundreds of smaller carved statues have been placed at her feet, in recognition for the countless forms she can take. For new priests it’s customary to sculpt a new statue when they are first visited in a dream by their Goddess.

Followers of Sang Mahsuri pursue a philosophy of balance, all things in nature and life feed into a cycle that begets each new cycle. It is their duty to nurture and protect these natural cycles lest the natural world that all living things depend on collapse. Some followers take cues from natures predators, creatures that survive by taking from others, and ruthlessly pursue their own interests. They believe so long as they return offerings onto their goddess and nature, then their actions are just part of the cycle and their dalliances into greed and self-indulgence are excusable.

Hutan Garden Tower

The peak of this tower is covered in greenery, mossy grass, tall slender trees and blossoming flowers. This small garden was first created by Druid Jasma, who began the garden as a collection of extinct plants they had scavenged from dungeons. Now home to a small circle of Druids the Hutan Garden is devoted to securing as many of these plants as possible in hopes that one day they could rebuild a part of the old world, and pay a handsome price for rare seeds and plants.

The Druids maintaining the garden are very secretive about their methods and even entry to the garden itself is difficult to obtain for anyone outside it’s membership. But occasionally the garden will open for special events to a small number of people, usually picked from a lottery, or for steep prices.

The Aranta Dojo

Situated by itself is a small wooden building with a waterfall entrance built into its front. Passing through the waterfall leads to a wooden interior, a rare sight in the city of sandstone towers, wherein students from all walks of life come to study the philosophies and martial styles of the monks living in the dojo. The Aranta monks are dedicated to the pursuit of enlightenment through physical and mental training, believing that the pursuit of both will enrich their spirits enough to one day reach heaven.

The monks are famous for their feats of strength and agility but also for their thoughtful and caring manner. Due to the disparate nature of the city many Monks in training are sent on ‘diplomatic’ missions to various communities, to act as a liaison for them and learn their ways and traditions. For the monks this effort is in order to ‘broaden one's heart’, so the student can begin to understand people and their ways, what divides and unites them, and help strengthen their own philosophies.

Behind closed doors however rumors persist of ongoing dramas between the monks, of rival philosophies and martial styles, and some arguments have been known to explode into duels over influence in the dojo.