The Ocean World of Vrae

Harbour Cloud

On the ocean world of Vrae, with only a single island above the water, it took intervention for any level of technology to be achieved. The native Cluphan are aquatic creatures: intelligent yet showing little desire for change. When Wyrd was born Cluphan, she quickly tired of an aquatic life and took it upon herself to enact change: upon herself, and then the world.

With a self-awakening, Wyrd’s mind had expanded way beyond the scope of normal Cluphan thought and perception. She found her DNA supple, open to evolution, and became the first air-breathing, humanoid Cluphan. The island was lush with plant and insect life, and Wyrd made herself a home by the shore of a lake. She laid her first clutch of eggs before opening a portal; slipping out of the world for a time…

When Wyrd returned she found forty-eight children, grown from egg to polliwog, through metamorphosis to air-breathing humanoid. She named them all.

Wyrd had brought something back with her: a phial containing neutral, self-replicating nanobots. She imbued herself in them and sent them to work.

Now the island is called Phaed, a floating city upon the ocean governed by the AI, Harbour. All Cluphan are born with integral connection to Harbour. Their minds are stored in Harbour Cloud: a non-physical storage and retrieval network in Vrae’s atmosphere. They can transfer their minds into any physical vessel they choose, or exist bodiless in virtual reality. Cluphan society has developed to such a degree that is usual for Cluphan to discard the bodies they are born into as soon as they come of age. Population growth is minimal, as Harbour reports that resources are limited. There are extensive mining operations beneath the ocean, but Harbour refuses to expand Phaed beyond its current size. The Cluphan are moving increasingly toward a post-physical existence, the majority spending far more time in virtual realms than in their limited physical world.