Reef

Called "Rojuras" by the Tritons  who make it home, Reef isn't so much a city as it is a complex of interconnected barracks, temples and fortresses, scattered along the outer edge of the Great Border Reef that runs for more than five-hundred miles between the Navarine Straight and the Pointed Straight.
Reef is a place of refuge for the isolated Tritons, who protect the rest of the Merchant Sea from planar incursions and the beasts of the deep. Teeming with wildlife and flush with color, it is a beautiful city that few from above the waves have ever seen. Structures are built out of the coral itself, which is stimulated by artisans called Coralspeakers over hundreds of years, carving out living spaces and great halls for private meetings. Because of the incredible effort it takes to build such sprawling complexes, they are largely filled by high ranking officials in Triton society, though even their leader, the Sentinel of the Deep, has only a small space to call her own.
The rank-and-file sleep in massive anemones, whose tendrils protect them from the elements of the sea. They often decorate the interior of these spaces with intricate shell mosaics that are passed down through families.
Reef is laid out geometrically, with a coral ziggurat called Tritonia representing its physical and societal center. Tritonia is like a city unto itself, where officers and priests from the Triton military meet to discuss strategy. In each of the four corners around the ziggurat is a base of operations for different sectors of the Merchant Sea. Each of those bases is again surrounded by four barracks, as well as kelp and seaweed farms. This pattern of four spreads out across the whole of the Great Border Reef until its edges give way to wild ocean.
Tritons are fierce guardians of the sea and Reef is not well regarded by most of the nations of the Merchant Sea, because it is often viewed as interfering in business it has no hand in. Tritons will raid ships who they believe are polluting their waters and they do not tolerate violence of any kind above their territory. In one of the great naval battles of the Infernal Wars, an Aracian fleet and a Mephistian fleet were both sunk by a small party of Reef’s finest. Tritons are not just protective of their territory for political purposes, they believe that The Merchant Sea is home to Denyras, The Deep, an aquatic behemoth whom they believe to be the true god of the seas - left behind by his brethren millions of years in the past.
Reef has been going through a period of political strife as a strange corruption has begun to spread across the floor of the Merchant Sea, killing or transforming much of the life. It is still quite far from their borders, but it is a slow moving threat the leadership knows must be dealt with. Three factions vie for power: one that would learn about the surface world and use their knowledge to fight the corruption, one that believes that the Tritons should isolate from the rest of the world and discover their own solution, and one that believes that the surface should be conquered and used as a new home for their people.

Alternative Name(s)

Rojuras, Tritonia

Type

City

Population

80,000

Owner/Ruler

Olyna Demelath

Ruling/Owning Rank

Sentinel of the Deep

Characters in Location

• Colonel Cirys Algerath
• General Eshynna Vesadath
• Olyna Demelath
• Yahlyn Sagerath