Sunken Vytara (Vie-tar-uh)
First Vytara was a peaceful island of fishermen and farmers. Then it became an imperial outpost, where thousands of slaves were shipped in to mine iron and copper. Then it became a symbol of resistance and the home of the Goddess of Freedom, Theia the Liberator. And then it sank beneath the waves at the call of the Architects, to rise when the Architects were reborn.
Going deep underwater might as well be going to the moon for most humanoids, but this world's oceans are full of their own people. Vytara has attracted many of these cephapeople, who have built their own city on top of the sunken one. This is Heavenrest Reef, Theia's aquatic outpost run by octopus paladins.
Sleeping farmers and paladins of the late bronze age now share their houses and possessions and with cephapeople. The old fields and orchards flutter with white-silver bubbles, which fish swarm around. The small ancient city (to modern Nafenans, more of a town) is now encrusted with coral. Life energy from Theia's lay on hands and latent magic spills out into the island, growing coral and kelp even where it shouldn't be. It is a surreal town of layered worlds, the old world of Theia sleeping under the new one.
Demographics
Between 35 and 40 thousand cephapeople live in Heavensrest, depending on whether you count the surrounding dependent squiddle communities or not.
10,000 humanoids (80% humans, 20% dryads) are asleep on the surface.
Government
The sleeping city of Vytara is ruled by Theia the Liberator, the ancient Goddess of Freedom who slumbers on her throne awaiting the arrival of the Architects. The reef claims to be ruled by her as well, though that is more of a formality than a real government position.
In truth the reef is ruled by the Knight-Bishop Haporian, greatest of the underwater paladins and Theia's chosen steward of the reef. Haporian is a stern, serious octoperson with a stubborn but generous heart. Haporian is skilled with a blade, inspiring to his fellow knights, and a capable administrator - a rare figure able to unify the many outspoken factions and individuals of the reef. Unfortunately, he is also good at annoying local leaders and he is absolutely terrible at any kind of intrigue. He is absolutely confident that everyone in the reef loves and obeys him, and he refuses to listen to any helpful advice that suggests otherwise.
The government of the reef is a weird mixture of theocratic military rule and small-scale democracy. The knights of the Goddess decide the laws that hold for the entire reef, while local ordinances and decisions are made by smaller Consensuses - periodic popular democratic assemblies. Consensuses can choose leaders to execute the laws of the consensus, either by election or sortition, and these leaders are called Publicants.
The knight-bishops have all the power, but are expected to refrain from using it unless necessary - unless the Consensuses are drafting tyrannical laws or laws that pick fights with other consensuses, the paladins aren't supposed to intervene. There are tension between these two branches of government, though, and the reef is known for lots of low-level squabbling.
Defences
Vytara is defended by her Goddess, and the blessing that the Architects surrounded her with. Any Leviathans that attack the city are struck back by the island itself; any cultists they bring find paladins swimming against them. Vytara remains unconquered even now.
Industry & Trade
Heavenrest reef is a mostly agrarian society. The materials that come from the island's old surface portions are protected from all forces of decay and deterioration, but they cannot be transported out. All traded goods have to come from the fringes, though there are plenty of handmade goods from the Steps and the Rapture-Ring to trade for basic goods. Oysters, pearls, and clams can all be harvested and traded without issue. The reef's only trade partners are the surrounding squiddle tribes.
One of the strangest elements of reef society is that it is weirdly surface-like; humanoid items work down here like they would on the surface as long as they come from the island, so metal items are commonplace. The smelters and forges even work!
The knights monopolize most of the specialty trades (often done by craftsmen underneath them, rather than the knights themselves) - they handle mining and smithing, for example. They also have a monopoly on bottling the healing bubbles that come from the Bubblefields, though many residents violate this monopoly without repercussion as long as they don't sell in bulk.
Districts
The Sleeping City: The old city of Vytara lies preserved, full of sleeping paladins. The buildings do not crumble or decay, even as coral spires rise in the old streets and parks. The reef seems to grow to respect the city's old infrastructure, which has been perfect for octopeople to move right into the houses and shops of the sleeping residents. The tools, clothing, and artifacts of the old world do not break or decay with use as long as they remain on the island, making them perfect for borrowing. A center of population and power for the sleeping surface-goers and the reefgoers alike.
The Coral Steps: The rocky descent underneath the old port of the Sleeping City has become a place of abundant life; magical energy of Theia that overflows from the city largely drains here, over the old port, to create a bloom of corals, algaes, fish, kelps, and shellfish. The paladins here are overwhelmingly green knights, inspired in their arts by the new life of the steps. There are several small shelves of stone that have become covered in coral (hence "steps"), each ruled by their own local community. This is a residential area, where many newcomers first enter reef society. At the base of the steps is a pool of heavy brine, like a lake at the bottom of the ocean - and it is in this brine that the ancient shipwrecks of the ancient battles of Vytara have been shaped into a Temple.
The Bubblefields: The old wheat and maize fields of the past mingle with kelp across the valleys of the island. The old fields and gardens of the sleeping are protected by the Architect's magic, emitting constant streams of bubbles that contain tiny motes of healing and preservation energy. The wounded are brought here to recover (the bubbles will not instantly restore a person, but they can help people naturally recover from wounds that would be entirely lethal), and hunters come here to catch fish and eels that flock to the bubbles to eat. Several monks imitate the wildlife instead, meditating in the bubbles instead of eating. Small coral islands provide housing for the octofolk of the Bubblefields - this is a rural reef, somehow.
The Desecration: The Southwestern wing of the island is much less densely populated than the others, and far less beloved by the Goddess. Massive quarries pockmark the land. Huge mines and ancient smelters are preserved eternally. A prison towns, which once housed slaves, lie burnt or paused mid-rot forever. Life does not grow here. Cemeteries of remembrance for surface and octofolk both are recorded in cemeteries and monuments. This is the sin of ancient Vytara, the mines and slave camps that brought Theia and her followers here. The ancient mines are still used sometimes, as are the smelters - they still work, even underwater - as the reef has need of unrusting metal. Non-military cephapeople don't go here. This is where the knights train, learn, craft, and prepare. It is simultaneously the sacred ground of knights, and the most polluted ground possible.
The Rapture-Ring: The edges of the sunken island have been carved into thousands and thousands of artificial caves, to be used as refuge when the island eventually rises from the sea. Food and tools are stored here for the great rapture. But, for the most part, the rapture-ring is used for housing Squiddles - many tribes of squiddles migrate around the area, herding Crabcows, and they reside in the emergency refuge spaces whenever they come in to trade with the octopeople of the city. A number of Flori monks have been placed here full-time as a result of this, making this more and more of a Flori-aligned space.
The Overlook: A large cliff on the Southeastern side of the island that looks over an ocean chasm. This is the approach for any Leviathans, as the chasm allows for more comfortable and discrete swimming in these not-so-deep waters. The overlook chasm is a road to the deep ocean, and the overlook is something of a gate - a vetting station and guard post for those entering from the abyss. As Theia doesn't trust many Leviathans, most warlocks are kept here until they are proven safe - and there is a garrison of Theia-friendly warlocks that live here as well.
Guilds and Factions
The Knights Radiant: The Knights Radiant are the ideologues and champions of Theia, paladins dedicated to morality and justice. The Knights Radiant are half of the government, acting as judges and mediators. They rule over the reef with only themselves and the Sentinels to guard against excesses - and to prevent infighting, they tend to follow the Knight-Bishop's rule absolutely. This makes for a weirdly autocratic and hierarchical group for a bunch of ideologues who spend time every week debating how best to implement absolute freedom. They can be a mixed bag, though the current Knight-Bishop has done a good job of curbing abuses and infighting.
The Knight Sentinels: The Knight Sentinels are the other half of the government, the paladins dedicated to preserving Theia and preparing for the end of the world. If the Knights Radiant are the progressives thinking of new ways to better improve the reef and the world, the Sentinels are the conservatives who just want to maintain order. Since the order in question isn't particularly oppressive, the Sentinels' resistance to change isn't absurd or villainous, but it can get in the way of adopting new technologies or listening to any new cultural groups within the reef. Where the Radiant Knights acknowledge their hierarchy as a contradiction, the Sentinels embrace it as a form of obedience to the Architects. The Sentinels are in charge of reigning in the Publicants and enforcing the Reef Law, and they have being doing so a lot recently.
The Publicants: The Publicants are the representatives of community democracy. They do not make local laws or wield innate power, but are granted power by their communities. If a coral cluster decides it wants to have everyone make shelters to sell to the squiddle tribes, they might vote for (or randomly select) a member of the group to manage that process; if they vote to ban dropping oyster shells in the common grounds, they might either empower a Publicant to be on litter-duty, or they might send a Publicant to the Knights with the new law. In theory Publicants have no power, only a community duty. In practice, some Publicants have managed to accumulate power around their office, either as bureaucrats or as tiny demagogues.
The Trades Club: The Trades Club is the most recent attempt at making an artisan guild in Heavensrest. It is a social club that operates a number of small establishments across the reef, and skirts by being crushed by the Knights or Publicants on pure technicalities. They aren't a guild, they are a leisure club, where people talk about their shared experiences! The Trades Club not-so-secretly lobbies for greater social status and resources for various specialists who are part of the reef - rope-makers, octo-engineers, weaponsmiths, masons, carpenters, and the like.
The Monks of Flori: The monks of Flori the Ascended are a group of Open-Palm monks dedicated to protecting the squiddle nomads on the fringes of the reef. While the Knights focus on the island itself, the monks cater to the nomads who travel along the continental shelf. They keep the code of Master Flori - species equality, safe refuge, personal discipline, charity, and all trade that does not harm people. The Theians do not like their Elemeer religion, their indifference towards Theia, or their acceptance of governmental and commercial status quos, but they tolerate them.
The Overlook Warlocks: The Overlook houses the Warlocks of Vytara. Once, this was basically the Cult of Calypso - a Leviathan who became a Theian paladin after being defeated by the island countless times - but after Calypso's death thirty years ago at the hands of the Howling Melody - an ancient and powerful Elder Leviathan - the warlocks have mostly jumped ship and accepted the Melody as their overlord. They still honor Calypso and guard her tomb, but her ideology is gone. Now, instead of fighting the Melody and bringing in escaped thralls from Melody-ruled waters, the warlocks help run an embassy of the Melody. The warlocks have helped squash attempts to funnel escaping thralls into Heavensrest, and they have negotiated a kind of uneasy peace between the Elder Leviathan and the Theians. Some call it immoral, but no one cares enough to change it; a fight with the Melody is too much, and the reef has bigger priorities.
Points of interest
Godsthrone: The Godsthrone is the old fortress of Vytara, the castle that Theia took from the island's slavers and made into a sanctuary and military base. At its heart sits the Goddess herself, sleeping peacefully on her humble throne. This is the holiest possible place for cultists of Theia, and the veil between Paradise and reality is thin here.
Calmwater Sanctuary: The refuge given to the Monks of Flori, and their headquarters in Heavenrest. Gives asylum to all, even to those exiled from the reef itself - some criminals of the reef now go to Calmwater so they can find a life of safety and repentance.
The Lonesome Lighthouse: The lonesome lighthouse is a small island off the coast of Vytara that once housed a lighthouse for passing ships. After Vytara sank, the lighthouse and island remained, though they continue to be useful for sailors (since the taller parts of the island can scrape larger boats, and dropping anchor here could start an unwanted fight with reefgoers). Now, Theian paladins who want to retire can find a life's calling manning the lighthouse. The lighthouse serves as a tradepost with the reef below.
Calypso's Tomb: Calypso's Tomb is the final resting place of Calypso, the Leviathan that pledged herself to Theia and became a paladin. A massive stone mausoleum holds the great squid's body, and a shrine contains Calypso's old weapon (Calamity, a great hammer made from a consecrated shipwreck). Warlocks guard the weapon and tomb, even though they now obey Calypso's killer (the Howling Melody). The Melody respects and honors Calypso - the squid fought valiantly against them and ambitiously attempted to destroy the new trade route to Garadel - but could not tolerate the chaos that she brought. While some quietly yearn for Calypso's resurrections, no one in the reef has the bardic magic necessary to make it happen, and the warlocks would prevent such a thing.
Founding Date
-440 DE
Founders
Type
City
Population
35,000 - 45,000 aquatic; 10,000 humanoid
Inhabitant Demonym
Heavensrester
Location under
Owner/Ruler
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