The Great Ibyin Reef (Ib-yin)

The great Ibyin reef is the largest, most ecologically diverse, and most populated natural reef in the world. Most of the reef is in the warm inland sea of Northern Larazel and surrounding waters, though it does spill out into the surrounding shallow ocean. The relative isolation of the Great Reef has earned it a pseudo-legendary reputation as a hidden kingdom of magic and wealth. Surface-goers who have heard of the reef tell of secret undersea cities where chosen mortals (often those who shipwreck nearby) are taken down to live among the octopeople (and either experimented upon or allowed to live in utopian wonder). Aquatic species talk about Ibyin as a kind of distant wonderland that is jealously sealed away by its owners. Neither legend speaks to the whole truth of what Ibyin is, but both do capture the general isolationism that permeates the reef's culture. This isolation is not without its reasons - many groups, surface and aquatic, have looked on Ibyin's riches hungrily, and violent Leviathan cultists surround Ibyin to the North and West. It does also include a level of xenophobic superiority, though - the aquatic peoples of Ibyin consider their reef to be the body of God (whom they call Mother Reef, or Ibya), and that all those not born into the sacred embrace of Ibya are inherently uncivilized.

The main area of the Ibyin reef, the part that embraces this isolationism, is split into three regions: Yara in the North, Wulm in the center, and Hoham in the East. Each of these regions intermixes with the others, and consider themselves part of a greater Ibyin culture group (what they would define as 'civilization'). Beyond this 'civilization' are the Western fringes of the Ibyin reef, which are known as Borobal - the living Temple of the Leviathans. As the rest of Ibyin believes that world peace will only be known when every single Leviathan is killed, this is a problem.

Wulm

Wulm, the heart of Ibyin, is an aggressively isolationist reef that considers its geographic seclusion to be a gift from God. The reef is their world and their divinity; its health is the very health of the world. To defile it or harm it is a crime punishable by death. Wulm has a reputation among the other parts of Ibyin as the reef of plenty, the sea of druids, and the waters of the bone-cultists. While most octopeople around the world see fish as mindless beasts unworthy of real consideration, Wulm sees things differently; they see fish as messengers, gifts, and spiritual fragments of the divine reef, and therefore worthy of respect. According to Wulmian legend, it was a fish that taught the first druids their craft. To show their respect, Wulmians often wear bone-carved jewelry and thank the bones of their meals for the gift of their meat. They also do the unthinkable, and offer any intelligent animal the chance to join their society - they see sapient sharks born in Ibyin as holy creatures worthy of respect and cooperation (foreign sharks are monsters to be killed on sight, though). The druids of Wulm are known for their mysticism; much cultural stock is put in fish-augury, which is done before any major political meeting or decision. Wulm's druids and leaders are organized under the Federation of Wulm - a decentralized government that is gaining more power with each passing year.
While Wulm is stereotyped as the pristine paradise, it does have its occasional conflicts. Local reef elites have been known to squabble and skirmish, though the Federation government is very set on stopping this completely. The hand of the Federation has come down harder on the reefs than the sharks, though, as the sharks are highly autonomous - and the sharks have been feuding terribly. Some say that one of the shark factions is led by a shadowy group known as the Unseen Beak - a Leviathan cult that once tried to rule Wulm with a puppet government many centuries ago. If this is true, the Unseen may have a larger presence throughout the reef than expected.

Hoham

Hoham is the religious extension of Wulm; their 'country' is more accurately described as a church that loosely directs a number of local polities while calling itself a state. Hoham is the "least reefy" of the three regions of core Ibyin; many Hohamans ranch Crabcows out on the continental shelf and in the kelp forests and only visit the reef periodically to be infused with Mother Reef's power. Hohaman religion is much more organized and defined than in Wulm or Yara; religious ritual and belief is considered the marker between a reefgoer and a barbarian, and is much more organized and defined for it. There is a lot of jostling tension between Hoham's priests and its local elites - especially its big herd-owners - as the local elites often mix cultural and religious norms as they trade with friendly reefs and squiddle nomads further Southeast. It seems that the local elites are starting to win, as there is a growing class war within the ranks of the clergy - tension between the wealthy established cliques and the lower priesthood - that is diverting attention and resources.
Hoham's priests are unusual by Ibyin standards in that they worship Father Deep as well as Mother Reef. Rather than follow the Good Reef versus Bad Open Ocean narrative of standard Ibyin dogma, the Hohamans divide the Open Ocean between the Sacred Sky-Ocean and the Vile Abyss. Leviathans are part of the Evil Abyss, while whales and other non-violent open ocean sea life are from the Sacred Sky-Ocean. Interestingly, this has led to Hoham priest-engineers redesigning voice boxes to try and make contact with ocean life - and some of that ocean life has talked back. The Whale-boxes are a clerical secret of the Hoham priesthood and allow for communication with local dolphin and whale populations. While the cetacean's minds don't work entirely in the same way as traditionally sentient species, this has allowed for relationships to form between the Hoham clergy and the local whale and dolphin pods. This has led to the creation of a foreign-shark kill-zone, where only Ibyin sharks (identifiable by tattoos, kelp belts, and bone piercings) are allowed to exist; otherwise the dolphins, Ibyin sharks, and Hoham squiddles band together to hunt them or enslave them. The outsider sharks periodically try to fight back, leading to bursts of cyclical war on the edges of Hoham waterspace.

Yara

Yara is controlled by the Yara Reefstate, which has historically been the largest, oldest, and most powerful of the countries of Ibyin. Yara is known as the sea of warriors and the defenders of the Great Reef; they constructed the Northern Reefgate all the way back in 700 ME, and they have declared themselves the ultimate gatekeepers of Ibyin culture ever since. Yara is arguably the most octo-person oriented of the three subcultures; they see reefs as safe and open ocean as dangerous and barbaric, and squiddles must perform Ibyin culture properly to be accepted. The line between reef and open ocean is not that violently policed, though - there is a layer of ambiguity there that can create conflict but can also allow for more cultural intermixture and personal freedom. As long as an ocean wanderer is not actively a Leviathan cultist or a raider, they can comfortably exist in Yara (though they will never be able to join the inner circle of society in the same way as a reefborn native). The Reefstate also manages most interactions with the surface-goers, and has signed most of Ibyin's treaties with the March Kingdom of Kakoru.
Yara has a reputation for being organized, bureaucratic, and hierarchical. Everyone has a clear legal status (foreigner, plebeian, patrician). The court of law is seen as a sacred site; everyone who is not an enemy of society has a right to a fair trial by the laws of the sea. In exchange for these rights, all people are expected to respect their betters in society. Judges and lawyers are figures of great importance, and the Yaran Reefstate government is essentially divided between judges, warriors, and druids. Anyone who is a full reefmember is expected to participate in jury duty and to know their legal basics. For a reef is a place of constants, and constants are Laws from above; it is the rule of law that sustains the reef more than the feeble ecological cycles that Wulm endlessly touts.
Yara is currently at war with both Borobal and the Apex raiders to the North (who live in the Broken Expanse). Anyone perceived as being from either group is ruthlessly persecuted; this conflict has escalated to a level of extreme brutality previously confined to rare moments in Yaran history. Ambiguous or far-traveled outsiders are still tolerated, though. As for how the war is going - it isn't great, but it Yara has managed to avoid destruction. Borobal almost managed to destroy Yara several years ago, but Yara was saved by the Reef-Mother Fleet - a united Ibyin project to create a fleet of armed clockwork-and-chemical-powered submarines that will one day be used to lure in and slaughter the Elder Leviathans (submarines being water boats, and boats naturally enraging Leviathans). The Fleet took some damage, though, and Yara remained devastated by the invasion. While Borobal is now convulsing in civil war, Yara has a growing civil war of its own to contend with, as enough of the government was killed in the last war to leave a massive power vacuum.

Borobal

Borobal isn't part of what is traditionally Ibyin - they are detached from the inland sea or the protective curvature of the continent of Larazel. While Borobal's reefs are abundant, they are exposed to the cold stare of the Northern open ocean - the vast body of water that teems with the worst of Leviathan-kind.
Borobal is a number of reefs and nomadic groups that were once independent and regionally varied; four different sub-regions once divided these waters and competed or cooperated among themselves. These groups were conquered and assimilated into one kingdom many centuries ago; when that empire collapsed, many of the remnants were swept by a religious movement dedicated to healing and finding harmony with the greater ocean. This in turn was taken over by a powerful warlock known as The Strongest, who took over the waters with an army of Apex Raiders and created a cult of Leviathan blood sacrifice. In the 1950s, a powerful group known as the Culling Tide - warlocks and berserkers dedicated to the most aggressive Elder Leviathans, gathered from across the Western oceans - seized Borobal and turned its wealth towards endless wars. From this violent new order, the Sacred State of Borobal was born.
While the Sacred State dominates many parts of daily life and certainly makes it less pleasant, Borobal isn't all Leviathan blood cults. The reef has long had a culture of flexibility and open-minded fascination with the great beyond; they were the first to establish relations with the selkies and the surface-goers many centuries ago, and they are very committed to trade with the surface. Borobal's reef-libraries remain great depositories of aquatic knowledge, despite some destruction by the Culling Tide and Apex Raiders; Borobal's priests continue carving knowledge into stone for future generations regardless of who is in charge. Much of the native population has turned away from the more violent Elder Leviathan patrons such as Apex and towards more peaceful patrons such as Old Skybane, the Deep King, and the Howling Melody. 
Borobal's current rulers seek to balance their bloodlust with the less warlike dispositions of the conquered by creating a balanced pantheon of all Leviathan kind, led by the Elder Leviathans. The Leviathans, they say, are Gods made from the blood and flesh of The Masked One who will one day all join together to resurrect the Masked One as the overlord of all the seas. By constructing great temples revering the Masked One and their component Gods, they can curry favor; by spilling the blood of nonbelievers on the altar of the Masked One, they feed the Sea and cull the weak from the world. Only the Strong Survive (often phrased 'only the strong can survive') is a prophecy and a command: only when the weak are sufficiently slaughtered by the strong will the Masked One awaken and reward their chosen. To sate the hunger of the Masked One and demonstrate their strength, Borobal has waged half a century of ferocious war against all of their neighbors. The monastic disciples of Flori defeated them in the far Southwest, so they turned Southeast - and almost destroyed all of Yara. They painted the water blue, and took many slaves - but the united Ibyin core reefs drove Borobal back. The Apex and Frigid Hunger cultists began culling Borobal's own civilians as punishment for their defeat, leading to the other Elder Cults intervening. A civil war has broken out, and the Masked One's grim altars have their feed of blood. 
Amidst the chaos, there are rumors that one of the factions has found the location of Shinikem the Great Ray - an immortal covered in treasure and foreign technology. If Shinikem could not only be plundered but subdued into a massive immortal warbeast - it would be a prize that could unite Borobal and create a new, better war machine. 

The Apex Raiders

Lords of the Broken Expanse to the North, the Apex raiders are loyal to the most violent of all Leviathans - Apex, the Bloody-Mouthed Wastemaker. Apex is not one for societies, as the Wastemaker typically is obsessively individualistic. One of Apex's subordinates, Bluebeak, has been interested in created an army of perfectly strong warriors, though - and has been the patron of the Expanse's raiders. Bluebeak has their nest here now, and has so obsessively pursued this task that it has stopped attacking passing boats. The surface is dead to Bluebeak, only the seas matter. Apex disdains this aberrant behavior, and demands that Bluebeak and their followers prove their continued worth culling weaklings to prove that they aren't becoming deviants. Hence, the invasions of Borobal. And as Bluebeak has found success in conquest, more of Apex's followers have taken an interest in supporting this venture. Apex itself has blessed the most recent venture by fighting off Old Skybane to protect Bluebeak's warriors. 
The Apex Raiders are not irrational murderers; they desperately try to carve out ways to love, to herd crabcows, to sing to their children and drink with their friends. But they are taught from a young age that might makes right, that God demands blood, and that only their community will protect them from the maelstrom of violence that is the world. They are taught that any "better world" cannot and does not exist; any places that seem better are actually just predatory in more cruel and invisible ways, and that such places are doomed anyways in the face of the Masked One's hunger. The sea is bitter and cruel and demands blood and pain; if you don't feel it, those you love most will be tortured instead. This is a cosmic principle that is inescapable and unchangeable. 
The Raiders have had a cultural bloom in the last few decades; whenever there is conquest of foreigners to be done, the raiders no longer have to fight each other for Apex's amusement. Peace, luxury time, and inter-group friendship are finally allowed without punishment. Some raiders are questioning the values of Apex; others are discovering that greed can supplement fear.

Geography

The great Ibyin reef covers much of Northern Larazel's coast (around 800 miles of it) and almost all of the Ibyin sea - a large, almost-inland sea 195 by 575 miles across connected by 2 small inlets in the North and East.
Tens of millions of cephapeople live in the Great Ibyin Reef, with no census ever having been conducted by mortal or immortal.

Ecosystem

The Great Ibyin reef is home to vast biodiversity. Thousands of fish species and coral species, as well as hundreds of species of sharks and rays, thrive in these waters. You've got humpback whales, dugong, turtles, saltwater crocodiles, manta rays, whale sharks, giant clams, giant tritons, clownfish, and mantis shrimp. The whole kit and caboodle.

Alternative Name(s)

The Ginokem Reef

Type

Coral Reef, Barrier

Location under

Larazel