Wrapped Menace
The Wrapped Menace was a combat mage group, predominately out of The Reef. Their mission was to stop surface interference with Reef research. While a version of the Menace exist to this day, the version that is subject of this discussion has long since been retired.
Specialising in superhot jets of water from their arms along compound tattoos that spanned from wrist to elbow, and following it up with hungry grappled joined with coral reinforced punches, the group was designed for fast and effective takedowns and was formed when first contact happened with Solaris explorers.
This was not the case when practice turns into practicality. When bio-mages came to Nocturne, during those first few experiments when the regions were both still feeling out politics - the Wrapped Menace was often first to come into contact with those from the surface, and even with one directive in mind, they welcomed the strange, legged things with open hands.
Often showing the surface mages the best that the Empire had to offer, it was with shock that those same mages came with recording bindings and hungry minds, and in the biggest faux-pas of both surface and deep they came with nothing to trade in return. While official sources may say the animosity between Kingdom and Empire stemmed from some sort of attack, unofficial historians from both regions place the blame at these exploitive explorers (including the Spine Graft - often recorded by the surface as the greatest creation of Nocturne magery and design).
After the event the Menace was disbanded, their members were each docked their breeding tentacle, and their names stripped from the family histories within the reef.
We are supposed to be terrors from the deep to them, not take them on a tour.
Specialising in superhot jets of water from their arms along compound tattoos that spanned from wrist to elbow, and following it up with hungry grappled joined with coral reinforced punches, the group was designed for fast and effective takedowns and was formed when first contact happened with Solaris explorers.
This was not the case when practice turns into practicality. When bio-mages came to Nocturne, during those first few experiments when the regions were both still feeling out politics - the Wrapped Menace was often first to come into contact with those from the surface, and even with one directive in mind, they welcomed the strange, legged things with open hands.
Often showing the surface mages the best that the Empire had to offer, it was with shock that those same mages came with recording bindings and hungry minds, and in the biggest faux-pas of both surface and deep they came with nothing to trade in return. While official sources may say the animosity between Kingdom and Empire stemmed from some sort of attack, unofficial historians from both regions place the blame at these exploitive explorers (including the Spine Graft - often recorded by the surface as the greatest creation of Nocturne magery and design).
The Final Straw
While the Spine Graft was a massive loss to Nocturne intellectual property and potential trade, what caused the Menace to be retired until their rehabilitation, was the Raid of the Reef. In this moment, bad actors from VRPI sent divers down into the Reef with the intent to take as much research as possible, load it up onto ships and sail those ships to Dorsal Island and blame it on the pirates. That the Empire never cared to find out which surface dwellers raided the great ocean academy is less important than the fact that the Menace at the time was taking several of the very charming mages around the Reef, showing them as they normally did what the Empire had to offer - even as other divers were sweeping through taking all they could.After the event the Menace was disbanded, their members were each docked their breeding tentacle, and their names stripped from the family histories within the reef.
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Yeah, that really wasn’t that smart …