Aoriaas' Message

"This was seen, in her [Aoriaas'] time period, as an assault against the currents, against the very being the world was made from. And there was this small mer. Swimming up. Telling, no, demanding that the currents change to her whim. Everyone was shocked, and her family and friends begged and pleaded for the currents, and the gods that lived in them, to take pity on her... but she didn't need their pity. She needed the currents to listen, and to the surprise of all around her, they did."

—  mer historian, land dweller Delve De'Sau

Document Structure

Publication Status

This document has been made accessible to the public, via many different translations and accessible through many devices.  Before her message could be lost to the tides, mer from all over chiseled her words, and the situation, into stone. Those became historical records, and when mers began to speak with the land dwellers they rescued, the story was translated and translated again. Finally, the Mer Museum of Treford has, in its digital collection: 

• underwater pictures of several original stone tablets crafted by mer pictures of the translations as they were in the "bubble" rescue centers for land dwellers. [these have been kept down there, in those conditions, for fear that bringing them to the surface will result in the material's deterioration]
• digital recordings of mer telling their younger kinfolk the Lesson Story of Aoriaas' Message
• seashell recordings of Aoriaas' Message (these only last up to twenty years, and then the recordings begin to lose sections of sound, making them intelligible) 
• digital recordings of the descendants in "bubbles" [the descendants came about when rescued people intermingled and had offspring]
• paper copies of the message translated into many of the modern languages [these has been bound into a book, with the documents also existing as singular papers]

Historical Details

Background

The situation in which this message was forged was one long in the making. The attitude toward those land dwellers found in the water was that the currents could decide their fate - however, the mer hold different views of the currents than the land dwellers of that time period.

• Mers see the currents as where the gods live. If a mer enters a current, what becomes of them is dependent on which god is currently living there at the time.
• Land dwellers believe in the Sea Goddess. The currents are under her control at all times, and it is only by her whims that people in the sea live or die. Sailors made sacrifices in her honor, and got tattoos of her in the ports they visited.

Because of how each group saw the currents (natural parts of the environment that don't have feelings about those drowning), the mer at the time would continue to watch each land dweller drown. It was believed that two or more gods were fighting in the current, and while one of them was "gifting" land dwellers to the mer, the other was making it so that the mer were only receiving dead bodies. This lead to a fraught situation where the mers thought they'd done something to anger a god, who was purposefully staying in the current to continue their raining their wrath on the nearby mer community.

History

After this message was delivered by Aoriaas, the mers around her fled to avoid being struck down by the gods inside the current. However, what happened next surprised everyone but her. There was no repercussion for her demand that the gods stop fighting and help save the beings they kept dropping into the sea. Then, after a few moments, as they all waited to see what would happen, another land dweller plunged out of the current. 
Aoriaas swam forward to help them, and this time she wasn't held back by other mer. She caught the being (a red ogre by the name of Sun-bask) and quickly took him to the only area that she could think of that would be safe: an underwater cave. Thankfully, the cave had an air bubble, and when Sun-bask had coughed up all the water he'd inhaled, he was grateful for his life, and determined to help Aoriaas in any way that he could.
This event started the organization of Hearts Guard, whose name remains even if their purpose has completely changed, and brought forth the time period known as "Life of Learned Languages" due to the inability to speak between land dwellers and mer (and other land dwellers too).

Public Reaction

The public was, at first, worried and scared that Aoriaas message to the gods would turn their wrath from land dwellers to them, but when that didn't happen, they were both happy to help (since it would prevent them from seeing more needless and cruel deaths) and a bit thrilled to be learning about completely different beings.

Legacy

The long-lasting repercussions of this message created a strong friendship between Treford and the mer settlement in the nearby oceans. The mer in this area were the first (in a community) to willingly make contact with an entire city of land dwellers (previous firsts had been individuals maintaining contact with the other side). 
This set the precedent that it was possible to work with land dwellers (not just "live and let live" with them). In the years following this message mer settlements the world over emerged from their underwater cities and began to carve out a place for themselves above water as well.

Read the Document

Aoriaas' Message

[as translated from the original mer]
"I come to face the hidden currents, and to humbly ask the gods. Why do you hate these beings so much, that their last words are gasped in an unknown language? Why do you hate us so much, that we have only a wave to welcome and say goodbye? I know that demanding an answer will only invite more pain into my life, but I need to know.  Are you testing us? Asking us to watch these beings die for reasons unknown?  If so, I have failed your test.  In failing, I find my courage. I stand before you as Aoriaas. Aoriaas the Heart Guard. Aoriass the Shield. Aoriass the Distraught.  And I ask again: Why do you hate so much? 

— mer Aoriaas

Close