Editing Shattered Sun (section)

==The Starry Seas==
Though there has been a general lack of travel due to the new circumstances presented with the Awakening, it also presented people an opportunity to explore lands forever changed by the catastrophe. One of the most puzzling areas one can explore are the seas of the new world. While the effects of the Shards can be most easily observed and studied on the land, it is not such an easy task on the seas. The only thing that is generally known about the seas is that some of the Shards fell into them, altering their environment dramatically.

Most sea life will not venture near the submerged Shards, which render the waters around them inhospitable to all life except for extremophiles. However, they will congregate, hunt, and travel along the paths of the Shardstreams circling the world, attracting aerial predators to the Light-lit areas also. For the seas untouched by the Light, travelers will encounter ice floes and an unforgiving cold which present a grievous challenge even to the most experienced sailor. As such, trade through the seas is reserved for the hardiest and most daring entrepreneurs, while only the most dedicated Strobes traverse the seas in their chase of the errant Shards.

===The Anchordread===
[[File:Anchordread.jpg|150px|thumb|right|An artist's rendition of the Anchordread.]]
Both a terror of the deep in stature and skill as well as a benevolent trading partner when the opportunity arises, these denizens of the seas are a complex people of no words at all. To the people above the surface, the Anchordread are most known for their improvised weapons of discarded sailor technology, be they chains, harpoons, or even the anchors of their namesake. They are also known for their deadly electric shock, which can travel through a mere touch with another, through their weaponry, or even through the water in which they travel. However, recent research has put the Anchordread beneath a more civilized lens, daring explorers and hard-working scholars painting a picture of a highly sophisticated people far different than the people on the surface.

====''First Contact''====
It all began with a shock.

Soon after the Awakening, desperate souls seeking somewhere safe to settle took their chances on the turbulent seas to find their promised land. Many died on their journey through the seas in about as many ways as there were victims. One of the most common tales of such a demise is at the hands of fierce warriors emerging from the choppy surf to plunder the lumbering vessels as they were churned in the waves. Chains were wielded with the ease of a rope as the sharp fixtures on their ends slashed through the crew with blinding speed, all before the warriors descended beneath the waves minutes later with their spoils.

Of course, such tales soon became mere legends once the sailors figured out how to best avoid said warriors' roving war bands. But on the off chance, one of these notorious warriors peered its head out of the water at a passing ship, an almost curious gaze set upon its bestial head. The creature quietly studied the people on board from afar until one day, it silently approached the vessel in broad Shardlight. Unknowing of the creature, the crew drew their arms as quickly as they could, even as the creature climbed upon the deck without a weapon on its being. After a tense silence, the creature merely extended one of its long, spindly arms, extending its spidery fingers in an awkward invitation for a handshake.

Moments later, the captain of the ship lowered his blade and slowly approached the creature once he sensed its lack of aggression. The creature stood still, allowing the captain to make his advance until finally, their hands clasped together to seal their meeting. Unfortunately for the captain, a powerful blast of electricity surged through him from the creature's hand, killing him in an instant. Horrified at their captain's fate, the crew charged the creature, who retreated back into the seas, bewildered by the result as well.

There was no sign of the creature for the rest of the day until the following morning. The crew awoke to find the creature on the deck with an old fishing net chock full of sunken treasure and fish, all of which valuable and useful to the crew. It was as if the creature studied the crew far deeper than they thought and retrieved these things for them. As the creature departed back into the waters, the crew soon realized that this was the beginning of an unusual and unspoken trading agreement with the Anchordread.

====''Trading''====
Sailors in the know soon learned of this incident, most of which using this knowledge to furthermore steer clear of the Anchordread wherever they sailed. However, a few more enterprising minds used the tragedy to make incredible gains on the high seas. More of the creatures began to appear along the common trade routes, allowing themselves to be brought on board the ships unarmed. Just like the incident, they would extend their hand in the familiar gesture, at which the crew would put forward one of their prisoners or lower crewmen, someone expendable. The poor soul would be instructed to either shake the creature's hand or walk the plank, at which the usually unwitting person would choose the former of the two. A powerful shock later and the sacrifice was made, the killed man tossed overboard and the trade made in the morning.

This knowledge continued to spread to the coastal communities, the Anchordread somehow learning of these communities as well. In due time, the creatures began to appear on the coasts, most people knowing the meaning of their appearances by the time they did so. At first, the villagers put forth their their prisoners and unwanted, just as the sailors did before them. However, the Anchordread began to take on a more noble persona, new stories emerging from these communities depicting them as servants of the seas who bring forth the souls of the departed into the welcoming waters. The villagers then began offering the infirm, invalid, and the terminally ill to take on the Anchordread's swift embrace.

The change in attitude brought changes from the creatures as well. For one, they would bring more lavish riches and goods to the surface. They also seemed to bury those who died from their contact in a bed of kelp, bringing forth a sense of deep respect for those whom they take from the world. There was a powerful significance of their touch with those they put out of their misery, just as potent as the shock given by the touch.

====''The Embrace''====
People soon began studying these interesting creatures however they could. Scholars became driven by the possible discovery of the meaning behind their lethal touch and the mysterious culture that seemed to surround it. The first inkling of knowledge behind the touch came from a passing ship traversing along one of the Shardstreams. Observers noticed a pair of Anchordread swimming together much like a pair of mated dolphins would playfully traipse the surface. At times, their fingers became entwined, eliciting strong pulses of light surging through veins in their arms while they made pleasant sounds from the contact. It was then when it was first suggested that the electricity they possessed was not just a weapon, but a means of communication between them.

The story spread like wildfire through the research community, bringing forth countless theories behind what a possible Anchordread society may entail. Social scientists and wildlife experts teamed up with the world's finest Alchemists to bring their studies closer to the creatures than they could above the surface. Over time, the Alchemists came up with sturdy submersibles which could bring people under the seas for the first time in their memory. At first, such adventures bore very little fruit. Maybe a sighting of one of the creatures, or perhaps even a group of them in transit. But nothing groundbreaking, as they were hoping.

All until they found a group of them with a pod of orca-like cteylaxes, seemingly riding them like warriors would horses on the land. The aquatic steed were every bit as swift and agile as the sailors told them to be, making it tremendously difficult to discern them in detail. Fortunately for the researchers, the Anchordread seemed able to detect their presence and acknowledge their curiosity by slowing down. This gave the researchers the ability to glimpse at just how the creatures were able to hold on to them. They held onto bored holes in the steed's head, the electric light subtly pulsing along their arms as they manipulated the behemoths' every movement. It was as if the Anchordread were accessing the cteylaxes' minds directly through their touch.

====''Breakthrough''====
An expedition seeking new lands in the north of the world stumbled across an especially revealing sight of the Anchordread: a brutal fight between them and a mighty aboleth. It is common knowledge that even the largest creatures in the Starry Seas will steer clear of the colossal eel-like creature at any and all expense. Between its boundless electric shock, terrifying speed, and unimaginable aggression, the aboleth is truly a thing to fear and avoid. The Anchordread however were fighting it tooth-and-nail, so to say. Their chained weapons arced above the waves, seeking to strike the terrible foe true, all while the slithery mammoth of a beast whipped and lashed about at its quarry. Many Anchordread perished in the battle before they retreated, but one stayed behind to try its hand at felling the foul aboleth, grabbing its tail directly in its last-ditch effort.

The flash of electric light was said to rival even the Shard of Gargonel with its brilliance.

The poor Anchordread was all but vaporized in the blast, its kin crooning out a dirge of sorts upon its folly. With the Anchordread's ranks injured and severely reduced in numbers - and with the aboleth soon leaving the area - the ship took in the survivors of the battle. Medics carefully applied their medicines and treatments to the creatures. Then the impossible happened - one of the creatures touched one of the medics. His fellows feared the worst, but the medic only suffered a numbed arm from the contact. It seemed that the creature became able to control the voltage of its touch. But an even more remarkable happening occurred as the medic felt emotions he shouldn't have had given the circumstances. He felt an intense hatred for the aboleth which took the life of the creature's comrades, almost brought to tears from the profound sadness that followed the loss.

The touch of the Anchordread took on a far greater function than weaponry and simple communication - it somehow conveyed the creature's very emotions with others.

====''The Legacy''====
While it was incredibly difficult to believe that the touch of the Anchordread did not always kill the people whom they touched, more stories began to crop in the research community about such a phenomenon. The creatures were beginning to understand humans in ways that mere monstrous races should not. They were growing a sense of empathy with the surface-dwellers. But just why were the creatures this involved, this interested in humans? Why were these aquatic beastmen pouring as much effort into this endeavor as the humans were in their research of them?

The answers to these questions would only come to the boldest researchers, those who took the place of the Anchordread as the initiators. At first, the contact was quite trivial and hard to decipher. But with further study, more open-minded researchers would finely tune the emotions and sensations brought upon them to bring forth a clearer picture of the creatures' situation, while the creatures would better accommodate their message to the humans' understanding. Through countless mental conversations with their counterparts, the researches came across the core value of the Anchordread's society: the freedom and exchange of information; "the Legacy" as the Anchordread termed it.

A basic understanding of the Legacy is akin to the oral tradition of storytelling in human cultures. Information about one's people is accurately passed down from generation to generation through the practiced and repeated telling of a carefully tailored story. Basic facts, adventures, exploits, achievements, failures, everything that someone needs to know about one's family, tribe, city, so forth and so on, were all contained in the story. Once the story became lost or altered somewhere along the line, the information became such as well. The Legacy works like that, but through the electrical imprinting of information upon cherished objects, such as the weapons passed on through the Anchordread's generations. It is also passed through intimate contact with each other in a familial fashion. Once the objects become contaminated or when relations sour between Anchordread, the Legacy changes.

While a story can easily be changed among humans in the oral tradition through a mere change in perception, the Legacy is not as much so. The Anchordread exhibit a powerful sense of empathy and understanding, allowing them to look past feelings which may alter another's state of mind and to gain the core information behind such a facade. This clarity of mind has allowed the Anchordread to read into human history through their touch with an unbiased and extremely interested perspective, fueling their own research and connection with humanity with as much fervor as the scholars put into their own knowledge of the creatures.

====''Relationships''====
All this discovery has led both mankind and the Anchordread to the present. Sailors and coastal villagers enjoy a rather beneficial relationship with the creatures. The Anchordread serve as not only undertakers for those at the end of their lives, but valuable traders to the bold and adventurous. Not only are they worthy allies on the Starry Seas with literally generations of battle prowess behind them, but they are also profound historians with ages of knowledge available to the most worthy of human researchers.

Away from these communities though, the Anchordread is sadly a being of legend only, monsters who are merely known for their utmost savagery. Were one to approach the Cities and beyond, their understanding of humanity may forever be skewed for the worse...