Tallshank Tales
You live in the canopy of a tallshank, a massive tree that stretches miles above the wildsea's surface. What is that tallshank's name?
Additional lore: the rickety metal elevator that ferries people between the canopy and the wildsea takes over 20 minutes to complete a journey - and breaks down nearly once a week!
Lucky wildsea communities live on former mountaintops that were lucky enough to remain above the surface of the wildsea when it formed. Are these remaining mountaintops common, uncommon, or somewhere in the middle?
Additional lore: these mountaintops that still remain above the wildsea are called islands, and are the most stable places to live on the wildsea for those who are too afraid of heights to live in a tallshank canopy!
Arconautics is the wildsea's form of magic... or science... or even art... or something combining all of those things. How common are arconauts?
Additional lore: "arconautics" literally means a "delving into the unknown." Its practitioners are insistent that it is neither magic nor science, but its own study entirely!
Additional lore: while pre-V materials aren't exactly rare, they're still prized. After all, industry isn't really possible in the modern world!
The ardent are what the descendants of pre-V humans call themselves, and what they lack in physical ability they make up for in spiritual attunement to the wildsea. Do they have any other special (and non-mechanical) advantages?
Additional lore: the ardent are just as diverse in culture and physical appearance as pre-V humans were, if not even more!
Some spiritual denizens of the wildsea worship tallshanks as gods. Does this worship generally take the form of reverence or fear?
Additional lore: your tallshank is home to a major monastic order called the Way of the Lignin Monk. Spiritual wildsailors come from far and wide to spend a year or three at their monastery!
More unlucky communities live on spits, temporary islands made from earth that's pushed above the surface of the wildsea as it grows. How long do spits usually exist before being swallowed up again?
Additional lore: spits are the most common source of salvage for wildsea communities!
Arconauts are most often born when they realize they have powers in moments of crisis. Must you have already been working toward learning arconautics for such a crisis to awaken it in you, or can it happen spontaneously?
Additional lore: one popular form of arconautics involves finding and befriending an unusual creature of the wildsea, who will eventually impart some of its powers on its wildsailor!
Rifts are gaping holes in the sea that lead all the way down to the darkness-under-eaves. They're certainly places of great danger, but does society have any spiritual feelings about them?
Additional lore: most rifts are created when an ironroot falls for some reason - those are the trees that make up the bulk of the wildsea!
The ektus are cactus people and the gau are fungus people, both of which appeared after the wildsea took hold. What's a creation story about either one of them?
Additional lore: while gau are about the same size as the ardent, the ektus are huge!
Crezzerin is the chemical substance that causes the vegetation of the wildsea to grow so crazily. Some arconauts believe that tallshanks' unfathomable growth is the key to harnessing crezzerin for good. How far along is their research?
Additional lore: crezzerin is exceptionally toxic, not only posing a physical health risk, but also holding mind-breaking properties. Be careful!
Land - whether island or spit - is a precious resource on the wildsea. How common is war between communities?
Additional lore: hundreds of years ago, there was a massive war in the north, and one of the parties set a large fire. It burns to this day, fueled by an endless supply of rapidly-grown wildsea wood, and the Conflagration's smoke plumes are always visible to the north.
One unusual way to become an arconaut is to replace a part of your body with a part of the wildsea, such as replacing your heart with the heart of a living storm. Is this encouraged, frowned upon, or neither?
Additional lore: alchemy is perhaps the most common form of arconautics!
There are lots of different cultures that grew apart before ships were invented that could sail the wildsea. But what's one story, legend, or faerie tale that even disparate cultures all share?
Additional lore: the first wildsea ships were created by the legendary Tarak Tar and her grandfather, the latter of whom was one of the last living sailors from pre-V times!
The tzelicrae are a race that essentially amounts to "thousands of spiders in a trenchcoat," and their minds operate more like a hivemind than an ardent's mind. What kind of philosophical quandaries does this create for them?
Additional lore: the tzelicrae often have even more animosity than other races toward the ironbound, which are souls that are bound into metal husks beneath the wildsea's waves!
Additional lore: no race that breathes oxygen would be caught dead on the wildsea without some quick manner of protecting themselves from spores!
The wildsea has five distinct layers (not including the sky), each of which grows progressively more dangerous. The third layer from the top, called the sink, is where things start to get really deadly. How commonly do wildsailors venture down there in search of plunder?
Additional lore: the very bottom layer of the wildsea is called the darkness-under-eaves. Although many claim to have been there and returned, it's unlikely anyone is telling the truth.
There are still plenty of people who aren't arconauts. Are arconauts treated better, worse, or the same as non-arconauts?
Additional lore: arconautics is not magic. Its practitioners aren't willing a lightning bolt into being, they're stealing a living storm's power. But it isn't distinctly scientific either, now is it?
The bottom layer of the wildsea, the darkness-under-eaves, is a place where no wildsailor dares tread. But sailors have stories, of course. What's a common yarn that's spun about this forbidden place?
Additional lore: the second-to-bottom layer of the wildsea, the drown, is also exceptionally dangerous. It's where leviathans lurk, after all - mysterious and humongous creatures that will stop at nothing to kill their prey...
The ketra are also descendants of pre-V humanity, but they're people whose ancestors were stuck beneath the waves, where generations of exposure to crezzarin has caused them to evolve into something akin to humanoid eldritch horrors. How do the ardent feel about these distant relatives?
Additional lore: the ironbound, ketra, and mothryn are all significantly rarer on the wildsea than the ardent, ektus, gau, and tzelicrae!
Airships are a relatively recent but highly sought-after invention. Does your tallshank have an airship dock? If so, how do wildsailors of more modest means view airship crews?
Additional lore: airships come with many of their own problems, since the wildsea is frequently visited by high winds and heavy storms due to the messed up ecosystem!
Fire is strictly forbidden in all cultures because even a single errant spark can cause a catastrophe. This means that denizens of the wildsea need to get creative with how they cook their food. What's the most common method of cooking?
Additional lore: some spiritual cultures practice storm-frying for religious meals. This is when they bait lightning to strike their food for cooking!
Whispers - some would call them auditory hallucinations - are common on the wildsea. There's a debate as to whether they're spiritual in origin, arconautic in nature, or perhaps even an unknowable curse from before the wildsea existed. What is the prevailing belief?
Additional lore: whispers have the power to change the world itself when spoken aloud, but might have different effects when they're whispered, spoken, or shouted into existence...
The wildsea's cultures are just like our own, with music and sports and love and laws. Aside from fire being banned, what's something that's shared between most or all cultures?
Additional lore: the most common instrument in tzelicrae societies is the trisketar, a guitar-like instrument whose string placement is intentionally impossible for two-armed races to play!
The mothryn are moth people, although they usually can't fly. They're very short-lived, though, compared to the other races of the wildsea. How does this affect their culture?
Additional lore: the mothryn existed before the wildsea did, but unlike the ardent and the ketra evolving out of humanity, the mothryn haven't changed much!