DM-Nastics #107: Wetter is Better

I think I'll try adding to this.  The Y'ch A'wah are fairly adaptable to any aquatic environment and most are able to adapt to land unaided.  Their main preference is the shallow waters of the ocean, around up to around 200 meters below the surface, still enough to see in the euphotic (sunlight) zone:


But they are known to also have some settlements below the euphotic zone, even some into the aphotic (midnight) zone, also known as the Underdeep.  The dysphotic (twilight) zone tends to see a mix of all subraces and is actually the zone that the largest Y'ch A'wah city of Y'wah T'k is located.  Only the squid-like Abyssal Y'ch A'wah find their home in the Underdeep.

The Reef Y'ch A'wah tend to be the subrace that most interacts with the world of the Land Dwellers since they tend to stay within the euphotic zone their whole lives, sometimes even venturing to the surface.  There have also been examples of Reef Y'ch A'wah making a home inland in or near a large lake.  For some of these nomads, they see walking on land with their tentacles as a somewhat spiritual experience, as it shows to their adaptability to all they encounter.  Some of these nomads even seek the life of adventure, walking the land for days or weeks at a time without immersing themselves in water at all.  Once they do encounter water deep enough to accommodate their unique body, they tend to revel in it.  To the Reef Y'ch A'wah, nothing can replace the feeling of being fully surrounded by water.

The Desert Y'ch A'wah, those who dwell in the open ocean, tend to never come ashore.  They have all the capabilities of doing so, much like the Reef Y'ch A'wah, but just choose not to.  The closest they come is to spend time with those on boats who travel through their waters.  If there is a particularly dangerous area of ocean to travel through, they might even send for a large ship to take them across that spot instead of spending weeks traveling around it.  These Desert Y'ch A'wah tend to keep to their tribes, however, and are almost constantly on the move. Both males and females have a place in these tribes for the Desert Y'ch A'wah, since this area of the ocean tends to be so much more dangerous that it seemed to them like a bad idea to thin their numbers.  This has allowed them to survive where other, normal tribes of Y'ch A'wah have perished.

The Abyssal Y'ch A'wah, those who dwell most in the Underdeep, have no capability to walk on land, and even have a difficult time closer to the surface of the ocean.  Their more squid-like appendages have allowed them to adapt more to the higher pressures of the Underdeep and they still find themselves comfortable still in the twilight zone of the oceans.  Above that, they will feel bloated and light headed, but they never have a reason to go above the twilight zone simply because their sworn mission and, what they feel, their sole existence is in the Underdeep, protecting against the aboleths.  It's because of this adaptability to darkness that their dark vision is nearly double that of their other brethren.  Also, because of their body structure, they are completely incapable of holding themselves up on land and require an underwater environment to move.  They can still breathe air like all Y'ch A'wah, but that doesn't mean they like it at all.  Having said this, there are a couple noteworthy exceptions.  The greatest exception, however, is that some Abyssal Y'ch A'wah artificers have created some magical talismans that provide a limited flight and artificial pressure field around the user's entire bodies, which has multiple advantages: they can more easily glide through the water without expending effort, but also they are capable of moving about on land, gently floating above the ground as if they were still floating underwater.  Their speed is reduced on land with this talisman, but still, some have taken to using them to escape the life of constant battle against these monsters of the Underdeep, instead living their lives out on land or in the more sunny zones among the Reef Y'ch A'wah that would have them.

Started up a thread for the conlang, thus far I only have the sounds from the race name as well as the first part of the goddess's name broken down to leave it open to other participants.

Depends on the subrace.

The Abyssal Y'ch A'wah number roughly two million (give or take a few hundred thousand) centered around the oceanic trenches with perhaps half as many spread throughout the rest of the lightless depths. According to their sages, they once had an empire spanning the entire ocean floor until the aboleths descended from above. Now they live mostly live in smaller warbands patrolling their chosen territories hunting down any sign of their sworn enemy. In addition, they also must contend with the vile kuo-toa, who seem obsessed with taking their shrines and ruins for themselves.

The Desert Y'ch A'wah are much more populous, and in fact they are the most abundant of the subraces with well over ten million individuals. Having little contact with most other races (being one of the only race that prefers the ocean desert) means that the tribes have contact with each other more often than not. Many tribes have long-standing, ancient "breeding treaties" that tie in with trade. Essentially, it is a combination of multiple arranged marriages and trade agreement. In addition to material goods that a tribe has that another needs (and vise versa), multiple members will go from one tribe to another to ensure diverse family lines.

Lastly the Reef Y'ch A'wah range somewhere in between the other two, their populations being the most in flux. Wars will be declared, on a not uncommon basis, against sahuagin, grindylows (think goblins with the body plan of Little-Mermaid' Ursala, and with the fey type instead of humanoid), Land-Dweller pirates, or anyone else that has angered either them or Itch'khk.

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Wasn't sure where else to put this, so I'm adding it here.

The Abyssal Y'ch A'wah that live in the midnight/aphotic zone do not worship Itch'khk. Instead they worship entities called Nyriok. A merfolk explorer once described nyriok as being to goblin sharks what a mighty dragon is to a tiny lizard. Far larger, possessing an intellect that rivals the aboleth and powers over darkness that block more than sight, but sound, smell, even thoughts and magic. Worshiped as god-kings, each Nyriok rules over dozens, if not hundreds, of Y'ch A'wah warbands.

I was trying to find a good picture for the Abyssal Y'ch A'wah and this is the best I could find. More squid like lower half, less prominent head tentacles (as that would interfere with their battle skills slightly), but still generally the same look as the other Y'ch A'wah species.

I really like the way this race has evolved on the forums here. Great work, everyone!

It could also be very "stratified" where those from the upper most layer are more helpful/friendly/noble guardian types. Those in the middle tier are more indifferent - not helpful, but give warning not to delve deeper. The deepest most layer would be the marauding bands of evil kin - a tolerated necessity to protect egg nests, queens and kings, as well as the secrets of the race.

I had this laying around, for an underwater race. Started but didn't finish. With subraces based on the Octopus, Squid, and Cuddlefish.

I decided to put all the conlang work for this race on this one this one post in the Y'ch A'wah thread. So, anyway, here it is:

In any case here are the words that we currently have:
Y'ch A'wah (pronounced Itch Ow-ah)
Rengurar
Y'wah T'k
Itch'khk

For the names of individuals we have:
Mer'la

So let's break down the sounds
[Y'] produces an IT
[A'W] produces an OW
[CH] and [AH] both sound as they do in English

However, the first half of the word Itch'khk is spelled the way that Y'ch is pronounced, meaning that when spoken it sounds differently than in English. For that reason, I am saying that produces a long-i as in die.

List of Sounds
y' itchy
a'w ouch
ch change
ah ah
i die

So I think the grammar should have the following cases (in word order):

Verb (always the first word in the sentence)
Predicate Nominative
Ablative: everything else that the following cases don't follow, like in Latin
In/On/By the side of
Instrumental
Dative
Accusative
Nominative
Vocative

I think though, that everything should be known by the word order above, except for the ablative case, which would use declensions I think. Anyway, so let's say the verb to-be and the verb to-have are the same word and it's: "Iieh'a'w", and "I" is: "Y'ch". So I am an Y'ch A'wah would be:

Iieh'a'w Y'ch A'wah ych.

Note: Iieh is a sound that humans can't make, so when a human speaks it, one should pronounce it like an i and then a French r. Or, in the International Phonetic Alphabet, like this: /īX/ or something like that (I don't really know the IPA very well!)