The Sunken City

Overview

The Sunken City is the name sailors give to the drowned capital of the merfolk. Once a thriving center of trade and wonder during the Age of Light, it was destroyed during the Fall of Eedrasil (52 BFE). The ruins were later seized by sirens, who turned them into their stronghold beneath the western seas.

Today, in Year 22, the existence of sirens is beyond doubt, but the Sunken City itself lingers in legend. Some believe it is a myth invented to explain the sirens’ rise, while others fear it as the very heart of their power.

Age of Light

• Under Quintra’s peace, the merfolk emerged as open participants in the world’s prosperity.
• They traded freely with landfolk, exchanging pearls, coralwork, sea-fruits, and medicines for forged goods and metals they could not produce themselves.
• To strike a bargain with the merfolk was considered a mark of prestige among captains. Many noble houses still claim heirlooms said to come from merfolk hands.
• Their dominion over the seas made travel between the Xaverion islands and the lost continent safe and profitable.

The Fall of Eedrasil (52 BFE)

• When Eedrasil fell, the merfolk capital was attacked and destroyed.
• Survivors were scattered to hidden coves, lakes, and rivers, never again to unify.
• Sirens rose in the aftermath, claiming the Sunken City as their lair. Though they did not yet strike openly, the seas grew steadily more perilous.

The Rise of the Sirens (14)

• A sea-captain, having glimpsed the ruins of the Sunken City, sent a bird-borne message:

“The Sunken City is no myth. I have seen its ruins, and I know the way. I sail for Serinhal to bring proof. Pray the sea lets me reach you.”

• The note reached Meriquy, but the captain never arrived. By then, Serinhal had already been swallowed by the sea in a single night.
• The timing convinced many that the sirens had acted in retribution, cementing their dominion of the seas.

Present Day (Year 22)

• Among Sailors:
  The Sunken City is universally known in story and superstition. Some avoid speaking its name, muttering only “the Nest” or “the Black Shoal.”
  • “Name the City, lose the shore.”
  • “To chart the City is to chart your grave.”
• Among Common Folk:
  Few distinguish merfolk from sirens anymore. For most, tales of the Sunken City are either dismissed as fable or treated as a reminder of the sea’s cruelty.
• Among Scholars:
  A handful of fragments of the captain’s note survive, preserved in Meriquy. Scholars argue over its authenticity, but its timing with Serinhal’s fall remains difficult to ignore.

Merfolk Relics

• True merfolk artifacts are exceedingly rare, most having been destroyed or lost during the Dark Ages.
• In the present day:
  • Common folk regard them as cursed siren trinkets and fear them.
  • Sailors spit and turn away from them, calling them bad luck.
  • Scholars debate whether any surviving piece is genuine or forgery.
• Among the nobility of the Xaverion islands, whispered rumors persist of hidden vaults that hold merfolk treasures, kept secret for fear of being branded cursed.

Legacy

The Sunken City represents both the height and the loss of the merfolk: an age of open trade and safety, drowned in war and betrayal. To this day, its ruins haunt the imagination of sailors and scholars alike — a place both feared and coveted, where the truth of the seas still lies hidden.