below is a listing of various locations in the Sea of Flowers that we've mentioned, so we're not dropping too many contextless proper nouns in other pages. these index pages are sort of a perpetual work in progress where we add information as we get around to it instead of trying to make a cohesive writeup, so information is likely to get added and changed and sometimes removed over time!
the Sea of Flowers
in its most broad (and common) usage, the Sea of Flowers is the primary landmass of the known world: a large island isolated from whatever might lie beyond it by the unnavigable Great Ocean1. more narrowly, it can also refer to the inhabited segments of that landmass, or to the specific lands under the jurisdiction of the Confederal Assembly, contrasting it with the Sea of Zero and the less-directly controlled areas around Camp, respectively.
a good chunk of the Sea of Flowers is in some way governed by the Confederation of the Sea of Flowers, a loose overarching government that various polities send assemblydudes to to help coordinate inter-polity affairs. it tends to govern at arms length and can be really informal for a government at times.
the Free City of Loëz
/'loʊ.ɛz/, LOH-ehz
Loëz is the largest settlement within the Sea of Flowers, located on the steep banks of the upper Opal River. its position as a prominent neutral entity not too far from a lot of other settlements led to it becoming the seat of the Confederal Assembly (altho being one of the major advocates for confederation to begin with helped too). it maintains uplinks with both the Tengexw and Thelexset beamrail networks2, and maintains its own municipal rail network. there's a sizeable number of stores and adventurer bulletin boards within the city, including the Loëz Hour Store, the Request Desk, and the main office of the Reformed Adventurers' Union.
Critical Hill
Critical Hill is the private estate of the Tengexw Family, located on the sunbound outskirts of Loëz. while Sr. Tengexw and other members of the family active in the rail guild often move around the confederation for convenience, Critical Hill has been the center of the family for at least four generations.
Closehaven
/'kloʊ:z.heɪ.vn̩/, KLOUZ-hay-vən
Closehaven is a moderately large settlement on the coast, near the mouth of the Opal River. the Tengexw Rail Guild are functionally in control of the town, and while their main office is technically in Loëz, the Tengexw Company Store in Closehaven is their largest, and unofficially their base of operations.
on one day in 1996, a mysterious figure will appear in Closehaven and apply for a job in the adventuring division of the Tengexw Rail Guild.
the Sunbound Plain
the Sunbound Plain is a large meadow on the sunbound3 side of the Opal River, historically dominated by the hive arcologies located across it. it remains the center of flower cultivation in the Confederation, and the arcologies are still prominent population and economic centers.
Kvivitézr
/'kvɪ.vɪ.dʰɛ.zɹ̩/, KVI-vi-de-zər
one of the larger arcologies of the Sunbound Plain. their most prominent specialty flower breed is Rock Holly, a large, offwhite flower with a purpley-green iridescent band. its government is notable for being among the most devolved of the arcologies, with the city's mingosi only controlling the flower monopoly and most other powers held by an elected citizen council.
Klasktézr
/'klaʃ.dʰɛ.zɹ̩/, KLASH-de-zər
another fairly large arcology in the Sunbound Plain. its biggest specialty flower is the Cocoa Kozmos, a small chocolate-scented brownish flower. it has a high heapfolk population, on account of its proximity to Pãnukon Meadow.
Pãnukon Meadow
/'pæ̃.nə.kɑn ˌmɛ.doʊ/, PÃ-nə-kahn MEH-doh
Pãnukon Meadow is the largest single settlement of heapfolk, built around the heapfolk spawn field by support communities for newly-awoken heapfolk. over time it's grown closer with the hive system, and there's a lot of interchange between the Meadow and the hives. while not as guarded as the hive flower monopolies, there are flower operations in Pãnukon Meadow as well.
Soułxén
/'soʊɬ.ʃən/, SOHLH-shən
Soułxén is a town in what used to be the Emusikta Court before it was dissolved 115 years ago, in CC 1881. while Emusikta was generally majority hernite, Soułxén has had at least a plurality keäton population for most of its existence.
the Ansika Court
/'an.sɪ.ka/, AHN-sih-kah
the Ansika Court is an old hernite court with only two settlements: Nokola-sen /no.'ko.la.sen/, no-KO-lah-sehn, the current home of its ruling justice, and Uxkeya-kol /ʊʃ.'ke.ja.koɫ/, uush-KEH-yah-kol, a historical capital with only a handful of people left living in it. Uxkeya-kol has attracted more adventurers recently due to rumors that there's a relic chamber hidden somewhere in the town, altho the handful of people there are kinda annoyed about the amount of people snooping around for the entrance.
the ruling Ansika family claims to have a documented history dating back to before the Heavenly Schism, but these are spotty at best reliable records only go back to the CC 1700s4. while the current justice, Noyona I Ansika, is still in good (enough) health, his elder son, who would be next in line to the justiceship, is missing.
Niṣkurun
/'niʃ.kɯ.ɹɯn/, NEESH-kuu-ruun
Niṣkurun is a small stopover town along the Opal River, with a ferry port and a beamrail station along a major artery of the Thelexset network.
Ansible Garden
Ansible Garden is a community on the shores of the similarly-named Ansible Lake, home to the single known mass site of sleeping constructs, and built up from small encampments made by construct support networks. the town is known for its large communal gardens and ardent anti-guild inclination, with most of their assemblydudes advocating for confederal management of the beamrail system to some extent. its single uplink to the beamrail network runs along Ansible Road, a trail connecting the Garden with the town of Noctilu, and is managed by the Institute for Meteoërgy.
the Glass Desert
the Glass Desert is a dry basin located on the ashebound side of the Sea of Flowers. an anomalous eternal thunderstorm continuously migrates across it, creating large chunks of glass in its path. sometimes, the glass forms a bowl that floods with rainwater5, temporarily forming what are referred to as glass puddles, which serve as temporary hubs for people living in the basin6.
Charkalyonǵ
/'tʃar.gal.jɔŋᵓ/, CHAHR-gahl-yongw
Charkalyonǵ is a prominent waystation in the Glass Desert, built around a large glass puddle from a particularly large movement of the eternal storm. it's a major stopover for members of various processions, and for people from the rest of the confederation.
Tengexw Rail Guild have recently opened a beamrail line connecting the town to their network, after a lot of conflict with Thelexset Rail Guild over traversal and engine acquisition.
Camp
the less established, outlying parts of the Confederation are mostly grouped together as a single administrative unit referred to as Camp. most settlements in Camp are independent, disconnected frontier towns with no strong ties elsewhere, and they're generally left to their own devices by the Confederal government beyond the rare internal improvement. due to its nature, "Camp" as an entity hasn't historically been a place many people identify as being from, but recently more of its inhabitants have started to identify with it as a polity in its own right, leading to increased growth in Camp Sovereignty manifests.
Camp is also the point where the lines between different interpretations of what the Sea of Flowers is start to blur together. it's boundaries are only defined as "the outlying areas of the Sea of Flowers", and functionally it only exists within the area of towns and routes claimed by the Confederation. maybe it doesn't matter too much in the end?
Noctilu
/'nɑ:k.tɪl.u:/, NAHK-til-oo
Noctilu is the largest settlement within Camp, the home of the Institute for Meteoërgy, and a major hub for adventuring work in the area. the town government (mostly controlled by the Institute) runs an independent beamrail network connecting to a few research stations and Ansible Garden. there have been discussions about whether or not they should expand the network further out and possibly even try to compete with the guilds more actively.
Shutters
/'ʃət̚.ɝs/, SHƏT-urs
Shutters is a small settlement and research station near Noctilu with a high slime population.
the Sea of Viscera
the Sea of Viscera is a biome-sized mass of flesh in the far ashebound region of the Sea of Flowers that has formed a swamp-like ecosystem around it. while it falls squarely outside of Confederal jurisdiction, trade between its sparse population and nearby confederal polities for supplies, plus missionary efforts from the Church of the Divine Wounded, mean it's pretty well-known, though not well-visited.
the Sea's main inhabitants are members of the Church of the Divine Wounded, who view the land as an injured deity they must attend to until it recovers. nobody really knows what exactly the Sea is, but it's almost certainly alive, so what exactly will happen when it recovers is really up in the air.
Inola's Church
/ɪ:.'noʊ.ləz tʃɝtʃ/, ih-NOH-ləz CHURTCH
Inola's Church is the primary settlement of the Sea of Viscera, serving as the center of the Communities of the Wounded. most of the city is connected by wooden walkways built above the floor of the viscera, with the namesake Church located in the center of town. Inola's Church (the building) is the town's main community center and place of worship, and also serves as a regulatory center for cultivation of rose hip within the Communities.
in a vacuum the town's architectural style of white-painted wood wouldn't stick out much, but the contrast against the landscape and general apathy towards wiping splatters of blood off of buildings makes the place pretty memorable to visitors.
the Sea of Zero
the Sea of Zero is the nearly uninhabited region of the island poleward from the bulk of the Sea of Flowers. the terrain this far out quickly destabilizes7, with structures and paths forming and shifting between trips, and geographic anomalies frequently cropping up. scattered reports from adventurers, myths about the Sea, and the prospect of finding huge numbers of artefacts all drive professional adventurers and other treasure-seekers to explore in the hopes they'll find something within, despite the danger in doing so.
among the many things thought to lie undiscovered in the Sea is the last remaining gate from the Cinnabar era, still intact and waiting to be reactivated to cross the sky into Ashe once again.
Hereafter
/'hi:ɹ.æf.tɹ̩/, HEER-af-tər
Hereafter is a small, remote settlement just within the edge of the Sea of Zero within a stable zone. the town was initially founded by members of an adventurers' mutiny and is mostly inhabited by veteran adventurers. it can be hard to reach at times, but the path(s) to it are fairly well marked and maintained despite shifting, and the settlement is the only real resting point for people looking to explore deeper into the Sea.
