#trevorskullcrafter

[trevorskullcrafter]

An Investigation of the Under-Land, by Merlin Aubert

Though many are familiar and comfortable with the world's four continents, each of them brimming with a unique history, it seems possible or even likely that there is an elusive fifth continent somewhere out of reach for us land-dwellers. Sunken in a time long before recorded history and hidden deep below the Vantanic Ocean's surface ever since, this land would no doubt have limitless value to us historians and help us to understand far more about the planet we inhabit.

Due to this continent's purely theoretical existence, it currently has no official name. Those investigating it have called it by a variety of monikers, such as Astralea, the Under-Land, and quite tastelessly, Vantlantis. For the purposes of simplicity, in this documentation I shall refer to it as the Under-Land, as I consider that name the most vague (and therefore, intriguing) of the three.

Now that the basics have been covered, I feel I should address the fae in the chamber. "But, Merlin, how can one document what has never been discovered?" Fret not, dear reader, for I have an answer: raw speculation. Ongoing investigations of the Under-Land are exceptionally dry at the time of writing, you see, yet it is vital even now to document every discovery in the event that they prove useful in future endeavors. As such, I shall be founding my words on current discoveries combined with my own historical knowledge, to hopefully reach a conclusion that is at least somewhat cohesive.

Geography

The rumors of a landmass that once laid above the abyss first began around the discovery of tectonic shift more than six centuries ago, in a time when suggesting that the Earth was not the center of the universe could land one atop a burning stake. As our records show, Sylean cartographer Raphael Salandor was tasked with drawing the first full map of the world, combining works from across the four continents onto a single parchment. It was recorded that at multiple points, Salandor remarked that the continents would fit together quite remarkably, and even proposed a fifth that could have existed long ago. This drew the attention of the historians of that time, who, in collaboration with Raphael Salandor himself, formed a society whose name translates literally to the "League of Blue-Footed Men." Once the League finished Salandor's map, tectonic plates and leylines included, they began to advertise it to all within an ear's reach in the hopes of enlightening them to the truth.

After the group's mass execution for reported treason to the Emperor, the incident was quickly swept under the rug. An unknown artist was commissioned to recreate the map without its unwarranted details, attributing the work to Salandor himself. Though we cannot know what happened to the original map, we do know that the League of Blue-Footed Men was accurate in its theory of tectonic shift. Thus, it can be assumed that if one is able to find this old map, they would know whether this lost continent truly exists.

Archaeology

Undersea archaeology has been a hobby of mine for more than a decade, and I feel that I should explain just how I and my predecessors go about it. You see, dear reader, though I lack gills, I happen to know a method to breathe underwater for a time. It involves a unique spell that envelops its user in a thin bubble of air while in water, allowing for extended trips beneath the waves without any fear of drowning. The amount of pressure the bubble can sustain (and therefore, the maximum depth one can reach) is limited, but to be able to investigate underwater ruins at all is a privilege I would not reject.

I have managed to find a curious set of shipwrecks by using this spell, each one tracing back to the coastline of each continent facing the Vantanic Ocean. Despite coming from entirely different places, each one of these ships carried artifacts of a bizarre material that I still have yet to identify. I had planned to show the set to a D'allamari friend of mine (being a goblin and an alchemist, his skills in material identification are unmatched), but the Grand Iraltine Museum seized the artifacts before I had the chance. All I know for certain, I am afraid, is that this substance was pale and durable. It reminded me of the clay pots my mother would put on the windowsills of my childhood home to make it seem more valuable. Could this material be from a civilization from the Under-Land itself, thriving deep below our feet without anyone knowing? Or is it simply a form of clay, bleached by the Vantanic Ocean's extreme conditions?

Ichthyology

Though the world of zoology is well beyond my particular realm of understanding, I was recently approached by a former colleague by the name of Darius Forgraven, who happens to study the life of the seas. He offered to provide some information that would prove useful to this documentation if I spied on his fiancée while he studied the fish of Hotryn's Reach overseas, so naturally I accepted.

In Darius' and his peers' study of abyssal life, they found a variety of fish and other creatures which lived in high-pressure environments deep under the surface of the Cardinal Sea. Due to the lack of light at this level, some of these species evolve to give off their own light in order to attract food sources or potential mates, while others are completely blind as they have adapted other ways to survive their environment. Curiously though, these adaptations are far less commonly seen in what washes up from the Vantanic Ocean, despite its waters reaching far deeper than those in the Cardinal Sea. This implies the existence of another natural light source in the depths, perhaps one having to do with the volcanic activity of a lost continent. That is only speculation, though, as once again, I know very little about zoology.

Astrology

In my desperate attempts to learn more about the Under-Land, I have enlisted the aid of priests and occultists alike, hoping to gain a lead I could explore in future journeys. Though some were quite unscrupulous (and perhaps somewhat greedy), there are two interactions in particular with these types that perplexed me.

The first was with an oracle, who spoke of a "seed of life" in the deep oceans. Whether this has natural or supernatural value I cannot yet be sure, but I can speculate that perhaps the amphibians that we humans evolved from were, in turn, evolved from the fish of the Vantanic Ocean after exposure to the environmental conditions of the Under-Land (with these unique conditions being the so-called "Seed of Life").

The second meeting I had was a year later, with the librarian of the Grand Iraltine Museum. I had the pleasure of meeting this man whilst attempting to recover the artifacts that were stolen from my collection, an incident I have written about in a prior text. He was a stern fellow, proper in posture and in etiquette, and seemed to take interest in my search for the Under-Land. He remarked that I should take a look in the section of the library marked 'Supernatural History', but despite my search, I could find no section with that name. I ventured to ask the librarian if he had perhaps misspoken, to find that the man had vanished entirely. Of course at first I assumed this was but a sly prank, an insult to my investigation on an entirely unseen region of our world, but when I spoke to my colleagues about the matter, they seemed confused, and replied that they had visited that section of the library on prior occasions. Needless to say, the entire ordeal left me speechless for some time, and I still have yet to understand exactly what it all meant.

Conclusions and Final Speculation

I firmly believe, based on present evidence, that the Under-Land truly does exist. Beyond that, however, the facts become as murky as a botched cup of feathercorn tea. What catastrophic event could have caused an entire continent to sink into the abyss that is the Vantanic Ocean? Are the waters indeed the origin of all life on Earth? If so, could some ancient civilization have existed on the surface of the Under-Land, producing relics outside the realm of us surface-dwellers' understanding? Perhaps there are still active volcanoes on the continent's surface, billowing out light along with a sort of primordial soup that the local fauna thrives off of. Perhaps I am being too optimistic about my theories, and all can be explained away with an uninteresting natural phenomenon. Or perhaps, as one of my less clever readers has suggested, it is all due to 'aliens' from 'outer space.'

From a humble explorer and historian, thank you for reading, and I sincerely hope you will join me in my further investigations into the peculiarities of this world we call our own.