📍 Location: Leviathan's Spine – Vault of the Drowned Fragments
His mind is lost in fragmented visions — war under water, beasts of memory, a throne of glass shattered in nine directions…
Then something new pierces the haze.
🌌 The Bond Surge
A wave of unfamiliar qi brushes his spirit — foreign, yet strangely familiar. Not hostile… curious. Young. Awakened.
Ink threads shoot upward from its pages like kelp tendrils in reverse, writhing in place. For a breathless moment, he sees through someone else's eyes:
A girl.
Alone in a beast ward.
Whisper fang — coiled like thought — stirs.
She's afraid… but unbroken.
Feng Xian gasps. The vision snaps back. He clutches his chest, staggered.
"Who was… that?"
"One who has touched the Tide… before the storm names her."
The pages turn without wind.
On a new spread, previously sealed script bleeds open, forming a delicate arch of calligraphy and diagrams. It details:
An ancient ritual: The Binding of Lesser Echoes, once used by Pavilion Founders to link fragments of Leviathan guardians to mortal hosts.
A margin note scrawled in older ink:
"Only once per reef-cycle may a Whisper be bound. If broken… the Crown splinters further."
Feng Xian realizes:
He's not the only one echoing with the Crown's call.
And something down here… has been listening.
⚠️ An Unseen Response
From the depths of the Vault chamber, a shift.
A watery veil peels back, revealing a once-hidden tunnel etched in Void Coral — a place that should not exist unless both a Fragment and a Witness are present.
"The first threshold opens. You are not alone now… but beware. The others feel her awakening too."
⚔️ Above…
The Pavilion's search party begins their descent.
At its head walks Tahlon, ever-silent, his trident shimmering with ward-light.
Behind him — unknown to most — walks Lan'Fei, her eyes flicking toward the Vault… the Whisper fang hidden beneath her sleeve.
🌿 1. The Umvani Thicket (Inspired by the Congo Rainforest)
🐉 2. The Jade Serpent Isles (Inspired by Southeast Asia)
Region: Eastern Archipelagos
Role: Chain of semi-submerged islands home to dragon in remnants and powerful storm sects. Ideal for sea-bound sects and naval conflict arcs.
Key Feature: The Sky-Split Temple ruins and ancient tempest conduits.
🌲 3. Moss dream Hollow (Inspired by the Hoh Rainforest, North America)
🏔️ 4. Shiverpeak Crown (Inspired by Mount Everest)
⛰️ 5. Shade shorn Summit (Inspired by Shishapangma)
🕳️ Shade shorn Summit
"Where silence folds' time, and the past stares back."
🌌 Region: East of the Frozen Front
Nestled in a jagged arm of the glacial highlands, Shade shorn Summit is cloaked in perpetual twilight. Even when skies are clear elsewhere, a strange haze of violet-gray clouds circles the peak like a crown. Travelers call it the "Mountain that Hides Itself," for no map can keep its location fixed.
🧘♂️ Inhabitants:
The Dusk Ward Order – A sect of reclusive Void-cultivating monks. They speak rarely, walk barefoot through snow, and train to strip the self from the soul. Their arts are rooted in memory severance and void-tempered thought forms.
Mirror-Lost Pilgrims – Occasional wanderers drawn by dreams or ancestral echoes, some of whom arrive to learn, most of whom never leave.
🕯️ Legacy & Secrets:
Relics Hidden Within:
The Vowels Cord – A dark thread that binds no oath but may tie a soul to possibility itself.
The Mind glass Bell – A relic that, when rung, forces all nearby to relive their worst memory in reverse.
Vel'Korr's Binding Stone – Said to be hidden in the Void-chasm beneath the summit, potentially linked to the Leviathan fragments below the Pavilion.
Temporal Anomalies:
Time is unreliable near the summit. Months pass in moments or hours stretch across days. Elders of the Pavilion suspect this is a side effect of long-dormant Void Elemental veins beneath the peak.
🌒 Narrative Hooks:
A dream sequence where Feng Xian is drawn to a version of himself he never became.
A rival or ally who loses their identity entirely here — and becomes a hollow vessel for something older.
🌿 Umvani Thicket
"Where roots remember, and the forest never forgets."
🌍 Region: Central Verdant Expanse
Spanning hundreds of leagues with no clear borders, the Umvani Thicket is more than forest — it is a living, evolving organism. Massive trees with hollowed-out interiors serve as homes, burial sites, and even battlegrounds. Sunlight filters through layers of glowing leaves, and the air carries the scent of sap, soil, and memory.
🧬 Key Themes:
Ancestral Memory – Trees carry the spirit-echoes of those who die beneath their boughs. Tribal shamans listen to the Whisper roots to guide their people.
Living Cultivation – Cultivators must form symbiotic pacts with the forest itself. The deeper one goes, the more alive the forest becomes — and the more it demands in return.
🐾 Notable Inhabitants:
Key Clan: Nai'Esha's people, the Vyrhala — known for bonding with spirit beasts and wielding thorn flame spears.
Spine wood Beasts – Towering apex predators with bark-like hides, crystal-plated antlers, or symbiotic fungi growing from their backs.
Some are born with Core fruit hearts, which can evolve a cultivator's Wood Dao.
🗝️ Hidden Sites & Relics:
The Root Spire Ascension – Where one must climb a sacred root-system while fending off illusory beasts born of doubt.
The Memory Pool – A calm spring that reflects one's spiritual lineage, showing the truth of one's blood — and what it once was.
Relics:
Seed core Lantern – Absorbed by Feng Xian. Contains the last living will of an ancient World Root Tree.
Crown bloom – A mythical flower that only blooms once per century under moonlight, and can reforge a dying meridian path.
Thorn brand Totem – Grants control over certain parts of the Thicket but slowly binds the bearer's soul to the forest.
🌳 Narrative Hooks:
A tribe warns Feng Xian of a coming corruption, known as the Saprotide, which poisons the Thicket from within. Could it be connected to Kai'ren's imbalance?
A rival faction — such as the Serra spine Brood — seeks to claim the Crown bloom, igniting a guerilla-style skirmish in the trees.
🐉 Jade Serpent Isles
"Where the tides sing of dragons, and jade runs in the bones of beasts."
🌊 Region: Southeastern Reaches of the Tide woven Sea
A sprawling chain of volcanic and coral-born isles with jade-colored waters and emerald cliffs, these islands are said to have formed from the scales of an ancient Sea Serpent deity who shed its skin in death. Storms strike often, but the waters hold secrets — some sleeping, some hunting.
🧬 Key Themes:
Draconic Ancestry – Legends speak of five Jade Serpent Kings; divine sea wyrms whose relics remain scattered beneath the waves.
Sect Conflict & Lost Dynasties – The archipelago hides broken sea empires, submerged palaces, and warring island-clans who follow different heirs of the dragon legacy.
🐚 Notable Factions:
The Serpent Call Covenant – An elusive sect that worships the Azure Tide Serpent, living in spiral temples carved into sea cliffs. Their art emphasizes dream-diving and current-based illusions.
Key Figure: High Oracle Mien'sha, a blind seer whose voice mimics the storm.
The Coral-Eyed Kin – A loose alliance of sea nomads and tide-beast riders. They breed Pearl Back Drakes and command floating turtle-fortresses.
Key Figure: Korrin of the Drifting Shell, who believes the isles hide one of the Seven Crowns.
The Hollow Depth Cult – A shadowy, abyssal order connected to the Dark Tide Cult. They once ruled part of the archipelago from the drowned city of Ni'Zhaal, now considered cursed.
🌊 Legendary Sites & Relics:
The Sunken Temple of Veyr – An undersea ruin protected by serpent wraiths and pressure-sensitive spirit seals. Said to hold the Coil Brand Relic, which allows one to command sea serpents for three breaths of time.
The Spiral Vault – A forbidden tomb of one of the Jade Serpent Kings. It is shaped like a spiraled shell several kilometers deep and is flooded by soul water. Entry is only possible during moonless nights.
Isle of Singing Shells – A tranquil island where giant conch shells echo with voices of the past. Pilgrims come to meditate, but some are never seen again.
🧩 Narrative Hooks:
The Tide woven Pavilion once sent a faction to study the Vault, but only one survivor returned — their mind lost and whispering in a forgotten tongue.
A rival sect seeks the Spiral Vault and attempts to provoke the Hollow Depth Cult into war, pulling Feng Xian and allies into a battle beneath the sea.
A sacred beast — Abyss Serpent Hual'thir — stirs once more, perhaps awakened by the same energy that birthed the Drowned Fragment.
🐉 Jade Serpent Isles
"Where the tides sing of dragons, and jade runs in the bones of beasts."
🌊 Region: Southeastern Reaches of the Tide woven Sea
A sprawling chain of volcanic and coral-born isles with jade-colored waters and emerald cliffs, these islands are said to have formed from the scales of an ancient Sea Serpent deity who shed its skin in death. Storms strike often, but the waters hold secrets — some sleeping, some hunting.
🧬 Key Themes:
Draconic Ancestry – Legends speak of five Jade Serpent Kings; divine sea wyrms whose relics remain scattered beneath the waves.
Sect Conflict & Lost Dynasties – The archipelago hides broken sea empires, submerged palaces, and warring island-clans who follow different heirs of the dragon legacy.
🐚 Notable Factions:
The Serpent Call Covenant – An elusive sect that worships the Azure Tide Serpent, living in spiral temples carved into sea cliffs. Their art emphasizes dream-diving and current-based illusions.
Key Figure: High Oracle Mien'sha, a blind seer whose voice mimics the storm.
The Coral-Eyed Kin – A loose alliance of sea nomads and tide-beast riders. They breed Pearl Back Drakes and command floating turtle-fortresses.
Key Figure: Korrin of the Drifting Shell, who believes the isles hide one of the Seven Crowns.
The Hollow Depth Cult – A shadowy, abyssal order connected to the Dark Tide Cult. They once ruled part of the archipelago from the drowned city of Ni'Zhaal, now considered cursed.
🌊 Legendary Sites & Relics:
The Sunken Temple of Veyr – An undersea ruin protected by serpent wraiths and pressure-sensitive spirit seals. Said to hold the Coil Brand Relic, which allows one to command sea serpents for three breaths of time.
The Spiral Vault – A forbidden tomb of one of the Jade Serpent Kings. It is shaped like a spiraled shell several kilometers deep and is flooded by soul water. Entry is only possible during moonless nights.
Isle of Singing Shells – A tranquil island where giant conch shells echo with voices of the past. Pilgrims come to meditate, but some are never seen again.
🧩 Narrative Hooks:
The Tide woven Pavilion once sent a faction to study the Vault, but only one survivor returned — their mind lost and whispering in a forgotten tongue.
A rival sect seeks the Spiral Vault and attempts to provoke the Hollow Depth Cult into war, pulling Feng Xian and allies into a battle beneath the sea.
A sacred beast — Abyss Serpent Hual'thir — stirs once more, perhaps awakened by the same energy that birthed the Drowned Fragment.
❄️ Mirror borne Veil / Everest
[West] 🌿 Umvani Thicket —— Ember heart Realms 🔥 —— Jade Isles 🌊 [East]
🌿 Verdant Maw / Blyde Canyon [South]
🐉 The Jade Serpent Isles Arc – Setup
📍 Region Description:
Geography: A scattered chain of mist-shrouded islands with towering cliffs, jade-green waters, and winding mangrove rivers. Dense rainforests wrap around flooded temple ruins, serpent totems, and sacred pools.
Mystical Element: The islands pulse with an ancient Water-Wood duality, ideal for beast tamers, poison cultivators, and spirit-channelers.
🐍 Factions and Groups:
The Serpent root Kin
Beliefs: Worship the twin deities of Tides and Growth. Each generation seeks to awaken their "Scale of Ancience."
Notables:
Matriarch Yan'Hui – Elder seer with jade antlers and half-serpent form.
Luo Fen – A half-tamer, half-fighter who may become an uneasy ally or rival.
Storm coil Sect
Specialty: Channel storm currents and venom through spear tip formations.
Secret Goal: Secure the Spiral Vault, said to be buried within the Storm-Eye Atoll.
Enemies: Serpent root Kin and Tide woven Pavilion.
The Broken Fang Corsairs
Rogues and traitors from various sects. Serve the highest bidder or ancient deep-sea entities.
May already be hunting a Sea-Glass Keystone that links to the Spiral Vault.