Wrack

Wrack
A city of sunken ships. Art from Sunless Sea.
Location	Stonesoul Isles
Alias	The City of Delights
Affiliation	The Fair King
Music	Lowlands

"Ships lured in by false promises and lights litter the zee-floor. Their broken hulls make a city for the wreckers. The citizens are in constant motion, working to survive and appease the Fair King, who sits deep within the city on his wheeled throne."

Wrack is a city of sunken ships under the zee.

Sunken Delights

"Ships have always sunk into the zee. Zailors have always drowned. But there was once a strong ship which did not fall to the ordinary fate.

It was swallowed by the waves, and all hands were presumed lost. But it was not so. By their captain's leadership, the crew survived their own destruction and made a home in the wreck at the bottom of the zee. In time, the captain became the Queen, and - through blasting powder and treachery - managed not only to provide for the city, but to expand it."

Wrack is the home of the infamous pirate Wreckers, who use shipwrecks to lure unsuspecting zubmarines in before they can realize that their enemy's crew is very much alive. The pirates' Wreckship will then either sink the ship, or be sunk itself. Even a destroyed Wreckship is dangerous; the inhabitants have an annoying habit of playing dead when boarded.

Above the Zee, the Wreckers have a more devious goal. They travel from port to port, promising riches and glory to ship crews, and that all they will need to do is sail to Wrack. Once there, the ships are then attacked and sunk to add to the city, and to the ever-dwindling resources of the Wreck Fleets.

Wrack was founded by a captain of a particularly durable ship. The ship's crew managed to survive after their ship sank, and the captain declared herself the Queen of Wrack before starting her career as an under-zee pirate to claim further territory. The Queen lacked an heir, so she adopted motherless children that she thought would make worthy successors.

Tethered Lives

"That's tether for you. Sometimes people find each other."

The inhabitants of Wrack cultivate an unusual weed called tether, which grows on the broken hulls of the ships the Wreckers destroy. Consuming tether grants a vision of someone else's life, sometimes from the past or the future. It might even grant a vision from the surface, or from the High Wilderness. But there's always a consistent theme: the people one can see through tether are always accompanied by someone else, like a friend or lover.

The Fair King

"We are not strangers, you and I. Taste the tether and see for yourself."

The Fair King

Seemingly leaping straight out of a fairy tale, the beautiful Fair King leads the Wreckers from his throne room deep in Wrack. He'll offer outsiders a taste of tether... for a small (but is it really?) price of luring ships to their doom.

The Fair King has lived so many lives using tether-vision that he is very knowledgeable of the secrets and politics of the Neath, despite the fact that the King never leaves his throne room, let alone Wrack. Consuming so much tether, however, causes him to have identity issues.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

"At the rear of his chamber, the Fair King keeps a mirror made of ice. It holds a reflection - neither yours nor his, but that of a narrow, bespectacled gentleman."

"I am never sure what it is we are seeing. The gentleman's hopes? His fears? He certainly seems to have an ambitious imagination."

The Mirror's Reflection

Behind the Fair King's throne is Wrack's greatest treasure, a most mysterious frozen mirror taken from Frostfound. This mirror doesn't show the Fair King, you, or anyone else's reflection. Rather, it shows a bespectacled man; a vision of the future where the Bazaar is a "blasted ruin" and "DEATH HATH NO MORE DOMINION;" and a vision of the past, where the man shares flasks of Hesperidean Cider with men and women from the Surface "in the spirit of liberty, equality, and eternity".