The Inksand Sea - Introduction

Introduction

This setting has been cooking in my head for a while and I gotta get it out onto paper lest it overcooks.

The Inksand Sea is a high-weirdness nautical setting heavily inspired by Sunless Sea and a plethora of Soulslike games. The players are sailors sailing a sea of darkness, formed from the collective unconscious of those that dream the world into being, where everything forgotten eventually ends. They sail between points of light, form communities, explore strange islands and investigate ruins that emerge from the dark.

The key conceit of the setting is that Thoughts form both Light and Reality. The darkness comes in the form of the mutable inksand, which shifts and changes forms from shifty smoke to solid sand when exposed to light and thought. As your light dims and you lose focus of yourself, the literal floor beneath you becomes more shifty and will eventually swallow you into the shadow.

Settlements form around both bright sources of light and around those with sufficient forces of will to shape reality around them, forming esoteric communities shaped by their whims and beliefs.

If ever run, will probably be done using The Electrum Archive (focusing on dungeon delving forgotten civilisations in the dark) or a hack of Wildsea (focusing on journeying between points of light across the sea of darkness).

Inspirations

- Shadowdark

- Wildsea

- Fallen London, Sunless Seas, Sunless Skies

- Tegami Bachi

- Puparia

- Hollow Knight

- Blades In The Dark

- Wandering Inn

- Troika

- Downcrawl

- Ultraviolet Grasslands

- Cess & Citadel

- Electrum Archives

- Ave Nox

- Veins of The Earth

- Jungian philosophy

- Vast in the Dark

Truths:

The Darkness is a Sea

Though made of mutable inksand rather than water, the darkness still act as a sea in many ways; there are waves (formed by shifting dunes of sand), ports (built around tiny points of light) and a vast number of ships (their light shining through the dark). While it's possible to move through the sand without a vessel of some kind, to do so for any length of time is a huge risk.

Light is Scarce and Valuable

Lighthouses and large deposits of bioluminescent carcasses or plants act as islands and archipelagos, fiercely guarded by their inhabitants. The settlements built around these fading light sources are anachronistic, incapable of being placed in history or time. A settlement could easily be a week old or a millennia. Once you leave the radius of light of a settlement you may never see it again as the sands shift and change.

Thought becomes reality

The inksand responds to force of will and light, becoming more solid when focused upon. The material goes from immaterial smoke, to ink and to sand depending on how strongly it is observed. Powerful minds can shape inksand and form entire realms known as alcazars with the material. Anything that is not concentrated upon is swallowed by the darkness and lost.

Burning thoughts form light

Ink that has absorbed powerful thoughts and emotions form Logos, a liquid fuel that emits bright light when burnt. All inksand within the radius of light becomes solid, allowing settlements to exist and ships to sail the darkness. 

Chromatic Aberrations Prowl The Sea

These monochromatic beasts form the most dangerous forms of wildlife in the Inksand Sea. Abstract thoughts and fears coalesce into these bizarre creatures whose biologies reflect the thoughts that originated them. Fear of fire often forms red-orange beasts with blood that bursts into flame and fangs that sear as they sink into the flesh. And of course, there is the fear of the dark...