GLOGtober '23 - 1: Lord of The Deep - The Kraken

Since it's October that means it's GLOGtober! You can find the prompts here.

 

 Lord of The Deep - The Kraken

To many surface dwellers, when they think of the frigid waves and dark depths they think only of The Kraken, the terrible Tyrant Sire, the Sun Drowner, the Lord of Rusted Chains. They know little of the mysteries that lie in those benthic depths, for even fewer can make the journey to report on such a remote and deadly locale.

The Kraken’s Brood

One cannot say that the depths are not home to the children of The Kraken, twisted creatures that swim in waters from the surfaces waves to the abyssal trenches. Here we will not concern ourselves with these monsters of the higher depths, but rather those that reside in the pitch darkness.

Most famous of all is The Imperator Trench, the legendary home of that great demon, The Kraken himself. An immense creature, this wound in the rock is the bed upon which he rests, from which his will is enacted.

Few mortals are invited to visit, making reports of the location vague and contradictory. Many refer to it as “The Garden”, with tales of great forests of tube worms, mosaics of mussels, forests of coral, all illuminated by great swirling bioluminescent spawn of their master. While the ocean basin is often a desert, The Imperator Trench is an oasis in this benthic wasteland.

The Wives

Perhaps the most famous of his brood as The Wives, those surface dwellers who swear themselves to his will. Scholars and storytellers are often know the first stages of this tale, of a man who swears himself to The Lord of Rusted Chains in exchange for revenge. Slowly he hears the call of the sea until he cannot separate from it, eventually disappearing into the crashing. What they know not of is the metamorphosis that occurs as they swim to join their master in the inky darkness below.

To survive in his garden they must adapt to swim in that yawning black abyss, as their eyes stretch and widen, growing into milky dishes to better see their prey. Teeth and nails sharpen as their diet must shift, a raw hunger to consume others fills them, joined by an equal desire to simply cause harm. Not only must they contend with a lack of air, but they must eventually learn to do so under the crushing pressure of the waves. While gills are quick to form out of necessity, as the long journey down begins the lungs themselves begin to atrophy, a vestigial reminder of what once was.

Eventually they will reach their master, called to their new home by his cruel song. In his presence they will twist and change further, taking another step on the path of metamorphosis. For some their eyes will grow out on great stalks as their hands split down the middle as bone emerges, forming great pincers as chitin encases them. Many slowly let their bones slide out of their skin, allowing for a plethora of new possibilities. Some will slowly drift down to the ocean vents, planting themselves in the stone and on the silt, encasing themselves in a long tube of bone as their new tubular form filters nutrients from the water. Others follow in the footsteps of their master, taking his visage of his children as their limbs multiply and beaks form.

Yet in time they will all join with The Lord of Rusted Chains, fusing themselves to his hide as he takes their last offering to his glory. Drained of their soul they are finally freed of service, fulfilling his last commandment. For eons he has continued this horrid cycle, and those who know the dark secret reckon he must be greater than the mountains themselves for all he has taken.

 

Krakenfall

The abominations of The Tyrant Sire are many, in a multitude of twisting shapes of those horrors from beneath. While many are of his lineage, there are also those twisted to his cause. To eat the flesh of The Lord of Rusted Chains or his brood is to invite his wicked power into your heart and soul. Thus when one of his brood fall a seed of evil is planted in an event known as a Krakenfall.

When one of those creatures named after their father and their related ilk are slain their fresh corpse becomes a vile feast for the hungry creatures of the sea. It isn’t long before the sea life around a Krakenfall twist into vicious creatures, a final retribution against those hoping to clear their waters. Many a desperate village has slain a lesser kraken in their bay, only to be overrun by waves of monstrous sea life in the coming months. Professional kraken hunters know better and make sure to slay their quarry over the deep sea, where the body may sink into the quiet abyss below.