The held sea
| The held sea | |
|---|---|
 Concept art 04: the sea standing as walls of water | |
| Type | Lore: supernatural phenomenon |
| Location | Beneath the Glavica, levels L2–L5 |
| Cause | The source (identity Unconfirmed — awaiting the director) |
| Status | Working rule (the director may change it) |
The held sea is the one great break of nature in the first demo: beneath the Glavica, the sea is held back, and where the rock opens onto it, it stands as a vertical wall of water.
What it is
- Something, the source, rests on a cut Illyrian dais in the deepest chamber under the headland. It holds the dead on the headland, and it holds back the sea.
- Every dry space below sea level under the Glavica is dry only because of it. Porous karst under a harbour should flood; this doesn't.
- It was there before the sanctum: the Iron Age Delmatae found it and built around it.
How it shows
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| L1, the family crypt | painted damp: tide-line stains low on the walls, wet floor joints; the lamps still burn |
| L2, the catacombs | salt bloom on the seaward walls, brine seeps into floor channels, and one cold sheen line along a seam in raw rock |
| L3, the cave | the first standing held water: a still, clear pool; the sunken stair runs down through it between two walls of water, with fish and drifting silt |
| L4, the sanctum | the court of the held sea: a 22 m mouth onto a drowned cave, the sea standing as a face |
| L5, the chamber | behind the source, a 20 × 16 m wall of water, bulging slightly outward; adds walk out of it |
Each face stands vertical, with drifting silt, a slight outward bulge and fish.
Its rules
- Reach: the cemetery walls and everything under the headland. Outside it, nature and physics hold. The town is safe.
- One light: a cold, dim, low-saturation glow, used only at the source and at the held water. No glowing runes on every wall, no crystals, no wet shine everywhere.
- What it doesn't do: it doesn't float stones, turn gravity, or light the dungeon.
- Geology stays true everywhere else: real karst, a tidal brackish pool at sea level, no rivers flowing uphill.
Unconfirmed
- What the source is, and who the boss is.
- Whether the held water creeps in once the boss falls (offered as an option; the default is that the water stays and the source dims).
See also
Sources: docs/plan/level_02_fishing_town_plan.md §5; docs/towns/island1/stara_luka_mausoleum.md §00, §3, §7, §10; docs/decisions.md (10:45, 17:35, 18:05) Last updated: 2026-09-29 (WIKI-1)
Categories: Lore & History · Magic