Friday Lore Post: Kraken

Every language on the planet Nova contains the word “kraken.” It is globally translatable and always refers to the same concept: huge, mysterious monsters that live in the deepest reaches of the darkest parts of the oceans. Though everyone knows they exist, very little is known about the kraken as a species, even by their closest neighbours, the merpeople.

The kraken mostly inhabit the Kraken Field, or the Dark Waters, the area around the continent of Djyekkan over which no ships can safely sail and through which nobody can safely swim. This is known to be the largest population centre for kraken, but they have also been known to inhabit deep ravines, most notably Kesk Doskoske, Nova’s longest and deepest ravine and by far the deepest part of any ocean on the planet. Though they rarely emerge from their homes in the present day, they were known to have done so in the past. The kraken’s history of violent power struggles with dragons, hydras and other large sea monsters is well documented across Nova’s oceans, and the ocean’s surface the planet over is scattered with fossils and other archaeological records of fights between kraken and other large species.

The kraken have fought the merpeople on multiple occasions. For centuries they were considered a very real danger to all merpeople everywhere, but in recent centuries, that has changed somewhat. Since the Kraken Incursions in JR 3030, when kraken emerged en masse from the Kraken Field in response to an invasion of their territory by merpeople investigating the newly discovered landmass in the centre of the Field, the kraken have been regarded as dangerous but contained by treaties. The Incursions lasted several years and were devastating for the imperia nearest the Field, but eventually the kraken were fought back (albeit with a lot of help from a lot of local dragons). After this event, the merpeople were able to strike up a discussion with the kraken, and agree to a mutual nonaggression pact so long as the two peoples kept to their own parts of the ocean. This pact was temporarily jeopardized by the Sea King’s appearance in JR 4695, when the kraken chose to aid him in his attempt to conquer the seas, and, upon losing, were forced to make reparations in the form of allowing merperson scientists to study the Kraken Field and the continent within. The reason why the kraken chose to ally with the Sea King remains unknown, though it is presumed to be because he offered them total dominion over the submarine portion of the ocean. Now that he has returned, all underwater eyes are on them out of concern that they will resume this alliance, but they have shown no signs of interest in doing so.

Almost everything that is known about kraken biology has been gleaned from fossils or dead bodies from the Incursions. An adult kraken is roughly twice the size of an adult female dragon on average. They generally appear as cephalopods with tentacles ranging from twenty to two hundred, though other shapes have been known to exist among the kraken; sometimes they have appeared as humanoid figures with tentacles on their faces, and others as six-legged creatures with long tails and tentacles all down the front and sides. There is no apparent meaning attributed by the kraken to this morphodiversity; kraken of all shapes have been observed doing all manner of things with no clear hierarchy between them. Internally they are roughly similar to other cephalopods, though they do not appear to have a gastrointestinal system of any kind, and several dead kraken were discovered to have a second brain in place of a stomach.

It is hypothesized that this second brain is what allows the kraken to communicate telepathically with each other and with everyone else. They do not have a spoken language, though some observers have suggested their telepathic language is partially gestural as well, which has been posited as a reason why communication with them is often filled with gaps, which theoretically shouldn’t be possible with telepathy. Communication with a kraken is generally done through a series of images and memories implanted into the person’s head, though how the kraken interpret responses is unknown. The kraken are hypothesized to communicate telepathically on a global scale, with all of them being connected to each other at all times, and many researchers have suggested that they may operate as a hive mind.

This is not entirely correct in the traditional sense. The kraken do share a species-wide telepathic link and do work in tandem, but they are not a hive mind in the truest sense of being drones to a higher power. Their society is fully egalitarian, with every individual kraken free to do as it pleases, but expected to support the whole should the need arise. Kraken live for an extraordinarily long time if not met with unfortunate circumstances, and the oldest kraken on the planet predate human habitation on Nova. Kraken do not build structures, but do have huge communal nesting areas, generally in caves or fissures, that are organized by function in similar way to how a humanoid city might be organized. At the centre of every large nest is the only constructed object the kraken create: a collection of large stones laid out in a spiral. The few merperson researchers who have been allowed near kraken nests have observed these and believe them to have religious significance, though why or how is unknown.

All kraken reproduction is performed in one large nest, the Progeny Cavern, in which a perpetual kraken orgy has been taking place for over fifteen thousand years. Kraken will come and go from this orgy, participating for a few years or decades before leaving, and the ongoing orgy incubates any eggs laid. All kraken are conceived and born in the Progeny Cavern. On occasion, other large sea monsters will be brought forcibly into the Progeny Cavern, never to be seen again. It is unclear if this is for food or to spice up the kraken’s sex lives.

Although the world is full of stories about kraken starting storms, changing currents, causing earthquakes, and so on, magical ability has never been detected in the kraken. Their primary power (telepathy notwithstanding, and interestingly they have never been known to weaponize this ability) seems to be that they are large and coordinated and move very fast. Stories about kraken impersonating merpeople through shapeshifting magic are unfounded and considered to be myths.

The kraken are an enigma partly because they seem utterly disinterested in all other forms of life on Nova, except that they will occasionally rise up to sink a ship, or attack a settlement of merpeople for no reason that is discernable to anyone else. What triggers their sudden violent interest in people is unknown. Their unknown motivations, abilities and natures are the most frightening thing about them for most people. It is hard not to fear something big and strong and dangerous that is clearly intelligent but won’t share what it wants or what it cares about or why. The kraken are dangerous, which makes people want to know about them, and they are intentionally obscure and mysterious, which makes them even more dangerous. Merpeople always maintain hope that someday they can be negotiated with and become less of a threat, but they’ve been hoping for that day for generations and it doesn’t seem to be getting any closer as time goes on. And so the kraken remain a living myth. They seem to like it that way.

From “The Definitive Atlas of the World, Vol. 5: Histories and Mysteries,” by Pascal Tiberius Naoton Quimbell Haeverine anNatalie, published in White Cape in DN 1997, with thanks from the author to Hyel and Toay of the Imperium of Ran Errevir for their research assistance.