Turaka

The Grass Flats of Turaka are the name of a peculiar aquatic ecosystem located along the southern border of Sylivas, roughly 5 miles or so off shore. The sea floor rises to a shallow depth of just 5-10 feet in spots, depending on the tide, with depths of 20-30 feet being average. In this shallow region, large swaths of sea grass grow, along with massive expanses of coral. Veritable forests of sea life grows here, including gigantic versions of starfish, anemonies, and jellyfish. But primary, the region is known for a large population of aquatic elves who live beneath the waves among the coral caves and shipwrecks. Sunken ships are quite common in this region, as the weather is treturous and the seas quite shallow.

The aquatic elves here do not really posses much of a national identity, but do refer to their community as a whole as "Turaka". They do not war much inside the territory, rather preferring to avoid conflict with any other large groups by simply swimming away to deeper waters when threatened. Many of these elves are quite gregarious though, and enjoy swimming up to conversate with sailors passing by on ships, occasionally hitchhiking a ride out to deeper waters.

The shallow portions of the land are peopled with the more social elves, but as the terrain slides deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean, the residents become more and more alien and isolated. Not just water-breathing elves dwell here at these depths. When the seas floor falls to about 100 feet of depth, other stranger races can be seen in the community. The "Th'yss'thlllak" are a race of intelligent cephapods, basically large squid-like beings who can communicate with the aquadic elves to a degree (but with a lot being lost in translation).

The Th'yss'thlllak are a strange bunch, but are friendly enough if not attacked, or misunderstood for attacking themselves, as they have a custom of firmly embracing the head of a friend with all their tentacles as a way of saying "I mean you no harm / I trust you". An excentric and easy-misconstrued custom, for certain. The Th'yss'thlllak themselves have a sub-race that live in some of the deepest known waters in the region, and these eccentric beings have, in recent times, been coming more and more closer to the normal residents of Turaka, bringing ominous warnings about some kind of threat from the deep, wherein the details are unfortunetly lost in transation. Something translating rough as "Old Skin Ones to be Feared" are mentioned with great concern. What exactly this means though, is currently a mystery. The leading theory is that a band of aboleths rule the deepest waters where the Th'yss'thlllak reside, and they are referencing these beings.