Catching a Kraken

Although most of us have heard stories of sea monsters, and use numerous products from them, few have seen these creatures outside of those washed up on the beach.  For most, stories of the Kraken, whale, pliosaur, sargasso, sea dragons, and other such creatures are legends and rumors, dangerous creatures who clash with monster hunters (usually tentacled or humans) out in the oceans.  Only a few traders and fishers throughout our history have seen these creatures, fewewr have written about them.

This description is from a trade mission, common amongst powerful empires with smaller trade partners, where diplomats and workers examine how the products they buy are created, and see how the good they sell are used.  This mission was sent by the Kalaxich rulers to a small tentacled confederation, and while on it, a fish leader joined a kraken hunt.


The Kraken Hunt

We arrived at the trading point the first day of the mission.  As is done most years, merchants were sent to arrange terms, and the tentacled negotiators and merchants were hard at work.  On display nearby were products to be exchanged at this time.  An array of products rested in front of us; I was amazed to see how such a small village could produce.  Pearls, preserved fish, sea crystals, salt, marsh grass, and much more were on display from the tentacled.  Our own traders were showing off our own products:  glass, stone, metals, wool, and wood, and other materials and devices some produced by own own workshops, some from other lands.  Our merchants, and the tentacled, examined and commented on these products, admiring the craftsmanship, or choosing which to buy for the next years.

For this mission, our head merchant wished to ensure supplies of ink, and I had been sent to examine the tentacle's kraken and cuttlefish hunting methods.  The negotiations over trade terms were tough, as these tentacled were fiercely independent, and their unhappiness at bringing me a long was a sticking point, with kraken hunters in particular annoyed at bringing along a passenger.  Ultimately, however, our negotiatiors reached an agreement, with trade terms decided after three days, the tentacled being convinced to allow us to examine their fishing and farming methods.  Most of the merchants left at that point, while three of us remained to carry out the examinations, along with a few guards and guides.

I had learned that a kraken hunting expedition would be leaving in four days;  during that time, I watched the tentacled catch cuttlefish.  The tentacled do not use boats for this tasdk: the inkfish they catch live close enough to shore that the tentacled can simply swim to hunting areas, and catch the fish.  I was only able to catch glimpses of their catch techniques:  it seems cuttlefish are dispersed enough that they cannot use nets, instead, bait is used to lure the fish to points, where the tentacled round them up and arrive at shore.  I was surprised to learn how little ink each cuttle has, the tentacled must cut up almost 20 to fill a single container our merchants use.  The rest of the meat is preserved for food.  We had never considered buying this meat before, unlike preserved fish, and our merchants have returned with some to test its richness, if it is as rich as fish, it would be a good purchase indeed.  I cannot fault the tentacled's methods for catching the cuttles: they can catch these rare animals as well as my own fishers can in our rivers.  The tentacled's voraciousness for our knives was also explained, these tools are used for almost all tasks the tentacled can set them to.

I had been introduced to the kraken hunters during negotiations.  They were unhappy at having to bring me along, but appeared to hide their grumpiness by the day before the expedition.  That day was spent in preparation.  For boats, the tentacled use a floating marshgrass, weaved into a boat frame and shape.  Into the boats were loaded fish, knives, bags, and other materials that I was not watching at the time.   Every member of the monster hunting group takes part in this work, and I was prodded into helping, placing cloth, food, and other lighter items into the boats.  The tentacled had brought an extra two group members, and an extra boat, to carry me for this trip.  The boats were placed on the shoreline, where the tides could raise them into the water.  Finally, the day before, a rain priest performed a ritual, to determine whether the weather would be calm enough for the trip.

At high tide the next morning, the tentacled swam to their boats, raised small sails, and set out to the ocean.  My own boat was placed farther up in the tidal zone, and several of the hunters pushed it out to see.  I had known before that ocean waves would be larger than I was used to, but to experience it was a whole different matter.  The light marsh grass boats wobbled back and forth far more than our own riverboats, and I thought I was loose my balance many times as we traveled from shore.  Over the day, the shoreline receded, and only the ocean was visible.  The swells calmed somewhat, and I noticed the rocking less. 

Our journey to the kraken hunting ground took four days.  When winds were strong, sails were used.  In weaker winds, the tentacled themselves took shifts in the water.  At our first calm period, I was handed an oar.  "Everyone pitches in", said a tentacled, and though I attempted to argue that I was not strong enough to row well, that we specially breed rowers to do so, the tentacled were quite insistent that I play my part.  Copying as best I could how our own rowers moved, I pulled the oars through the water, assisting as best I could at propelling my boat.

On the third day, I was told to watch for Kraken, as we were approaching a good spot.  They were described as looking much like the tentacled, but larger, with longer tentacles.  I do not know how the tentacled knew where they were, as the ocean appeared as empty as it had before, and endless blue plain of waves and sky, with only an occasional bird or fish.  Soon, I spotted something.  Looking closer, I could see it.  "Kraken!" I yelled, pointing towards a long, red, mass of tentacles.  The tentacled, excited, looked to where I pointed.  Soon, they looked away.  "That's not a kraken, just a giant squid", said one of the hunters.  I asked further.  "A real kraken is far larger", responded the tentacled.  I could not understand, the creature was longer than our boat, with a mass of tentacles, how could this not be the legendary kraken that we had heard so much of?  But I said nothing, and we continued on.

A day later, the tentacled stopped, dropped sails, and dropped stabilizing lines into the water.  Having not spotted a kraken, they reached a chosen spot, and set up to catch the creature.   Some boats were separated from the others, and filled with fish.  Others, empty or holding equipment, were kept far from these, including my own boat.  Some kraken hunters stayed in boats, other nearby in the water, all watching for kraken.

With time on my hands, I watched the ocean.  I realized that there were lighter and darker spots, that I later learned were deeper and shallower areas.  The sea proved mesmerizing, and I often found myself mentally removed while watching, with only the occasional bird to break the spell.  The waves formed strange patterns.  I sometimes drew myself out with a sudden realization that I must check the ocean for kraken, but wandered from this thought as I watched the ocean.Near the fish boats I soon noticed a dark spot, a depper section of the ocean.

Farther away, blobs of lighter areas appeared. As I looked towards those lighter areas, I suddenly heard one of the hunters yell "Kraken".  I looked around, hoping to see the creature, but did not notice anything.  As I looked around, I suddenly saw that the dark spot near the fish boats seemed to be larger.  Looking more carefully, I indeed saw i grow.  Soon, the dark patch grew large in the water, and I could see almost nothing else under the ocean.  Structure appears, several white blobs, writhing, and mottled circles.  As the creature rose, I felt a wave swell, and in a jolt of fear, I leaned back, expecting the rising creature to overturn the boat.

The creature burst from the water.  Huge purple tentacles emerged, far taller than I was, taller than the sails on the hunter's boats, and covered in giant, toothed circles.  The tentacles hurled downward, engulfing a fish boat, and soon I could hear a crunching.  The tentacled responded quickly, some jumped into the water and seemed to swim towards the kraken.  Coloring themselves blue, they dropped stalkblood ink into the water, and swam the other way towards the kraken.  The kraken did not appear to notice, it continued to hold the fish boat in its crushing grasp.   I was frozen in fear, gripped by the sight before me.

Than, everything changed.  Suddenly, the kraken let out a jet of water, and the tentacles flashed to a bright red.  Some tentacles let go of the boat.  I looked into the water, and saw what looked like the great tentacles thrashing through the water.  Waves radiated, and the boat rocked several times.  A few tentacled left the water, waiting in their boats.  The kraken twisted, releasing great boils of water with each motion, and it almost appeared to slide back and forth.  A dark cloud seemed ot fill the water, For several minutes, the agitated creature bubbled, thrashed, and twisted, and at one point I nearly fell flat into the boat, wondering whether the hunters in the water could survive, and worried that the creature could turn on us.

After some time, the creature's motions slowed.  It seemed to weaken, bubbling the water less, and became more sluggish.  The tentacles slowed, thrashing less.  Than, in a slow but powerful motion, the creature seemed to turn on its side, tentacles sliding into the water.  Finally, I saw a dome of water form, than release in a spell, as a huge body emerged from the ocean.  The tentacled waited for a bit, than, satisfied that the body was limp, they moved the boats in closer.

Shortly after, a smaller tentacle emerged from an opening in the great creature.  One of the monster hunters emerged, carrying a knife.  I would later learn that two of the hunters had slid into the kraken through its mantle, sliced its arteries, and waited inside as the creature bled to death.  The kraken could feel these intruders, and was trying with its tentacles to remove the irritation, but the tentacled were safe inside.  The others had distracted the creature, throwing dye into the water to distract the creature, drawing it away from the boats.  The kraken had originally been drawn to the fish boat, smelling and meal and attempting to ambush it as it would catch a creature.

I looked more closely at the creature.  It was shaped much like a tentacled, with a rounded body attached to 8 tentacles.  The lighter blobs I had seen earlier were eyes, I later saw that each of these was as large as a tentacled.  A I later saw a large funnel, the hunters explained that this was used to jet water, much as they do, and this was the boiling I had seen in the fight.

The tentacled went to work quickly.  They placed skins into the water, later I learned that these were shark skin, to scare away scavengers.  Strip after strip of muscle was removed from the creature and placed into boats, or simply left at sea.  Meat in the boats was preserved at sea, covered with material that the tentacled had brought from shore.  They eyes were removed, so large that it took three tentacled a piece to carry them to the boats.  Fluid and lenses from these eyes were used in in rituals by the tentacled.  Finally, the tentacled reached the organs of the creature.  Buried within, the most valuable part of the creature, was the ink sac.  Compared to the kraken, it was almost nothing, but still took three tentacled to remove and place in the boat.  All of the boats were filled with material, whether meat, organs, or leftover supplies, with the tentacled and I resting in any remaining space.  Finally, as the sun began to set, the boats were as full as they could.  Our knives, in the hands of the tentacled monster hunters, reduced the kraken to strips and blobs of muscle, left in the ocean for its creatures to scavenge.  The hunters set their sails and rested as they returned to shore.

Our return took less time than the journey out.  Upon our return, the hunters unloaded their boats, storing leftover supplies, preparing meat, and arranging with out remaining merchants to purchase the kraken ink.

The monster hunters are indeed very skilled at what they do, and I can find little fault with how they catch the creatures they do.  The creatures they hunt are indeed rare and powerful, and they make use of as much of it as they can, but the ink that is our main purchase is but a small part of the creature.  Kraken meat, in addition to cuttlefish, may make a rich food, and we should attmept to buy other kraken products to see how useful they may be.

The five common beings: Chitinous

We once ruled much of the world.  Our empires spread through all but the most inhospitable of lands, our great buildings and monuments dominated all others, our knowledge was second to none.  But the other species finally organized, and overcame our empires, allowing the overgrowth invasions to overrun us.  Now, we are like anyone else on this world, pushed back to our core lands.

As we rebuild, we will encounter other chitinous, with different traditions and histories, which all leaders must understand.  We will also encounter other beings, and must understand ourselves, and how we differ from the other intelligent beings, to prepare for challenges ahead.

Other Chitinous

Compared to other intelligent beings, it is easy to assume that all of us are the same, and to make mistakes as a result.  As when meeting other intelligent beings, diplomats, traders, or anyone else who will interact with another chitinous should understand the society and culture that one is interacting with.

Though we had numerous empires and nations before the overgrowth invasions, it seems that most cultures divided into 5 general types.  Those like us should be easy to understand, but others have different ways of obedience, religion, and views toward trade and warfare.  In our society, and societies like ours, a single leader commands everything.  To us, this makes sense, as only a single leader with no attachment to any portion of their nation, and with understanding of all facets of a civilization, can truly balance and understand all concerns, and only through obedience to such a leader can we ensure a stable society.  Indeed, to many of our priests, the world itself seems organized in this way, with the creator choosing one of the chitinous societies to lead the world, with all others organized to take care of facets of the world.  However, if one approaches other chitinous leaders in a similar way, they will be confused and frustrated.

Breeders

Some cultures, the breeding hives, are instead ruled by a supreme breeder.  Though this breeder, like our own supreme rulers, must understand something of all facets of a society, the leader instead focuses their energies on creating smarter, stronger, or more powerful citizens of the hive, and leaves much of ruling to subordinates, specially created by the breeder to be supremely skilled at their own domains.  This obedience structure exists all the way through the society, to the lowest members, with leaders focused far more on training, or breeding, than on commanding or organization.  Such societies believe the strength of a hive is in its members, and strive to breed and train the strongest, smartest, and most excellent of citizens for whatever the task.  Most believe that the original creator filled a similar role, creating all creatures and plants of the world to fill their roles, and leaving the fate of the world largely to us.

These societies will have the strongest and bravest soldiers, the most skilled craftsmen, best laborers, best workers of any sorts, and will take pride in such, but organization is always slower, as direction and command is weaker and leaders take longer to consult with others and make decisions. 

Shifters

These cultures do not have a single, fixed leader.  Instead, whichever leader is most skilled in the most important goal of the society is the one to rule.  During wartime, the military commander rules, when new settlements are needed, a breeder or builder rules, when trade is desired, a merchant rules.  We cannot understand how citizens could adapt to such a constantly changing structure, yet it seems their loyalty to the hive as a whole keeps everything organized. These societies pride themselves on the ability of their members to adapt to, and overcome, most challenges, viewing our type in particular as inflexible, but we have found them to often be chaotic.

Constant changes of obedience structures are the most obvious difficulty, but one that is easily adapted to.  More difficult to adapt to is the fact that, in our own society, a higher ranking member of our own society must know enough to work with those under their command, in these societies, members are less focused on outside knowledge.  Knowledge of who will be higher ranking is important, whether in warfare, trade, building projects, or anything else we might do together.

Uncommanded

If shifters, with constantly changing leaders, seem chaotic, uncommanded cultures are perhaps the strangest of all.  They do not have leaders, instead, members communicate with each other to create some sort of agreement, which is than followed by all involved.  These societies, like shifters, are adaptable;  unlike other cultures, the loss of a leader means little to the uncommanded.  Their ability to make decisions is often astounding, yet such cultures can take a long time to make decisions, and can sometimes persist in poor decisions, or become paralyzed among choices, without strong leaders.

Working with such a wildly different culture proves challengine to most other chitinous, to the point where those used to working with other chitinous are better suited to understand these cultures.  One must develop a skill in working with large groups, and at clear communication.

Supporters

In these cultures, leaders are skilled at administration or support, and their main role is to provide resources to those underneath them.  Like breeders, most decisions are made by subordinates, and this organization method extends throughout the culture.  These cultures pride themselves on their management abilities, and in the past were most famous for large building projects, especially irrigation and roads.

Those who can interact with breeders will understand these cultures as well, for they share many of the same views towards organization and obedience.


Chitinous and other Beings

When understanding other intelligent beings, it is vitally important to understand how we differ, and how other beings view us. The creator made us much like large ants, and that is indeed how others view us.  The other common beings are about the same size as us, but other types of beings have wildly different sizes, and may view you with fear, or barely notice you.

Almost universal amongst other beings is a lack of obedience.  Us chitinous do not fight against our own groups, either obeying leaders, or obeying decisions made by a group, as part of our nature.  Yet other beings must often be forced or threatened to obey leaders or group decisions, as they often refuse to follow such decisions.  Even among the most peaceful, many prefer to treat each other as equals, or argue amongst themselves, and chitinous among them will be uncomfortable.  Chitinous are often shocked at how little respect most other beings have for obedience, as they watch members fight for status, or argue and fight to make a decision, or refuse to even have or respect a hierarchy, while non-chitinous often are resentful and rebellious when expected to obey us.  On the other hand, on-chitinous often prefer to make agreements with us, expecting us to behave as expected, rather than trying to backstab or swindle.

Our priests have often argued that the creator placed each being on the world to fill a role, and that our role, as the most organized, was created to rule, much as our leader's are bred to rule over our societies.  When chitinous empires were powerful, this story was easy to believe, but after the invasions of other beings and overgrowth, many now doubt this story.  Origin stories in some other chitinous cultures tell a similar story, and non-chitinous resent the idea that they should be subordinates.  Uncommanded or shifter cultures in the past could attract alliances more easily, as their stories flatter the other beings, by viewing them more as equals.  In our current situation, our priests may need to rethink the origin of the world, and the other beings and us may interact differently.


While us chitinous have special breeders to have children, in many other animals, including intelligent beings, half the members can produce children in some way, who split their time between breeding and other work, while the other half also split their time between mating with the breeding ones and other activities.  Among the common beings, humans and tentacled breed in this way, with breeders called "females", "women", or some other equivalent word, while non-breeders are called "males", "men", or an equivalent word.  Within societies, rituals surrounding breeding and mating are highly important, and some languages and cultures view all beings, including intelligent ones, as male or female.

When interacting with other beings, one should be highly aware of the rituals and expectations surrounding breeders and non-breeders, as other beings can be easily offended, and highly emotional, if not done as expected.  Some beings will also insist on describing us as male and female, especially if the language has no alternative to male or female to describe a being.  Most of the time, the "gender" is described by job, although sometimes with appearance, and the division changes from culture to culture.  Almost all agree that our breeders are "she" and maters are "he", some humans cultures assume all are "he", dangerous or strength work, to humans, is commonly "he", but otherwise no clear pattern exists, apart from following how males and females divide in the culture in question.