The Chelonate
"Waves lap the slabby sides of a vast turtle-shell - bigger than any cathedral. Chelonites loaf on wooden docks around the shell-sides, staring sullenly. Lamps hang like decorations in a festive butcher's window. All around you, the sea is rank with scraps of ancient flesh."[1]
The Chelonate is an enormous zee-turtle carcass inhabited by Monster-Hunters called Chelonites.
A City On a Shell
"A shell as big as a wild dream?"[2]
The Chelonate is a settlement built on a massive, deceased zee-turtle called the Shell.[3] The smell of rot near the Shell can be so overpowering that it may affect the mind; incidentally, the Chelonites frequently duel and brawl where the stench happens to be the foulest.[4] The Chelonites say that their ancestors slew the zee-monster they're living on,[5] and they will respond to disrespect with whatever weapons happen to be nearby.[6]
The Chelonites' culture is based almost entirely on monster-hunting, and they regularly engage in hunts that can span all across the zee.[7] According to rumor, Chelonites that "die cowards" are not permitted to rest at zee; instead they're buried on any land that will accept their bodies.[8] As monster-hunters, the Chelonites' diet is almost entirely meat-based, and includes viscera from the Gant Pole located nearby.[9] This principle includes their beer as well, which is supposedly made of eel-blood, zee-fungus, and other ingredients.[6]
Unfortunately, the Chelonites' aptitude for violence occasionally leads them into conflict with other factions of the Unterzee, including the Khanate.[10] They also seem to have an enmity with the inhabitants of Polythreme, and the Chelonites use agents called Sniffers and Sounders to root out any potential spies.[11] The Chelonate has an interest in conquering Aestival, but the sunlight there naturally makes such a campaign infeasible.[12]
The Bone Men
"The Bone Man awaits you. His face and chest are streaked with white clay. His forehead bears a glyph, in the deep code of the void. Long ago, his mother ritually severed his littlest finger."[13]
The Bone Men are well-respected Chelonites responsible for maintaining an important temple dedicated to Storm. These warrior-priests are covered in white clay, have sigils in the Correspondence etched into their skin, and are missing their littlest fingers, which were severed by their mothers at a very young age.[13] The Bone Men seem to have a direct connection with Storm himself,[14] and worship the roof-god with visceral rituals.[15] They are also extremely skilled butchers, and they can reduce almost any meat to cutlets with mind-boggling precision.[16]
A crucial responsibility of the Bone Men is storing the various treasures of the Chelonate within the Shell,[17][18] including the heirlooms of Monster-Hunters who declare themselves Doomed.[19] They do not give up their treasures lightly, not even for wealth or other hunting trophies, and they often strive to reacquire any artifacts stolen from them.[18]
The Eater of Names
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"Zailors tell tales of the great zhip made of bones. Bones of those who are lost to the zee..."[20]
A formidably armed priest-ship called the Eater of Names patrols the waters of the Carrion Sea near the Chelonate. Drawn by enormous worms and manned by seventy-seven Chelonites,[20] it is apparently built from the bones of the creatures it has slain.[20] The Eater has plundered decades worth of zee-treasures, fighting endlessly in the name of the Great Shell and Death;[21] in fact, each time the Eater is destroyed, a new one will inevitably rise again.[22]
The Eater of Names' figurehead is made of gant, the color that remains when all others are eaten; its figureheads are apparently sourced from the nearby Gant Pole.[23] According to Chelonite tradition, one may not possess or use a name if they reside too close to the Gant Pole; this fact may provide context for the Eater's purpose.[24]
The Glory's Tale
"I've long sought the tale of the Glory's end - Glory's what we call this beast. None still live from those days when we slew her. But the saying is: the tale still lives on history's beach. Bring me that tale, zee-captain. Please."[25] "I broke my first shell. I roamed to the Unterzee. I feasted on monsters. I battened on whales. I grew city-vast. I sickened. The Gant Pole drew me, and there I died of age and weariness, turning on my back to rot until the hunters found me."[26]
The Chelonites are proud of their ancestors' achievement in killing the Glory, the zee-turtle whose carcass became the Chelonate.[25] To showcase this pride, they occasionally host historical plays in Scrimshander depicting the great hunt.[27] The Chelonites have also bargained with the Fathomking using their achievement as leverage,[28] though they occasionally refuse to pay further tribute to him.[29]
The aforementioned story of strength and bloodshed is a legend, retold and shared across generations. The Glory was originally born in Parabola, where it hatched from a massive, violet egg. It later roamed throughout the Unterzee, growing more and more massive with each passing year. As it feasted on zee-monsters and hunted down entire whales, it eventually grew sick and weary, and soon found itself arriving near the Gant Pole. It turned over onto its shell to finally lay at rest,[26] and a starving hunter later arrived at the scene, founding a settlement there.[28]
