Crystal Sphere - Manao Lai, the Infinite Ocean

[Marr965]

Manao Lai is a Crystal Sphere which clearly has some very odd physical effects going on - from the Astral Sea, it is clearly spherical, but inside it appears to be an infinite near-plane, the glittering face of the waters broken only by the occasional island which peeps above the surface.

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS
Manao Lai is a largely clement Sphere, with a non-toxic and tropically warm atmosphere. What landmass it has is fertile and verdant and displays a surprising lack of variety in its biomass. There are very few species of flora and even fewer species of fauna.
While the few islands do support some life and even civilization, it's below the surface that the Sphere displays its sheer magnitude, grandeur and diversity of life. From near-frozen abyssal depths to warm coral reefs, Manao Lai supports almost any subaquatic ecosystem that can be imagined.
Unfortunately, the diversity of fauna also includes a diversity in sizes of fauna. Manao Lai is one of the few Crystal Spheres known to display native leviathan-class predators which are both entirely Material and entirely organic. These titanic creatures pose a major threat to the aquatic civilizations present within Manao Lai's waters.



LAIAN INHABITANTS
The non-amphibious inhabitants of Manao Lai enjoy a largely carefree existence on the islands dotted around the surface of the infinite seas it holds, farming the native flora and engaging in a little supplementary fishing. Many different races can be found living in the jungles and deserts of the Sphere but the major ones are Elves, Halflings, Humans, Thri-Kreen and Vanaras. There's also a sneaking suspicion among some of the more observant (or paranoid) inhabitants that there's a very large number of Walktapi spread through the air-breathing population, but no-one else seems to agree.
Underwater, however, it's a different story. The subsurface races are engaged in a near-constant struggle for survival against the dangerous fauna which the seas support. Manao Lai's subaquatic races are known to include Kalos, Cecaelia, Quadav, Slyth and Sahuagin.

LAIAN LOCATIONS
Terrestrial
Never-Never Land
Never-Never Land is one of the few islands that's almost never visited by the inhabitants of Manao Lai. This is due to the phenomenon it exhibits that also gets it its nickname. Fairy Island, as the locals call it, is, for whatever reason, chock full of the brainless jackasses generally known as fairies. It's not like they're dangerous, but being surrounded by so many curious idiots generally takes its toll on the sanity of anyone visiting the island.
The Floating Island
Most of the islands of Manao Lai are firmly affixed to the rocky substrate that extends throughout the waters of the Sphere. Not so the Floating Island. The Floating Island... floats. It's borne from location to location through the endless oceans of Manao Lai on water currents, attracting passengers who view the travels it makes as a sacred task. As a result, it usually houses a number of diverse inhabitants, although they all tend towards the spiritual, and very rarely stay for more than about a year.
The Evening Isles

While most of the islands of Manao Lai are peaceful and calm, the small archipelago known as the Evening Isles is... rather rowdier. One of the few places in the Evening Isles which actively encourages Exalts, Port Noon is a haven for immortals of all kinds. Raven Isle, meanwhile, is an extinct volcano surrounded by a fervid tangle of emerald jungle, inhabited by a coven of witches who derive from their ritual consumption of children a limited form of immortality.

Subsurface
Otoh Gunga
Otoh Gunga is one of the few subaquatic cities that readily accepts air-breathers. This is largely because it's inhabited almost entirely by kythons and genasi. Otoh Gunga functions as a trade hub and link between the surface and the depths for the inhabitants, and, as such, boasts both extensive submarine docking facilities and extremely diverse shopping opportunities.
The Living Infinite
The Living Infinite of Manao Lai starts at the point where no sunlight can make it through the water, and, as far as anyone can tell, extends downward forever. Certainly, no expedition intended to seek the bottom of the aquasphere has returned. Whether that's due to the known presence of extremely hostile biological predators, the apparent presence of some form of Modron tomb, the occasional pockets of water which contain highly infectious diseases, an aggressively parasitic variety of barnacle, different pockets of water which bear a curse which can raise the dead to attack the living, volcanic vents which spit streams of superheated water at interlopers or even because there might actually be a utopian civilization hidden at the deepest depths is unknown.
Devil's Reef
A highly xenophobic and somewhat supremacist group of Sahuagin call the coral reef named Devil's Reef home. Outsiders can sometimes see odd religious behaviours, when they're not too busy being sacrificed to the inhabitants' strange "gods". They're known to produce and wear odd jewellery, which doesn't quite fit even other Sahuagin right.

ADVENTURE SEEDS

• A group of Laian researchers have headed into a cave to investigate claims of a new, docile leviathan-class species, but no reports have come back. The authorities at Otoh Gunga have asked for a group of hardy adventurers willing to go looking for them.
  
• The crew of a merchant sub-scow claims to have found a gigantic anchor, with the chain from it descending into the Living Infinite, during a diversion from a routine trade trip. They've been talking about it an awful lot, and a few of them are claiming that they're going to follow the chain downward.
  
• The Floating Island has been slowly, over the past decade, sinking. Those who hold its pilgrimage holy want someone to investigate.