The sea that lost its light
Long ago there was a Primordial Coral that cradled every living thing in the sea. The calm and joy its creatures felt was the very power that lit the coral, and that light held the whole ocean together.
Then, one day, the coral fell ill. Its branches withered white, and when it finally collapsed, the malice sealed inside it burst free. The sea was fouled in an instant, and its creatures — seized by sorrow, by anger, by everything unkind — began to turn on one another.
A child with nothing but a name
A girl washes up on the cold sand. As the last breath of the coral sends a shard of hope into her fading body, she opens her eyes.
All she remembers is her own name — Jelly. Yet when she reaches out, the darkness around her washes clean away. Somehow she simply knows: the power to cleanse this corruption lives inside her.
Drawn by that feeling, a young worker jellyfish comes looking for her. He promptly declares Jelly his "apprentice" and starts teaching her everything, from the very beginning — never mind that he does not know all that much himself. And so, in an empty village, the two of them set out.
What has to come before power
Some creatures return the moment the corruption is lifted. But those sunk deep into a particular feeling will only recoil if you force it. You have to ease that feeling open first.
A self-proclaimed king who is furious for no reason he can name, salt folk with very distinct personalities, plankton who will not come out from between the rocks — Jelly meets each of these odd neighbours where their story hurts, and pulls them back out of the malice. The friends she saves gather into a village, and the larger the village grows, the more colour the sea takes back.
Someone is fouling it again
Before long, Jelly notices something wrong. Places she has certainly cleansed have turned black again. The corruption is not spreading on its own.
A shadow trailing a heavy veil, as if laughing at the girl scrubbing it away. A vanished name nobody will say aloud. And, from somewhere out in the sea, a memory that feels far too familiar surfacing bit by bit.
Why was she lying on that stretch of sand, of all places? Why does she remember nothing but her own name?
To bring the sea back, Jelly must first find out who she used to be.
The friends beside her
| Character | Introduction |
|---|---|
| Jelly | The girl who lost her memory. Bright and fearless — she walks forward even without knowing where |
| Worker Jellyfish | A timid but earnest nag. Calls himself a "seasoned instructor"; really he is the youngest, doing a clumsy impression of a grown-up |
| Uncle Octopus | A local who knows every corner of these waters. "You can call me uncle, you know" |
| The Salt Four | They cannot speak, but no one cries or laughs more loudly. Somehow only Jelly can understand them |
| The Plankton Brothers | Plank, Plang, Plong and Pluck. Put all four together and it gets noisy |
| Coral King | A self-declared king who insists he rules these waters. He has been very angry lately |