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Description

The Deep

The greatest enigmas and some of the most feared entities all have their origins come from the depths of the oceans, long has the vast seas held a strong connection to both humanity and life as a whole in general from the crystal clear and beautiful ocean shallows to the incomprehensible and nigh unending dark depths of the open seas. The shallows often harbors the most lifeforms seen and brilliant coral reefs are hubs for nearly all creatures who call the ocean home and as you move further out one may come across vast fields of sea grass and great kelp forests as tall as the tallest trees on land. It is these shallow waters that humanity has had the most bountiful forays into the depths, some would even argue far too much, many civilizations have started out as simple fishing villages or port cities used for trade and naval armies have long been among the strongest force of a nation's power. Further out in to the open depths life is driven to the upmost extremes, unforgivable pressure, super heated volcanic vents, and the complete absence of light life can still be found and even flourish in these hazardous environments despite the hardships.
But the ocean isn't without its dangers and not even the strongest structures can withstand its power, legends of whole cities lost to the waters are surprisingly numerous and even whole continents have vanished beneath the waves. Though far more common are the loss of ships and many tales of survivors tell of unknown and unbelievable creatures, as outrageous as they sound many of the beasts of the seas have indeed been proven real flesh and blood entities, some so strange one would think they were from another world or even another dimension entirely.

(left to right)
Con Rit
A curious creature first described in the 19th century from a deceased beached specimen, stretching to mindbogglingly lengths of over 135ft putting them as one of the longest singular creature on the planet to have ever lived, while at the time many called it a sea serpent it was in truth a polychaete, a bristle worm, the segmented chitinous body parts and many bristle fins along its sides are a clear indicator of its lineage.
Much of its behavior is speculative since no one has ever seen them alive in their natural habitat but it is known that these massive predators inhabit deep underwater canyons and trenches, large abandoned worm burrows can be found in many of these places suggesting they ambush passing prey such as beaked whales and squid striking from the walls like a snake and pulling in their meal using their vice like jaws to dispatch them.
Cerastes
One of the strangest creatures one can encounter this unique beast is not a serpent nor a dragon as depicted in mythology but rather a large nudibranch. They're invertebrates and this can account for the incredible flexibility mentioned in their legends while their antennae can account for their horns, they hunt by ambush using their antennae as lures to draw in prey before striking and engulfing the prey item to smother it.
Cadborosaurus
One of the rarest sirenians in the world as well as being one of the largest, reaching lengths of 40 to 60 feet, the cadborosaurus inhabits the cold northern waters of the upper Atlantic, they're deep divers and like beaked whales will dive to extreme depths in search of food such as large crustaceans and giant squid. Despite their large size they are often preyed upon by many species including sperm whales and orca, due to their elusive behavior much of their habits as well as populations numbers still remain unknown and sightings are becoming more infrequent.

Description

The Deep

The greatest enigmas and some of the most feared entities all have their origins come from the depths of the oceans, long has the vast seas held a strong connection to both humanity and life as a whole in general from the crystal clear and beautiful ocean shallows to the incomprehensible and nigh unending dark depths of the open seas. The shallows often harbors the most lifeforms seen and brilliant coral reefs are hubs for nearly all creatures who call the ocean home and as you move further out one may come across vast fields of sea grass and great kelp forests as tall as the tallest trees on land. It is these shallow waters that humanity has had the most bountiful forays into the depths, some would even argue far too much, many civilizations have started out as simple fishing villages or port cities used for trade and naval armies have long been among the strongest force of a nation's power. Further out in to the open depths life is driven to the upmost extremes, unforgivable pressure, super heated volcanic vents, and the complete absence of light life can still be found and even flourish in these hazardous environments despite the hardships.
But the ocean isn't without its dangers and not even the strongest structures can withstand its power, legends of whole cities lost to the waters are surprisingly numerous and even whole continents have vanished beneath the waves. Though far more common are the loss of ships and many tales of survivors tell of unknown and unbelievable creatures, as outrageous as they sound many of the beasts of the seas have indeed been proven real flesh and blood entities, some so strange one would think they were from another world or even another dimension entirely.

(left to right)
Con Rit
A curious creature first described in the 19th century from a deceased beached specimen, stretching to mindbogglingly lengths of over 135ft putting them as one of the longest singular creature on the planet to have ever lived, while at the time many called it a sea serpent it was in truth a polychaete, a bristle worm, the segmented chitinous body parts and many bristle fins along its sides are a clear indicator of its lineage.
Much of its behavior is speculative since no one has ever seen them alive in their natural habitat but it is known that these massive predators inhabit deep underwater canyons and trenches, large abandoned worm burrows can be found in many of these places suggesting they ambush passing prey such as beaked whales and squid striking from the walls like a snake and pulling in their meal using their vice like jaws to dispatch them.
Cerastes
One of the strangest creatures one can encounter this unique beast is not a serpent nor a dragon as depicted in mythology but rather a large nudibranch. They're invertebrates and this can account for the incredible flexibility mentioned in their legends while their antennae can account for their horns, they hunt by ambush using their antennae as lures to draw in prey before striking and engulfing the prey item to smother it.
Cadborosaurus
One of the rarest sirenians in the world as well as being one of the largest, reaching lengths of 40 to 60 feet, the cadborosaurus inhabits the cold northern waters of the upper Atlantic, they're deep divers and like beaked whales will dive to extreme depths in search of food such as large crustaceans and giant squid. Despite their large size they are often preyed upon by many species including sperm whales and orca, due to their elusive behavior much of their habits as well as populations numbers still remain unknown and sightings are becoming more infrequent.