Yellow Jacket

Beneath Hemera's oceans, deeper than most divers dare, lives one of the planet's most spectacular natural wonders: the Lantern Squids. Their name undersells them. They are not simply glowing cephalopods but an entire species cluster of bioluminescent giants that drift through the dark in migrating schools, filling the black depths with living constellations.

Appearance

Lantern Squids are large by any measure, ranging from the size of a child's arm to specimens recorded at nearly thirty meters long. Their bodies are sheathed in translucent flesh, thin enough that their organs and nerves glow like threads of fire beneath the skin. Along their flanks run lantern lines, nodes of light that pulse in rhythmic patterns. To sailors above, these look like ribbons of stars winding through the water.

The light is not constant. It brightens and dims with mood, communication, and environment. Most spectacular of all, during storms on the surface, entire schools of Lantern Squids blaze to life, their bodies glowing brighter with each flash of lightning. To watch them then is to witness a mirror-ocean sky, where the heavens above and the squids below both burn with light.

Behavior

Lantern Squids are migratory. They follow currents in slow-moving waves, thousands at a time, trailing the plankton blooms they feed on. Despite their size and light, they are shy creatures, rarely surfacing unless driven by scarcity or storms.

Their light patterns are not random. Studies by Princedom naturalists suggest the squids communicate with a language of pulses, long flashes, short bursts, rolling ripples of brightness. Whether these are warnings, mating calls, or songs is debated. Sailors who claim to have lived among them say the squids sometimes "sing" together, their lights pulsing in perfect unison like choirs in the deep.

Relationship with Humans

The Lantern Squids are beloved across Hemera.

Princedoms: Coastal Princedoms hold festivals during squid migrations. Villagers light lanterns along the shores, echoing the glow in the water. Some even build floating rafts covered in candles, sending them out to "guide" the squids.

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Legion: Soldiers treat Lantern Squid sightings as omens of safe passage. Convoys often toast the squids when spotted, calling them "silent escorts."

Green Zone: Merchants have commodified squid oil, which burns with a faint blue flame. A single vial can fetch a fortune, though harvesting it means killing creatures many consider sacred.

In the Fringes, fishing squids is taboo. Children are told that to kill one is to snuff out a star, and that doing so invites misfortune. In some fishing villages, hunters who bring back squid oil are shunned, their goods burned in the square.

Myths and Symbolism

Lantern Squids are tangled with countless myths:

The Sky Below: Sailors speak of seeing two skies, one above in the clouds, one below in the sea. To them, the squids are proof that the world itself dreams in stars.

Guides of Neru: During rare eclipses when Neru shines, squids are said to blaze brighter than ever, guiding newborn Neru-children. In some coastal towns, births under Neru are celebrated with squid imagery, lanterns painted in flowing light patterns.

The Drowned Choir: A legend says squids are the souls of drowned sailors, their lights eternal songs calling home to shore.

Threats

Despite their beauty, Lantern Squids are fragile. Overfishing for their oil, ship propellers, and Green Zone harvesting operations threaten their migrations. Holo Spire once ran a campaign featuring them as "living wonders," but critics noted the same corporation was funding squid-harvesting fleets.

Some squids have begun appearing smaller, their lantern lines dimmer, a sign many fear points to decline. Yet even now, every storm draws them up from the deep, glowing as bright as the skies above.

Legacy

Lantern Squids are not essential to survival like Verdance's bug bars or Legion's lances. They don't shift wars or decide fates. Yet ask anyone who has seen them, and they'll tell you: Lantern Squids are proof that Hemera is not only brutal, but beautiful.

They remind people that in a world of concrete Citadels and endless war, there are still nights when the ocean lights up in color, when the storms above and the squids below speak to each other in fire.

Those who witness it rarely forget.