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The Ashes of Ys
A drowned city rises from the bay for one hour at each low tide, reliving its last day. In nine days comes the hour of the flood. Who holds the key?
50 places39 characters10 lore entries15 quests
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Options · Balanced · Narrative · ≈ 6 h · At random
The story so far
Five hundred years ago King Gradlon built Ys, the most beautiful city in the world, below the level of the sea, behind a bronze gate only his golden key could open. In one night the sea took it back. Every child of the bay of Douarnenez knows the song.
Since the great equinox tide, it is no longer a song. Twice a day, at the lowest of the water, spires rise dripping out of the bay, bells ring under the waves and then above them, and for one hour a whole city stands on the sand flats, its people in the streets, crying their wares, feasting, living a day they do not know is over. Then the great bell rings and the sea closes over the roofs. Each rising, the clock on the cathedral tower shows one hour later.
Walk out over the sand to the drowned market, where the merchants beg for a single coin. Meet a princess the old songs call a witch, an abbot with a saint's staff, a family of wreckers, an old fisherman who has seen his drowned son, a blind singer missing one verse, and Death's ferryman on the beach at the end of the world. Something has woken Ys, and every power around the bay wants it. In nine days comes the hour of the flood. A long sandbox where the tide is the clock and every choice comes back.
People you might meet
Rozenn Kerlaz
Elected maer (headwoman) of Douarnenez and owner of the Kerlaz salting houses
The maer of Douarnenez: a widowed salt-merchant, practical and proud, holding a frightened town together while the sea rewrites its oldest song.
Enora Kerlaz
The maer's daughter, cockle-picker and keeper of a secret she found on the sand
The maer's twelve-year-old daughter: a fierce, solitary child who picks cockles further out than anyone and has stopped laughing since the equinox.
Per Morvan
Old fisherman, master of the boat Santez Anna, best pilot of the bay
An old fisherman of few words who was the first to see the towers rise, and the first to see his drowned son walking among the people of Ys.
Ninnog
Blind ballad-singer, keeper of the gwerz of Ys and of the town's memory
A blind old ballad-singer who has sung the gwerz of Ys at the Three Sardines for sixty years and knows every verse except one.
Tifenn the Groac'h
Wise-woman of the islet of Tristan, healer, tide-reader and go-between with the sea-women
The old wise-woman of the islet of Tristan: healer, tide-reader and friend of the sea-women, feared by day and consulted by night.
Azenor of the Market
Fishwife of the market of Ys, captain of its merchants
A loud, warm fishwife of Ys who sells the best mackerel in the market and begs every living visitor to buy, for one coin, anything at all.
Mestr Iwan
Keeper of the sluices and the Great Sea Gate of Ys
The keeper of the sluices of Ys: an anxious, conscientious old engineer who walks the sea wall every hour and knows every secret of the Great Gate.
Yannig Morvan
A young drowned fisherman of the harbour of Ys, Per Morvan's son
Per Morvan's son, drowned two winters ago at nineteen, who mends nets on the third quay of the harbour of Ys and watches the lights of home.
Dahut
Drowned princess of Ys and queen of the morgens of the bay
The drowned princess of Ys, called a witch by the old songs: proud, beautiful and tragic, who has become a sea-woman and wants her city to live again.
King Gradlon
King of Ys and Cornouaille, as the risen city remembers him
The old king of Ys as he was on the last day: generous, proud, tired, devoted to his daughter, and, alone in Ys, without a shadow.
The Red Knight
The stranger knight of the black ship, the one who opened the gates of Ys
The stranger in red armour who came to Ys on a black ship on its last morning: courteous, beautiful, terrifying, and not a memory.
Tanguy Le Bihan
Chief of the wreckers of Porz Kenvez on Cap Sizun
The chief of the wreckers of Cap Sizun: hard, clever and hungry, who sees in the risen city the treasure of a lifetime and in the golden key a crown.
Choose a heroBalanced · Narrative · ≈ 6 h · At random