☕️ Alice’s Mad Tea Party Presents: Storytime
🫖 Alice Spills the Tea on: The Rise and Fall of Solorathis
Ah, the ocean, darling. It’s a place of mystery, danger, and the most deliciously chaotic secrets. You see, the seas of the world weren’t always as they are now. No, no. Long ago, before the great cities of man rose from the earth, there existed a realm beneath the waves—Solorathis, the City of the Deep. But don’t go thinking this is your average lost city with glittering ruins and fish swimming through broken columns, darling. No, Solorathis wasn’t just a city—it was a kingdom.
A kingdom ruled by Tethros, the King of the Abyss. Tethros wasn’t just any ocean deity, oh no. He was the firstborn of the Great Waters, born from the very heart of the ocean's pulse, with the power to control the tides, shape the storms, and summon creatures of the deep to do his bidding. His body shimmered with the hues of the ocean’s depths—iridescent scales like sea foam, eyes like whirlpools, and hair that flowed like liquid midnight. He was everything the sea was: beautiful, dangerous, and ever-changing. A god, yes, but also a ruler—and a creature of sheer will.
But Tethros wasn’t alone in his reign. For beside him stood his sister, Nyssara, Queen of the Abyssal Depths. Now, Nyssara wasn’t some innocent queen seated on a golden throne, darling. Oh no. She was a master of illusions and shadows, a goddess of both light and darkness. Her kingdom thrived on the creatures that lived in the deep trenches, the ones so terrifying that even the bravest sailors would turn pale at the mention of them. You know, the ones that made sailors whisper stories about the Kraken and Leviathan, but you don’t want to hear about those, darling.
Tethros and Nyssara ruled together, balanced in their power, weaving a kingdom so beautiful and terrifying, it could make even the gods above envy them. Their city, Solorathis, was built on coral reefs the size of mountains, glowing with bioluminescence from the creatures that lived within it. Towers made of pearl and obsidian rose from the ocean floor, connected by shimmering bridges of silk that stretched like webs across the waves. Solorathis was the heart of the sea—the soul of the world’s oceans—and Tethros and Nyssara ensured it was protected at all costs.
But, as with all things in the realms of power, there were always those who wanted more. And there were whispers—oh yes, those whispers were what started it all, darling. Whispers of an ancient force in the deep, a being so old, so powerful, that it could rewrite the very nature of the seas themselves. This being was called The Leviathan, and it was not the same as the creatures in the tales. Oh no, darling, The Leviathan was the embodiment of chaos, the true beginning of the oceans, the very thing that could erase all of Solorathis and bring the oceans back to their primeval state—when nothing existed but destruction and void.
Tethros, proud as he was, refused to believe the whispers at first. He thought himself untouchable, his power absolute. But as his kingdom grew, so did the power of The Leviathan, and with it, the ancient beings who followed it—creatures older than the ocean, forged from the very first waves.
And so began the War of the Depths.
Oh, darling, it was a war unlike anything seen on land or sea. The gods of the ocean clashed with ancient beings that seemed to have no form, no mind, but only the single purpose of undoing everything Tethros and Nyssara had built. The sea roiled and churned, with great waves crashing against Solorathis’s glittering walls. Tempests of unimaginable fury ravaged the city, tearing down its towers, sinking its bridges, and flooding its grand halls with the fury of the Leviathan’s followers.
Tethros, furious and desperate to protect his city, unleashed the full force of his divine power. He commanded the tides to rise higher than ever before, summoned whirlpools that could swallow entire ships whole, and even called forth the Calyptids, massive sea creatures whose very bodies were storms in themselves. But The Leviathan was not so easily defeated. It rose from the deepest, most unknown trenches of the ocean, its massive serpentine form darker than the abyss itself. Its eyes glowed with the fire of the very first storms, and with a roar, it sent the entire ocean into chaos.
The battle waged on for days, but in the end, it was Nyssara who felt the true weight of the conflict. Using her mastery over shadows and illusions, she deceived The Leviathan, tricking it into seeing a false vision—a kingdom that had already fallen, a sea turned to ruin. The Leviathan, believing its work done, retreated back into the deep, leaving Solorathis battered but still alive.
However, Tethros, in his fury and his desire to control all that the sea was, made a choice—a choice that would ultimately doom them. He called upon an ancient power, one older than the gods themselves. He used the very last of his divine strength to seal the Leviathan beneath the ocean, binding it in chains made of his own heart’s blood. But in doing so, he gave the ocean a wound that could never heal.
The ocean was forever altered. And so was Tethros.
Solorathis, the City of the Deep, was lost to time, sunk beneath the waves—its pearl towers and shimmering bridges nothing more than broken ruins now, hidden in the farthest reaches of the ocean. The gods returned to their domains, leaving the sea to reclaim what was once its own. But Tethros and Nyssara, their power shattered by the cost of their war, drifted apart. Tethros disappeared into the deep, and Nyssara—some say—still walks the oceans, hidden in the shadows of forgotten waters, waiting for the day when the Leviathan’s chains break.
And as for Solorathis? The city still lives, but in the dreams of those who dare venture too deep. The waves sing its song, but it’s a warning, not a welcome.
And darling? That is how the ocean keeps its secrets. Silent, deep, and ready to rise again, just when you least expect it.
Winkingly yours,
—Alice, Queen of Ink & Lore
