The Sunken Empire of the Silver Waters

Long before the First Brood (the Ancient Dragons) descended to shape the continents of Aethervale, there was the Epoch of the Silver Waters. In this primordial era, the world was a vast, shallow ocean, broken only by a few jagged peaks of basalt and obsidian.

The Argentari: Masters of the Tides

The rulers of this era were the Argentari, a race of semi-translucent, bioluminescent humanoids whose skin shimmered like liquid silver. They were not merely aquatic; they were born of the Aether that permeated the ancient seas.

• Physiology: Argentari possess the unique ability to shift their density. In the shallows, they are lithe and graceful; in the crushing depths, their bodies become as hard as diamond.
• The Silver Gift: Their blood is a concentrated form of liquid Aether, allowing them to communicate telepathically across vast oceanic distances.

The Great Displacement

When the First Brood arrived, they found the world "unfinished." Through breath and claw, the dragons tore the seabed asunder, raising the great continents to create dry land for their own designs. This cataclysmic event, known in Argentari lore as The Great Sunder, evaporated the shallow seas and forced the Argentari into the deepest, darkest trenches of the world.

While the surface world forgot them, the Argentari did not perish. They transformed. They built their new civilization in the crushing dark, powered by the very pressure that was meant to destroy them.

The Empire Today

The Sunken Empire of the Silver Waters remains a hidden superpower beneath the waves of the Broad Swells and the Northern Wastes. They view the "Surface Dwellers" as usurpers living on the bones of their ancient world. They wait for the "Great Flood"—a prophesied era when the Aether will return to its liquid state and drown the world once more.