Sargossa (A Sketch)

After resurrecting the Raform Zokuworm Biomass Gladiator class in a recent draft post cleansing ritual, I stumbled upon a dusty old file in my google drive named "Sargossa". In it was 9 location names from Sargossa, with nary a complete sentence between them. Here they are, with descriptions to sketch out the basics of the fleshy pink fields of Sargossa.

The lungflesh fields of Sargossa heave, gasp and shudder beneath the feet of its inhabitants. It is a continent sized valley with lips of pink mountains hedging the field, making it an enormous spongy saucer. Within this immense red disk the civil war of the biomass lords is fought. The primeval and titanic Zokuworms writhe across Sargossa, draining and replenishing the land in gigantic billowing sucks and spurts of genetic material.

Known locations of Sargossa:

• The Flesh Forest: An eruption of crystalline capillaries, reaching towards the bone white sky. Towering jagged, spindly weeds 10's of feet tall. Brittle and delicate as glass, a falling capillary weed is a lethal hazard. Once fallen the spiked stump will slowly gout several spurts of tar like blood before clotting, new dark twiglets forming. Groups travelling through the forest can find themselves nothing more than skewered, shard covered meat if a ill timed tremor topples the glacial forming vegetation around them. Blood ghosts whisper through the forest, often causing the trees to wail and explode into masses of red shards.

• Zokudomes: The glowing feudal pustules of Sargossa. Home and throne to the ever draining bio lords. Each zokudome contains a single zokuthrone at its centre, both seating and imprisoning its lord. Branching off from this throne is the network of tubes that feed the zokuworm and form the architecture of the dome itself. From this throne the genetic information of the lord is drained and manifested into new malformed life by the great wriggling factory that is the zokuworm. Each zokudome, as well as containing a bio lord, will house 20 - 100 raform gladiators. Travelling dignitaries from other domes and representatives from the church of form may be present at the domes of the most eminent and powerful bio lords.

• Zokupits: These are the caverns, pits, holes and labyrinths of flesh carved out across the land by the zokuworms. They are the battlegrounds for the conflicts between the gladiators of the bio lords. Zokuworms will shape the land into fresh arenas then vomit out the warriors gestating within their bodies. After battles zokuworms of the victorious bio lord will feast on the dead, sucking up vital genetic mass through the countless tendrils that cover their bodies. Old, abandoned battlefields are stalked by wild, lordless warriors who have somehow escaped the war - hunting for meat left un-consumed by the zokuworms.

• Mother: A whale that swims beneath the ground, an immense form that ripples and rolls the land itself. The mother's song calls out to the weak, abandoned and wrong shaped zokumen in the night. In the day the surging waves of red ground formed by her movements herd flocks of the forgotten, unwanted beings of Sargossa. She has been known to envelope and destroy lords and worms, punishing them for inscrutable and unknown sins.

• Motherhome: One of the few refuges of peace in Sargossa. A soft curved, undulating mountain of peaceful beige tones. The interior is an organic labyrinth, constantly perspiring a thick calming fog that rolls through the corridors. The mountain is a homely hive of misshapen orphans that heeded the call of mother. Those that enter motherhome rarely leave as exploring the never ending sensual halls becomes the height of bliss, an addiction impossible to escape.

• Church of Form: A site of perfection and solidity in a swarming sea of flux and unsightliness. The interwoven tubes and arches of the church straddle and tame Sargossa's red ruggedness. The rules and results of the civil war are debated in halls of the church by perfectly formed bishops. Only beings that are perfectly symmetrical, rounded, muscled, limbed and appendaged may join the church. While there is no uniform physiology to the church's clergy, each is a perfect example of their form. Any imperfect being caught within sight of the church's towers is instantly hunted, melted and crushed into the dull gleaming mineral of the church's walls.

• The Stones: Elephant sized spheres of glowing stone, floating balefully above a field of fog. The stones are avoided by all inhabitants of Sargossa. There is rumours of the stones leaving the field and silently watching events both momentous and mundane.

• Zokuworm hatchery: A broiling volcano of dribbling metalflesh. Infant zokuworms, the length of 6 men, crawl from the bubbling crater about once a year. A regiment of enormous muscled monks of the Church of Form guard the hatchery night and day, waiting to capture and tend newborn zokuworms. The monks solemnly kill any being that strays too close to the site.

• Zokuworm Cemetery: An expanse of husk tunnels, the hollowed, metallic corpses of zokuworms. Ash and dust fill and the air. Lost and fallen bio lords, often little more than puddles of beige ooze, scrape the innards of the husks - searching for the most meagre of genetic meals to continue their tortured existence. Deep in the graveyard, in the oldest of corpses, a swirling pool of sentient slime contemplates existence. The combined minds and organics of the defeated and discarded bio lords has been coagulating into the manifestation of pure love and transcendence - ready to pour from the graveyard and transform Sargossa.