The old world is gone, and there are none who can remember it. Everything that was has been consumed and replaced with the ever-present rustling of the Wildsea.

The Wildsea is a TTRPG system and setting by Myth Works. It is a straightforward d6 system reminiscent of FATE or Knives in the Dark, but it is the setting that I find so alluring and provocative. The vastness and high adventure of the open sea married to the dread and mystique of a dark wood with all manner of wonder and horror hidden in its boughs. 

Credit: Mythworks, artist: Pierre Demet

Three hundred years ago an explosion of vegetation consumed the world. In a matter of days everything but the tallest mountains and structures were consumed by mile-high greenery. This cataclysm, known as the Verdancy, crushed whole civilizations; turned to mulch to feed the Wildsea. The few that survived found themselves stranded on mountaintops too stalwart to be consumed or on tiny isles of earth forced up by the rustling waves.
     Now, all that remains of the Pre-Verdant world are stories and the occasional ruins that are thrust to the canopy’s surface by violent rootquakes. This sea of leaves cut everyone off from one another, and traversing it on foot was a deadly endeavor. The leaves of this new sea were coated in caustic chemicals that burn the flesh, corrupt the mind, and in time warp the body. These chemicals, known as Crezzerin, caused rapid and radical change in the fauna of the world filling the canopy with predators. It was a new world, a shifting world of rustling waves.

“It was a stupid idea. 

Tarak knew it, & her grandfather knew it. The leaves were so full of life they scorched the skin with a touch. Beasts the size of mountaintops wound their way through the shade of the lower trunks. Rootquakes shook the treetops, reconfiguring them, pushing remnants of a world long dead up to the surface.

It was a stupid idea to look at the rustling, dented hull thrust up between the leaves before them, a stone’s throw away, & think it would ever sail again. The seas her grandfather once charted had long been emptied. There were no waves to crest, no currents to ride.

It was a stupid idea. Obviously.
But still…”
– Excerpt from “The Wildsea” core rulebook

It wasn’t until the rediscovery of ships and sailing that these small pockets of survivors began to interact with one another. Ships that could move across the thick branches of the Wildsea. The prows of these ships bear mighty chainsaws and whirling blades that clear paths across the undulating canopy of leaves and branches. Though the denizens of this world call it “sailing” it is more likely that these ships are propelled by chemical engines powered by chemical batteries or honey and weird-fruit concoctions. It is by these ships that the survivors of the Verdancy came into contact with one another and societies began to intermingle. Merchants ferry food, material, art, and science between these isolated communities. Explorers and cartographers are constantly mapping and remapping the changing landscapes of the Wildsea. Scavengers salvage wrecks and ruins for anything of value, and the bravest delve beneath the canopy into the dark depths where death and treasure exist in equal measure. Bit by bit these voyages bring the world closer together and its inheritors find stronger footing.

When making your character you will choose their Bloodline, Origin and Post. Each one offer a myriad of attributes, abilities and specialized equipment. Bloodline is your lineage. There are many peoples that populate the regions of the Wildsea, and they as varied as the sea itself. Some are survivors from the Pre-Verdancy and others are emerging peoples that are beginning to thrive on the rustling sea. These are but a few that have made their home in the canopy of the rustling waves:
     The Ardent are the descendants of the ancient humans. Their customs and traditions are as varied as they were before the Verdancy, but are unified in their ability to survive and adapt to whatever the Wildsea can conjure.
     Ektus are cactoid people with fibrous flesh covered in spines and blooms. They stand a good foot above most, hardy and able to endure the most grievous of injury. They hail from the east where the Verdancy destroyed their ancestral deserts, and are determined to have their way of life endure.
     The Verdancy caused the extinction of many peoples across the world, but for the Gau it allowed them to traverse the world beyond their fungal fortresses. In the old world these fungal humanoids were limited to humid marshlands and dank caverns, but now, in a world filled with growth and decay they can start to flourish.
     Tzelicrae are possibly the strangest of the bloodlines that have begun to populate the Wildsea. Their humanoid forms are actually colonies of thousands of spiders that mentally linked together. They wear cobbled together bodies that they use to mimic the behaviors of the other peoples. Despite being a swarm of thousands of tiny arachnids, Tzelicrae are capable of complex sapience and deep emotions.

Credit: Mythworks, artists Felix Isaacs

Your Origin is the lifestyle , culture or environment you came from before taking to the Wildsea. You may have grown up on a spit of earth dragged up by the from below. There are the Amberclad, a person from the Pre-Verdancy preserved in amber with no memory of the world they left behind. Or you could be among the Anchored. Your body was claimed by the Under-Eaves a long time ago and only your soul remains. Though you may be among the dead, you are still quite tangible, connected to a memento  that was precious to you in life.
     Post refers to the position you hold on the ship. The Navigator is trained in making sure your ship stays on course and reaches its intended destination. Dredgers specialize in delving beneath the canopy, salvaging as much value as they can. Slingers and Corsairs are the combatants of the crew and ensure that dangers of the Wildsea, whether beast or brigand, are delt with. Chars and Surgeons are in charge of making sure their crews stay healthy. The former preps meals and keeps the larder full, while Surgeons are the medical experts on the ship.

The Wildsea doesn’t contain any magic, but it is filled with the weird. The study and harnessing of the strange and uncanny is Acronautics. This is most often done by binding to or ingesting the weird of the Wildsea, harnessing it as potential energy, and through training turn that potential into action. Acronautics sits in the strange realm between magic and science. It is not done by studying tomes or reciting arcane rituals, and it is not random or completely unpredictable. It is not summoned from nothing and it doesn’t disperse just as quickly. It is material, and it is understandable. It is the uncanny secrets that underpin this new Post-Verdant world.

The Wildsea is a phenomenal setting filled to the brim with provocative imagery and ideas. It takes the energy and tropes of the swashbuckling pulps and marries them to an arboreal apocalypse. It feels both surreal and immensely lived-in. The creators took big punchy ideas that would feel too weird or strange in any other setting and grounded it all with the premise of: your goal is to survive. A base instinct experienced by everything that has ever lived.