Excerpt from the field report of Galactic Intelligence: Joint Operations Elite Aquatic Warfare Specialist Deep SixAccording to the story told to me by the sentient calling itself "The Last Phrophet Of Aquos", over five hundred years ago, the first pirate lord Jol'ee Raj'r, ransacked five of the temples containing the "Keys Of At'Alantis". He slaughtered the temples' occupants and stole the ancient artifacts, distributing them to his top men, keeping the fifth one for himself. These men, using the influence of their posession of the "Keys", gathered together all of the various pirate vessels together into what would, over the centuries, become the five pirate clans, all originally flying Raj'r's skull flag.
Raj'r became something of a cult hero on Aquos, even among the non pirate citizens. He became a symbol of the freedom of the high seas, unencumbered by the laws that govern this world. You can find sentients from all walks of life bearing his symbol, be it on their clothing, tattooed on their skin, or adorning their vehicles of choice. There was even a staue erected in his honor on a stretch of rock jutting off the coast of one of the small islands that dot the 23 Seas of Aquos. The pirate clans would make yearly pilgrimages to the statue on the anniversary of Raj'r's hanging by the original Aquos Defence Force almost 450 years ago.
When the current Aquos Defence Force, all offworlders hired by the planetary government, were tasked with reigning in the pirate clans, the first thing they did was demolish the shrine to Raj'r. They pulled his effigy from it's pedestal base and detonated explosives on the small outcropping of rock where it was erected, sending the entire statue to the bottom of the sea. This incensed the pirate clans and drew more than a little ill will from the rest of the population as they saw it as an affront to their culture.
The sea has reclaimed Raj'r's shrine. I dove down there yesterday to see it for myself. It has become the beginnings of a new reef, complete with it's own little eco system of bio-luminous flora and fauna. As I surveyed this testament to a pirate's life, I was taken in by the sheer volume of different species that inhabit even the shallow coastal waters of this world. I could just imagine the huge monsters that must inhabit the depths, they might even rival the sealife back home on Mon Calamari. In fact, I could have sworn I saw something enormous moving out in the darker depths...
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It took over 19 hours to paint this diorama piece. There are several spot applications of glow-in-the-dark paint on this piece that are only visible either in the dark or under a blacklight. All of the creatures eyes, any white objects, and several different surfaces all glow but I could not figure out how to capture it on camera.
