Editing Fading Sea (section)

=== People of the Fading Sea ===
Islanders are a lucrative commodity. There’s no telling what kind of people might live on an island in the Fading Sea. Many are fantastical nonhumans (Winged People, Four-Armed People, Horned People, Butterfly People, Prophetic People...), and many come from civilizations that have existed for so many millennia their islands are full of androids and replicators and they bring back pockets full of quantum pistols and nanocomputers.

==== Butterfly People ====
They spend most of their lives as caterpillar-people, miserable beings who look like bloated, fat, wrinkly, elongated babies with twelve sets of arms. They can't speak, aren't too bright and are naturally grumpy and poor-tempered. They're mostly used as beasts of burden, cheap labor (many, many hands to work with) and the occasional exotic dish. After several years of drudgery, one will make a chrysalis from which they will emerge as a beautiful, glamorous, brilliant, winged butterfly-man or woman. Butterfly-people after metamorphosis only live for 9-12 months, so they naturally dedicate most of them to debauchery and pleasure (they sleep about an hour a night, possibly in some part due to the amounts of drugs they tend to be on), financially fueled by the initial capital from selling the extremely precious, hyperstrong silk which makes up their chrysalis. 

They've made up a notable but statistically tiny minority of the population of Galgeleth, mostly concentrated around their own districts, ever since a huge cargo of caterpillar-people have been brought back from an island on the Fading Sea as slaves. People were initially very but pleasantly surprised when they began turning into hot winged flying people.

==== Prophetic-People ====
The Prophetic-People, known as the Jeweleyes or Brighteyes, are descendent from ones who have left their island home willingly, traveling to Galgeleth following a vision. It's said that their island was a peaceful paradise, silent and blemishless, where their ancestors led lives of humility and purity tending to orchards and herding sheep. 

They look like humans, but their rot with blood and pus as they grow old. They're born sighted, but can barely see a thing by when they're 7, and are almost invariably blind by 13. Shortly afterwards, their eyes melt into so much fleshy sludge. 

To them, however, this is a blessing, and a cause for celebration and merriment. And not for nothing: as their eyes rot away, their prophetic powers grow. Traditionally, once they've disappeared completely, they are replaced with colorful jewels and pearls - hence the name. Richer brighteyes even have many sets (up to hundreds!), each a different color and pattern and type of precious stone, wearing different ones for different occasions. Though they remain apart from the rest of the city for their weird customs, they can find positions of power and authority by taking advantage of their knowledge of the future. 

Of course, the poorer ones often have to make do without. Some call them "blackeyes", because some can't even afford the rare oils and soaps required to wash the bloody sludge off their faces in time, living them forever looking as if they'd just cried crimson mud. 

Incidentally, the sludge from the rotted-off eyes of a young prophet makes for an incredibly potent hallucinogen if mixed properly. It even gives visions of the future.

==== Horned-People ====
Horned-People have been a significant minority in Galgeleth for many generations. They look like handsome, powerful people who are human above the wait and bulls below the waist, with impressive bull horns and ears. Men have magnificent beards and women magnificent curly hair.

Horned-People are notable in two ways: one, they can talk to and command all animals. Two, perhaps partially because of that, they are absolutely, utterly, adamantly convinced that God intended ''them'' to be the dominant species: they can't command humans, therefore humans are clearly beneath the level of animals. Some kind of ambulatory plant or object, perhaps. In fact, as far as they're concerned, ''they're'' the Children of Adam, the real humans, ''the'' People with a capital P. Humans are monkeys with a pretention. They don't even have horns - clearly, they cannot have been intended to wield divine power if they don't have horns.

Since humans aren't alive in the same way as animals and thus don't suffer, Horned-People do not use beasts of burden or keep pets: they keep humans. Humans to fetch their newspaper. Humans to pull their rickshaws. Humans to plow their fields. Humans to be kept in cages and sing. Human steak for dinner with human milk yogurt. And if the humans need to have their tendons cut and tongues removed to be reminded of the natural order of things, so be it.

Horned-People like sailing into the Faded Sea to search for further evidence that they're the master race and all the non-Horned People are talking nonsense. So far they've found nothing, but try telling that to them (you could, you'll just die).