Shatonin

Shatonin is an omath settlement within the glacier of Niress.

Background

Hewn from the sides of circular bore about a mile wide, providing a watery egress into Niress' interior, Shatonin is a city below the surface. Most of its chambers have even become submerged, though the remaining ones are fairly dry, thanks to a series of airlocks. Due to its location, Shatonin has since become the center for trade and exploration for Niress to the rest of the Ninth World.

Many of the merchants are omaths, who will trade with one another via their unique psychic currency (favors), though it's also common for them to be seen trading with other creatures such as humans, naiadapts, etc. Trade with other lifeforms usually involves the exchange for knowledge or even unique cyphers and artifacts from throughout the icedrift. Their experience with humans in particular has led to specific, warm, air-filled chambers to be set aside so that human clientele can be served by robotic intermediaries, due to the omath's greater awareness of discomfort humanity has toward their forms.

One particular omath who abides by this behavior is Badusk, a merchant whose icy shell is lined with golden filigree, specializes in trade near the Skelirroth Fleet. He claims to hoild a device that either knows or that can predict the exact location of the Fleet at any given time. Badusk has become popular with dredges, whose unique produce, called Cuinum, is sought after by humans just as it is by him. However, Badusk secretly covets an illicit omath birth unit which others of his kind are unaware of. He'll sometimes trade with other omaths by promising to "evolve" them into a higher state of being, such as himself.