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Lake Meryou

One of the many lakes scattered in the east of Morlond's Field, Lake Meryou is unique in several respects. First, it is phenomenally deep for its size--though not a particularly large lake in terms of surface area, it extends at least 3 ploisnu into the earth, with several different strata of flora and fauna. It is unknown how deep the lake really is because no one has fully explored the lake and lived to tell about it. Lake Meryou is among the most eco-diverse locations in Battal, due primarily to another unique feature: living things that enter it are immediately and magically adapted to survival within the lake.

In simpler terms, where X is the set of all living things, when any "X" enters Lake Meryou, it becomes a "mer-X."¹ The only catch is that, having entered Lake Meryou, only sentient beings can leave the lake and return to their previous form. (Perhaps fortunately, something like half of all the living things in Battal qualify as sentient.)

The trick here is that actual aquatic species cannot generally survive in the lake, unless they could also survive on land. For example, Mer-Mundanae and Fishy Trout drown immediately in the lake. So a trip into Lake Meryou is not quite the same as a trip into one of Battal's many oceans, though for most air-breathers it is the closest they'll ever get to an undersea adventure.

At any rate, a significant number of plants and animals that are found elsewhere also exist in some niche of Lake Meryou. It is a popular tourist attraction--humans especially enjoy the idea of living under the "sea" for a time. The only thing keeping it from becoming overridden with tourists or outright colonized by water-lovers are the mer-dragons that occasionally come up from the depths to feed.

History

Lake Meryou exists as a result of the debreakening performed by Genja Hii at the end of The Great Breakening. Genja's parents died when he was very young; his father drowned in The Sea of Eternal Sorrow and his mother was killed by pirates. Later in his travels across Breakened Battal, Genja came across the inner sea known as The Breathable Sea. Unlike Lake Meryou, The Breathable Sea did not change anyone who entered it; rather, it was as breathable as the air. Naturally this had some effect on Genja, and the idea of such a sea was preserved as Lake Meryou in the debreakening.

There is a second, somewhat less happy version of the tale, however, shared between two unnamed members of the misguided Elemenstor Union in Book 13. The Cult of the Mystic Seafarers, a force of remarkable power during The Great Breakening, were a constant thorn in Genja's side, always trying to reclaim the boat they had made from Genja's friend. Because the Cult so often denied the joys of the sea to those they considered "lesser landlubbers," it is suggested that, as punishment for their deeds, Genja sealed them within the unfathomable depths of Lake Meryou, to watch for eternity the joys experienced by "landlubbers" who found themselves able to breath underwater. This goes counter to the legend that nothing Genja did in debreakening Battal was for vengeance, so its accuracy remains in question.

Due to its unique properties, the lake fared very well during the Vampyric Wars. Only once was it at risk, during the Battle of the Bloodied Fins, when a group of soldiers devised a strategy that they believed would help them win within the lake. They subsequently lured a group of enemy soldiers (who were on Vhadxi's side) into the lake. The resulting bloodshed lured an entire family of mer-dragons from the depths, and most of the soldiers were eaten. Upon fleeing, the survivors discovered that their steeds could not change back into their original land-dwelling forms, and so they left them in the lake, where they lived and bred, adding to the lake's biodiversity.

¹ There is also record of X actually going into the lake and becoming a literal "Mer-X"