The Wailing Depths

 

https://amzn.to/45ZeUPq

The Wailing Depths is a gothic oceanic fantasy-horror adventure set in the drowned necropolis of Uronveil, once the capital of the mighty Athekar Dominion, now a forgotten ruin beneath the shattered continent of Draenmor. Centuries ago, a cataclysmic event known as the Abyssal Collapse submerged the city beneath fathomless waters, creating an eerie labyrinth of sunken ruins and forgotten catacombs where the dead refuse to rest. It is a place where time is warped, memories are distorted, and grief manifests as a physical force.

The plot follows Kaelen Vrynn, a disgraced hydromancer exiled for conducting forbidden rites, who is coerced into leading a doomed salvage expedition into Uronveil. Alongside him are a motley crew of characters, each with their own dark past and motivations. Ishari Keldran, a mute deep-sea navigator with prophetic visions, guides them into the labyrinthine city, where ancient spirits known as the Sorrowkin are lured by human grief. Hrovar Emberhold, an exiled forge-priest seeking a relic known as the Heartweight, and Rynn Varossa, a ruthless scavenger queen with a penchant for murder, are among the crew. These characters must navigate both the physical and psychological challenges of Uronveil, unraveling its mysteries while battling their own demons.

The city's dark history is entangled with the rise and fall of the Athekar Dominion, a once-powerful empire whose rulers consorted with gods and practiced forbidden rituals. Now, the city’s heart lies buried beneath layers of tragedy and corruption, and the expedition's arrival sets in motion a series of events that will ultimately lead to the awakening of Tyvaross, a slumbering god of grief who has long been trapped beneath Uronveil. As the group ventures deeper into the city, they encounter relics of the past, the wailing spirits of the Sorrowkin, and clues about the cataclysm that brought Uronveil to its knees.

The deeper the crew descends into the Leviacrypt, the catacombs where the drowned aristocracy still dream, the more they come to realize that their mission may have been doomed from the start. Old Maevra, a senile oracle with a connection to the city’s fall, reveals that the collapse was not a natural disaster, but the result of a deliberate act of vengeance against a god, a curse that has plagued Uronveil ever since. As the crew members grapple with their own motivations and ambitions, they must face betrayals from within and the realization that they are not just dealing with a ruined city but with the very essence of grief itself.

The Moonlit Gardens, submerged in the deep, are a haunting beauty where bioluminescent flora grow in the endless darkness. Here, the crew comes face-to-face with the final signs that Tyvaross is awakening, and they must decide whether to continue their quest for the Heartweight or to escape the city before it consumes them all. But betrayal looms closer than they think, and Kaelen’s growing guilt over his role in the city’s ruin threatens to tear the group apart. In the Spiral Maw, the last, most dangerous location within the city, the true horror of Tyvaross’s power is revealed.

In the climax of the novel, Kaelen is forced to make an ultimate sacrifice to close the Maw and bind the god of grief to the trench, forever. In doing so, he becomes one with the ocean, a part of the very sorrow and tragedy that he had tried to escape. The crew’s fate is sealed, as the city’s curse is both lifted and perpetuated. The Wailing Depths is a tragic tale of grief as both a power and a curse, of obsession and the cost of pursuing forbidden knowledge, and of the distortion of legends over time. It is a story about the inevitable pull of the past and the inability to escape the weight of sorrow.