Charcaria, the fourth member of the Mega Family like Kosarak did not originate from this earth. Rather she came from one of the worlds within ours.
As we explained earlier in Jocaziah’s chapter, every single world within our universe is a mini universe in a way, as each planet contains what are essentially mini worlds that can only be accessed through one portal. There are 25 documented mini worlds in total across our earth alone.
Charcaria’s mini world meanwhile, which we would come to know as the 8th sea’s portal existed on the famous lost 8th continent known as Zealandia. Whilst Zealandia is completely submerged in our age, it only sunk 35 million years ago. Prior to that it was teeming with life, and many of its life forms, from Synapsids to Dinosaurs to prehistoric mammals would escape the disasters that killed them off through the portal to this mini world. When Zealandia did sink however, it would flood the mini world too. This is one of the few documented examples of a mini world not being able to escape the calamities that had befallen its host planet.
In time Zealandia’s mini world became an ocean, with five small islands dotted around it for the Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals to exist on. Naturally competition would become a lot more fierce on these isolated lands.
The submerging of Zealandia however would in time lead to marine life forms being able to enter the portal too and surviving. Among these included the mighty Megalodon, a prehistoric species of Shark that could grow to over 60 feet long and weighed in at over 30 tons. The Megalodon’s were the apex predators for a period of over 20 million years, before a combination of many different factors would drive them to extinction 3 million years ago, including a cooling of the waters, depletion of its prey, and finally competition and even possible predetation of its young from Great White Sharks.
However a small population of Megalodon evidently stumbled through the portal to this mini world, where they would ultimately thrive, remaining the apex predators whilst they died out in the rest of the world.
Over the course of millions of years however, some Megalodons would stumble their way back into our world leading to sightings and even conspiracy theories that the Megalodon still lives in our waters. These were dismissed by mainstream science of course, as Megalodon is extinct in our world, and indeed many of the Megalodon’s that fled back to our world would die not long after, and their existence covered up by the authorities. It’s worth mentioning that the 8th sea was not the only place that the Megalodon’s in the modern age come from. Some Megalodon’s have been revived through magic, much like the Dinosaurs on Jocaziah’s island. Still certainly a large percentage of these ancient Sharks originated from this mini world, including obviously Charcaria.
However Charcaria was not a normal Megalodon. Again much like her robot brother Kosarak, the Shark woman was really two different life forms merged together into one, though unlike Kosarak only one of them would be in control.
The more dominant, human side of Charcaria was a descendant of one of the mightiest civilisations on earth. Atlantis.
Thought to be a myth by modern scholars, much like the surviving Megalodon’s. Atlantis was a project created by the Gods themselves, when they ruled over the earth.
The deities of multiple pantheons wanted to create a perfect civilisation, that could utilise the full effects of the Gods technology and wisdom. Only their most loyal, intelligent, and strongest servants who had proven themselves were allowed to live in Atlantis. In time the Gods hoped that Atlantis could help guide the rest of the world, better than even they could.
However Atlantis would sadly later be used to try and conquer the rest of the world, on the Gods orders, when Ares war began. As many of the people sided with Ares after he used the Mystic Realm to devastate the planet (and blamed it on the Gods.) Then the other pantheons would fall back on Atlantis. Unfortunately however the Atlanteans, having prided themselves on being a peaceful and noble society, were more reluctant to take part in this war than the Gods had hoped, which even briefly led to a civil war in Atlantis.
Atlantis fate would be sealed in the time of the Great Flood. This cataclysm was created by one of Ares most devastating weapons, that was used by an agent of his in an attempt to kill Posiedon in his ocean lair. Instead however the weapon disrupted the balance of the oceans, causing them to spread throughout many corners of the earth, submerging several civilisations. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the event, but Atlantis would ironically be able to persevere for a little longer. Unfortunately however the Gods were unable to help it as they were too busy trying to prevent the flood from spreading to all corners of the earth, as well as deal with Ares, whose followers in turn tried to capitalise on the disaster, and claim that had been the Gods flooding the earth to make humanity pay.
Atlantis in its arrogance believed that the Gods would prioritise them over the rest of the planet from the flood. After all they were the Gods elite, but for whatever reason the Gods allowed them to slowly sink under the ocean. Some believe it may not just have been because of the priority in saving the greater population of humans, but also because of the Gods anger towards the Atlanteans for not helping them stop Ares sooner.
Among the other survivors of the areas that were flooded aside from Atlantis were those in Noah’s Ark. Noah was a loyal follower of Yahweh, a dangerous and unpredictable God, who did not belong to any single pantheon. (All of the other Gods grouped themselves into pantheons, with a base of operations in one area that was theirs, IE the Olympians lived in Greece, Odin and his followers lived in Norway etc.) Yahweh however operated entirely on his own, and was not above venturing into different territories either, which made him among the most detested by other Gods, though never to the point where he became their outright enemy like Ares or Loki.
Noah meanwhile was given secrets and magics that virtually none of Yahweh’s other followers had gained access too. No one is quite sure why Noah was given this special treatment. Many different theories have been proposed, with some arguing that it was because Noah was a pure soul, others however conversly argue that it’s because he was the most ruthless and willing to do what it took. Some state that it was simply Noahs own unique skills as a wizard that interested Yahweh, but whatever the reason, Noah would eventually be tasked by Yahweh into constructing a shelter that could protect a select group of humans and other life forms on the planet, in case the war of the Gods ever escalated. Unlike the other Gods who in their arrogance never believed that their hubris could destroy them, like it had done to many human civilisations. Yahweh was paranoid and felt that so many Gods on one planet was a disaster waiting to happen. He was ultimately proven right. In fact Yahweh had been the first to openly despise and distrust Ares. Zeus had believed that Ares being put in charge of the armies to defend Greece would calm his more volatile nature down like it had done to his most beloved daughter Athena, but Yahweh from the start could see Ares had his own ambitions. In many ways however Zeus understandably did not want to believe that his son was beyond redemption.
When the great flood finally struck, Noah would be given a few days by Yahweh who held the waves back as long as he could, to get as many people into his shelter, which had been christened the arc, as well as animals. (including even Dinosaurs that had been revived through magic in this area of the world.)
Once the flood hit Noah’s arc, it would convert its outside appearance into a craft capable of floating through the water. (The shelter had been designed to cover many different alternatives. If need be it could even survive in space to escape the planet. Whilst its outside shape would change to suit its environment, its inside size always remained the same. It was essentially a city with a gigantic zoo, contained within a boat.)
Noah would spend many years during the great flood, travelling to other islands and outposts and helping them. He also battled Ares soldiers, and horrors from the deep, including the angry spirits of those who had drowned, Krakens, Cecelia’s etc.
Eventually however Noah’s arc would stumble upon Atlantis, which had mostly sunk into the sea by this point. With the final Atlanteans clinging to life having become resigned to their fate and even turning their backs on the Gods who they felt had abandoned them. Fortunately Noah by taking a tiny piece from his ark, was able to create a forcefield around the last chunk of Atlantis that would protect it when it sank into the ocean.
Atlantis would fall so deep into the waters, that even after the flood subsided, it would still remain submerged beneath the waves. The end of the great flood also marked the end of the war with Ares, and the Gods would leave the planet not long after.
The last part of Atlantis meanwhile would remain trapped beneath the waves, and continue to survive for many thousands of years, unknown to humanity. For the most part the Atlanteans could not leave their city, due to the unstable nature of the forcefield. They could only send small parties at a time to explore the oceans around them.
Eventually however even the noble and seemingly perfect Atlantis would fall victim to war and corruption, which would see this final outpost of the Gods perfect city finally collapse. Its final few survivors subsequently fled through the oceans, desperately searching for a new life. They did not want to move to the surface world. Given how much more advanced they were at that point. The Atlanteans understandably were terrified that if they travelled to the surface world, either they would be taken as demons, witches, or that they would conquer them and abuse their power. At the very least the surviving Atlanteans it seems had learned some lessons from their downfall.
The final Atlanteans would eventually discover the portal to the mini world on the sunken Zealandia. They had heard stories about the supposed lost 8th continent, having assumed that it had fallen during the great flood, and hoped of finding perhaps another surviving sunken civilisation, but instead found the portal.
The Atlanteans would come to colonise three of the 5 islands of this mini world that they would christen the 8th sea. The two largest of the 5 islands were populated by mostly Dinosaurs, (though there were a few large mammals, such as the Megaprimatus Kongs) and were too dangerous for them to live on. Instead the Atlanteans ventured to islands that were populated by Synapsids and mammals. Which animals existed on which island was not due to which was more successful. It was simply which territories had survived the sinking of Zealandia millions of years ago.
In time the three civilisations would come to perfect their magics to a greater extent than they had even in Atlantis. They had always been constrained in both versions of their city, either by the Gods themselves who didn’t want them to learn too much, or by Noah’s force field.
Now however they’d use all that knowledge and power to its full extent. Over time however, the Atlanteans magic would eventually pollute the waters of the 8th sea, causing them to turn gold, the colour of magic, and the life forms to become larger and even more powerful. In some cases they’d be horribly mutated too.
Sadly however as always, the different human civilisations would eventually find a reason to clash with one another. Two islands, known as Yajax and Keston warred over Keston’s reckless use of magic which Yajax believed would eventually disrupt the entire natural order of the 8th sea. The third island Jysteria, would remain cut off from the other two completely after the war began.
Their war had been going on for centuries by the time Kessel, the human component of Charcaria was born, in the Keston’s civilisation.
Kessel was a born warrior. Even when she was a child she demonstrated incredible potential and bravery. (According to some of the legends she even used to swim alongside bull sharks as a child.)
Undoubtedly many of the incredible stories about Kessel are the usual propaganda, but honestly if even a third of them are true, she was still an incredible woman.
In spite of this however, Kessel was a controversial figure as unlike most of the soldiers from both sides of the war, she still had at least an ounce of mercy and compassion for the opposite side. She never killed anyone who surrendered, and even in the midst of battle, she preferred to avoid killing wherever she could. (Her skill meant that she could often knock out an enemy before they even realised.)
Kessel’s strong sense of honour came from her father. He was part of a lineage of ancient Atlantean warriors, who unlike the other survivors that forsook the original, failed Atlantis. They had remained devoted to the ancient customs. Kessel’s father had actually retired from the war just before her birth, believing it to be unjust. Initially she wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a Synapsid trainer and farmer. After he was assassinated by Yajax warriors however, she willingly joined the war. There are some who believe that her father may very well have been assassinated by Keston agents instead to encourage Kessel, who was younger and the only person to carry this line of warriors blood in her veins, to take up arms.
Indeed the propaganda that would come from the last of these great warriors now wanting vengeance against the Yajax was very useful at first.
Still in spite of her skill and popularity with the people, it didn’t take long for Kessel to clash with the leaders of the Keston. She would eventually be rarely used on missions, before her destiny would take a strange turn, when the leading wizards of Keston finally found a way to merge a human being with a Megalodon.
Since before recorded history, humanity has been able through magic to create Shark/human hybrids which we refer to in the modern age as Caradons. The process sees a human and a Shark placed in an area of water that is doused with a special kind of magic. The Shark is compelled by the magic to devour the human completely. Both’s souls then merge into a single being, that is neither, but has elements of both. Namely the Shark’s predatory instinct heightened and the human’s craftiness to some extent, as well as unique magical powers.
Some special, powerful magics however can allow the human to retain their full intelligence and personality after becoming a Caradon. Megalodon’s meanwhile were different to modern Sharks in that because they were so huge, then one human would not be enough to merge with them. Dozens of humans would be needed to merge with a Megalodon in most normal cases, and as a result of this, no human soul can be powerful enough to control the body afterwards.
The wizards of Keston meanwhile (whose magics had corrupted the 8th sea and led to the war in the first place.) Finally found a way to allow a single human to merge with a Megalodon and retain control. The magics used to do this were considerably more powerful and would make the resulting Caradon stronger too.
The wizards wanted to select the greatest warrior to be their new Caradon, who would be their greatest weapon. Kessel was chosen not even so much for her skills, but ironically her honour. Whilst there were safety measures taken to try and control the Caradon in case it went rogue, ultimately the wizards wanted someone who would never turn on them, or abuse their power.
Whilst she may have no longer been the greatest supporter of the war, Kessel was ultimately a willing participant.
She felt that if she were the Caradon, she could stop its power from being used to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, unlike the other more zealous soldiers they would have surely used in her place. Furthermore she also wanted the war to end for both cities and felt this was the only way. Finally Kessel also did not have much reason to cling to her old life. Her mother had died when she was just a girl. She and her father had lived alone throughout much of her adult life, and since joining the military, well her more old fashioned personality hadn’t exactly endeared her to the patriotic soldiers around her.
To be fair however, Kessel’s lineage also gave her a certain sense of superiority to the other citizens of Keston too, which often made it hard for her to form any kind of relationship. Meanwhile from a professional point of view, on the one hand the government would never allow her to return to her old ambition of being a farmer, yet she was also now being kept away from seeing any conflict either.
The spell would be performed with Kessel and a captured female Megalodon (as females, just like with all Shark species are larger than the males.)
The resulting creature that was created, would be christened Charcaria many centuries later by westerners, though initially she would just refer to herself as her old human name. As the centuries passed, even Kessel would eventually abandon her old human identity and came to embrace the name Charcaria.
Charcaria like all Caradons stood on two legs, had a human torso, two arms, (with fins) a Sharks skin, and head and fin. Unlike most Caradons who were just savage beasts, driven by an instinct to hunt and kill. Charcaria still retained her complete personality and morality. The experiment was a success, and Charcaria’s first task would be to destroy the Yajax main line of defences. Yajax had by this stage more or less lost the war. Still its defence was ironclad, which allowed them to at least pretend that they had a chance for a while longer, which in turn led to more pointless deaths in the prolonged conflict.
The giant Shark/human hybrid was able to infiltrate their island and shut down the defences by swimming deeper than any ship had could, after which she tunnelled her way from beneath the island and emerged on its inside. She caught them completely off guard, not that there was much they could do anyway, and she destroyed the generator for the island’s forcefield.
Charcaria however would also disable their other weapons from the inside to make the surrender quicker and stopped her own forces from attacking any civilians.
The war was over, and Charcaria was hailed as a hero by her own people afterwards. She would then go on to travel the golden waters of the 8th sea battling other magical, mutated creatures that were a threat to Keston.
Sadly however Charcaria’s people would soon carry out their greatest atrocity yet. The question of what to do with Yajax preyed on her people’s minds. Most soldiers and civilians wanted the island to pay for its sins, whilst the leaders themselves did not want to waste any time and resources on helping it rebuild either. The government would eventually transfer its power on the matter to the wizards who were even less forgiving of Yajax. The island had essentially waged war on the wizards themselves.
The punishment the wizards would conjure up for the Yajax, which the government fully approved and the public largely supported would see the island sink into the ocean, much like the ancient Atlantis. The next day however, it would rise, and all of the people would revive with it. At first they would have no memory of what happened, until the flooding started again that night, after which they would remember their previous deaths before the island sunk again. This process would repeat every single night indefinitely, condemning the people of Yajax to eternal suffering.
Charcaria was utterly horrified and tried her best to rescue the people of Yajax, but sadly even she couldn’t tear through the forcefield around Yajax which was designed to prevent any of its citizens escaping during the day.
The wizards in response to Charcaria’s supposed treachery attempted to use their fail safe and control her. Her will proved to be so strong however that she was able to resist, though the strain of doing so nearly killed her. Knowing that she couldn’t resist a second time and not wanting to serve such a disgusting civilisation. Charcaria fled the 8th sea into our world.
It’s not known the exact date that she fled into our world, but there have been reports of Charcaria from at least the 17th century.
She would continue to use her great power to battle evil wherever she could in our world, and even became worshipped by some as a divine god of the oceans. Many sailors in particular came to revere the Shark goddess, who would always rescue them if they ran into trouble from storms, or became lost. At the same time however, she also earned the ire of many others, as she would also protect animals such as whales from needless slaughter by the humans too. Her greatest enemies during this time would be the Dragurs, ocean dwelling vampires, whose city she would help bring down, though she would also battle creatures like Krakens, her own kind Caradons, Cecelia, Mermaids, White Whale’s and Sirens. Whilst the ocean was naturally where she lived and mostly operated. The supposed Shark Goddess would venture onto the land, and even in rare cases into other mini worlds too.
In time her reputation came to rival that of Jocaziah. In fact it arguably exceeded it in the years before they joined the Mega Family, though only because Jocaziah was mostly confined to his island during that time.
Much like Kosarak however, Charcaria was a loner. She sadly didn’t think the outside world was any better than the 8th sea she left behind. She famously claimed that if the nations of the world could, they’d condemn their enemies just like her people did. Whilst she believed that most people were still innocent, hence her desire to protect them. She also believed that the corrupt would always find a way to dominate, and therefore shunned any society, preferring to live on her own.
That would change however when she encountered Jocaziah, Kosarak and Daharain. Charcaria arrived on Delquahan on the third day of the others battle with Coraziax.
The Demons attempts to widen the existing rip between realities at Point Nemo had led to many portals to hell dimensions opening up near Delquahan, causing hundreds of lesser Demons flooding the island. Though these creatures were, compared to the robot, the Dinosaur and the mutant vermin, there were so many of them that all three were briefly pushed back. The Demons also despite being small and weak had no fear, given the reality they had come from. They were just desperate to escape it above all else.
Whilst the other three were busy dealing with the onslaught of creatures meanwhile. Charcaria was able to use her old trick of tunnelling under the island from the ocean. She travelled right the way into the centre of the island and attacked Coraziax from below, being able to sense that he was the centre of this upheaval.
Whilst she wasn’t a match for the Demon alone, her gambit worked and disrupted the spell to such an extent that Coraziax was forced to flee. This rip between realities according to legends had been created by the Gods themselves. Just before they left the earth, the Gods apparently pulled their resources together to create multiple copies of our solar system to exist in other universes. Contrary to popular belief, no two universes in our Omniverse at least have the exact same history. Every single planet is unique, but the Gods reportedly created copies of our planets in these other realities to confuse any other life form searching for the earth to find the Mystic Realm.
The strain of the Gods actions on the barriers between our universe however, very nearly caused the entire area collapse, but the Gods sealed the portal before fleeing, with this reputedly being their last action on earth. Sadly however even the Gods were unaware of the damage they had caused and in the thousands of years since, the area has begun to unravel again, becoming a hot spot for interdimensional travel.
Coraziax meanwhile was playing a very dangerous game. Whilst the portal was only suited to interdimensional travel between different versions of the earth, he hoped that by completing what he started on Point Nemo, he could deepen it to allow the creatures from his reality to enter ours. Had he not been stopped Coraziax could have either created a permanent rip, or pulled our world into his own hellish universe.
When Charcaria stopped him however Coraziax ritual became out of control and started opening portals to multiple realities across multiple realms. Not only Demons, but Beasts and unknown creatures from other realms started to emerge, and in the chaos, Coraziax knowing that he could never complete the ritual with these creatures here, fled.
Meanwhile Vanessa and her team did their best to try and undo the effects of Coraziax’s ritual, before the portals tore the earth to pieces, by pulling it into multiple different realities at the same time.
Daharain, Jocaziah and Kosarak held off the hostile creatures, though even they would be overwhelmed by a creature from an unknown realm.
it was a gigantic, white amorphous, hairy mass, though the skeletons of other strange alien creatures littered its body. Clearly they belonged to its previous victims, and the creature soon devoured several Demons, monsters and even Vanessa’s men and women in a similar fashion of simply pulling them into its body. Though they all became trapped, they did not die. Clearly this entity whatever it was kept them alive for a prolonged period afterwards in order to feed on them. The entity also had the ability to separate parts of its body which then transformed into copies of Jocaziah, Daharain and Kosarak. Though these copies were crude and completely white just like the monster that created them. They were roughly as strong as the Dinosaur, the robot and the mutant and held each of them off whilst it headed towards Vanessa and her agents. It is believed that this is how these creatures may hunt in their home reality, using their copies to wear down or bring their victims to them. That is wherever their home reality is.
However just like before Charcaria used her underground tactic. She burrowed from under the creature and used her powerful jaws and arms to rip right through its flesh until she came bursting out of the top of the creature. All of the beings that were trapped in the monsters body were instantly released.
The others were completely taken aback, with Charcaria herself even being a little perplexed at the sight of Kosarak and Daharain. Whilst she had no prior dealings with the Tyrannosaur, Dinosaurs were at least something she had grown up with.
Unfortunately however the monster was not dead yet and its wound began to close with Charcaria inside it. She bit and clawed as fast and frantically as she could, but the more she tore through it, the faster it began to heal. Before it could seal up and crush Charcaria completely, Daharain, Kosarak, and Jocaziah all climbed the monster that was now too preoccupied with Charcaria to create more doubles.
Jocaziah and Daharain pulled the wound open until it was wide enough for Kosarak to pull Charcaria to safety and drop her on the nearby ground. The robot then flew up a second time and fired the weapon on his arm into the monsters open wound. It tried to close its wound as fast as it could, but Kosarak’s fire power was too strong and burned the creature from the inside out.
All four of these strange creatures then started to work together to hold off the other creatures and monsters long enough for Vanessa and her team to close the portal.
Many of the unknown monsters had fled back into their home realities, whilst those that hadn’t had mostly been restrained by the Mega Family who never killed unless they had too. The blob creature’s death was unfortunate. Who knows if it was simply lashing out because it was scared, but sadly had they not acted then it would have killed everyone there.
Charcaria only stayed afterwards thanks to Vanessa, who had earlier worked with someone who had encountered Charcaria. One of Vanessa’s students in fact at the Black Mosque, whose ship had been sunk by Dragurs who then picked the survivors off one by one, until Charcaria intervened.
Vanessa had also read extensively about the creature herself, having hoped to recruit her long before now.
Ultimately Charcaria only agreed to help them because it was the right thing to do, though she warned none of them to get in her way. Kosarak was quick to remind the Shark lady that they had saved her life as well, but he also could understand her reluctance to have to work with others.
Whilst they were far from the Family they would later become. All four members of the Mega Family were finally together, and ready to face Coraziax who was certainly not beat yet.
Burrunjors Tall Tales 