The Nascent was a flooded fragment of Kurald Emurlahn, the warren of Shadow. It had two suns and numerous moons. In at least one area of the Nascent, the water was "thick as soup and pale blue in colour". It was "cool, strangely slick and not easy to swim through". The marine Stormy likened it to goat's milk. The water was heavy with silt and contained grass seed and rotting plants from the prairie it had flooded.