Shattered Sea

Geography • Oceanic Region

Overview

Sailors say the mapmaker cried here. Where charts once expected a tidy crescent of land, the Shattered Sea yawns—a deep, steel‑blue basin rimmed by an eastern landmass and two sprawling archipelago arcs to the north and south. Trade routes coil through its straits like thread through a torn sleeve, drawing merchants, raiders, researchers, and would‑be colonists to its fickle waters.

How it Broke — The Sundertide

When the world thawed after the fall of the Air Elemental God, three forces arrived together and scholars mark them collectively as the Sundertide:

• Pressure Wave: The god’s Last Breath rolled round the globe—a barometric shock that slammed coasts and cracked shelf ice.
• Outburst Megafloods: Sub‑glacial lakes, dammed for millennia, burst in cascading failures; whole basins emptied in days, scouring channels to bedrock.
• Isostatic Rebound & Rifting: As the ice weight vanished, the crust tilted and sprang; ancient faults along the crescent opened. The right‑hand block stayed welded to deep continental stone, while the crown and heel sheared into fragments.

Result: the peninsula misfired into a sea. The Shattered Sea’s floor drops abruptly at the Sundertide Escarpment; reefs of torn limestone and black glass (fused silt) fringe many islets.

Debate note: Some Undying manuscripts argue a fourth cause—sub‑seafloor clathrate explosions—but Rishama's Council of Scholars lists the evidence as suggestive, not proven.

Regions of the Shattered Sea

1) The Leeward Rim (Right‑Hand Landmass)
Cliffed coasts of banded limestone and basalt shoulders; long inlets ideal for deepwater ports. Rain‑shadows create alternating belts of olive scrub and bright grasslands inland. Rivers that once carved to the old shoreline now fall in tiered cataracts into the Sea.

2) The Crown Isles (Northern Arc)
Hundreds of cool, fog‑wreathed islands. Saw‑tooth skerries and drowned valleys (fjards) make a labyrinth of narrows. Katabatic fallwinds scream off remnant icefields in late winter, flattening sails and tempers alike.

3) The Heel Isles (Southern Arc)
Warm currents, wide lagoons, and coral shelves over shattered bedrock. Mangroves, spice trees, and bright reefs—also the favored hunting grounds of privateers and sea‑serpents. Storm paths bend here in Qiyuan season.

4) The Blue Maw (Central Deeps)
A cold, sapphire gyre over the Sundertide Escarpment. Lights are reported at 400‑fathom nights—either vent‑bioluminescence or miners’ lamps of something that isn’t human.

Climate, Winds & Currents

• Gyre: A clockwise surface gyre; inbound on the Crown side, outbound along the Heel.
• Seasonal Winds: The Scribe Winds (steady trades) write across the Heel in Qiyuan; the Archivist’s Gale pounds the Crown in Yiwang. Hexie brings glassy calms that strand ships between islands.
• Fog & Mirage: Temperature inversions make sky‑mirrors—false beaches, phantom lighthouses. Veteran pilots steer by soundings and smell as much as by sight.

People & Polities (52 AT)

• Leeward Ports: Deep quays export grain, stone, and metals from the Rim’s interior; many are newly founded post‑Thaw.
• Island Confederacies: Crown fisher‑holds vote by bell; Heel spice‑towns feud by tariff and truce.
• Raiders & Mercenaries: Sea‑companies prowl the Heel lanes; contracts swing with the season.

Hazards & Oddities

• Rift‑Tide Races: Twice a month, tidal rivers reverse through certain narrows; ships that mis‑time entry are hurled onto knife reefs.
• Skyglass Reefs: Sheets of vitrified silt glitter just below the surface—harder than steel, sharper than rumor.
• Falling Rivers: Inland spillways that now leap directly into the Sea; mist corals grow in their plumes.
• Whale‑Road Drums: Low, regular booms from the Blue Maw; navigators swear the pattern predicts storms three days out.

Travel & Mechanics (GM Aids)

• Transit DCs: Crown narrows in poor visibility DC 15–18 Navigation; Heel reef‑threads at night DC 16–20. Good pilots reduce DCs by 2–4.
• Passage Times: Crossing Rim‑to‑Rim with trades: 6–9 days; against trades: 12–18. Dirigible shadowing (if available) halves scouting risk but doesn’t change ship speed.

Notable Sites

• The Sundertide Escarpment: Sheer drop at the Sea’s heart; fishermen haul up warm stones and cold bones.
• Bell of Nine Bearings: Crown lighthouse that rings a different tone for each wind; pilots can dead‑reckon by ear.
• Saints’ Ladder: A seven‑fall river cascade on the Rim with a portage road carved into the cliff—now a caravan choke‑point.