The High Sea

Societies and Peoples

The Seven Wood Afloat

The Seven Wood Afloat are seven great floating landmasses, each crowned with its own forest and all held under the eye of a single sea deity. From a distance they look like islands, but every local knows they drift on hidden currents and old promises. People farm in the clearings, fish from the roots, and tie their houses into the trunks of trees that have never touched true soil.
  Each Wood has its own accent, favoured crops, and small household gods, but trade keeps them woven together. Barges and tree-raft ferries move between them in slow, patient loops, carrying grain, fruit, timber, and gossip. It is one of the few parts of the High Seas that most folk call peaceful without crossing their fingers.
 

The Dripcrown

Above the Seven Wood sits the authority of the Dripcrown, a ceremonial title for the mortal chosen to speak for the sea deity. The Dripcrown is not a monarch in the usual sense. They are a living treaty, responsible for keeping the Woods in balance with each other and with the moods of the water that holds them.
  When a Dripcrown grows old or fails, the sea chooses a new heir. Sometimes the sign is a storm that will not touch one particular tree. Sometimes it is a tide that rises only beneath one boat. The chosen heir becomes the new voice of the sea, marked by subtle changes in eyes, skin, or breath. They arbitrate disputes, bless new roots, and decide when a Wood must be thinned, anchored, or allowed to drift free. Most people on the Woods feel a complicated mix of affection and fear toward them, like a favourite relative who could also drown the whole family if they really had to.

Factions and Tensions

The Dripguard

The Dripguard are the sworn protectors of the Dripcrown and the Seven Wood Afloat. They are part holy guard, part royal escort, part disaster response. Dripguard knights train to fight on swaying decks, slick roots, and rope bridges, and most can swim in full armour longer than a normal person can tread water. Their first duty is to keep the current Dripcrown alive. Their second is to prevent anyone from turning the Woods into kingdoms in all but name. They are respected, resented, and occasionally avoided by anyone with ambitions bigger than their boat.
 

The Tidal Vanguard

The Tidal Vanguard is a sturdy, semi official guild dedicated to keeping ordinary people alive when the sea decides to throw a tantrum. If a ship is taking on water, if a root-village is flooding, if a storm breaks loose from its proper path, the Vanguard are the ones who answer the call. They train divers, riggers, and flood wardens, and they keep caches of rope, canvas, and life-saving equipment hidden all over the Woods. They rarely take sides in politics, which means every side expects them to help and none of them fully trust their neutrality.
 

The Mercywake

The Mercywake started as a pirate crew that refused to leave wrecked ships to their fate. Over time they became a whole loose fleet of “salvage privateers” who arrive after storms and battles to tow survivors out of monster water. They absolutely loot derelicts, but they also pull people from the waves and escort damaged vessels back to safe harbours, asking payment only from those who can actually afford it. Officially, they are criminals. Unofficially, half the High Seas owes them a life, and more than one Dripguard patrol has chosen not to look too closely at their colours.
 

The Black Maw Brotherhood

The Black Maw Brotherhood are the nightmare stories parents tell children who stray too close to the rail. They favour fast, low ships and silent night approaches, using bright lights to blind lookouts before they board. The Brotherhood takes everything of value, including people, and leaves the hulls slowly sinking behind them. They have no interest in treaties, tithes, or the Dripcrown’s authority. Rumour says they have safe harbours in drowned ruins and monster nests where even the Vanguard refuses to go.
 

The Splinterline Crew

The Splinterline are not purely villains or heroes so much as opportunists with a code that changes by the tide. Some days they escort caravans and fight off Black Maw raiders. Other days they “lighten the load” of the same caravans in a quiet cove. They patch their ships with mismatched hull fragments and fly a flag that nobody can quite agree on the colour of. The Splinterline will switch sides mid fight if the odds turn, but they almost never break their own bargains once struck, which makes them infuriatingly useful and impossible to fully trust.