The Elderan Ocean

The largest ocean on Az, the Elderan Ocean is a subject of great reverence and trepidation among all the cultures that regularly come into contact with it. Encircled by the continents of the Tall Stretch, Yddian and The Land of Dreams, the Elderan ocean is renowned for its fearsome weather, boasting a near constant extreme tempest, leading to many dubbing it the Waters of Ruin.   Though their is neigh but a few scattered isles located here, there are signs of a potentially great civilization that may have once existed somewhere out in the expanse of blue. These clues come in the form of washed up pieces of furniture and clothing which bears patterns and styling unlike anything else on Az, with a few decrepit ruins on the the islands farthest inside the Elderan Ocean also bearing such iconography. More than this, the extreme weather has often been cited to be unnatural, leading many mages to investigate if there are any signs of magical tampering with the ocean. What has been discovered is that there is indeed a sizeable flow of the Arcane Current circulating throughout the Elderan, far more than should be expected for an area devoid of any interaction between human, giant or Vull'jorg civilization.   The popular prevailing theory is that far back in the distant past, maybe even before the start of the Mythic Era, the Elderan Ocean was home to a vast sea-faring empire that was uncontested for its entire existence, with a society which encouraged the development of powerful hydromancy and sea-mages. At some point a series of natural disasters, or even a civil war between the various mages, lead to the destruction and sinking of much of this ancient super-power. Or potentially it was the population of the civilization that caused its own downfall, a proposed cultural suicide which saw the populace desire an end to themselves, in order to appease one of their ocean deities. The latter theory has some merit, as the large residual soul-force permeating the Elderan provides a strong basis that a large group of people at the very least believed that it should be covered in a near eternal maelstrom.   Whatever the case, much is still unknown about such an ancient people. More unknown than this, however, is what lurks beneath the turbulent waves of the Elderan, with countless tales of fishing ships disappearing for good, dragged under by demonic monsters of the deep. Most attempts at verifying this claim have been inconclusive, with magicians attempting to survey the sea-floor also mysteriously vanishing.   All except one, in the year 600 of the Enlightened Era, where the accomplished Soren the Erudite of the Scion-students descended deep below the waves to survey the situation. Accompanied by several powerful sorcerers and exemplars, Soren was still the only to return from his expedition, utterly shell-shocked by what he witnessed, only giving the vaguest descriptions of what happened to his colleagues. Whatever was present in those depths clearly was something of eldritch magnitude, as it drove Soren the Erudite to suddenly murder his teacher and at the time grand-master of the Scion-students Phillipe De Bardo, before stealing several documents and relics and escaping to some unknown fate. It is this event which has lead to a quarantine to be put in place for the innermost region of the Elderan Ocean and sea-floor.... not that many would venture that far out in the first place.