Yaren Juhl (YAH rain Jewel)
the Drinkless Sea
Yaren Juhl, known in antiquity as Lake Benet, and now called the Great Salt Sea, and the Drinkless Sea, is a landlocked sea in the central region of Anbar, on the major continent of Ethae. It is the world's saltiest body of water, with a salinity nearly ten times that of the oceans and seas. Yaren Juhl stands as a little over one hundred miles north to south, with a similar if not slightly wider width. According tp local ancient legends the sea came into existence after the Gilgurth impact, when melting glacier waters from the Mountains of Poe flooded the lowlands of the Land of Five Lakes. The sea is estimated to have been full formed by 1100 pre-sc, a hundred years after the impact and melt waters drained into the basin.
A body of water with no outlets, sea's annual intake from rain and seasonal mountain melt balances with the rate of evaporation, creating a stable water level throughout much of history. This has raised questions in modern scholars, who point to the fact that the Desert of Anbar did not aways cover much of the Western Reach of Ethae. This fact theoretically creates an imbalance in the system, with less evaporation. Many, including Elf, claim Karasaanu, the great forest of the west, that covered Anbar at the time was warm and evaporation levels remained consistent from the ancient world to the modern. Other evidence points to the Beneten and the Areian Nations once having canals channeling out of the sea into their lands, thus maintaining the sea level. While it is known that Benet did build extensive canals in their realm, the elven canals throughout Karasaanu are little more than a thought experiment among some scholars.
As stated, Yaren Juhl is a hypersaline body of water, though this was not always the case. The sea has grown in saltiness over the ages. Originally a freshwater sea, the Drinkless Sea's salinity make it unfit for drinking water or irrigation. Plant and animal life cannot flourish along its shores, making it a harsh environment. What the ancient world considered a blue gem of life is now a salt crusted dead sea.
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