The Chimera Islands

Just off Arkions western coast the ocean is riddled with islands called the chimera's. The island complex is located in the epicenter of the major sea currents of the west. Here the Icicle stream of the north collides with the southern ruby current, before veering off to the west. The extreme difference in temperature makes the weather in the region entirely unpredictable hence the name of the region because like a chimera no matter how the weather looks one can never be entirely sure what it really is.
Despite this or rather because of this many people still live on these Islands the so called Free cities of the west lay claim to these seas. Populated by well... "free men" or pirates and criminals if one is entirely honest. The Baharuth Empire tried a few times to clear out these waters and gain control over the cities there but these crazy conditions lay waste to any and all organised campaigns. In the end the empire came to an agreement with the Union of The Free to acknowledge their claim to the region and in turn the merchants in charge agreed to abstain from piracy.

Natural Disasters

The Chimera seas are unlike any ocean on the planet, well at least as far as is known... the unique circumstance of a freezing cold and brewing hot sea current mixing in a conglomerate of reefs, islands, craters and underwater volcanos creates an environment so extreme that it would leave the most experienced captain quivering in his boots when thinking about crossing these waters.

"Fear? No not really you just have to be on your toes at all times, in my thirty years as a captain i have not had a single voyage that was the same as another" – Patrick Jones

It is entirely possible to have a voyage that starts out with a warm cloudless day and low tide and ends in a tsunami blizzard. Many islands are what one would imagine when talking about a tropical paradise whilst a few others are akin to a tundra with heavy snowfall.
If scholars are to be believed chaos of this magnitude is impossible to occur naturally and thus the forerunning thesis is that some kind of godlike entity is responsible for this mess. Well even without these scholars pinning this on a higher entity the amount of myths, ghosts, gods, religions, sects and rituals recognised by the sailors in the chimera's are in the thousands.

Monsters

In a region as lively as the chimera islands of course a certain amount of non humanoid creatures are interested. From sea dragons looking to expand their treasury to sirens looking for good looking young sailors everything can be found. In this regard the stories and myths are as plentiful as grains of sand on the sea floor so the information on number and danger of these monsters is not really that accurate and if some of those old captains are to be trusted there really are not that many monsters in the vicinity as the amount of stories might suggest

- Chimera Stormcloud