Who says there's no heaven still in this world?
— Uthen, Dwarven Adventurer
Neither salt nor freshwater, the alcoholic ocean was created during the
End of All Things, when the planes of various party gods and leisure planes were violently ejected into Ithekshem. By some whim of fate, enough of the alcohol stored there emptied into the same place and formed an ocean. Since then, the divinity or magic of the booze has created something akin to an alcohol-based ecosystem.
Several settlements thrive along the edges of the sea or ply its "waters" in search of booze-fish, lost treasure, and... Of course... A lot of alcohol.
The Seven (Alcoholic) Seas
Sometimes called the Alcoholic Ocean, the Whisky Waterworld, or the Beer Aquarium, the Sea of Spirits has become a world of its alcoholic own.
The Sea of Spirits is a body of what is seemingly made of countless individual streams of colorful liquid, each merged but separate. Thousand of dazzling beverages flow within the sea, most of which haven't been explored by the survivors of the
End of All Things. With everything in Ithekshem part of a single world, many estimate the Sea of Spirits to be at least so large as to dwarf even nations of the Old World. Every kind of alcohol can be found among its stream, from beer all the way to ambrosia, and most people along the coast make a living out of extracting different streams of booze for sale elsewhere.
As always, life finds a way, and any number of strange creatures have made the Sea of Spirits their home, from Beer Ooze to Alcohol Elementals. No sentient life has managed to make a home in the depths of the sea yet, such as tritons, merfolk, or aboleth, and some think any who tried would be too drunk to do much.
Certainly, the animals that make their home there display the behavior of a party drunk, often acting in erratic or unpredictable manners - nothing is more dangerous than when you run into a drunk Kraken.
Sailing the Sea has its own set of challenges, and the settlements along the coasts are still coming to grips with them. Most places are still rebuilding from the End of All Things, and explorers have only ventured a few miles out into the Sea of Spirits. Most travel is along the coast, from one settlement to another, but there's brisk trade from the Sea to other parts of Ithekshem who'd like to get drunk.
This article has brought me so much joy. The visual image of the surface of the Spirit Sea being set afire is just breath-taking.
Thank you :) I really appreciate it It'll be a fun place to explore. I kinda imagine it being divided into parts based on the most prominent alcohol. We're in wine sector now!
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.