Malcont Ocean
The largest continuous stretch of open water in the entirety of Kelbonnar, the Malcont Ocean laps against the continent of Euristan's western and south-eastern shores, the eastern shores of the continent of Zastral, the western and southern coasts of the continent of Austal and the southern, western and eastern coasts of the continent of Dricaro. The Malcont Ocean is an open expanse of ocean, visited almost exclusively by the mariners who crew the warships and merchantmen that ply the waves between the east and west of Kelbonnar.
Malcont the Leviathan
The namesake of the Malcont Ocean is an entity that is thought to be nearly as old as the Divines themselves. After the creation of the Divines, Orivious and his children began to shape the planes of existence that they found around them and as the divine Polephemon discovered his natural affinities, he filled the lower elevations of the Material Plane with water and created its oceans, seas and lakes. However, it is thought that the sheer amount of divine and arcane power needed to create the largest of these bodies of water resulted in an unintentional secondary affect. It gave birth to a powerful Elemental, one of the largest, if not the largest ever thought to have existed within Kelbonnar, a leviathan which called itself Malcont. Both Malcont and Polephemon sensed one another’s power and presence when the leviathan came into being and they knew in that moment that there could be no peace between them, for both would ever try to gain supremacy of the waves of the Material Plane. On many occasions the two of them fought, with both winning and losing as much as the other. Eventually, seeing her brother’s inability to truly triumph over the creature, the Divine Sagosa suggested an alternative course of action. Instead of trying to slay the creature, Sagosa instead suggested trapping him in an enchanted net that she gifted Polephemon. Having nearly lost his life on a number of occasions fighting the monstrosity, Polephemon was willing to give the alternative idea a try and set off once again to seek his quarry. This time Polephemon happened across Malcont whilst the creature was sleeping and recalling Sagosa’s advice, instead of trying to slay the creature, he threw the enchanted net across it, the item magically expanding as it flew through the air so that it encompassed the whole enormity of the leviathan. Instead of waking Malcont, the magic of the net placed the monster in a permanent slumber and it is said that to this day the leviathan still slumbers in a location on the ocean floor, known only to Polephemon.Geography
The waters of the Malcont Ocean are deep, so much so that the sea bed is well below the depth that light is able to penetrate to, meaning that there are no coral reefs or sea grass meadows as there are in Kelbonnar’s shallower seas. It is thought that deep sea mountain ranges exist below the waves, towering many hundreds of metres above the sea bed, but only a handful are tall enough to break the surface of the water and become volcanic islands.
Localized Phenomena
Huge storm systems regularly form over the Malcont Ocean and they have been so severe that they have even been known to turn into hurricanes. Whilst several storms a day are thought to form within the area of the Malcont Ocean, because it encompasses such a huge area few of these maelstroms, thankfully make landfall. The majority of those storms that do reach land tend to do so on the eastern shores of the continent of Zastral, making the eastern half of the continent particularly bleak and inhospitable.
The sheer number of storms that the area experiences are explained in myth and legend as being the unconscious shifting and rumblings of the leviathan Malcont in their enchanted slumber.
Fauna & Flora
The deep, cool waters of the Malcont Ocean are home to all manner of creatures and sharks, whales, and enormous shoals of cod, tuna and mackerel, amongst other species have been observed by mariners and fisherman who ply the waves. However, the sheer size and depth of the space also means that huge, monstrous creatures are also able to thrive there and there are many unspeakable horrors reported to live beneath its waves, most of which are only known through the superstitious whisperings of sailors.
Type
Ocean
Included Locations
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