Arcansea

Circling the entirety of the main continental landmass of Nascindor, the Arcansea is the great ocean that makes up the vast majority of the planet's surface. It is treacherous, turbulent and home to aquatic leviathans that make traversing the waves an exercise in foolhardiness.

Vast seas

As Nascindor consists only of very few landmasses, the rest of the planet is covered in water. Tens of thousands of miles of nothing but ocean stretches from one shore to the next, teeming with dangers and stormy weather. But it is these perilous waters that the traders from the few inhabited landmasses beyond the main continent must brave if they are to provide for the peoples of their shores.

A voyage from mainland Nascindor to the closest inhabited landmass, a relatively small island nation called Balania, takes two months. Ships are often stocked with double rations due to the distances and the uncertainty of restocking at distant docks.
The depths of the Arcansea once served as the home of the Logicians, whose aquatic empire the S'aue reportedly brought low when they revolted against their creators.

Dangerous waters

The Arcansea is often wracked by continent-sized stormfronts, with waves capable of capsizing the largest ships built on mainland Nascindor being commonplace. It takes a shrewd captain to navigate the vast ocean and a capable crew to steer the ship through these storms. However, surviving the storms on the surface is no guarantee that a ship does not attract the attention of leviathans, colossal sea beasts that can swallow ships whole.
To avoid this fate, ship crews often affix a sort of offering to the ship, which trails the vessel at a fair distance. A member of the crew is assigned to keep an eye on this bait and, when they see a beast approach it, sever the line so that the massive creature does not yank the ship beneath the waves as it devours the offering.

Of course, this only works once, so it is up to the lookout to determine whether the line actually needs to be cut. This is a role that most sailors loathe, as the fate of the entire ship is dependent on the nerves of this individual.

Piracy

As if the natural dangers of the Arcansea were not enough, the waters are also teeming with pirate vessels looking to plunder the trade goods being hauled by honest folk. The most feared of these scoundrels are the Sable Sirens, an all-female coalition of corsairs headed by the cruelest woman on the face of Nascindor, Morana the Black. Under her terrible rule, the Sable Sirens scour the Arcansea, pillage port towns and raid any and all ships that cross their way.

Those unfortunates who are boarded by the Sirens are tied to the masts of their vessels and left to starve or worse. Ships strewn with corpses often drift ashore, a grisly reminder that the Arcansea belongs to Captain Morana.

You couldn't pay me enough for a return trip.

–A shaken sailor lodging in Seastone Bastion

Characters in Location

• Captain Morana

Inhabiting Species

• Leviathan

by Midjourney

_{The Arcansea is not always a stormy hellscape}

by Dall-E 3

_{Leviathans lurk the depths of the Arcansea}