The Maw of Jerun's Strait
The Maw is the name referring to a gaping hole in the waters near the northern end of Jerun's Strait. Estimates place it at just over a kilometer in length as it is nearly impossible to get close enough to measure without getting sucked in. Due to the nature of The Maw, the waters surrounding it for a great distance are being sucked in towards it, much like a vicious whirlpool. Few try to explain how the water in the Strait remains outside of excusing it with Jerun's godly powers. The depth is beyond reckoning, those who have flown close enough to The Maw have been completely unable to determine the depths by sight nor magickal precognition, being buffeted by extreme winds as they come close.
Sailors have marked it on every nautical map as an area to avoid with extreme caution. Many a traveler has unwittingly sailed too close to The Maw either through carelessness or arrogance, becoming trapped in the water's pull and sucked down into the depths below. Few ships have escaped its terrible pull and only through magickal means have they done so. Even more rare is the sailor who claims to have been sucked down into The Maw - and sails right back up the sides of the downpour. These are the captains and crewmen from which the myths of what lies at the bottom come from, though only listened to by the drunk and trusting.
What Lies Beneath
The tales told by seafarers who claim to have braved it tells of The Maw pouring down a few kilometers, ending at the very bottom of the strait. The water is inexplicably calm here - once it hits the bottom, it settles into a calm pool before folding back into itself at the base. The so-called 'walls' of The Maw are lined with one hundred vessels claimed by its vicious pull. The bones of the poor souls are strewn about each wreckage, pitted and worn from salty spray and the crushing weight of later ships upon them. The amount of treasure lost here is said to take care of one for a few lifetimes - but pales in comparison to what lies further in.
In the center of the pit there lies an immaculate fortress city, the scale and detail of which couldn't be accomplished within several centuries without the hand of a god at work. Every pathway tile and every column is intricately carved with artwork of the Major Deities and their favored magickal beasts. The walls are full of mosaics regarding the gods and their initial struggles and triumphs on the surface, which may be the most concerning. The Major Deities of
Nora were said to be unequal outside of their own kind, yet these murals portrayed a great foe that fought them head-on. A few more figures were included in the artwork, which led them to believe there were a few more gods in the early days who were stricken from the record. Nothing on these walls was known in any text on the surface.
As they approached the great gate of the immense fortress, they froze with fear before placing their hands upon it. Some innate sense in their body told them that something was alive on the other side of the gate. All tales that come to hear end the same; through primal fear none could dare touch the gate, immediately turning to flee the city as quickly as they could manage. Some men were utterly broken by coming near it, becoming inconsolable grieving wrecks and never returning to their senses. The sailors flee The Maw - either up the maw through unbelievable magickal means, or claiming to sail directly through the water wall and their ship coming out on the surface, a safe distance from the pulling waters.
Beliefs of what could be beyond the gate are mixed. Is this where the gods no longer seen on the surface have gone to hide? Where they nurse their defeated brethren away from the eyes of their worshippers? Or is this not a fortress, but a prison - holding whatever terrible forces may have the power to defeat the gods themselves? No one knows for certain. But out of the many people who have listened to their tale, even fewer have listened, and surely out of those few there are those whose curiosity will get the better of them.
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