Qarna at a Glance

Sea of Trees takes place on a faraway planet called Qarna (pronounced KAR-na), approximately one quarter the size of Earth with one continuous landmass (pangaea) and a single sun. The North and South poles are, like Earth, frozen, and like Earth the equator line is a point of significance in terms of climate. The night sky has stars like our own, and displays nebulae of several different colors: purple, gold, and green. The planet is orbited by two moons: one white-blue, named An-Li, and one white-pink, named Ma-Lian.
Qarna, like Earth, is a world devoid of magic except for one rather enormous exception: the Sea of Trees. A veritable ocean of forest which radiates outward in an ovoid shape from the very center of the pangaea (conveniently referred to as The Center), the Sea is currently as wide as Africa is tall (~8,000km or 5,000 miles). For the purposes of this story, we concern ourselves with only the eastern half of the landmass outside the Sea: the Eastern Coast, which constitutes the outermost perimeter of the Sea; and the Territories, six mundane nations located beyond the Coast.
Over the past thousand years or so the people of the Territories have endeavored to explore and conquer the Sea, several of them launching massive endeavors that established small colonies across the Coast. The point of delineation between territory and coast is called The Coastline, and the division between coast and sea The Threshold. Humans who have not undergone specific training and preparation cannot safely cross either line - and in both cases even fewer can survive for more than a few days after doing so.
Human beings are not naturally built to withstand long-term exposure to ambient magic. Though all of the Sea is suffused with magical power, its density decreases the further one stands from the center - hence why the Threshold is important enough to be named. Throughout the centuries untold thousands of adventurers have attempted to venture into the deep Sea. Few have returned, spinning tales of extraordinary and surreal landscapes.
Aside from the Threshold there are also Deep Zones, pockets of high-intensity magic interspersed throughout the Coast. Despite hosting levels of magic that would be lethal to nearly all humans on Qarna, they seem to exhibit a stabilizing influence on the land around them; nearly all major settlements on the Coast have a deep zone nearby for this reason.

Our story takes place around the eight city-states located on the Coast.