The Barrier Sea
History
To understand the Barrier Sea is to look backwards in time, when the World Gate was being collapsed. It is thanks to the testimonies of survivors, as well as recovered documentation, that most historians have managed to put the timeline together. There were two distinct ends: one in the capital of the Imperium, and the other in the heartlands of Aerthen and Nerzin. The wokma, all-too-aware of the vast powers that sustained the World Gate, devised a scheme to destroy it. In the ensuing collapse, and the release of all that magical power, they would direct it to a series of elaborate magical arrays spanning from the south, to the north, sides of the continent. The intention was to, after decades of research to realize the magical array, create an enormous continental 'wall'. This wall was envisioned as a way of separating Nerzin's heartlands from Aerthen, and thus preventing foreign influence from easily reaching them. However, the wokma underestimated how much power the World Gate would release. The resulting explosion annihilated the Imperium's capital and the surrounding lands virtually in an instant. The energy that went to Nerzin's side was channeled toward the arrays, where it did its purpose. Then, more and more power continued to flow, until the array finally overloaded and it too, exploded violently mere minutes later. Try as the wokma mistresses did, they couldn't contain the explosion. Were it not for the intervention of mysterious beings, they too would've suffered the fate of Tyrant's Sea. Thus the great, squiggly scar that divided Aerthen and Nerzin's heartlands came to be, and so it was called the Barrier Sea. Deeper than the ocean shelves it connects to, and expansively wide, no ordinary bridge spans it, and boat travel or flight is required to traverse it. For the most part, Rotalhm's merchant guilds tend to prioritize ownership of large swathes of the sea. Nerzin's own guilds claim their respective half, and it tends to be a highly controlled area of import/exporting. In the end, it suited the wokma's purposes, though not exactly as how they envisioned it would be.Geography
Being entirely artificial, the Barrier Sea is both smooth in areas, and horridly jagged in others. In the millenniums since the explosion of the World Gate , the ambient magic has subsided, principally from long treatments by the wokma to reduce the pollution. Thus, the floor and walls of the sea tend to be covered with corals, littered with shipwrecks from various conflicts, and other features more a consequence of life than normal geography.
Fauna & Flora
Given the magical pollution was cleaned up far more meaningfully than that of Tyrant's Sea, life in the Barrier Sea is, for the most part, quite normal. It serves as a very curious mixing ground of the north and south oceans, respectively, given how directly it connects them. Species who would otherwise never meet can be found intermingling here, making a peculiar and exotic ecosystem.
Natural Resources
As the World Gate's explosion destroyed the terrain, there are no veltrony resources to speak of within the Barrier Sea itself. However, as life filled in the void and staked a claim, varieties of fish, crustaceans, and other edible sea-life followed. In this respect, it can be a useful fishing location. As the number of people living on the shores of the sea have increased, however, waste has, too. There are fears the Barrier Sea may become too polluted to safely eat from, but it has thus far not reached that state. Constant currents from the north and south oceans tend to sweep away refuse.
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