The West Rediscovered: The Eirion Sea & Beyond

Before the Realignment, the waters to the west where known as the Endless Seas; any ship that attempted to voyage too far from Raen'dor would find themselves lost and stranded, sailing in and out of strange mists until they either found their way home-- or perished at sea. Then the Realignment changed everything: Raen'dor was returned to the Material Plane, its coasts finally reunited with the tides of the great Eirion Sea.
There are many lands to the west to explore, from island nations like Kavai and A'Cual to faraway continents like Solun'tas and Rendarvagr. A few brave explorers who made it across the entire sea found themselves in Emandell (formerly the Darcassian Empire) in the north and the Kingdom of Zhenhar to the south. Peoples from these lands, too, have journeyed to Raen'dor to explore the realms, which for them had long been lost to time and forgotten. Different cultures, new technologies, and centuries of lost history continue to pass between these lands, all facilitated by the multitudes of ships crossing the Eirion Sea.
It is no surprise, then, that people across Raen'dor have turned their sights west in recent years; merchants and nobles have jumped at new trade possibilities, scholars and explorers have embarked on voyages of discovery, and (of course) adventurers have been hired by the dozen to provide protection and spearhead ventures into these uncharted waters. Even ten years after the Realignment, the Eirion Sea still seems to hold countless new possibilities for adventure.

The Land (or Sea) of Gods:
There are many, many striking differences between Raen'dor and the civilizations scattered across the Eirion Sea, but by far one of the most striking is the lingering influence and impact of the gods. Unlike Raen'dor, the gods of these lands were very present in everyday life-- until Heliod, the Eirion god of the sun, was exposed as evil and destroyed forever by a group of heroes. After Heliod's demise, the gods renounced their divinity and re-joined the world as mortals. Interestingly, these events coincide perfectly with the Realignment, leading many to theorize that the separation of Raen'dor from the rest of the Material Plane had actually been the work of these gods all along (whether this was intention or not is unknown).
The age of gods, which defined centuries of history across the Material Plane, seems to be at its end-- only a few decades before the Realignment, the old gods whose names are more familiar in Raen'dor are said to have closed themselves off from mortals and returned to the Outer Planes. In some ways, it is almost fitting that a land like Raen'dor (unaffected by the whims of these gods) returns to the world at the dawn of this new era; wherever one finds themselves in the world, history will not be defined by any sort of divine power-- it will be defined by the people who live there.