By what right do you inquire...
Of the sad, majestic sea...
You, who made it suffer...
and wail in the deep?
The Three Seas
Shackle Sea
The mighty stretch of water between Ëidine and eastern Sembre is known as the Shackle as it binds the corners of the maps together. It was actually orcs who named this ocean, for when they visited the two continents and saw that the haughty elves of Ëidine and the discordant mixed races of the eastern Sembren seaboard, the orcs rightfully determined that they only thing these continent would ever have in common was the water that shackled them together.
The Accordic Ocean
Once upon a time, the Accordic Ocean was the host of Isle Pyros, now it is an empty expanse of water, stretching across a majority of Amaura, connecting all the continents in one aquatic embrace. In legend, the fabled city of the Seafolk is nestled somewhere in these blue depths, which is why the Continental Alliance gave the waters this name after the resolution of the Nautilus War. This massive ocean is a symbol of the peace that emerged miraculously from the chaos and doom of the Nautilus War.
The Silent Sea
The water surrounding the south pole of Amaura. It has seen little exploration and little travel. Still it silently guides the turning of the globe in its tender grasp, watching kingdoms rise and fall like waves upon the shores.
Mermaids
Mermaids are hybrid creatures with the torso of a woman and the lower body of a fish, although they may differ in phenotype by region. They keep to shallow coastal zones and are rarely seen in deep water where they would be easier prey for larger predators. Male merfolk have not been seen since the Nautilus Crisis, and it is suspected that the present population of mermaids is the last of their kind. However, the merfolk are not entirely without reproductive options.
Land and Sea
Able to sprout legs on dry land, the merfolk can reproduce with land populations and have done so across the years, relinquishing the sea to sire children and raise families or adventure deep into the unexplored
Documented Pods: (More pods may exist / may have existed without documentation)
1. Westling Mermaids
Habitat: Westling Archipelago
Coloration: blue, green, gold
2. North Accordic Mermaids
Habitat: eastern coast of Ëidine
Coloration: deep green, purple, burgundy
3. Etrian Mermaids
Habitat: northern coast of Chīa
Coloration: orange, yellow, pink
4. South Silent Sea Mermaids
Habitat: the ice shelves of the Silent Sea
Coloration: white, silver, ice blue, black
Mermaids are a creature so conniving and mysterious that even the scholars of Natura fail to have a decent knowledge on them. Mermaid pods have been known to wreak havoc and mischief off one continental coast, while saving the lives of poor sailors on another. The famous Edmund Rydel even married one of the Sembren mermaids, uniting the people of Rydeltown (then called Haven) with the mermaids of that area. As a species it has not yet been determined if they are sentient or animal - friend or fish. The mermaids, however, made it clear during the Nautilus War that they were perfectly capable of answering that question on their own.
Mermaids have often shocked the world with their actions. It was the mermaids who shipwrecked the Orcish explorers who would become the Dire Orcs on the shores of South Sembre in exchange for Gnomish Ore. It was mermaids who helped Benevol reach Ëidine, and it was mermaids who - when the Harvest Massacres began - organized themselves into a gangs of blood-thirsty bounty-hunters who viciously captured the Seafolk and sold them to various Terra. When Isle Pyros was dragged into the sea, however, the mermaids realized the Seafolk would soon come for them as well and began to seek a way to help the Terra. The Westling Mermaids, whose pod typically inhabits the waters around the Westling Archipelago are credited with showing Pax the way into the Seafolk capital.
Today, mermaids have become altogether scarce - a thing of legend. But that is a good thing. It is said that these cunning creatures only reveal themselves when they are certain they can take what they are hunting.
So should you happen to see one of these beautiful rogues, you should count yourself very, very unlucky.
Pirates
The City of Cachet
The pirate community is centered in one town: Cachet. Not as much of a structure city as it is a ring of docks attached to a jagged outcropping of rock. The spines of stone jutting out of the sea that protect this pirate town are said to be remnant of Isle Pyros. Cachet is the one place any seafarer can come for sanctuary and find security... unless of course he has failed to pay tribute to the reigning monarch of the pirate community. The development of the swashbuckling governance is actually only as recent as the conclusion of the Nautilus War when Captain Kalkario Perans returned to drive the Oceanic Guard from Cachet and end their occupation of the city which had conquered the city during the Nautilus War. Free again to establish pillaging and plundering over the high seas, the pirates of returned to their former power and infamy.
Current Monarch: Lillian de Lateau
Champions of the Sea
Captain Kalkario Peranz
Even with an experienced seafarer like Pax, the Continental Alliance still needed a seasoned captain who had a more intimate knowledge of the seas and their currents. So it was that Vyttía convinced an old colleague of his to be a sort of consultant and captain for the Oceanic 8. That "consultant" happened to be that notorious blackguard - Captain Kalkario Peranz.
It is not clear why this scallawag suddenly turned over a new leaf to help a proud Prince, a High Elf elitist, and their rag-tag band of scrappers. But some say in the dawn of apocalypse that Peranz suddenly found that he had more to lose than he had in his younger years... While with the Oceanic 8, Kalkario managed to earn the respect and then friendship of Shkûrn from South Sembre, a fellow blemish on the face of lawful society
When the Nautilus War ended, Kalkario returned to Cachet to find that in the chaos of the Nautilus Wars, the Oceanic Guard had used this time of confusion to take control of the pirate city. But when Kalkario returned, he swept in with a fearsome vengeance, he drove the Oceanic Guard from Cachet and was invited into a monarchy. He was not given the option to refuse.
Kalkario Peranz passed his authority to his successor in the form of a pendant that he kept always upon his person. The reign of a pirate king is often shortlived, since treachery and mutiny are the bread and butter of the pirate lifestyle. So the Pendant Peranz was passed from king to king, where it now rests on the neck of Queen Lillian de Lateau - perhaps the most cunning and cruel ruler to ever preside over the three seas.
Kieran Talquin / Captain Grey Slaymore
Grey Slaymore (or Kieran Talquin as he was first called) was a family man first and pirate second.
After his adventures with the heroes of Expeiditon 40.1625, Grey sailed first for Stormhenge and for his beloved sister, Cinza. Upon returning to the Seawall City, the Captain Slaymore was surprised to find that his sister had done as she had promised: restored order and justice to Sembre’s heart of corruption. With his sister safe and his brother Albin on other adventures, Grey Slaymore sailed unto his doom: the settlement of his debt with the Pirate Queen herself, Captain Lillian de Lateau.
Surrender does not come easily to a pirate. Most will die before waving the white flag. And for Grey Slaymore, the terms of his surrender were almost too much for any man to stomach. But after years riding the sea’s surface, Grey Slaymore was ready to know more of what lied beneath—about the God who lurked within its waters and manifested himself on land in the form of Love. Grey Slaymore surrendered to Love and found himself promptly married to the Pirate Queen.
Together, Lillian and Grey ruled the oceans with a brand of justice unique to the fire-crowned queen—one filled with redemption, boldness, and unwavering devotion to the good of the Sea.
Talon Duása
When the adventure came to an end, Talon wandered the Terran lands for a time with Oceanus, gathering all their knowledge and dispensing the miracle of his Panacea wherever he could. The two walked the world together until one by one, the short-lived members of the heroic company passed on. After staying briefly with Naeven in Vilênsir, Talon realized that the sea was calling him back to Fęr Deshur, while Oceanus felt a strong pull to return to the lowlands of Dûrdn to minister to the orc tribes in their understanding of the God. Armed with a copy of Milleora and Albin’s codex, the two parted ways with no few tears.
Talon ministered to the Chīali population for nearly ten years before something extraordinary called him out of that world. In a letter to his compatriot, Rekië, Talon insisted that the Seafolk were alive somewhere beneath the Sea itself. Convinced that Talon had gone mad, and overwhelmed with royal duties, Rekië declined. Disappointed, but not in the least distracted, Talon took his leave of Amaura and dove beneath its surface. He was never seen again.