The West


		The West

	To the west lies the Elemental Pole of Water. As one travels outward, the islands are, at first, large and common and grow smaller and less frequent. Past a certain point, there are no more islands, only a horizon where the sea and sky come together. This horizon can be distinguished only at sunrise and sunset. During the day, it is as if one sails in a surfaceless ocean of blue and green, and at night, it is as if the sea is absent and the boat rocks gently as it sails among the stars. The ocean has no scent here because the “smell of the sea” is the small of dead things rotting in seaside swamps, and it has no sound because the winds are gentle and the swells low. Even experienced seamen find it maddening to sail too far out past the far islands, and it is rarely done, for what is there to find, save more ocean, stretching out until the end of time? The West is the least populous of the directions. There is simply less space for human beings to live. Those men that do dwell here on the Western Ocean’s countless islands and archipelagos are seafarers and shipbuilders. There is little arable land, making vegetables other than cultivated kelp a luxury. Subsistence food consists of clams, lobster, small fry - anything that lives close to shore. Those who are not merchants or pirates or sailors of some sort are fishermen or shipwrights. A child who cannot sail a boat by the age of six is a child misraised. Political units in the West are based on the island. Each island or archipelago is its own independent nation. Most are

nominal city states, republics or benign monarchies with no foreign policy to conduct and no realistic hope of extending their grasp. Many are pirate havens, though only Wavecrest and the Neck will openly allow pirate ships to come into port. A few are dictatorships or theocracies, but there are not many of either. It’s too easy to sail away from a despot, and few of those who live and work near the sea are willing to worship it. Most Western settlements are well-organised for defence - piracy is as much about raiding ashore as it is about stopping ships on the high seas after all.

There are a few large governments. Abalone controls an entire archipelago, and Coral holds three islands large enough to sport working forms, including livestock. But in the big scheme of things, the Coral Archipelago, the largest of the Western states, has only about a quarter of a million inhabitants, less than a third of what live in the city of Nexus along. Still, these places each field and navy and an army of some sort and are formidable enough that their neighbours won’t risk offending them.

Human raids aside, Fair Folk and water spirits are forever a menace to the cities of the West, picking and choosing where and when to land. On some islands, the problem with siren blandishments is so severe that it is traditional to artificially deafen unwanted children placed into the public trust by puncturing their eardrums repeatedly. These orphans are set to patrolling the shore when they come of age, to hunt mermaids who creep close to shore. Most eventually succumb to the seductions of the ladies of the deep or are killed by vengeful husbands, but it’s better than drowning at birth.

The average Westerner is bronze-skinned, with those who dwell in the Far West or Southwest having an almost golden skintone. Those from the Central West tend toward hair colours in sea shades - teal, blue, dark grey. Those in the Southwest tend towards darker shades, primarily purple and black. Westerners dress in sturdy clothes, ankle-length dresses, jerkins and shawls for the women and canvas pants, thick jerkins and waterproof ankle-length canvas jackets for the men. Both sexes wear wool pullover caps when the weather is up, and boots from ankle to knee length are the standard footgear.

Westerners give offerings to the sea spirits and the bow spirits of their ships, and the spirits wind and weather and good fortune. Those who live by the sword and the gaff also make offerings to spirits of war and violence. Western culture is patriarchal, descent patrilineal, and marriage for life. Women tend to be socially isolated. They do the wash and dig clams, but they are generally expected to associate with only other woman and usually only other women in their immediate family. Women from outside the island culture are treated as male for the duration of their visit to minimise their cultural impact but are also strongly encouraged to stick to the foreigner’s quarters of town rather than test the local hospitality.

The Neck

A peaceful collection of tiny islands, most inhabitants of the Neck survive by fishing and gathering kelp. The Neck is tributary to the Realm buy pays only in cowry shells and coral beads, for its inhabitants have nothing else to give. The Neck is ruled by its elders, who appoint one of their number as spokesman for their islands. The Neck has frequent contact with ocean spirits and water elementals, and many inhabitants bear the tell-tale signs of descent from spirit parents.

Azure

Ruled by an elected dictator, the Coral Archipelago is a militant, aggressive nation. The dictator retains power through a bread and circus policy, appeasing the populace with lavish festivals. In the past, the inhabitants of the Archipelago were restrained in their raiding by the Realm’s military might, but now that the Realm has weakened, they have begun to sack and conquer smaller islands.

Abalone

Abalone is the capital of the Wavecrest Archipelago, a peaceful collection of islands large enough to support agriculture. Wavecrest has a reputation for stolid boredom. Ruled by an elected president known as the Feathered One, Wavecrest is a passive tributary of the Realm that has recently been scaling back its tribute. Wavecrest is divided by gender, with women doing land-based jobs and men doing sea-based ones.

Bluehaven

Bluehaven is not an island, but a nearly impenetrable sargasso sea in the Southwest. Operating from imperishable hulks at the centre of this sea wrack is the dreaded Lintha Family. A powerful pirate gang, the Lintha terrorise the sea for hundreds of miles around their weedy citadel. To date, no assault on their stronghold has been successful.

Onyx

Located on Darkmist Isle, Onyx is the capital city of the Skullstone Archipelago, a powerful shadowland in the West. Ruled by the Deathlord, Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Water, only the dead have real voice in the archipelago’s government. The archipelago is known for its wealth and for the walking dead used to harvest coral, pearls and shipwrecks. The walking dead are also used as slaves by the living and the dead alike, and the people of this archipelago often lead leisured lives as a result.