Sea of Tears

**The Sea of Tears** is so named for the numerous deadly rocks that have felled a great many ships, cautious or not. There are many unpredictable tides that heartily resist being mapped. Only foolhardy young pirates or well-weathered and sage admirals dare brave these waters, while most sane people prefer to take the long way around, though that is heavy patrolled by pirates. Few remember that the Sea of Tears was first granted this sobriquet from the mass suicide of sailors that first attempted to explore what lied beyond it from Ithryn. Thinking the sea far larger than it was, and having lost their sense of navigation by being routed from the great many violent tidepools, and some having gotten their hulls stuck on razor sharp rocks so tall you'd think the waters must be deceptively shallow. Not knowing which way to go, and being stuck with no wind, as the sea is wont to take on the fair weather all the way from Ithryn, as it was nearing the end of summer and the hot air decided to leave it to go west, the score of 6 ships all heavily manned were stranded for 13 days, and on the 14, not making it even 2 weeks, the sailors decided to end their hunger, and the strange disease given to them by flies that seemed to make it all the way from the Antion Island they had yet to discover, yet seeing no nearby land, they decided en masse to end it quickly and not suffer the lurking starvation or strange disease that made them feel as if their skin were about to melt off and as if something was crawling underneath it, not to mention the stale air somehow stinking of sulphur and the scorching sun, it is a wonder they lasted as long as they did. Such a mass of death, with but one sailor too cowardly to take his own life took a rowboat and the few bits of stale bread and hard tack left, chose a direction and ended up in Kanne. He himself had never been an at first thought he had discovered the land across the sea, but was soon granted passage back to Ithryn where he was granted an audience with the Empress, who bade him tell no one of the ships' dreadful fate. Fearful as he was of the Empress, third of her line and most vicious yet, he still told people at alehouses as he tried to drink away his nightmares with a stout beer, and soon word spread and even more fanciful versions abound. In time, as history books bore the word when the word of mouth died out, it was only thought to be named the Sea of Tears for the tears in the hulls that would surely come from the teeth of the dead sea dragon, or so it was now said. But for a time, as a great many widows told their children, scores of brave men showed the dignity admired in their people, and chose a cleaner way to escape nature's trap. That same sole survivor later narrowly escaped the wrath of the Empress, after he spread a great many rumors, by stealing a one-man ship and fleeing one day of paranoia to Kanne, where he returned to the first small village he landed on, and married a local fisherwoman, herself widowed by a husband lost at sea, and he never looked back, but soon convinced his new wife to go further inland, as he never again felt comfort looking at the ocean's horizon, though the once-drunkard had liquid courage when he made his last voyage, just in time, though he didn't know, he gave up the ale for the comfort of a wife to sooth his troubled dreams. He was known as Elored the Mariner, though a mariner he was not, a simple oarsman and scullery boy of a measly 19, though inside he was young for his age, having hardly lived at all.