Eastern Sea

The Eastern Sea is a large body of water located beyond the eastern coast of Tirónar. This ocean's coastline is shared by Haneul, Duilintinn, and Tandeli, and is characterized by difficult maritime travel due to harsh winter storms and dozens of rocky islands.

## Travel and Climate

Maritime travel in and out of Duilintinn and Haneul is brought to a standstill during the winter months due to extreme winds and stormy conditions on the Eastern Sea. This period of harsh weather usually starts around late November and lasts until early March. You’ll be stranded if you’re visiting northeastern Tirónar during this time of year and missed your ship home.

Meanwhile, the weather can still be quite risky for sailors before and after the three most dangerous months. Those who wish to travel on the sea in October, November, March, and April would do well to consult a local weather expert (either a mage or experienced ship captain, take your pick). While high speed winds are no longer constant during these months, small storms can still pop up with very little warning. You’ll have to pick your date of departure very carefully to avoid getting sent adrift by these unpredictable winds.

By May, however, the weather has settled down, and the Eastern Sea will remain calm and bright until late September. Of course, there’s always the occasional summer storm, but what’s seafaring without a bit of risk? At this point, big ships full of people and goods will start pulling regularly into the ports of Haneul and Duilintinn, bridging the aquatic gap between nations until the winter winds roll around once again.

## Coastal Geography

The majority of the Eastern Sea’s coast is characterized by dangerous, rocky cliffs, occasionally interrupted by a bay or inlet that invariably becomes the site of a harbor or port town. In the past, I had called this a Ria Coast; a coastline with several parallel bodies of water (rias) formed by flooded river basins. The coast of Haneul does seem to fit this definition; Duilintinn’s coastline less so. Neither Loch Domhainn nor the Cuartalan Wetlands seem to fit the typical definition of a ria, and I’m not entirely sure what to call Duilintinn’s coastline as a result. Regardless, both coasts consist largely of limestone and chalk, with a small handful of pocket beaches tucked away in bays and inlets.

Below the Southern Mountains, however, the coastline changes significantly. It’s difficult to define whether the easternmost coast of Tandeli would be considered part of the Eastern or Southern Sea, largely due to the shifting climate. Here, both the winter storms of the Eastern Sea and the summer storms of the Southern Sea are far less intense than they would be further north or south, respectively. This leads to the formation of picturesque beaches along Tandeli’s eastern coast, an outlier compared to the majority of the land along the Eastern Sea.

## Islands

There are hundreds of volcanic islands located within the Eastern Sea off the coast of Tirónar. Most of them are just rocky, long-dead volcanoes; others are surrounded by a constantly changing array of barrier islands. Dozens of different people groups occupy these islands, the most well-known of which being the Island League; a confederation of island cultures living on the larger islands closest to Tirónar and mutually recognized as part of the continent by the mainland powers. Leyfel is another island nation recognized as part of Tirónar, although it encompasses a small portion of the mainland as well.

Due to the sheer amount of these islands and the rocky nature of the Eastern Sea, these islands and the storms that often appeared around them were nearly impossible to navigate by any ships of the time. As a result, Tirónar went completely undiscovered by the civilizations of other continents for centuries!

Eventually, ship-making got better, allowing some ships to pass through the islands to the continent without running aground on a surprise outcropping or sandbar at the push of a stormy gale. This eventually led to Waldren’s “discovery” of Tirónar and the ensuing Occupation Era. But before that, the continent was almost entirely untouched by outside civilizations except by those who lived within.

## Merfolk

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In addition to the vessels of seafaring nations, Merfolk populate the Eastern Sea in high numbers.