Titan's Rift

Titan's Rift is the northernmost and largest section of the Great Inecurian Rift, the name given to the bodies of water which separate Eastern and Western Inecuria from one another, leaving them connected only by two thin isthmuses in Onshi. Titan's Rift is surrounded on all sides by the Inecurian mainland except the north, where the Escarian archipelago lies. Though there is no difference in the actual water, the sea surrounding Escaria is referred to as the Birdsea, and is not classified as part of Titan's Rift.

Titan's Rift, being a bay separated from the outside ocean by an archipelago of islands, is classified as a lagoon. This makes Titan's Rift the world's largest lagoon by a significant margin.

## Name

The name "Titan's Rift" originates from an ancient myth which states that Eastern and Western Inecuria were once connected, but they were pushed apart by a Titan. Which Titan did the pushing and why they did it varies greatly between cultures. The Elvetans firmly believe that the land was pushed apart by Caduron, the deity who smithed the world, in order to separate two permanently warring tribes who could not make peace. A story found in both Onshian and Calsunarian folklore, on the other hand, says that it was a Titan named Kadeki who separated the lands in order to be alone with Resha, his love, and keep her away from Hadan, as Resha favoured Hadan and Kadeki feared he would steal her away. Hadan, however, was unfazed by the newly created sea, and swam across it to find and marry Resha.

As well as the name reflecting the mythological origin of the sea, the name of Titan's Rift has a secondary and far more simple meaning - it reflects the large size of the sea, and its status as the largest of the rifts which make up the Great Inecurian Rift.

## Environment

Titan's Rift is mostly shallow, with the exception of Caduron's Trench, which runs almost exactly through the middle of the sea. The shallow regions are warm with stable currents, supporting a diverse variety of life. Seagrass meadows carpet the sea-floor near the coasts, and coral reefs cover most of the rest of the shallows. The environment of the shallows is very similar to the Onshian sea, suggesting the two bodies of water were once connected - that is, before they were artifically connected by the Grand Canal of Onshi.

Caduron's Trench is comparatively barren. Expeditions in deep-sea submersibles have revealed that there is a dense concentration of life around hydrothermal vents at the very bottom of the trench, but the rest of it is virtually lifeless. Caduron's Trench holds a great amount of inexplicable anomalies, with many baffling geological features, huge jagged crystals and the fossilised skeletons of unrecognisable creatures. The discovery of these anomalies has given credence to the report of 2nd-century Kalzuranuri explorer Uqbar Kamran, who sailed across Titan's Rift during a Night of Horrors and claimed that he saw the deep centre of the Rift glow dark violet. Though this report was dismissed for many centuries, the anomalies in the Trench when combined with Uqbar's description strongly supports the theory that the bottom of Caduron's Trench was a dimensional weak point similar to the Violet Mountains, where rifts between this world and the Dreadlands could be easily torn open.