The Nine Sisters

The Nine Sisters are a group of relatively small islands off the shores of Urtheon, spreading out to the north and south from the mouth of the Bearith. They are sparsely populated and mostly home to fishermen who brave the harsh living conditions on the islands. Unlike the mainland beyond, the Nine Sisters take the brunt of the rough seas and frequent storms in this part of the Western Sea.

The island closest to the mouth of the Bearith, on which the conditions are slighlty less harsh, is also of military, economical and political importance. It is here that access to the river Bearith and therefore to most of mainland Urtheon by ship is controlled. Be it for trade, politics or warfare, if one wants to sail up the Bearith, one will have to stop here to declare wares and be cleared for access.

Those who live on the islands are considered a particularly hardened bunch and are known to be blunt and not very talkative. They mostly keep to themselves and are often weary of strangers, and in their mind, anyone who is not from the islands is a stranger. Their way of life differs from that of the mainlanders quite a bit. Many attribute this to the rough living that they have due to the climate and profession they are typically in.

As fishermen, they do not only endure the conditions they find themselves in, they put to sea in almost any weather in order to fish, not only to supply their own people with food, but also to sell along the mainland coast and further upstream. It is often the men who sail out onto the open sea to fish, while the women often sail to the mainland to sell the fish in markets along the coast.

The archipelago gets its name from an old urtheonian myth that supposedly dates back to a time when people still had magic given to them by the Elements.

In it, a magic-wielding fisherman got too greedy and ventured into the realm of the merfolk out in the Western Sea, stealing from their wealth and offending them greatly.

As retribution, the merfolk demanded a sacrifice. After fruitless attemts to refuse and fight back, the fisherman admitted defeat and sent his nine daughters out in a boat as a sacrifice.

The girls were drowned, but as they all had earth magic, they each created an island in their fight for their lives. In their memory, these islands are now known as the Nine Sisters.