The Spirit Sea and Spirited Lands
Where the Dead Yet Sail
"The only warning there was more to this fog than that of any other morning was the sudden rush of a doe out of the underbrush. Wild-eyed, it burst past as if I didn't even exist. I didn't hesitate to abandon the chase, scurrying up the nearest tree that could take my weight. Minutes ticked by in silence, until I finally spotted the movement below. The wandering dead began passing underneath, and I settled in to wait. There would be no hunting today, nor for a week after. Not after a Spirit Tide passing through."
-testimony of an accomplished hunter and trapper in the Spirited Lands
An area ranging nearly from the western edge of the northern continent to the Spider Spires, the Spirit Sea carries more than the usual dangers, beauty, and rewards of the open sea.
Spirits, mostly of incorporeal varieties, abound throughout the sea, though not in an evenly spread method. They seem to drift on tides and currents not adhering to those present for mortal sailors, ghost ships and wraith-swarms alike moving in almost-predictable courses; perhaps they follow the paths of an ancient sea, or perhaps they are driven before winds and energies the living never experience.
Whatever the cause, civilizations have had to learn an additional set of survival skills when located along the coast or traveling on shipping lanes through the area. On the open ocean, a sailor’s first, best hope is speed. When sighting anything even remotely odd, an experienced captain turns off course if need be to avoid the occurrence and damns the risks of sailing outside established shipping lanes.
There are those who have made it their purpose to make these seas safe(relatively speaking) for travel, of course; humanity in all its forms is incorrigible as ever. The Geisturmers are a collection of warships outfitted with weaponry and plating specifically for combating undead, both incorporeal and more fearsome. They are crewed by men and women of all walks of life, some of whom simply heard the call to join in their blood, others who were rescued by Geisturmer crews and chose to join. All their weaponry and protections are further reinforced by a motley collection of alchemists, wizards, witches and others interested in studying, capturing or destroying the undead so abundant on the sea. While the Geisturmers have no landed home, all the ports surrounding the Spirit Sea offer drydock, repair and resupply services free of charge for their vessels (grudgingly in some cases), recognizing the service they benefit from.
However, the Geisturmers, for all their preparations, recognize that observation, learning about their opponent, is a much more achievable goal than some blind endless campaign to combat every ghost and undead kraken that rises from the depths. Unless another ship is in the area, or specifically on a voyage to combat a particular occurrence, even the stoutest, best-equipped Geisturmer vessel will attempt pacing any occurrence and observing, or fleeing, before fighting.
The cities along the Spirit Coast on the northern continent have had to learn to survive a different set of challenges. Spirit Tides, as the locals call them, will occasionally flood inland. Waves of wraiths and other specters slip up and out of the water, drifting up sheer cliffs as easily as beaches, and wander directly inland. Slowly gliding through the air, the normally-predatory creatures in these swarms seem somewhat comatose, mindlessly progressing at ground level, avoiding passing through walls and doors as if still alive. Animals will flee in terror scant minutes ahead of such a tide, giving anyone caught outdoors just enough warning to perhaps climb a tree or other object, or hurry indoors. For while they are much less than the normally rapacious predators of life found elsewhere, when a member of the living is caught sight of at close range, all nearby members of the Spirit Tide immediately go into a frenzy, tearing the offending individual’s life-force to shreds before returning to a complacent slow movement. The disparity between behaviors when witnessed can be shocking; some find it more unnerving than the actual death of the victim.
Any settlement in these areas that has managed to survive has alarms of some kind in case of a Spirit Tide being spotted. Any animals are herded indoors if there is time, or abandoned to be collected later if it isn’t feasible. “Spirits take you” and other such curses are used less often in these areas of the world, as the fate of actually being taken by a Spirit Tide is a terrible one, and most who have witnessed it react unfavorably toward those who would wish it on even their most hated enemies.
Ghost salts and other undead-focused products do a brisk trade in cities on these coasts, and even at a distance inland. Deities and demons who focus heavily on death itself, or undeath, have sizable followings here. Travelers who disbelieve in afterlives and are pushy with their ideology tend to be treated cooly at best, while openly practicing necromancers, whatever the source of their abilities, receive mixed reactions dependant on their purposes and methods. Those who work directly with positive and negative energies, and don’t seek to create or control undead except as necessary for survival in a reactionary manner, are generally well-received as they can assist greatly in understanding how better to prepare for and survive a Spirit Tide. Necromancers who actively and exclusively create or seek to control undead minions are ostracized, at best being allowed to stay in towns for single nights at a time, lest their presence somehow lead to a Spirit Tide that might not otherwise happen.
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