Stilltide Bay
The Stilltide is the broad bay upon which the city of Crodeux rests — a silty, gray expanse where the Varenth River meets the Stormwrack Sea.
Despite its position on the edge of one of the most violent coasts in Othvarand, the Stilltide remains eerily calm year-round. Its surface rarely breaks beyond a lazy ripple, and even during storm season, it seems to breathe slower than the sea around it.
Most say it’s due to the delta’s thick sediment, which mutes the tide and buries reef break. But locals have older stories — and the sailors tend to believe those more.
A Bound Bay
According to coastal lore, the bay was magically quieted during the last century of the Age of Glory. Faced with raids from the north and something darker beneath the surf, the magi of the Imperial Celestiarchivum enacted a binding ritual between the sea and the Silver Lady, the moon itself.
- Whatever ritual they used has long since passed out of memory.
- What remains is the unnatural stillness — a sea that does not rise or crash, but waits.
The waters near the mouth of the bay are strangely cold. Coral growth thrives in strange vertical spires near old collapsed signal tower foundations — reefs that reflect the moonlight faintly at night and show signs of unnatural symmetry. Some scholars believe they are shaped by the bay’s residual warding magic, or something deeper still.
The Harbor Chains
Hidden just below the surface in certain channels are the Barbed Chains of Crodeux — massive lengths of sea-stained iron, resting coiled on the harbor floor. When drawn by winches from the shoreward forts, they can seal the inner bay from enemy ships. The chains haven’t been raised in generations, but the mechanisms are maintained — grimly, and with ceremony.
You ever see the Stilltide go black and flat as hammered glass? No wind, no gulls, no sound but your own breath. As you look out onto the bay, you see the whole sky reflected, showing another umbral version of our world. Do you think that's the real world, and we're only some tale told wrongly?
Comments