"Section 42: Cultures of the Sea"

"I have found that while a boy who has never seen the ocean in his life might consider it to be one giant blue entity, the seafarers themselves tend to have different thoughts on the matter. Part of Rivain's isolationism stems from the fact that many of its crews are aghast by the idea of leaving Rialto Bay. 'It’d be like exploring Antiva by using a map of Rivain,' one captain reasoned. The Sea is vast and wild and free. For northerners, the presumption that you could understand and master her in her entirety was nothing short of man’s arrogance. In fact, Salle is on the map for this exact reason: any goods from Rialto Bay exchange ships in Salle from a bayship to an Amaranth ship.

'What about the Qun?' I put forth, ducking underneath a hail of spit launched at me for use of the word. 'They sailed the full length of the map to get to Denerim.'
The captain fixed me with a glare that informed me I would be seeking new passage at the next dock. 'And look where it fuckin got em.'
While the northerners are the only ones that hold to that belief with quite so much zeal — the rest of the world has economies to maintain — it cannot be helped but noted that it holds some water. ‘Stick to what you know’ is just good sense, and furthermore, certain traditions of the sea are changed and sculpted by the culture of their body of water."

---

An excerpt from the book The Peculiar People of Thedas by Nathaniel Vearce, in which Vearce details the most interesting cultural facets of life across Thedas. In the chapter ‘Soul of the Sea, Secrets of the Sailor’ he goes over the most unusual things he noticed about life on the high seas.
Meta-note: this article was originally written by Mr. Stableford, with light modifications following.