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Green Sea

The Green Sea, also known as the Karadic Sea is the name for the region of the Karadic Ocean to the east of Karadport. There are no clear boundaries to it to the east and no clear demarcation between the Green Sea and the Karadic Ocean, to the north, south and west it is bounded by land.   The sea gets its name from the large amount of plankton living in it which give it a slight greenish hue. This ready food source attracts schools of fish, whales and other martime bounty. Coupled with Karadport's limited fishing industry and the lack of other ocean going civilizations with access to it, it makes the Green Sea a major almost entirely untapped source of seafood.  

Prior to the Sleepers

Historically, prior to the Diarchy's capturing of the Sleepers, the Green Sea was sentient, one of the largest areas to survive the Orderstorm. By all accounts it was fairly placid and very rarely moved, although it did have an aversion to bronze and local fishermen soon learnt that any boats carry any of that metal were unlikely to return - and so adjusted accordingly. However, it was large enough to have a constant link to Sea (many speculate that this is the root cause of the high pankton growth and corresponding high marine life). This meant that the process of becoming Sea-touched proceeded much faster than in comparable bodies of water and limited the length of time fishing expeditions could last and the frequency with which fishermen could visit.  

Capturing the Sleepers and the Deluge of Karadport

As the process of capturing the pieces of sentient landscape now known as the Sleepers progressed, it was acknowledged quite quickly that the Green Sea, being so much larger than any of the others, would be a unique challenge and it was accordingly left until last to allow the priests, scholars, etc involved in the program to gain experience. The Topicarch of Karadport was passionately opposed to the plan, considering it unsafe. While later events would prove him tragically correct, his reputation never recovered from the ill-considered missive I was right all along he had distributed following the Deluge, many considering it unnecessarily triumphalist given the large number of lives lost.   In early winter, when the already placid sea was traditionally at its most placid, the teams hoping to put the sea to sleep assembled in many large flat bottomed barges moored outside Karadport. The ritual commenced as the sun sank over the horizon, earlier experiments having shown that to be the best time.   Whether they sea considered it to be under attack, whether the sea was even capable of understanding the concept of "attack" is unknown. What is certain is that it reacted violently to the ritual. Waves topping seven feet easily sank the barges (the ill-advised design of the craft and his own warnings against them form a few paragraphs of I was right all along ) while currents that rapidly switched direction and even ran vertically downwards dragged those thrown overboard to their deaths.   Moments later, the tsunami hit. The subsection of I was right all along subtitled I mentioned flood defences countless times goes into detail on the precise chain of events, but in brief a wave measuring around fifty feet crashed into the unprepared city. Buildings with a couple of miles of the coast - the overwhelming majority of the city - were leveled by the power of the water with anything remaining being pummelled by the succesive, smaller, waves that hit the coast for the next few months. Almost the entire population of Karadport were killed and every building, including ones belonging to the Karadic kings that predated the Diarchy, destroyed. Rising swell caused damage in Dus A Thanal and other coastal settlements on the mainland and thousands were left Sea-touched.  

The Green Sea Compact

  While Sea itself is obviously incapable of comprehending peace treaties, scholars suggected that the Green Sea might have a sufficiently human like consciousness to be able to understand an apology, agree to a ceasefire and ultimately end its pummeling of the Diarchy's eastern coast. The King in particular was anxious that Karadport and its associated link to the Karadic line was reoccupied and able to be used as his official court.   While evacuations of the coast continued, then, a small group was sent to take the hazardous trip to the ruins of Karadport to negotiate with the angry sea. Days later the tide brought them, irrevocably Sea-touched, into Dus A Thanal. Each carried an identical document - all damaged by the water but a complete reading possible by comparing different versions - the became known as the Green Sea Compact. The key terms were:
  • No bronze was ever to touch of float upon the sea
  • Coastal damage, erosion was not to be repaired on the Green Sea coast
  • Those Sea-touched in the attacks were to be put into the sea at high-tide
  • There was to be no fishing or whaling in the Green Sea
  • Noone was to set foot on a small gorup of newly formed islands
In exchange for which, the attacks would stop.   Accordingly, over the next few months the thousands of Sea-touched were gathered together and led into the water - although that sentence neglects the great agonising over whether this should be done, the frequent attacks by terrorists/liberators on the operation and numerous other logistical factors. They were carried away and formed the ancestors of what are now known as the Green Sea Fishermen.  

Present Day

The Compact is acknowledged to this day, although the use of iron and then steel made it considerably less restrictive the lack of seafood in the major ports of Karadport and Dus A Thanal is unmissable once it is pointed out and has limited the growth of these two cities, plus the various coastal settlements. What seafood there is there is traded with the Green Sea Fishermen and tends to be quite expensive, making fish a luxury item on the coast of the richest fishing grounds on the planet. Karadport was rebuilt but never to the size or prestige of its previous incarnation and several decades later the Secular authorities quietly and without fuss moved their seat to Landhome.   Sea-touching remains common in Karadport and, to a lesser extent, Dus A Thanal though techniques for detecting and treating it have improved greatly.

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Comments

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Jul 25, 2021 21:05

What an interesting bunch of concepts you've got in here! Sentient landscapes, the "I was right" dude, the sea-touched, the treaty... I really enjoyed your article!