Oceans

Here's where to discuss world information. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Post them on this board. Many articles have a corresponding discussion thread, so if you want more information on a race or nation find the index stickied at the top of the board. Otherwise, feel free to post new topics for questions and such.
Forum rules
Rules of Development
  1. Keep in mind that this world may be published in one way or another. I encourage you not to integrate any concepts of a story or RPG world that you are creating and intend to publish independent of Aserra.
  2. Any ideas you use must be original, as if I publish this game, I would not like to get slapped with copyright infringement suit for a rip-off I didn't catch.
  3. Do not model any nations or cultures entirely after existing nations and cultures in the real world. You may use aspects of any existing cultures, though, and it would be best to mix things up too.
  4. There is a need to be reasonable with cultures, abilities, and the like that are created for Aserra. I don't want nations that are the epitome of perfection, or an entirely unreasonable set of abilities that causes them to be sensationally over powered compared to others of their race.
  5. I must give approval for anything major created by other players, so until I tell you that I'm ok with that, don't automatically assume that it'll be canon.
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World of Aserra
Hikuwa Islands

Post by World of Aserra » Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:16 am

Hikuwa Islands
A small island chain in the Tonult Ocean, 1,265 miles from the coast of Ertia, the largest island being its namesake. The island chain is volcanic, though the volcanos have been dormant for hundreds of years. Hikuwa (hee-KOO-ah), the main island, is on the north end of the chain and is about 780 square feet in size. The islands shrink in size as the chain arcs southwards, so the second largest island, around 2 miles from Hikuwa is Maei (mah-I-E), around 590 square miles. The third island, three miles from Maei is Hoé (ho-ay), around 340 square miles. The final four islands are under 100 square miles in size and sparsely inhabited, as such, they are of little consequence to describe. Their names are, respectively, Niu (ne-OO), Hui (hoo-EE), Uika (oo-EE-kah), and Kuio (koo-EE-oh).

The islands share a culture, scattered amongst around twenty villages on Hikuwa, Maei, and Hoé. The largest village on Hikuwa has a port that welcomes travelers from Ertia and Kalesten, allowing some trade between both lands. Pirates, however, are the most common visitors to Hikuwa. Due to this fact, the islands are rather poor, but they are self-sufficient when it comes to the basics of life.

Hikuwans are descendants of sea-faring Ertians, though when and how they came to the island has been lost to history. Whether they settled the island intentionally or were stranded, they learned to survive on the foods provided by the island, subsisting on a diet of fish, poultry from native fowl, fruit, and other native plants. In last couple hundred years, as sailing has become more advanced, sailors from other nations have brought livestock to Hikuwa in the form of goats, pigs, and chickens. Most of these non-native animals are only found on Hikuwa and Maei, however.

The culture of Hikuwa carries some of the male-dominated themes from Old Ertia, but not to serious extent. Women are considered best suited to child-rearing, and as such, they typically marry young, have as many children as possible, and focus on raising them. Marriages are arranged by trade; the groom-to-be makes an offer of trade to the bride’s family, and if her father accepts, then she is traded to the groom.

Much of Hikuwa’s trade is barter, and women are not allowed to make deals, or run businesses. They are, however, allowed to assist their husbands; for example, in the more traditional sense, a family harvests fruits or prepares meat hunted or fished by the husband to be traded, and the husband makes the deals. In the more modern port town of Hikuwa, a man may own an inn or tavern, and his wife will work at the inn as a maid or cook. Aside from inns, another institution from the mainland has been installed on Hikuwa; brothels. Prostitution was not an aspect of Hikuwan culture before trade with other lands, but it seemed to find its place in Hikuwa soon after visits from the mainland became commonplace. Prostitutes are acquired in the same way brides are; a brothel owner will offer trade with a family in exchange for their daughter, and if they accept, she is basically sold into prostitution. Generally, parents are aware of exactly the deal they are making and its only the unscrupulous who willingly sell their daughters to slavery. Some prostitutes started out as orphans, either with their parents dead, or having been abandoned by their mother for one reason or another. Prostitutes do not earn money for themselves, instead, all their earnings go directly to the brothel owner who looks after their upkeep.

As a result of prostitution and a definite lack of birth control, pregnancy and disease is common with Hikuwan prostitutes. Some brothel owners keep the children of prostitutes around as they often serve as good housekeepers when they’re older, and potential future employees. Other brothel owners are quick to adopt out babies, kick children out once they can manage to be self-sufficient, or at worst, kill any babies born to their women. It is typical for girls to wind up in the same position as their mothers, and boys to be kicked out as teenagers, or younger. These boys alone are a major source of trouble on the main island, especially the port town. They often band together in gangs, and if Hikuwans are lucky, a good number of them end up joining pirate crews and leaving. The gangs not only are a bother to residents, but a threat to the hierarchy of the island.

The Hikuwan people share some resemblance to Ertians with dark features, but the result of so many generations has given the people a somewhat uniform appearance in their facial structure and coloration. They are predominately brown skinned, black haired, and brown-eyed. They also tend to be a bit shorter than human averages.
World of Aserra

Tonult Ocean

Post by World of Aserra » Mon Jun 07, 2010 8:21 pm

Tonult Ocean
Adun’s largest ocean is the Tonult, which covers much of the world’s western hemisphere. The Tonult is between the western coast of Thiskel and the eastern coast of Kalesten. It once used to lay only between Kalesten and Ageond, but when Ageond was destroyed during the War of the Gods, it sunk beneath the Tonult and joined the ocean with the sea that used to lay between Ageond and Thiskel. The Forsaken Land and remaining archipelagos that were once Ageond’s mountains are now islands in this vast ocean.

Tonult’s oceanic borders are considered to be the arctic and antarctic circles, directly south from the southernmost point of the Forsaken Land, north of the narrowest point between the Forsaken Land and Thiskel, and directly south from the southernmost point of Kalesten.

The Ageond Quadrangle
As a result of the sinking of Ageond, and the destruction of one of Adun’s leypoints, there is a massive Wellspring, a mass of chaotic energy, just north of the Forsaken Land. Much like our Bermuda Triangle, this location warily avoided by both sailors and inhabitants of the ocean as many mysterious. Those who travel from the nearby islands and the Forsaken Land typically skirt around this region, even if that means a journey that could be weeks or months longer than just going directly across the quadrangle. While there are cases of brazen ships safely traveling through the quadrangle, the tales of mysterious happenings make most sailors cautious.

Islands and Oceanic Topography
Tonult’s floor is a broad and varied topography with flat regions, trenches, mountain ranges, and other typical landmarks, but the remains of Ageond also lay on its floors, scattered for hundreds of miles away from what was the actual coastline. Much of Ageond’s mountain ranges still peek out of the top of the ocean, forming island chains. The lowlands of Ageond lay scattered and lost on the ocean floor. While it is hard to still see any blatant evidence of the continent, there are a couple notable stone structures that survived the sinking, leaving an eerie reminder of the past. Aside from the remnants of Ageond, there are a few naturally occurring island chains in Tonult that are formed from volcanic undersea mountains, as well as atolls and other kinds of islands.

Inhabitants
On the islands are humans and Asath, but under the ocean, there is a world inhabited by the Mariel and Marfod. The bulk of the Mariel population is found in Tonult due to the wide open spaces it provides, and more recently, the lack of human traffic. The Mariel live in cities that are scattered in ideal places throughout the ocean. Most cities are within a few hundred miles of continent coastlines to make the once-in-a-lifetime transformation for their youths easier to travel for. However, some more secluded cities will send their soon to transform youths to other cities several months before their birthday so they can be safely near land. The Marfod are solitary and have no set locations. Women usually set up a territory, while males are transient.
World of Aserra

Oceans

Post by World of Aserra » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:15 am

Oceans
Aserra’s largest ocean is the Tonult, which covers much of the world’s western hemisphere. The Tonult is between the western coast of Thiskel and the eastern coast of Kalesten. It once used to lay only between Kalesten and Ageond, but when Ageond was destroyed during the War of the Gods, it sunk beneath the Tonult and joined the ocean with the sea that used to lay between Ageond and Thiskel. The Forsaken Land and remaining archipelagos that were once Ageond’s mountains are now islands in this vast ocean. Tonult’s oceanic borders are considered to be the arctic and antarctic circles, directly south from the southernmost point of the Forsaken Land, north of the narrowest point between the Forsaken Land and Thiskel, and directly south from the southernmost point of Kalesten. Due to the size of the Tonult, it spawns ferocious hurricanes and tropical storms that plague the islands and coasts of Kalesten and Thiskel.

The arctic ocean is Lertura, which is considered to be contained within the arctic circle. The continent of Athok and the arctic ice cap are contained within, and it borders the northern most reaches of Thiskel and Kalesten.

The antarctic ocean is called the Sea of Kaltur. There is no land here, but there an ice cap, though it is smaller than the northern ice cap. For the most part, Kaltur is untouched by any of the races. Ships skirt the outer edges to circle around the southern cape of Thiskel, and fishing vessels from the Forsaken Land sometimes follow fish to the outer edges of the sea, but the ice flows are a major deterrent from going too far in.

The Riath Sea lays between Thiskel and Kalesten, and is little more than a broad strait in some places, making travel between the two continents quite easy. The Riath’s borders are considered to be the arctic and antarctic circles, then directly east from the southernmost point of Thiskel to west of the southernmost point of Kalesten.

The Sea of Otore is considered the remnant of the strait that once ran between Thiskel and Ageond. It now only lies between the Forsaken Land and southern Thiskel, as the northern region joined the Tonult after the sinking of Ageond. Otore’s borders are considered to be the narrowest point between the Forsaken Land and Thiskel, from the southernmost point of the Forsaken Land eastward to the southernmost point of Thiskel westwards, and the southern border is the antarctic circle.

The Kalesten Sea is the region of sea within the hook-shaped northern continent of Kalesten and its sub-continent of Ertia. Its oceanic border is considered to be a direct line from the southernmost point of Ertia to the tip of the eastern peninsula of southern Kalesten.

Gulf of Athere is the inlet that lays between northern and southern Thiskel. Its borders with the Riath are considered to be a line diagonally northwest of the tip of the northernmost peninsula of southern Thiskel to the closest coastline of northern Thiskel.
World of Aserra

Tonult Ocean

Post by World of Aserra » Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:24 pm

Tonult Ocean
Aserra’s largest ocean is the Tonult, which covers much of the world’s western hemisphere. The Tonult is between the western coast of Thiskel and the eastern coast of Kalesten. It once used to lay only between Kalesten and Ageond, but when Ageond was destroyed during the War of the Gods, it sunk beneath the Tonult and joined the ocean with the sea that used to lay between Ageond and Thiskel. The Forsaken Land and remaining archipelagos that were once Ageond’s mountains are now islands in this vast ocean.

Tonult’s oceanic borders are considered to be the arctic and antarctic circles, directly south from the southernmost point of the Forsaken Land, north of the narrowest point between the Forsaken Land and Thiskel, and directly south from the southernmost point of Kalesten.

The Ageond Quadrangle
As a result of the sinking of Ageond, and the destruction of one of Aserra’s leypoints, there is a massive wellspring, a mass of chaotic energy, just north of the Forsaken Land. Much like our Bermuda Triangle, this location warily avoided by both sailors and inhabitants of the ocean as many strange disappearances and events have occurred there. Those who travel from the nearby islands and the Forsaken Land typically skirt around this region, even if that means a journey that could be weeks or months longer than just going directly across the quadrangle. While there are cases of brazen ships safely traveling through the quadrangle, the tales of mysterious happenings make most sailors cautious.

Islands and Oceanic Topography
Tonult’s floor is a broad and varied topography with flat regions, trenches, mountain ranges, and other typical landmarks, but the remains of Ageond also lay on its floors, scattered for hundreds of miles away from what was the actual coastline. Much of Ageond’s mountain ranges still peek out of the top of the ocean, forming island chains. The lowlands of Ageond lay scattered and lost on the ocean floor. While it is hard to still see any blatant evidence of the continent, there are a couple notable stone structures that survived the sinking, leaving an eerie reminder of the past. Aside from the remnants of Ageond, there are a few naturally occurring island chains in Tonult that are formed from volcanic undersea mountains, as well as atolls and other kinds of islands.

Inhabitants
On the islands are humans and Asath, but under the ocean, there is a world inhabited by the Mariel and Marfod. The bulk of the Mariel population is found in Tonult due to the wide open spaces it provides. The Mariel live in cities that are scattered in ideal places throughout the ocean. Most cities are within a few hundred miles of continent coastlines to make the once-in-a-lifetime transformation for their youths easier to travel for. However, some more secluded cities will send their soon to transform youths to other cities several months before their birthday so they can be safely near land. The Marfod are solitary and have no set locations. Women usually set up a territory, while males are transient.
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