The Moonglow Sea
A map of the Moonglow Sea. Art by J-Haskell, see full-sized image here.
🜲 Northstar’s Town
City name: Northstar’s Town, Northstar’s tribe
Major NPCs: Northstar
Founded: 402 A.E.D.
Region: Moonglow Sea
Named for its elderly founder, Northstar’s Town is the largest iceberg settlement within the Moonglow Sea. It is home to a thriving population of northern shipwreckers, who are always willing to lend a hand to any in need. While they’re friendly to outsiders, they’re also not shy about getting into a fight to defend themselves if needed.
The city itself is made of multiple icebergs strung together, and must be rebuilt every few years as it drifts south, carved from whalebone and large blocks of ice and reinforced with chains. The exact size and location of the place varies depending on the season, but Northstar’s Town is widely regarded as the ‘heart’ of northerner territory in the Moonglow Sea.
At the heart of the city lies the home of Northstar himself, which has become more of a shared community centre for the town’s inhabitants than one dragon’s private residence. So long as you bring him some food or a drink, he’s happy to have guests, whatever the hour.
The city itself is made of multiple icebergs strung together, and must be rebuilt every few years as it drifts south, carved from whalebone and large blocks of ice and reinforced with chains. The exact size and location of the place varies depending on the season, but Northstar’s Town is widely regarded as the ‘heart’ of northerner territory in the Moonglow Sea.
At the heart of the city lies the home of Northstar himself, which has become more of a shared community centre for the town’s inhabitants than one dragon’s private residence. So long as you bring him some food or a drink, he’s happy to have guests, whatever the hour.
A powerful matriarchal tribe of shipwreckers located in the southern Moonglow Sea, the population of Hiemal is in near-constant competition with the tidekeepers who make their homes in the Frozen Swords. They clash over food while on hunts and occasionally over the best areas of territory and materials to reinforce their homes with.
The city of Hiemal is a sprawling mass of ice anchored together by bone, stone, and metal chains traded for from the mainland. The walls of hard-packed snow and blue-tinted ice have been carefully carved by the tribe’s artisans to feature beautiful reliefs and intricate patterns around doorways, considered second only to Northstar’s Town in its elegance.
Before recent years the population of Hiemal were uninterested in foreign trade, regarding Merosian captains and the newly-settled residents of Nuova Cadere with thinly-veiled suspicion. Their stance has softened somewhat, however, after Nuova Cadere helped them through a year of very poor hunting, and now awkwardly attempt to be more polite to foreign guests and traders.
The city of Hiemal is a sprawling mass of ice anchored together by bone, stone, and metal chains traded for from the mainland. The walls of hard-packed snow and blue-tinted ice have been carefully carved by the tribe’s artisans to feature beautiful reliefs and intricate patterns around doorways, considered second only to Northstar’s Town in its elegance.
Before recent years the population of Hiemal were uninterested in foreign trade, regarding Merosian captains and the newly-settled residents of Nuova Cadere with thinly-veiled suspicion. Their stance has softened somewhat, however, after Nuova Cadere helped them through a year of very poor hunting, and now awkwardly attempt to be more polite to foreign guests and traders.
✪ Frozen Swords
City name: Frozen Swords
Major NPCs: None
Founded: Unknown
Region: Tidekeeper territory
Scrimshaw is a small, desolate village in the northern Moonglow Sea, only notable for being the northernmost inhabited area of the Realm and an utterly miserable place to live, cloaked in total darkness in winter and unending day in summer. Made primarily from chunks of ice held together by long spears of whalebone, the walkways and chambers that make up the small town creak underfoot as its occupants make their way through cramped warrens of icy tunnels.
The small town’s populace is infamous for their stubborn personalities. They won’t be pressured into doing anything they don’t want to. Even those who know there’s better waiting just beyond the horizon have little interest in leaving Scrimshaw behind; it’s not much, but it’s home, and they’d miss it, even if there are warmer places in the south.
The small town’s populace is infamous for their stubborn personalities. They won’t be pressured into doing anything they don’t want to. Even those who know there’s better waiting just beyond the horizon have little interest in leaving Scrimshaw behind; it’s not much, but it’s home, and they’d miss it, even if there are warmer places in the south.
Fiercely insular and aggressive towards intruders, the Whitewing Den houses a tribe of northern shipwreckers dwelling in a chain of icebergs in the east of the Moonglow Sea. Those who drift into their waters will find themselves confronted by a pack of large shipwreckers with ice-studded hides and escorted away - or if they attempt to push past them, potentially killed. There are all sorts of theories about what the Whitewing Den hides within its frozen walls, but for the most part, the other northern tribes are content simply to leave them be. It’s not worth starting a feud just to satisfy one’s curiousity.
Flighted dragons who have passed overhead carry with them tales of… an immense creature frozen within the ice at the heart of the Whitewing Den. A beast the colour of ice with massive wings and a serpentine body, which appears to be dormant rather than dead, despite its total stillness.
Flighted dragons who have passed overhead carry with them tales of… an immense creature frozen within the ice at the heart of the Whitewing Den. A beast the colour of ice with massive wings and a serpentine body, which appears to be dormant rather than dead, despite its total stillness.
✦ Nuova Cadere
Town name: Nuova Cadere
Major NPCs: Gloria Ex Undis, Ingis Stet
Founded: 449 A.E.D.
Region: Moonglow Sea
Nuova Cadere was founded a little over fifty years ago by moonviper and riverlander scholars from the Land of Rivers seeking out the lost history of the moonviper exodus. What drove them to flee so far from their old homeland? Why, when they were gifted with the ability to literally embed memory in stone, was this period of time so lost to us? And so was the scholars’ mission as they settled down in the channel between Dutoria and the ancient moonviper homeland, the Frozen Gates, working with local shipwrecker tribes to figure out how best to conduct research in the cold and unfamiliar environment - or, at least, unfamiliar to the riverlanders. The moonviper denizens of Nuova Cadere found that they had surprisingly little issue adapting. Their sinuous bodies cut through the dark waters of the Moonglow Sea with ease and they scarcely felt the cold, and their ‘venom’ spit, so helpful for sculpting stone, turned out to be just as useful for manipulating hardened ice. The scholars took it as a sign that they were onto something and redoubled their efforts.
Nuova Cadere has grown immensely in the years since it began as a research base in the middle of the sea, becoming a beacon for citizens of the Land of Rivers curious about the past or simply seeking to get as far away from Xocrian raids as they possibly can. The city is carved from ice, reinforced with wood and stone beams, and sits partially over a small, rocky island. In exchange for their assistance with supplying the town and safeguarding it, Nuova Cadere has made a pact with the kingdom of Dutoria to look into another matter of concern regarding the Northern Gates; the bizarre creatures of living ice and snow that occasionally come down during winter storms and do damage to Dutorian villages and cities.
The current head researchers of the town, Gloria Ex Undis and Ignis Stet, are absolutely certain that the strangeness of the Gates and the moonviper’s flight is connected in some fashion, but as any attempts to travel further inland have been met with disaster, finding out more may be an impossible task. Rumour has it that they and Dutoria’s own scholars are currently conducting research into a way to minimize the effects that the Gates has on those who travel it, but if there’s any truth to that, Nuova Cadere’s scientific community has been remarkably tight-lipped about it.
Nuova Cadere has grown immensely in the years since it began as a research base in the middle of the sea, becoming a beacon for citizens of the Land of Rivers curious about the past or simply seeking to get as far away from Xocrian raids as they possibly can. The city is carved from ice, reinforced with wood and stone beams, and sits partially over a small, rocky island. In exchange for their assistance with supplying the town and safeguarding it, Nuova Cadere has made a pact with the kingdom of Dutoria to look into another matter of concern regarding the Northern Gates; the bizarre creatures of living ice and snow that occasionally come down during winter storms and do damage to Dutorian villages and cities.
The current head researchers of the town, Gloria Ex Undis and Ignis Stet, are absolutely certain that the strangeness of the Gates and the moonviper’s flight is connected in some fashion, but as any attempts to travel further inland have been met with disaster, finding out more may be an impossible task. Rumour has it that they and Dutoria’s own scholars are currently conducting research into a way to minimize the effects that the Gates has on those who travel it, but if there’s any truth to that, Nuova Cadere’s scientific community has been remarkably tight-lipped about it.
Located along the far eastern shore of the Moonglow Sea, Icebark is a small town inhabited almost entirely by windwyrm refugees and a small number of tidekeeper or shipwrecker hybrids. While it might be safer to move further away from their old kingdom, the windwyrms who call Icebark home find the idea of living so far from dry land terrifying, and would rather risk the Hawks’ notice than pull their town further out to sea.
Icebark is a quiet place, carefully disguised to look like nothing more than a string of icebergs. At night, no lights are lit to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention. Its inhabitants are friendly and generous, willing to take in all kinds, but also have a desperate air to them. It’s not uncommon for those born and raised in Icebark, more comfortable with life on the Moonglow Sea, to travel further west and move to places like Hiemal, Northstar’s Town, or even Nuova Cadere.
The town’s founder, the mysterious three-eyed “Snowbeard”, has kept its residents safe through hard times, and many say it is he alone they can thank for the fact that the village has managed to avoid the Hawks for as long as it has.
Icebark is a quiet place, carefully disguised to look like nothing more than a string of icebergs. At night, no lights are lit to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention. Its inhabitants are friendly and generous, willing to take in all kinds, but also have a desperate air to them. It’s not uncommon for those born and raised in Icebark, more comfortable with life on the Moonglow Sea, to travel further west and move to places like Hiemal, Northstar’s Town, or even Nuova Cadere.
The town’s founder, the mysterious three-eyed “Snowbeard”, has kept its residents safe through hard times, and many say it is he alone they can thank for the fact that the village has managed to avoid the Hawks for as long as it has.
An immense glacier covers the entire northern continent and gives the Frozen Gates its name, for it meets the sea in sheer cliffs of ice that resemble massive gates. The majority of northern shipwrecker towns are made from icebergs carved off this glacier.
Shipwrecker tribes travelling through this area to build their homes are advised to be careful; some of the fallen bits of ice are not what they seem at first glance. The frozen ice monsters that plague Dutoria are not shy of taking to the sea in search of prey. |
The northern tip of a massive trench that stretches across the bottom of the Gaping sea. The tidekeepers of the north sink their dead into its depths. It is regarded with great caution as monsters of many sizes, as well as dreaded abyssal tidekeepers, dwell within the darkness.
☗ The Moon Serpent
Landmark name: The Moon Serpent
Region: Moonglow Sea
First you think it’s the auroras, reflected beneath the waves. It twists and pulses with light. As it gets closer, the waves rock your ship, and only then do you realize that what you’re looking at is alive.
An immense, ancient sea serpent that has called the Moonglow Sea home since time immemorial. It glows with the same intensity as the nighttime auroras that streak across the sky. A creation of the Frozen Gates, or something far older, not even the wisest northerners can say. Although the sides of its gleaming hide are peppered with harpoons and old weapons, and even a broken-off horn said to belong to one of Laptev the Great’s sons, none have been able to successfully hunt the creature.
A rocky, barren island that is home to The Star of the North, an important lighthouse for navigating the Realm’s northern waters. It is maintained by a coalition of northern shipwreckers, Dutorians, and northern Merosians. The lighthouse-keepers often spend their long, isolated periods in charge swapping tales of the oddities of their homelands; the monotony of their watch is sometimes broken up by visits from wandering shipwrecker and tidekeeper groups.
☗ The Frozen Gates
Landmark name: The Frozen Gates
Region: Moonglow Sea
A forbidding wall of ice and snow-capped mountains, the Frozen Gates is the Realm’s far northern continent, located past Dutoria and the territory of the windwyrms. Only the very edges of the Gates are visible as fjords and small foothills, the rest entombed beneath ancient glaciers and centuries of ice and snow. No dragons or humans are known to live here, but before a dangerous calamity centuries ago rendered it uninhabitable, it was the home of the moonvipers.
Once a dangerous magical waste, some peace has been restored to the Frozen Gates for the first time in over a thousand years following the summer 506 Aurora Expedition. Though the Frozen Gates remain hazardous in their own ways - they are poorly mapped and remain bitterly cold, experiencing full night and full day in winter and summer respectively - the wild, untamed magical forces that permeated every part of it have begun to lose their grip.
Patches of the Gates may now be explored safely, primarily being its lowlands and coasts. Dangerous magical storms still sweep across the landscape periodically, and those who are exposed to the atmosphere of the Gates will often come away with odd, magical mutations, which can be lethal in some cases. The only sure protection currently known is a potion discovered by the Duchess Lárensína Primrose, but she is reluctant to share the secrets of her creation.
There are currently three major landmarks known within the Frozen Gates, though more may be discovered in time:
Once a dangerous magical waste, some peace has been restored to the Frozen Gates for the first time in over a thousand years following the summer 506 Aurora Expedition. Though the Frozen Gates remain hazardous in their own ways - they are poorly mapped and remain bitterly cold, experiencing full night and full day in winter and summer respectively - the wild, untamed magical forces that permeated every part of it have begun to lose their grip.
Patches of the Gates may now be explored safely, primarily being its lowlands and coasts. Dangerous magical storms still sweep across the landscape periodically, and those who are exposed to the atmosphere of the Gates will often come away with odd, magical mutations, which can be lethal in some cases. The only sure protection currently known is a potion discovered by the Duchess Lárensína Primrose, but she is reluctant to share the secrets of her creation.
There are currently three major landmarks known within the Frozen Gates, though more may be discovered in time:
- Ianua, an ancient moonviper village where the last loyalists of the Northern Empire met their ends. The icy crevasses surrounding it are inhabited by the aggressive Moons-Cursed, making visits here dangerous. Located two weeks travel by foot from the southern coast.
- Achori, the capital of the ancient moonvipers. Heated by natural springs and runic magic and unaffected by the Gates’ influence, it is a safe haven within a dangerous world. Located a month’s travel by foot from the southern coast.
- The Northern Wellspring, a strange location north of Achori, where the last of the thought-extinct Elder Drakes met its recent end.
A forbidding wall of ice and snowcapped mountains, the Frozen Gates is the Realm’s far northern continent, located past Dutoria and the territory of the windwyrms. Only the very edges of the Gates are visible as fjords and small foothills, the rest entombed beneath ancient glaciers and centuries of ice and snow. No dragons or humans are known to live here, but before a dangerous calamity centuries ago rendered it uninhabitable, it was the home of the moonvipers.
The Frozen Gates are poorly mapped and most expeditions into them have been met with macabre and bizarre fates. Although the killing cold and dangerous glacial mountain terrain are a challenge, the true horror of the Gates lies in the wild, untamed magical forces that permeate every part of it. Peculiar monsters of living snow stalk the interior, strange gravitational anomalies have been recorded within the glacier-capped peaks, and those who are exposed to the atmosphere of the Gates will often come away with odd, magical mutations, which can be lethal in some cases.
The Frozen Gates are poorly mapped and most expeditions into them have been met with macabre and bizarre fates. Although the killing cold and dangerous glacial mountain terrain are a challenge, the true horror of the Gates lies in the wild, untamed magical forces that permeate every part of it. Peculiar monsters of living snow stalk the interior, strange gravitational anomalies have been recorded within the glacier-capped peaks, and those who are exposed to the atmosphere of the Gates will often come away with odd, magical mutations, which can be lethal in some cases.