Shattered Lands

The Shattered Lands is the name given to a huge area west of the Gulf, where the land and the sea become one in a chaotic mass of islands, plateaus and fissures filled with flowing water. Parts of the shattered lands nearest the ocean may just resemble particularly dense archipeligos of islands, but these are truly just the sparse edges of a much stranger whole. Further in, the sea flows through fissures, channels and caves, vast cracks dispersed through what was seemingly once solid land. Some of the larger plateaus are wide enough that they might even seem like dry land to anyone standing on them, were it not for the perpetual rumbling and shaking caused by the water beneath their feet. The plataus range in height from just under sea level to hundreds of metres above it, though determining which land is safe to stay on is rendered difficult by the extreme tides, which are funneled by the fissures and can rise tens of metres in less than an hour. As a result, permanent settlements in the Shattered Lands are restrained to the outermost islands, such as Sootburrow, or the highest of the plateaus, and navigation is nightmarish, by sea or by land. There is only one known sea route through the Shattered Lands, the Fourth Pass, a winding and lengthy sea channel, wide at some points but at others so narrow that only one ship can fit through at a time, hard to follow without experienced navigators, and impassable for much of the year due to strong currents caused by ever shifting tides. Most ships avoid the route if they have to, preferring to use the open ocean and sail all the way around, despite the sea route being over four times longer.