The Farraíochta

The supernatural effects of the Kytaran Sea have long been an enigma to the natural historians, wizards, sailors, national leaders and anyone else who'd had cause to ask what it's been doing there since it's discovery. Long before the historical obfuscation that was the Nightmare War, the kings of men, dwarves, elves and all other races of Ikar had made efforts throughout the ages to explore the Great Ocean for the secrets beyond, but then they'd find that the nine tenths of the world spanning sea was completely devoid of life anywhere past 50 miles from the coast. Some expeditions would give up the quest from that point, but those that continued in the hope that some other treasures could be found on the other side of this aquatic desert soon found themselves to be ill prepared for the cataclysmic Thunderclones, fire showers and the voracious megafauna of the depths that they found amidst what would later become the Free Islands. As these expeditions into the unknown evolved slowly from accounts, to rumors, to legends, stories of monstrous fish, wild magic surges and all other manner of unpredictable happenings had formed into part of the bedrock of many ancient histories. Now that the children of slaves have managed to cut a chunk of life out of this wretched stretch of ocean, researchers have been able to more closely examine the effects of the Kytaran magical field, named the Farraíochta, created by a mysterious race of beings called the Sea Fae.

Where it came from (Sea Fae)

While we do not have all of the details as to how the Farraíochta was formed, we do have a rough idea of the methods used by the Sea Fae to create the rituals required for their continued survival. Long ago, for this is the only detail that we can be absolutely sure of, the Sea Fae faced persecution from some other fae race, and found the magic necessary to build themselves their own pocket dimension mirroring the Kytaran Sea. The lines between these dimensions are blurred, of course, and the Sea Fae can be spotted fairly regularly (on a cosmic scale) intervening in the lives of mortals. Likewise, it can be very easy to find oneself, whether you are sailing in the smallest raft or the largest galleon, transported into the Farraíochta, often without any reasoning, similarly to how inland wanderers can find themselves inexplicably wandering the realms of the fairies.

The ambiguous nature of the Sea Fae, coupled with the fact that one has not been spotted in over fifty years and the dangerous nature of the Kytaran Sea, even for otherworldly beings, leads us to believe that they may no longer be around. The Sea Fae seem to either continually generate the magic required to maintain the field, or they were able to make its effects permanent before they disappeared.

The Pirates Code

The day-to-day effects of the Farraíochta can be difficult to pin down with 100% accuracy, but it is possible to observe patterns in the causes and effects. The pirates of the Kytaran Sea, those refugees from the Acredian Empire who live with the belief that they must be constantly moving on and honing their fighting capabilities on the chance that the Empire will return from them, have passed between them a code of both ethics and specific behaviors for survival in the Farraíochta that has been in generation since the first renegade slave rode the waves. This code, the Pirates Code, consists of hundreds of tenants of varying importance to one crew or another, but according to pirate legend, the kind of legend that you would need to be a pirate for life before ever even hearing about, the original tenants of the pirate code were given to those very early rogues who perpetuated the lessons of the Fae for future pirate generations. Whether or not this is true, it would be impossible to verify, as the nature of the legends of early Kytaran pirates means that nothing was ever kept or recorded. The wisest choice may just be to choose to believe the pirates' stories, as there must be something about their tenuous lifestyle of stealing plunder from nearly any ship they happen across that makes it more sustainable than it looks from the outside, and it may as well be magic.

Examples of Magic Surges in the Farraíochta

The magical surges of the Farraíochta function in much the same way as what is known as "the magic of the wild" in more established circles, in that it has no trigger, no limitation, and it typically results in the expulsion of one or more possible spells, possible being highly asterisked. By "possible" we simply mean all known spells, something that could arguably be cast by a humanoid mage. The surges themselves can be far beyond the known capabilities of mortal spellcasters, and often manifest in similar ways:

Spontaneous Weather Change- The weather in the Kytaran Sea can shift in the literal blink of an eye, with such dramatic shifts as a tornado suddenly being replaced with clear skies and seas, and vice versa. Various luck spells, as well as slavish devotion to the Pirates Code can prevent this.

Shifting Stars- The stars in the Kytaran night sky do not behave in the way that stars ought to behave, namely, as if they were fixed points in the cosmos. Instead, they slowly swirl around each other, as if they were flecks of grain in a filling bucket. It is imperative to hire an accomplished Star Auger, as well as a Storm Sorcerer to protect against getting lost.

Thunderclones- Massive cyclones filled with lightning, which randomly shoots away from the center of mass. Combat with magic, or retreat.

Sea Monsters- The sea life in this region seems to waver back and forth between being comprised of ordinarily sized individuals, and those that have grown in size and lethality by the power of seventy or more. Common examples of giant sea life include the Giant Crab, Giant Eels, Giant Sea Stars and Giant Squid.

Fire Showers- Occasionally, as if it were a type of ordinary weather, fire will begin to rain from the sky in small drops of flame, the size of raindrops. These storms behave identically to ordinary rains storms and can be weathered by reminding oneself of the fact that they are comprised mainly of harmless faerie fire.

Spontaneous Dimensional Portal- Rifts to other planes or reality are about as common to the Kytaran Sea as gulls are to ordinary bodies of water. Demons come from their domains, elementals come from their respective planes, and all manner of otherworldly monstrosities could be encountered after any amount of time in the Kytaran Sea

Large Scale Camouflage- Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of the Kytaran Sea for cartographers and politicians is that it is possible for storms, straights, sandbars and entire islands to fall under spells of obfuscation. This may seem like a small matter, but the wild magical effects of the Farraíochta mean that there is no limit on the scale, for size or time. This means that it is entirely possible, and by possible, I mean it has been historically documented, for hundreds of acres worth of island to exist, completely unnoticed, mere miles away from the largest ports in the region, and it is just as common for those spells to drop in the blink of an eye.