Dovindi #

Dovindi is a planet tidally locked to its sun, causing the Sun-facing side to be a barren wasteland of blistering heat, and the other a frozen wasteland of impenetrable ice. Only a thin starnd of the world, caused the “Twilight Strand”, is habitable.

The Twilight Strand #

Two nations are at conflict over this thin belt of territory, whose center boasts a temperate climate and a glimmering twilight, and swells with the turquosie waters of the [[Sundown Sea]] (also known as the [[Solrise Sea]] in Iothaenea).

After years of open warfare, stopped only by an uneasy truce, Iothaenea has claimed the Eastern coast of this Sea, on the “Day Side” of the planet, while Astrialum has claimed the Western coast, on the “Night Side”.

The Starless Sky #

While the sea in the center of the Twilight Strand is known by many names, (Solrise Sea, Sundown Sea, The Inner Sea, The Wall of Waves), perhaps its most expressive name is the “Starless Sky”.

It is called this because, aside from a few small islets dotted along the coasts of both nations, there are no islands within this sea.

See, any islands, let alone an archipelago, found within the temperate waters of the Twilight Strand, would be territory worth going to war once again over, as such a place would no doubt host a perfect climate, and more room for both nation’s rapidly-growing populations.

But the sea is as void of islands as a cosmos void of stars.

Both nation’s navies have scoured the waters from pole to pole, and found nothing, save for a perilous stretch called the Titan’s Eye. Neither nation knows what lies within the Titan’s Eye, for it is an omnipresent sea storm with enough force to tear even the most sturdily-built vessels to shreds.

No ship or aircraft that has attempted to enter the Titan’s Eye has ever come back out.

Merchants who trade between the two nations, and any travelling ships, know to not even get close, as without warning, the storm swells, can double, triple in size without warning, or like an angered god lashing out, even stir up typhoons and tidal waves miles away from its source.

Superstitious sailors believe it even a living thing. And a vengeful, tempermental thing, at that.

The Titan’s Eye #

The war was ended in a naval battle known by many names such as the Submersing, the Engulfing, or “The Great Drowning”, when both nations, convinced the interior of the Titan’s Eye must hold invaluable territory, archipelagos lush with fertile land or precious resource, waged war over it.

While they fought, the sky filled with the smoke of cannonfire, the waters filed with the blood of the dead, anyone far away enough to survive would say that the Titan’s Eye… ‘opened’.

The thunderheads rolled across the sky, blackening it, as the ocean itself seemed to fall out from beneath the ships, pouring down into the ripping waters of a maelstrom, engulfing the battlefield and everything and everyone in it.

Like a black hole appearing suddenly in the sky, the vortexes’s force was such that both nation’s armadas were swallowed by it in an instant.

And when the storm settled once more, back within its normal boundaries, even the depths of the cerulean waters beneath the battlefield held no signs of wreckage or drowned sailors, fire, oil, powder, or blood.

The water was crystal clear, as if the storm had cleansed it of the violence. Nothing, or no one, was to ever be recovered.

Aftermath #

Now both stripped of resources and manpower, and afraid of the land and waters they both once sought to conquer, Iothaenea and Astrialum called for an uneasy truce, and began to rebuild, seeking the resources they both needed elsewhere.

And new religions formed in fearful reference of the tempest-god who slumbered in their presence.