Freshwater bodies are rivers and lakes. Saltwater bodies are either oceans and seas. Though many people use the terms interchangeably, properly the term "ocean" in Glorantha only applies to a body of water which is partly bottomless, because it either flows in over the outer edge of the earth or (in the case of Magasta's Pool) drops away into nothing. Seas are large saltwater bodies which wash over the earth, but have no direct links to the endless waters.
Many of the oceans and seas have great currents, called Doom Currents, which move in from Sramak's River then toward and around Magasta's Pool in a counterclockwise direction. These usually flow far beneath the surface, but at times these currents rise from the deep and rage, swollen and angry, across the surface of the ocean like a mountain of water or the back of a giant serpent. Any ship caught by such a flow is drawn swiftly into the Pool, unable to escape unless they are very sturdy, well captained, and lucky.
Furthermore, the surface of the Gloranthan world-ocean slants downward towards the center, at the edge like a dish, and then more steeply. The areas where a ship might escape is named the Homeward Ocean. Doom Currents are commonest here. Where no ships (save the long-lost Waertagi dragonships) may escape is called Magasta's Pool, and this is a tremendous roaring whirlpool which carries all within it downward into the watery depths of the land of the dead.
Land began when the Cosmic Mountain, called the Spike, pushed upward from the depths. The cosmic mountain expanded to make the Surface World. The first land was a perfect cube, with a measured square of ground to intrude into and share with the Surface World.
Rivers crept across the face of the earth, flowing upward to enrich the earth. The rivers drew strength from the limitless ocean, flooding the valleys and widing up the hills. Land was good until it failed. Then sea rescued its child. When chaos invaded and destroyed the world, the center of Earth collapsed and disappeared. All the rivers of the world reversed their course to aid their watery grandfathers. Sea filled the gap, washing away the emptiness and evil. Magasta saved the world when he filled the Void with the life-originating waters.
To most sea beings, everything beyond the surface is called Food. One philosophy, popular among the Ouori, divides this into Hard Food, anything which falls into the water; Soft Food, energies brought to the sea including debris from rivers, sunlight, and magic power sacrifices from sailors; and Wet Food, explained below. Many mermen believe that everything created after the oceans' formation was done by Daliath and Framanthe to feed the people of the sea, Triolina's faithful followers.
The oceans are divided into horizontal layers dependent upon the amount of light penetrating into the depth. Water clarity is important here and so cloudy water has a shallower layer of lighted volume. Foggy seas also have a thinner lighted zone and less life in general.
The upper areas, richest in life, are the High Seas. The High Sea ends at the surface, beyond which only unnatural beings and contemptible Waertagi venture. Here thrive the algae and plankton upon which the food chain depends, and here lives the majority of sea life. Its depth varies depending upon the seasonal variants of temperature and wind, murkiness of the water, and amount of light. As a rule, if an air-breathing merman can see in it without using magic or luminescence, then it is a High Sea area. It is also called the photic zone. As a Gloranthan average, we use 100-200 meters. When the ocean floor is within this upper, photic zone, we have shallows -- known to the Ouori as Wet Food. Some forms of sea life consider all air-breathers, including most mermen, as Wet Food. The continents are surrounded by Wet Food, and several banks are known with no nearby land to advertise their presence to surface dwellers. This region is by far the densest with life, for not only the waters but the bottom teems with unusual living things, covered with various forms of sea life, corals and shellfish, kelp and sea weeds.
The High Sea is home for more things than humankind imagines. The God Learners catalogued hundreds of air-breathing sea things, thousands of types of fish and shellfish, and tens of thousands of gooey and boneless organisms with various odd parts attached.
The next zone is the Middle or Niiadic Sea. It is considered the "normal" place to be in the watery domain, despite the fact that most merman only visit here for worship. Here is where the all the Food from above is intended to go, and from here things descend to feed only the gods and spirits. These depths range from the lower edge of the High Sea (100-200 meters) to about 1000 meters.
The last zone, the abysmal depths, is called The Deep. It is lightless and unknowable, holding the secrets of the sea. Here dwell great spirits, like King Undine and Tholaina; gods and goddesses, like Nelat and Wachaza; the tritons and those they serve. Only the great gods, Magasta, Manthi, and Natea, hold the secrets of reaching deeper from here, into the mysterious abyss of the Unreachable Waters where the truly unknowable gods exist.
Dwerulan: Little is known about these creatures, the smallest of all merfolk. Some scholars claim they are not part of the Seven Kindred at all, but some other type of malign sea organism. According to these scholars, the Seventh Kindred are the blue elves. Dwerulans are found only in the Worm Sea.
Gnydron: Enormous monster merfolk who live in the abyssal depths of all oceans and rarely come to the surface. Most sailors consider these entities to be sea monsters, not mermen, but their partially humanoid forebodies and obvious intelligence cause scholars to classify them as the latter.
Ludoch: One of the two Great Kindreds. They sometimes cooperate with humans, and are rarely overtly hostile. They are quite widespread, living in the Maslo Sea, the Marthino Sea, and the Togaro Ocean. In the Eastern Isles and on the shores of Dinal are two powerful, organized kingdoms of Ludoch mermen.
Malasp: One of the two Great Kindreds. They are generally hostile to surface-dwellers and they plot both subtle deceptions and overt aggression against coastal nations. They mostly live in the Brown and Dashomo Seas.
Ouori: The walrus-folk. This gross and flabby merfolk are surprisingly friendly to humans, though they are also very secretive. They live only in the Western Ocean and Banthe Sea and are uncommon even there.
Ysabbau: Hideous merfolk who hate all sailors. They are found in all oceans, but are fortunately rare.
Zabdamar: Strange magical beings whose women are beautiful and whose men are ugly. They come from the Sea of Fog and though they occasionally travel elsewhere, they always return home to this sea.
Banthe Sea: This great current washes in from the Western Ocean carrying icebergs in its frigid waters. Its main current passes north of Jrustela, entering the Homeward Ocean somewhere northeast of the Kumanku Islands. A secondary current runs southward into the Brown Sea. A wide trench, apparently bottomless, scars the deep open floor reaching northwest and marking the place where the earth once broke. Life here is rich. Many species of whales and other large animals live off the krill-rich ocean. The cold water is the source of many peculiar animals, such as ice fish, walrus, and giant puffins.
Brithos Fog: Between the Neliomi and Banthe Seas, east of the Red Vadeli Isles, teems the roiling steam of the Brithos Fog. It obscures the region once occupied by Brithos, which was present before the Closing but not present at the Opening.
Brown Sea: Mermen say this ocean is brown because it is so turbid and shallow, hardly more than a kilometer at the deepest. It derives from the Western Ocean and its waters are very cold. Human have rarely sailed these waters, but several tales are told of vast sargasso seas populated with unusual monstrous creatures.
Dashomo Sea: The Dashomo Sea is a placid ocean full of fish and sea life. The Hroarilli tribe of Malasp mermen, led by the frightening demigod named Terthinus, Voice of the Deep, live there and have taken control of all shipping over the sea, demanding tribute from all who pass by. They are aided by another tribe which lives in the rich waters of the Jrusteli archipelago.
Eastern Ocean: The water which surrounds the innumerable East Isles is called the Eastern Ocean. It is rich in life and continually crisscrossed by local ships and boats. The islands are so close together that sailing is never difficult, even during the long Typhoon Season, since a safe port is always near to hide in when a gale blows in.
Homeward Ocean: The ocean at the middle of the world. The raging whirlpool at its center averages 200 kilometers wide at its mouth, though sometimes it is wider (Sea Season) and sometimes narrower (Dark and Storm seasons). Observers can see the surface of the water tilting downward towards the swirl as they approach the sink. Ships caught in its current are doomed to drop into the bottomless hole, gone from the world forever. Its base empties into the primal ocean which sits, motionless, beneath all things.
Jorkar's Sea: The area between Slon, Jrustela, and Umathela is now controlled by the aggressive Malasp confederation. An occasional Doom Current was known to rise here when humans frequented it during the Second Age, driving ships southward into the Worm Sea. Now only dwarf ships pass back and forth, and they say nothing of the currents.
Kahar Sea: Fogs, both natural and magical, blanket the surface of this body of water. Magic places, like the floating island of Kylerela, hide there with lurking monsters, lost sailors, and insidious spirits. Life is thinly spread in the depths of this warm and stagnant sea. The lack of light suppresses the plant life upon which all else depends.
Loral Sea: The ocean surrounding Loral and south to Pamaltela are called the Loral Sea. It is the center of a kingdom of mermen.
Magasta's Pool: Although often used as a synonym for the Homeward Ocean, this term is also applied to the great whirlpool itself, where escape is impossible as the Doom Currents meet, swirling to make a vertical maelstrom. The Homeward Ocean is the surrounding region, and can sometimes be escaped.
Marthino Sea: This pleasant tropical sea teems with life. Colorful fish swarm over tropical reefs. No great currents originate here. The native Ludoch mermen would lead a lazy and pleasant life, except that they continually war with baleful Malasp mermen from the Dashomo Sea.
Maslo Sea: The Maslo is a quiet and beautiful sea. Mermen there are usually Ludoch, but no great colonies have settled. During the Closing the sailors of this ocean were able to maintain a fleet of their double-hulled warships. A particular plague of this sea is the Mother of Monsters which lives on its western shore.
Rozgali Sea: The waters south of Prax and eastern Genertela have gentle currents washing westward. A thriving colony of Ludoch mermen intermingle with humans in the Holy Country's great circular bay.
Solkathi Sea: The waters south of western Genertela are called the Solkathi sea. A minor current washes eastward through the Solkathi.
Sshorg Sea: This ocean is the home of a great Doom Current which washes northward from the Togaro, arching around north of Teleos and entering the Homeward Ocean somewhere near Waertag's Banks.
Teleos Sea: The water surrounding Teleos is called the Teleos Sea. It is notable for its long period of calm in the Sea and Fire seasons. For much of the year, this sea and its central island are isolated from the rest of the world by gales and typhoons.
Togaro Sea: Also called the Sea (or Ocean) of Terror because it was the first great body of liquid to invade the land. It contains a powerful current, close to its source. This ocean is extremely warm, washing in from Sramak's Ocean where it exits from the Burning Seas. Sometimes patches of boiling water are carried in by the current. In its depths life is active and plentiful. At the top of the food chain is a type of huge armored carnivorous fish. In the Eastern Isles and on the shores of Dinal are two powerful, organized kingdoms of Ludoch mermen. The Togaro Ocean is ravaged by hurricanes for half the year.
Western Ocean: Where Sramak's current comes out from under the vast Glacier of Valind the Western Ocean separates and moves towards the land. It is chill with many icebergs, and carries its coldness to the Brown and Banthe Seas.
White Sea: This frigid body of water is reportedly connected to the outer seas by a subglacial waterway over a thousand kilometers long. No mermen live here.
Worm Sea: This sea, between two great marshes, is full of gigantic leeches which attach themselves to whales, kraken, and hapless ships. Though the monsters are found throughout the world, they concentrate, perhaps to breed, in this place. Life here is dominated by great swimming reptiles and dinosaurs.
Mythic History (The Merman's Tale)
Water existed everywhere before land. The wise and ancient beings from beyond the Deep continued the creation so their descendant may be well fed and tended.The Depths of the Sea
The mermen have explained many things about the depths of the ocean to land people. Most people, hearing of this realm, disbelieve the tales because they are so strange, but some facts have been verified by magical means. Further, it is difficult to believe that both the Ludoch and Ouori mermen, who have had no contact for centuries, would lie in the same way about the same things. It is important to remember that these facts are held in common by most informed and intelligent sea life. Similar facts and corroborating fragments of evidence have been gained by communication with the sea spirit Grandfather Salmon, the ancient Waertagi, and several species of whale and dolphin, which are the intelligent races friendliest to humankind.Mermen of the Oceans
Seven types of merfolk, called the Seven Kindred by their own kind, inhabit Gloranthan waters. Some older sources mention nine types of mermen instead; see Introduction to Glorantha: Non-Human Races. A synopsis of their manners and distribution is given here for convenience.For more information on the triolini, see:
Introduction to Glorantha: Merfolk
Inner Knowledge of the Sea Gods
The Bodies Of Water
See the map of The Oceans of Glorantha (81k) for a depiction of the main oceanic regions.
See also:
Introduction to Glorantha: The World of Glorantha