I thought we knew where the Sea was, roughly - I had thought south, but my grasp of even Terran geography is weak (a woman in a bar just informed me that much to my surprise New Mexico is contiguous with Texas). Anyway, it's something that one can wade into if foolhardy, hence likely not in the middle of a prosaic ocean. (I still don't understand about Orlaan in this context - she seems to be doing direct Elder Sorcery, not stone-mediated.) Anyway, we know that features of Dragaeran topography are non-natural - the Eastern mountain range, Dzur Mountain - so I don't feel so concerned about the (possibly there-be-dragons) Maelstrom. Also I don't see any ocean-Sea interaction resulting in a vortex. Also I don't see any ocean-Sea interaction at all, as we know the Lesser Sea just inexplicably sits there, a big blob of Universal Solvent not solving. On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, David Silberstein wrote: > Have we ever been told where the Great Sea is? I thought Sethra might > have mentioned it in her Deep Exposition on the Jenoine, in /Issola/, > but I just reread that and saw no sign of it there. > > I ask because I have had another one of my notions. In /Phoenix/, an > Orca sailor mentions the Maelstrom, in terms that suggest it might be > a near-total and nearly permanent barrier to sailing a certain > distance past the coast of Dragaera. I found this implied barrier to > be rather odd. Isn't the coast of Dragaera fairly large? How can the > Maelstrom be a barrier for the entire coastline? > > Anyway, my notion is simply that the Great Sea of Chaos is in or under > the ocean-sea, fairly far from the coast, perhaps right where the > continental shelf drops off, in an arc following the coast, and that > the whirlpools of the Maelstrom are the interface of the Amorphia of > the Great Sea interacting with the more ordinary waters of the > ocean-sea. This would keep it fairly near to the Empire (in case > proximity is important for the proper functioning of the Orb), yet far > enough away for safety's sake that most persons would not interact > with it, since most shipping could well follow the coast. > > As usual, my notion may be entirely incorrect since there is certainly > insufficient supporting evidence, and there may indeed be conflicting > text out there. Nevertheless, I like my notion, since I find the idea > of the Maelstrom to be annoying in its inexplicable lack of any > known natural cause, and it puts the Great Sea in a known place that > actually makes some sort of sense. > >