Waters

Vareth is surrounded by the Vormer and divided internally by the Mereth Sea and the broad western marine corridor that connects it to the outer ocean. Major water names preserve Draconic, Merethi, Dwarven, Elven, Trollish, Akkari, and Common naming traditions.

Vormer

The Vormer is the world-ocean surrounding Vareth and its islands. The name is Draconic, from vor, “great” or “foremost,” and mer, “broad water.”

Regional ocean and sea names describe parts of the Vormer rather than separate bodies of water at a planetary scale.

Pale Sea

The Pale Sea is the cold northern regional sea beyond Vareth’s northern coast. It borders the northern mountain world and contains the scattered Frostwake Isles.

Its Dwarven name is Kelduln, from keld, “cold” or “frost,” and uln, “open salt water” or “sea.”

Dresael Bay

Dresael Bay is the substantial indentation in Vareth’s northern coast between the northwestern mountain country and the northeastern lands.

Dresael is an old Merethi contraction of drel, “river,” and sael, “sea.” Several northern waterways and coastal plains meet the bay.

Vesarel Ocean

The Vesarel Ocean is the great western expanse of the Vormer beyond Vareth’s western islands and the Selvaren approaches.

The name is Merethi-derived, from vesar, “west,” and sael, “sea,” contracted through long maritime use.

Mereth Sea

The Mereth Sea occupies the broad central hollow of Vareth. It is a large irregular inner sea, substantial enough to shape climate, drainage, settlement, and trade without dominating the continent’s landmass.

Its name is ancient and Draconic-derived, from mer, “broad water,” and reth, “passage” or “way through.” Human communities around the sea later gave their language the name Merethi.

The sea is open toward the west rather than enclosed as a lake.

Mereth Mouth

The Mereth Mouth is the broad western opening where the main body of the Mereth Sea narrows toward the western marine corridor.

This is a descriptive Common name. The opening remains broad enough to preserve Vareth’s open-crescent form and must not be confused with the much farther-west Selvaren Narrows.

West of the mouth, a broad unnamed marine corridor continues between Vareth’s separated northern and southern arms. It is wider than an ordinary strait and remains visibly open throughout, with irregular coasts, peninsulas, coves, islands, and mountain-backed shores. The corridor has no separate proper name.

Selvaren Narrows

The Selvaren Narrows, often simply the Selvaren, lie toward the outer western end of the unnamed marine corridor. Broken peninsulas and islands divide the water into several major channels before it opens into the Vesarel Ocean.

Selvaren is Merethi, from selvar, “narrow navigable saltwater passage,” with the old geographic formation -en.

The Selvaren are a major maritime connection, not a tiny strait. The Selvaren Islands lie within and immediately around these channels and their approaches rather than farther south along the Stormward coast.

Elaren Ocean

The Elaren Ocean is the eastern expanse of the Vormer beyond Vareth’s long eastern coast.

Elaren is Merethi, from elar, “dawnward” or “toward the rising sun,” with -en. Elven speakers commonly call the same ocean Saelmer, from sael, “sun,” and mer, “sea.” The Trollish name Ruunogh combines ruun, “great river” or “enduring flow,” and ogh, “open ocean.”

Lethmer Gulf

Lethmer Gulf is a large irregular gulf cut into the middle-to-lower eastern coast of Vareth. It opens broadly and directly into the Elaren Ocean and must not read as an enclosed or nearly enclosed basin.

The gulf is large enough to shape regional drainage and navigation while leaving a substantial breadth of mainland between it and the Mereth Sea. Headlands and islands may occur around its approaches, but they do not close its mouth.

Lethmer is Elven, from leth, “river,” and mer, “sea.” Elven speakers normally use Lethmer without the Common descriptor.

Sunward Sea

The Sunward Sea is the broad southern and southeastern regional sea. It contains the scattered Sunward Isles and borders the mainland approach to the Eirshai Archipelago.

Akkari speakers call it Eirmar, from eir, “clear light” or “sunlight,” and mar, “sea” or “broad water.”

Varamar Bay

Varamar Bay is the deep irregular bay interrupting Vareth’s southern coastline. It remains separate from the Mereth Sea and opens directly into the Sunward Sea.

Varamar is Akkari, from vara, “valley” or “low opening,” and mar, “sea” or “broad water.” Common adds Bay as a geographic descriptor.