The Caged Sea is a backwards place. A section of storm sequestered waters uninhabited by any but the refuse of the world.

Ancient texts show records of massive fleets sent by the old empires into these, at that time, completely barren waters. They seem to indicate that this was a prison or a treasury of an even older people. Who these ancients might have been, and who or what they left in the Caged Sea was never discovered.

All fleets sent by that extinct empire never returned from the Storm Wall. It was only with the advent of air travel that these waters could be explored. The first explorers were ecstatic. Certain of finding vast treasure of untold wealth. They found naught but the shattered remnants of the ancient fleets. Spinning slowly in a vast whirlpool.

Other than that all there was of value were swathes of small islands that showed no sign of ever being inhabited.

In the fourth era of the Triumph, King Wendleton the first decreed these islands were to be the new home of the prisoners overflowing from his dungeons. This surfeit of prisoners rose from his infamous outlawing of song, laughter, and the color pink. He was not the most stable of kings.

Though not the least stable either. That dubious honor is held by King Koko. He will forever be known as the king who ordered all his subjects to never touch the ground, and executed anyone he caught doing so in a bizzare and embarrasing fashion. Including, in the end, himself. He was also the first to change his name.

These prisoners were released onto those islands and promptly forgotten. Hundreds of years passed and they formed their own distinctive cultures, mannerisms, languages, and myths.

Here are a collection of some of the odder and newer myths these backwards and uneducated barbarians profess to believe in.

1. The myth of the Sun Hare.

Long ago, our forefathers were enslaved by a bloodthirsty and vicious band of pirates. These pirates were led by a man named Doggo Prim. He ordered our forefathers to gather food and goods for him. He stole everything our people loved. Our peace, our prosperity, and our women.

One day after a great storm a little girl named Kalayata was combing the beach for debris to sell to pay for medicine for her ill mother and injured father. What she found instead was a god.

The god had taken the form of a small hare. But there was no mistaking its divinity. A holy warmth and glow akin to the sun itself surrounded the hare.

Kalayata was a very smart little girl. She immediately prostrated herself and begged the god for help.

To this day no one knows what price the god asked of Kalayata. For such a thing is between the two of them alone. To ask would be to agree to bear the price as well.

By the end of the week there was not a single pirate alive on their island. Nearby villages sent messengers saying that their islands too had been cleansed of the pirate scourge.

Doggo Prim gathered the remnants of his crews at his great castle. He tried to face the power of a with a mere two hundred pirates. The scorched stones of Doggos Keep tell their own story of his failure.

END

To this day Kalayatas family is revered and the Sun Hare is worshipped by every Islander within three days sailing. The remnants of the "Sun Hares" rampage have become a site of pilgrimage. The church of the long ear is one of the strongest factions currently active in the Caged Sea. 

2. The legend of the Leviathan.

These waters are ancient, and ancient things still hunt their depths.

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The greatest of all these beings is the mighty Leviathan.

The Ship Devourer. The Mad Sea. The Sky Breaker.

Leviathan.

So vast is this being, that it can swallow fleets whole.

So vicious is this being, that the sky breaks before its roar.

So evil is this being, that the sea itself goes mad trying to escape it.

The Broken Vow. The Stolen Crown. The End.

Leviathan.

Betrayed was it. When the world was new.

It was promised a palace. It recieved a prison.

It sows madness. It reaps lives.

Leviathan.

END

This tale is told in hushed whispers by old sailors and pirates to their younger brethren. I scoffed upon hearing it and was thrown from the tavern. Summarily I was ousted from the inn I was staying at, and then chased off of the island altogether. They take this "Leviathan" very seriously hereabouts.

3. The Ghost Fireship

So, there I was. Just gotten caught sneaking some extra rum rations by the bosun so I was swabbing the deck, and nursing my freshly whipped back. Now at that time I was aboard the Rotted Plank captained by that scrub Wheaslock. He was a bad captain, aye I'll say it, too free with the cat, and not free enough with the food.

Anyrate, there I was swabbing that dirty deck when I saw it. A flash of blazing red. Sped by the Rotted Plank at full sail like we was sailing backwards. A wave of heat hit us and the sails started to smoke. Poor Jimboy was looking directly at it. Cooked his eyes in his skull. He never saw that coming.

Now if that wasn't bad enough the flash had left a train of ghosts in its wake. Writhing phantoms rose from the water it had passed through. Distorted men and beasts. Wretched tortured souls I tell you.

I need another drink just recalling it. Ah, thankee sir. *gulp*

Now I know you ain't just gonna believe me. So go ask old Gus the same thing you asked me. We ain't the only ones seen it. Dozens of us ole timers saw it. Ask around; you'll see.

END

I got this tale off of an old drunk at a port tavern while waiting for my ship to get restocked. I did ask around. Dozens of corroberating witnesses. All with eerily similar tales.

It could be just a hoax to get free beer from travelers though.

4. Grave of the Wave Wolves.

There was once a true ruler of these waters. The Wave Wolves were the uncontested kings of the pirates.

It wasn't just that they had better ships and were uncannily capable of slipping away when you thought you had finally caught them. No, what made then great was their hidden bases, and their Grave. See the Wave Wolves were the militant arm of an ancient tribe of witches and sorcerers.

They weaved an unnatural and powerful magic upon the Wave Wolves. See, when a Wave Wolf dies they can somehow pass on their memories. This means that every damn new recruit can sail, fight, and pillage like a veteran.

The end of the Wave Wolves was as mysterious as their Grave. They got caught in an ambush by an alliance of smaller pirate crews. Nothing that they hadn't survived before. A few of their ships limped away, and everyone assumed they would be back after some recruiting. They never appeared again. 

The pirate alliance fell apart faster than a whores good looks in a rainstorm.

They wiped each other out. The only ones who knew the Wave Wolves last heading had gone and killed each other hoping to be the one to find their Grave.

Thousands of pirates have gone looking for the Wave Wolves Grave since then. None have succeeded. Every island has been combed over a hundred times. But those craft devils had always managed to stay hidden before, and they managed to stay hidden even to this day.

END

Drivel. It is impossible to preserve memories after death. The greatest academics and most famous wise men have sought such a thing for centuries. Eager to be able to pass on their great knowledge whole to their students in the future. None have succeeded.

5. Dragon egg island.

There once was an island with a volcano. One day this volcano began to smoke and the locals abandoned it in fear off being destroyed by the its eruption.

For days and days the volcano smoked and smouldered. Filling the sky with smoke and the stench of rotted eggs.

A few brave young men had stayed near the island to watch the eruption and tell the rest if their village was salvagable.

These young men were the ones who saw the dragon be born from the volcano.

With a mighty shudder and boom that sent the sea into turmoil the island was destroyed entirely. Barely anything remained about the water.

But the young men were not looking at the remains of their old home. NO, their eyes had been caught by a great red egg that had been sent into the sky by the volcano.

As they watched. This egg opened and a sleek red form emerged shorly before diving into the sea on the far side of the island.

From that day forth their former island home became known as Dragon Egg Island.

Many have searched high and low. Hoping to find a fragment of dragon eggshell or even the dragon itself. But none have succeeded. 

END

A simple and short story told around fires to entertain children. No doubt these ignorants have no concept of pyroclastics. Dragons, what utter nonsense.

These are some of the local myths of the barbarians of the Caged Sea.

In my next paper I shall discuss the mating habits of the common snoring snail, and its less common relative the roaring snail. 

Aryus Ezer.