Our story begins in an area called the Middle North of the Otarian Peninsula, with the tale of Ser Xandar ros Janaar, an extraordinary nobleman born to the ruling Janaar family of the Kingdom of Janaria in the United Principality of Otaria.
It's said that he was exceptional in his childhood, excelling in most subjects among his peers. As a teenager, he was better than most of his experienced guards in sword swinging and more knowledgeable about history than his Janarian royal teachers. Sponsored by his own family for his expenses, he achieved top grades in entrance exams for the First Landing University of Wisdom. It is really difficult to reach the University's archives to confidently talk about his performance in classes, but people who knew him say he excelled, particularly in the areas of seafaring and navigation, explaining his exceptional ability in shipbuilding and woodworking.
After his graduation, he returned to his homeland's capital, Janarka, a great city built on the outskirts of the Glacial Mountains. With an ambitious project in mind, he wished for his family to finance his expedition to the lost continent. The Kingdom of Janaria, however, shared its borders with two other great kingdoms: the Kingdom of Shu-Bath to the far north and the Tribes of Aralakh to the south. Being landlocked, the Kingdom of Janaria never had a culture of seafaring or navigation. Knowing that financing such an expedition was against the rules of the entire realm, the king refused to listen to the reasoning of the royal family's golden boy. For them, the Kingdom of Janaria already had plenty of riches thanks to their never-ending Kluth farms. Although the lost continent might have held immeasurable amounts of treasure or secrets, going against the realm's laws meant losing trading rights in Innarian Tradehold and possibly facing persecution by the United Principality of Otaria itself.
But such trivial obstacles were never a problem for Ser Xandar; his endless curiosity far surpassed the unbreakable and, in his opinion, unnecessary laws of the realm.
The Kingdom of Janaria was a meritocratic monarchy, where the most prominent candidate from the families was the true heir to the throne. The heir was chosen through a series of tests that challenged their knowledge and abilities in subjects such as fighting, economics, politics, and most importantly, leadership. To participate in the tests, one needed to be from the main royal family or one of the branch families. At the end of the tests, the victor's family became the main one and, according to their results, appointed the other participant to their cabinet. It was a system without losers. For the last four generations, due to their exceptional candidates, the Janaar family held the title to rule the land. The victor remained in power until they either resigned or passed away. Due to the lack of conflict in the impenetrable city of Janarka and the natural defenses of the cold surrounding the entire kingdom, the ruler and their cabinet usually remained in power for many years.
Ser Xandar himself had amassed a fortune of his own during his internship at Innaria, yet his entire capital was only enough for one ship and a crew. The ships had to be built from the ground up and were highly specialized, able to withstand the harshest of storms and provision its crew for years. Yet it wasn't the ship that was most expensive, it was the skilled crew he had to recruit. It wasn't easy to persuade a man to risk his life far away from home, so payment in advance to take care of their families was a necessity. He was sure one ship wouldn't be enough to chart the unknown waters, so he had to be prepared for everything.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Thus, the king declared his resignation due to a decline in his health, and preparations for the choosing of the next ruler of the land began. The king was confident that his youngest boy was going to be the victor, which was Ser Xandar himself. His eldest brother was a merchant prodigy, with a fortune already rivaling small kingdoms across the land. His middle brother was a great fighter, respected by the Janaarian army. But Ser Xandar had it all. He had countless connections in Innaria that could make him richer than any man alive, and he had the respect not only of the army but of the citizens of his kingdom as well. What he lacked was time. If he departed next winter, it meant one less winter to worry about during the voyage.
At the ceremony, every participant had to make a speech to all families about their vision and plans for the future of the kingdom; this was, for most, considered the first challenge of the tests. When it was time for Ser Xandar's speech, he declared his withdrawal.
After four months of enduring tests, the victor was Ser Xandar's eldest brother. As conspiracy goes, he struck a deal with his brother. In exchange for financing one of the ships, he forwent his right to rule.
With an almost infinite budget, both ships were built in no time in the famous shipyards of the Fairwell family in the northeast corner of Otaria. The flagship, a medium-sized frigate, was named Ferocity, and a smaller sloop designed to support and supply the journey was named Turbulence. Ferocity and Turbulence began their maiden voyage from the docks of Weldon, a city-state belonging to the Fairwell family. It was the last time anyone ever saw Ser Xandar.
Six years after the departure, a ship with broken masts was spotted by fishermen on the horizon near the Innarian Lagoon, soon to disappear from sight. Reports of the ship reached Innarian Tradehold authorities, believing it to be a merchant ship recently raided by pirates. A small search and rescue ship was dispatched to the last-seen location. After days of searching, they finally caught up to the ship.
When they were close enough to gaze upon the beaten ship, they were able to read the name of the ship in front: The Turbulence. Missing both of its masts with no sails in sight, its reinforced hull somehow protected the ship's integrity and kept it afloat, but everything on top of the deck was either broken or missing. A sole survivor was found in one of the cabins on the lower deck, along with mutilated corpses and bones believed to be of the crew. For his attire, the survivor was assumed to be the cook.
The cook was missing his left arm, precisely cut below the elbow. His entire face was disfigured, enough to terrify any brave man at first glance. In place of his nose were two fleshy holes. His left fingers were half their size. When asked about his name, the man blubbered, his tongue cut from its place as well. When found, he was in the middle of carving the ship's hull. Upon close inspection, the carvings read: “By Mother, for Mother, always Mother. Mother, we the sinners, Mother forgives so we may become one.” The entirety of the lower deck repeated this same phrase over and over again.
Fearing contamination by an unknown disease, the man and everyone on board were quarantined as soon as they reached the Innarian Docks. The rescue ship was not able to pull the Turbulence, so it was left to be retrieved later. From that point on, The Turbulence was never seen again.
The man never told anyone about the fate of the ships or Ser Xandar. When given a pen and paper, he continued writing the same phrase over and over again. He died a few years later from an infection caused by engraving the same phrase onto his body with a rusty sharp metal he had broken from his bed.
To this day, no one knows what happened to one of the brilliant men of the Crown and his ships. After the incident, Innarian authorities made the punishment for sailing to the Lost Continent even harsher. Now, anyone who planned to set sail for the cursed continent was considered an enemy of the realm, punishable by death.