The World of Golprain
In the world of Golprain most people live and die on the islands they’re born on, some end up sailing, and very few are born and spend their whole life on their families ships. Very few governments span multiple islands so business are very local. There are few elders who remember a time when a large military government attempted and failed to patrol the seas but few remember and fewer remember them positively. Eventually over time, ~200 years ago, the military force died off leaving ruins of ships to salvage in the seas. People go out to sea to adventure and make new lives for themselves on different islands. Some ships work exclusively in trading valuable between islands.
The choice to sail is not one to be made lightly; those who leave their island seldom ever return, but not for lack of trying. The world out there in no uncertain terms cannot or has not been successfully navigated. People who are untrained have gotten lost 50 miles from their island and couldn’t find their way back and even those who are trained and trade between islands will rarely sail more than 100 miles.
Even so there are those who sail, few of which tell tails or splendor. Most of the ex-sailors around speak of Ghosts and Curses they’ve seen out on the sea, some even believe that the difficulty of navigating the sea comes from a Curse that beings called Sirens put on it. These Sirens are a whole other situation as well. People tell tails of Sirens mercilessly killing entire crews of armed men, some even say that the Sirens eat the flesh of Humans, Elves, and Orc’s alive to satiate their apatite and bestow forms of magic onto them. (Magic, as it exists in this world, is very rare and often seen as inherently evil due to its uncommon nature)
That being said the horrors of the Sea are not just ones of creature out in the night. No, more dangerous than that is the pitch black night (Golpraine lacks any moons or stars in the night sky making it all but completely pitch black). At those hours any well minded sailor would beg for the the lights of the Siren’s islands or a stray light upon the mast of another ship just so they can see where they’re going.
Naturally then most ships sailors meet on the Sea are friendly to the others that they meet. Not only because they’re living through the same difficult conditions that those aboard the other ships are facing but also because any prospect of attacking another ship might lead to mutually assured destruction and death on the empty vastness of the Sea.
There are legends though of Ship destroyed in warfare. One in particular is spoken from the mouths of parents urging their children not to go out to sea, That of The Drowned which has become a common nursery rhyme.
Captain Captain had a ship
Folk Tale
Captain Captain lost them quick
Deeper Deeper the whole crew drowned
Beware the Drowned Captain he walks again
Beware the seas call you’d best abstain
Or like the lost crew you’d souls will be bound
Those who tell the tale more concisely say that an entire crew were killed by one blast of a ships cannon and that the Captain was cursed by the Spirits of the Sea to forever wander the world in search of their crews lost treasure. (The Spirits of the Sea are view differently by all people, in fact most don’t even believe they exist, but some treat them as Gods. Other than that there exist Gods which are worshiped regionally but, like the Spirits there’s not necessarily proof of their existence)