The Arcane Seas
The Arcane Seas is a dimension accessible through the usage of the Arcane Gates - massive, dimensional gates constructed in middle of the sea, usually in relatively shallow water. The Arcane Seas is commonly used for its ability to compress travel in the world of Drase.
Arcane Gates
The Arcane Gates are special constructions that are used to access the Arcane Seas.
Structure
An Arcane Gate consists of two staggering spiral rock towers - usually up to 20 meters wide, spaced between 50 - 150 meters apart depending on the terrain, which extends up to 40 meters tall - creating a portal around 80 meters tall between the two gates. The portals are usually purple in color, and semi-transparent.
On top of the jagged spire are the “mother of all crystal” - a synthesized crystal weighing around a ton in weight, with diamond-like toughness, created over time by merging multiple magical crystals together. The crystal is hard to chip and destroy, and the only way to end an arcane gate’s portal is to have the crystal shattered into significant pieces. Once the gate is activated, the crystal floats in the air and becomes extremely hard to displace, making chipping or destroying it the only reliable way to shut down the portal - as a result, more active defenses are often required in order to control portal access - generally speaking, well manned and armed ships defending the gate. The expensive nature of guarding those gates means that they can often be blockade-ran, although pirates will often prey upon unguarded gate to ambush undefended merchant.
Construction
Sea-gates must be built on the continental shelf away from major landmasses, usually at specifically designed magical fault-points in the ocean where the connection to the Arcane Seas is particularly strong. These fault-points are sufficient enough to cover the seas in gates - But for obvious financial reasons only the best fault points are used. Usually ideal sites are at the very least 100 kilometers away from shore. Where possible, places with the most shallow seabed are used.
An Arcane Gate is constructed by transporting a massive amount of rock which is dumped onto the sea bed, using advanced ritual magic to ensure they are planted into the ground as foundation - the amount of rock needed to construct two spiral gate up to the sky are massive, and impose huge expenses on the construction of an arcane gate - often more than the magical process itself.
Once an artificial mountain is built, ritual magic is used to constantly reinforce the foundation until it is solid as a rock and not prone to collapse - as if it was a natural spire extending from the bottom of the sea - ongoing maintenance and transportation of rocks are required, as erosion acts on the spire itself - the amount of materials involved are massive, though magic allows poor quality rock to be used - somewhere in the realm of 25,000 - 75,000 tonnes of rock per gate pillar in shallow water.
Then the gate is constructed up to a desired height that can accommodate the tallest ship possible.
Theoretical research have shown that it is impossible to create permanent Arcane Gate from within Arcane Seas - however, there’s rumor there’s temporary way to create temporary Arcane Gate, which may explain why some of the Arcanic civilization left their footprint on Ramul Ta long before the first known Arcane Gate was created in the region.
Entry
An Arcane Gate portal is always active, and can be traveled through without activation. When an Arcane Gate is created in Ramul Ta, a standalone portal (Often called a countergate) without the mountain is created on the other side of the Arcane Seas - around 1 mile across and 200 meters wide. The portal does not care if it is sea or land on the other side - and after the first arcane gate is created, any following gate are often surveyed carefully to ensure it end up on a desired location - it is totally possible for an Arcane Countergate to be opened on land or overly shallow water, leading ship to beach themselves immediately upon traversing the portal. Water in an Arcane Gate almost always flows through from the Arcane Sea side, as Arcane Sea’s water is on average warmer - but in tropical places, the flow might be reversed.
Deactivation & Destruction
When an arcane gate is destroyed or deactivated, the corresponding portal on the other side is also deconstructed.
The Arcane Seas
Geography
In term of relative geography, arcane gates within Arcane Seas are spaced closer by a factor of 4 compared to Ramul Ta, making the Arcane Seas a convenient shortcut for fast travel - combined with the wind, it can shorten travel by 4 - 6 times compared to the overworld, which make commerce between area of Ramul Ta with established Arcane Gates easy and short.
Terrain
The Arcane Seas have some islands and no (known) major landmass, and contain endless expanses of shallow seas, ranging between 0 - 200 meters deep, but never reaching to the abyss. It is structured like a giant, neverending continental shelf. Scattered landmasses pierce the sea and some of them could support habitation or outposts - indeed, most of the Arcanic species live on the land and islands that are scattered throughout the sea.
Some rocky islands have formed in the seas, though their origins are unknown - with most of the land eroded and colonized by trees and mosses that are common to Ramul Ta’s tropics. This is where most of the Arcanic people settle on, as they are amphibious but not fully aquatic races. The trees there are used to construct rafts and boats, but most known native Arcanic people do not have the ability or technology to construct massive ships on their own.
There are no known volcanoes or hydrothermal vents or the like, but it seems the nutrients must come from somewhere. Either way, geography of this age is too primitive for us to understand and care about such things like “Ocean nutrient cycling”. It just works.
The oceans here are rich in nutrients, and thanks to the shallow landmass, harbor more fishes than the entire world can eat.
Climate & Weather
The Arcane Sea can be best described as a tropical ocean - there are no known parts of Arcane Seas that deviate from a constant water temperature close to that of the tropics - and no known cold spot or hotspot within. The sun shines for 12 hours a day and then ends exactly 12 hours later - sunset and sunrise are extremely short, as if the entirety of the sea is in the equator itself.
With no major landmass to break up any storm and hot water, the typhoons that strike the Arcane Sea are more ferocious than anything ever seen in the mainland of Ramul Ta, necessitating the construction of durable buildings and adoption against the harsh climate of the sea. Despite this, with the right tool weather in the Arcane Seas is more predictable than that of the normal world.
Navigation and weather prediction can be done for the Arcane Seas - Silnarian scholars (And Runran scholars) have independently discovered that the currents, winds and storms follow a set pattern, nearly never deviating from it, and can be predicted using special device one call “Sea Stone” - device constructed out of mithril and enchanted magic that act as a compass (Compass for Ramul Ta don’t work within the Arcane Seas), and also contain intricate astrological prediction that help captains predict when storm will be coming and which way the current will be pointing at their current position. In fact, Sea Stone allows a ship to triangulate its position within Arcane Seas as accurately as within 10 kilometers - measured from an Arcane Gate a sea stone is binded to. A sea stone must be binded to a sea gate by striking it with a hammer five times near it, before it is ready to be used as a navigation system.
Flora
Mosses, grasses, seaweed and other hardy, short-lived flora dominate the landmasses and the seas. They are often noted for magical properties stronger than that of normal plants in the normal dimension, meaning that gathering them is a profitable but risky business.
Fauna
Because of the lack of two-legged predators equipped with magic and magically-powered weapons, and the extreme richness of the ocean, the arcane seas harbor a much denser population of monsters, especially giant one that could threaten ships. Sea-based creatures are known to inhabit this dimension in large amounts.