Oceanic Empire

The Oceanic Empire, or Thalassian League, was an Age of Awakening nation of the Aelderi that spread out across the sea from Vedar.

In the Great Migration, many of the Aelderi spread far out across land and sea. Some of these explorers eventually came upon a collection of islands far from the mainland where they had originated.

The cities of the Aelderi in Vedar periodically received magnificent ships with news and trade from their far-flung brethren, but records show that at some point these ships simply stopped appearing in Vedaran ports. Surviving texts from the time indicate that the mainland Aelderi were confused as to the lack of communication, and any attempts to investigate met with failure.

Legendary Cataclysm
The legends state that the principle city of the League was built upon a great gate to another plane, where a magical substance called Warpstone could be mined. It is said that this was used to power ships that flew through the air as easily as over the sea. Some say even the cities themselves were built from this rock, and floated in the air, permanently tethered to the ground.

These ships were used to spread to all of the other islands and archipelagos of the League, with the Aelderi taking their slaves, both dwarf and human, with them wherever they went.

There are many conflicting stories of the final days of the League, by this point known to its slaves in the common tongue as the Oceanic Empire.

Some state that a great sky-captain succeeded in making a weapon that could nullify warpstone, which would make him the pre-eminent power of the skies. When other sky-captains allied together to destroy this weapon, a battle ensued. During the course of the battle, the weapon was damaged, and resulted in the nullification of all of the existing warpstone, sending the sky-captains crashing to the ground.

Another popular story is that alien creatures began to come through the portal from the other side, creatures that could only be destroyed through great struggle. Eventually, a daring sky-captain sailed his ship straight through the portal and managed to close it from the other side, sealing the portal forever and cutting off all of the warpstone in the material plane from the source of its power.

History
There are no surviving records that indicate that the supposed 'sky-ships' ever existed. It is generally agreed that the core cities of the Oceanic Empire were founded upon an island with a dormant volcano. When this volcano erupted, it destroyed the centre of the Aelderi sea-faring civilization, resulting in the collapse of this empire as a significant power.

What is known is that this event resulted in the severing of trade and communication across the Thalassian League, and many individual islands and communities were left separate and isolated.

Modern Day
Many of the isolated communities are beginning to relearn the art of navigation and have begun to tentatively venture out onto the high seas once more. What awaits these people, comprised of elves as well as men, dwarves and other races descended from former slaves, is yet to be seen...