To the very ancient Greeks, the world appeared to be a flat or concave surface. It consisted of the sea of middle-earth, the Mesogeios–which the Romans would later call Mediterraneus–the land mass which ringed that sea, and Oceanus, the great river which circled around the world.
The Greeks being clever sorts, they did eventually work out the whole “earth being round” thing, and in the meantime, we can forgive them for believing that their little corner of the globe was at the center of everything. They were only human.
But, still… what a world they imagined: all the land of the known world hugging the Mediterranean at the center, and encircled by a vast unbroken body of water.
The world of Meridea looks much like the ancient maps of the world. In its center lies the relatively tranquil, relatively shallow Inner Sea, surrounded almost completely with land, with straits to the east and west connecting it to a wilder and wider Outer Sea that extends all the way out to the edge of the world and then stops.
Suspended above the circle of the world are a series of floating land masses, ranging in size from a few acres to the size of mountain ranges. These “skylands” and the air between them form the Upper Sea of Meridea, though there’s little traffic between those who live on and navigate between the skylands of the Upper Sea and the people they know as “downlanders.”
These are the three seas of Meridea, which give the story its title: the Inner Sea, the Outer Sea, and the Upper Sea.
Geography:
The land that divides the Inner and Outer Seas consists of three landmasses. On the north of it is Elakebassis and Dahrun, which are joined by an isthmus. Dahrun, the eastern continent, is much larger than Elakebassis, though the smaller land is a single unified power with a strong navy it uses to control a slice of the Outer Sea extending from its shore out to the rim. On the south side of the Outer Sea, the Southlands are a single continent that are thought to be larger than Dahrun and Elakebassis put together, though the terrain is thought to be far less hospitable. The strait between Elakebassis and the Southlands is less than four miles across at its narrowest point, and is under control of the naval empire. The eastern strait is wider and more freely navigable.
Though the Outer Sea is a single body of water, it is usually divided into quarters according to the compass directions. The Elakebassian presence is mostly on the western end of the northern waters, forming a boundary between it and the western waters, allowing them to control the trade between the wealthy island kingdoms in the west and the northern islands and Dahrun to the east. The only way to avoid Elakebassian waters is to take a longer, more hazardous southern route, either overland or around the Southlands.
The island of Faresia is in Elakebassis-controlled waters, up north and near to the rim of the world. The island of Montport is in the uncontrolled portion of the northern Outer Sea, approximately halfway between the rim and the north shore of Dahrun.