The Inland Sea

If we're going to discuss tropes of fantasy maps, the first one that comes to mind is surely a continent with a defined western coast and an indiscriminate landmass to the east. But inland seas are up there too. In addition to looking otherworldly, they serve a practical purpose - as Anders H. of Mythlands points out in his Fantasy Map Review series, a sufficiently large inland sea means that pretty much every part of the map is accessible from every other part of the map. I, personally, prefer long multi-stage journeys through multiple lands, but that's just me. It seems that inland seas are particularly associated with the sword and sorcery subgenre, likely because of Howard's Vilayet and Gygax's Nyr Dyv - I also suspect that this is because it provides for more area for pirate adventures to take place.

It's convenient, then, for the purposes of my project to reimagine the world of the original Dragon Quest trilogy as a sword and sorcery setting, that Dragon Quest III boasts a rather large inland sea. The distorted geography of DQ3's overworld combines the Black and Caspian Seas into a single body of water, almost as big as the pseudo-Mediterranean to the southwest. I've stated before that DQ3's overworld doesn't seem to be as big as the actual Earth, but the comparative sizes of the two seas does still give us reason to believe that it's quite a big one, and consequently, probably well-settled, with copious ports and trade routes to be found.

According to my theories on Erdland's geography, the Sea forms the eastern border of the Romalian Empire, with the Worldforest to the east, Ashalam and Baharata to the south, and the Kingdom of Dragons to the north. It's connected to the surrounding ocean by what are either rivers or (in my opinion, more likely) straits. Though we don't see any large settlements here in-game, it's reasonable to assume that such a large body of water so closely connected to the sea where Romaly and Portoga are located would be an important center for trade. This is supported by the fact that the terrain on the western and southern shores consists mostly of easily-settled plains - considering these shores would be controlled by Romaly and the Baharatan kingdoms, there are surely a number of important ports there.

Beyond that, I'd place a number of city-states, or even thalassocratic leagues thereof, around the coasts of the Inland Sea. Kings and merchants would surely be keen to take advantage of its strategic location and carve out dominions for themselves, ranging from stately maritime republics a la Venice to lawless dens of piracy. Considering the northern continent is ruled by dragons, the cities around its shore of the Sea would likely be heavily fortified and with formidable navies to defend themselves against their monstrous neighbors.

One might expect a similar quality from the cities bordering the Worldforest in the east - these ports would have plentiful access to wood, likely making them centers of shipbuilding and great exporters of timber, but the lack of infrastructure in the feral Worldforest would require them to rely on their own might. They are likely dependent on foreign imports for goods as well, trading wood for crops and luxuries they have limited access to themselves. If the Worldtree allows for travel (and, consequently, trade) with Torland, these ports may be some of the most important arteries supplying Torlandic goods into Erdland, but with the tree far afield inland, getting them to the port is another story - and perhaps a good opportunity for adventurers.

Locations in or around the Inland Sea include:

• Olivia Cape: A narrow point in the middle of the Sea. An inn is present on the southern shore, and a local legend tells that the cape's namesake, a woman named Olivia, drowned herself here after her husband, Eric, was lost at sea; her ghost now forbids ships to pass. Even without the ghost, it's likely a treacherous route due to its narrow nature and the presence of large shoals.
• The Shrine of Shackles: An island in the western half of the Sea that prisoners are exiled to. Given the geographic placement, it was likely established as a penal colony by the Romalians; however, the one named canonical resident, Simon (more on him in a moment - he's the most frustrating historical reference the translators missed), was exiled there by the king of Samanao. This is almost certainly me overanalyzing a decades-old video game (but then, what part of this project isn't?), but this could point to a historical treaty between Samanao and Romaly, comparable to how Russia and Germany were able to exile Napoleon to Elba.