The onset of the Winter Ice-Lock brought unforgiving, razor-sharp gales that ripped across the eastern harbor of Abyssal Pearl City. Heavy sheets of freezing salt spray crashed against the towering sea walls, coating the massive blocks of profound-earth granite in thick, jagged layers of white frost. The churning ocean beyond the protective breakwaters had darkened into a treacherous, bruising indigo, violently agitated by the shifting tectonic pressures and the ceaseless, apocalyptic naval skirmishes raging across the distant horizons.
The overarching regional war between the Myriad Ocean Palace and the Holy Nether Sea Organization had fractured the established maritime trade routes. Oceanic shipping insurance rates issued by the central banking sects skyrocketed to ruinous heights. Independent merchant convoys, desperate to shield their heavily laden cargo vessels from roaming demonic patrol fleets, sought refuge in any port capable of projecting genuine military deterrence.
