Editing The Sea of the Dead (section)

== Civilization still exists ==
The level of civilization varies wildly from island to island. Many small and isolated islands without access to any great resources have been reduced to a barbarism, scratching a bare existence in the dirt without ever straying from the roar of the sea. Often, these peoples worship the ancestors who call to them from below. Others have great wealth because of their natural resources, industriousness of their people, or simply because they are a convenient way-point on a longer trade route. Many great merchant cities simply have large expanses of arable land, and can keep enough livestock and enough trees to maintain a merchant fleet. Some have preserved ancient traditions or have small libraries, while  princes maintain an iron grip on decrepit workshops capable of producing otherwise impossible artifacts. There is even a handful of mines, desperately extracting the almost priceless metals from beneath the earth, at constant risk from cave-ins or breaking through to some ancient flooded structure or one of their spoil heaps collapsing into the sea... 

And finally there are those who risk it all, exploring the ruins of the ancients for wondrous treasures, risking it all for riches unseen for ten thousand years. A trade where everything is won or lost with the opening of some antique hatch. The great lords fund well equipped expeditions who use wooden caissons, diving equipment and movable barriers to systematically explore the sunken world. Other more desperate and amateur efforts simply rely on finding some exposed point of entry - some islands even have unexplored complexes. More than one great island has been lost by a foolishly opened doorway or an accidentally collapsed wall. 

::''' ''Some say the ancients are still here, sequestered deep below the earth as they complete their work, their second gift. Some say they are watching still, and reach out with an invisible hand to guide us and make sure we are safe. I hope these are true. But what I truly know, and am infinitely thankful for, is their great gift of life.''' His Reverence Eramus Qualm, 2000th birthday speech.''