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[hider=Jvan's Ocean][h3]The Fractal Sea[/h3]
[b]Physical - Landform - Habitat - Galbar[/b]

[b]Description:[/b] The Fractal Sea is a large ocean promptly created by Jvan after she made planetfall, in a playful experiment with the raw materials available on Galbar. It is a saltwater body and rather cold, bar its northernmost section. The southern edges of the Sea freezes over with the coming of winter and the seasonal expansion of Vakarlon's ice caps. Despite this, it is still fairly rich in phytoplanktonic life, making it a strong contributor and recycler of oxygen to Galbar's already nourishing atmosphere. Other forms of life are beginning to spread through it from their points of origin at the border of the Deepwood and the Jvanic Peninsula, where the goddess herself resides in body.

[b]Appearance:[/b] This ocean, at its point of birth, took the exact form of a [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Mandel_zoom_00_mandelbrot_set.jpg]Mandelbrot Set[/url], its axis of symmetry aligned perfectly perpendicular to the equator of Galbar, and its edges measured almost to the molecular level. Like any unenchanted landform, of course, it has been changing and shifting ever since. Notably, its southern edge, which lies just within the south polar circle, is distorted by seasonal ice, its north-eastern edge has been twisted out of shape by the Shattered Plains, and simple wind and weather patterns have smoothed its more jagged edges. Despite this, it still possesses an incredible and beautiful assortment of inlets, estuaries and peninsulas, its northern reach penetrating even past the northern tropic of Galbar, and has almost no islands. The 'cleft' of the central cardioid is a stone spire reaching deep into the ocean's heart, and at its apex rests the body of Jvan, large enough to be seen from space as a carmine glow on a rounded, porous grey plateau. Her lower body is largely hidden from view and flooded to sea level, though regular shifts in her shape often result in waterfalls from above or below.

Beneath the surface, the Fractal Sea shows every sign of its violent origin as briny blood was squeezed from air and earth alike. The sea floor is mostly metamorphic stone rent into [url=http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/15/article-2233294-1609D0DE000005DC-956_964x641.jpg]wild arches[/url], [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/a9/a6/2ca9a65b51043c9ff997f20315399aa4.jpg]'natural' monuments[/url], [url=http://www.tfaoi.com/cm/8cm/8cm400.jpg]mesas[/url], [url=http://sf.co.ua/13/08/wallpaper-3019959.jpg]tunnels[/url] and [url=https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6142/5964701556_2ac25561b2_b.jpg]trenches[/url], all of greatly varying depth and entirely irregular in their arrangement, a stark contrast to the measured edges of the ocean. These bizarre formations are most prominent at the center of the main cardioid body, which is separated from its adjoining shapes- Including the large northern circle that touches the equator- by an encircling continental shelf, and grow less pronounced towards its edges. The outlining of the cardioid by this underwater cliff means that if you drown within the waters of the main water body, even just fifty meters away from a beach, it will take a long time to sink.

[b]Life:[/b] The first life of the Fractal Sea was [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ba/b3/f3/bab3f3e147d2b6e6a81a42a42f0bb75b.jpg]photosynthetic[/url] [url=http://biophysics.sbg.ac.at/rovigno/scan/diatom.jpg]plankton[/url], and as it spreads and fluctuates, it has become a pulsing green tint in the ocean. These microbial forms are a combination of bacterial and eukaryotic life in many different shapes, mostly the latter by mass, and produces a rich and endless stream of marine snow for deep-dwelling and current-filtering organisms to feed on. The first multicellular species are the creations of Jvan using samples of the spawn of Slough, and as such, have a somewhat similar aesthetic to the species of the Deepwood. Jvan's modifications deviate greatly from one another on even the most basic levels, though, and some species have been taken apart and put back together again with pieces of one another so many times that it is very difficult to tell what their genetic donors were- Plant, fungus or animal, vertebrate, mollusc, arthropod or annelid. Much of this life can afford to be predatory or live by filtration, due to the high reproductive rate of the phytoplankton. Although the larger species do tend to wander, all breeding populations initially cluster on, around and within the body of Jvan herself, who edits them and experiments with them routinely.
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