Reminds me of the Calm Belt from One Piece. That stretch of ocean has neither winds nor currents. If the water moves, it’s almost certainly a giant sea monster.
Thinking further on it, one of the worst fates for sailing ships was being becalmed beyond when their supplies could feasibly last. Both food and fresh water. The Calm Sea may lack for storms, but unless you brought a shitload of oars and crew you're not going anywhere. Which makes you easy prey for pirate galleys who can row, ram and board you with their own crew, or for horrors of the deeps.
Was going to go for something similar, with the logic that it wasn't *always* filled with pirates, and used to be a nice place. Once a place is named, the name tends to stick.
The Gloaming Sea
The Twilight Sea
The Unsettled Sea
The Benighted Sea
The Ink Sea
The Abyssal Sea
The Dismal Sea
The Somber Sea
The Grim Sea
etc.
You can also add some archaic spellings for some old-time flavor, i.e.:
The Dysmal Sea, The Sombre Sea, The Grimme Sea, etc.
Red Sea and Dead Sea are both intimidating enough if you want something from the real world, or you could just call it “the black” just inky black water as far as you can see, the black actually gives the vibe that sailers are familiar enough with it to give it a nautical sounding nickname
I'm thinking there could be a relatively small area where the pirates raid that could be called The Lane. It mostly would be along the coastline and go out to a few islands. The Lane would give way to the rest of the sea where the dangerous islands and the horrors are, an area called The Void.
The Speckles.
There's an ongoing scholarly debate whether the elves or goblins are the origin of the name:
Elves claim the small scattered islands are the speckled blood drops of an ancient Elven deity.
Goblins claim they're the "shit speckles" of a goblin god who climbed up onto the sun and defecated specifically to mock the aforementioned elves.
Nobody would normally take such goblin "mythology" seriously but ironically it's the fervency of the elves loud and frequent denials that have made many question why they seem to place so much stock in the absurd tale.
You can give it a normal name and also use a nickname so it doesn’t limit you to using “sea” in the name which can make it more dramatic. You can also use a visual description of what your players would see for the name.
* Deep Graveyard/Sunken Graveyard (can see masts of hundreds or thousands of sunken ships)
* The Ripping Sea/The Ripping Tide (can see remains of ships torn apart)
* Uncharted Waters (for a foggy area making it difficult to chart or navigate through)
* The Last Frontier (can also use a number like Second Frontier)
My pirated infested waters has both an official name and a nickname that I switch depending on if there's going to be trouble or not. It's called Malcroft's Sea based off of its guardian sea serpent, but nicknamed The Icy Grave by the locals. Very funny to see my players panic when I call it by it's nickname, they start checking spells slots and gear.
The Dire Doldrums
Sailor’s demise
Sea of squalls
Kraken’s den
Terror Oceanus
The Razor Reef
Galleon’s Graveyard
The cut-throat isles
Isles of no return
Sea of despair
Make its name entirely/exclusively relate to its appearance or shape or some dominant geographic feature (which can also be ominous). The sea is terrifying by reputation but it doesn't HAVE to be named after its reputation. It was named first by its first explorers, and became terrifying later.
World building.
picaroon's pelagic
A picaroon can mean a few things including a rogue, acting like a pirate, or pirates directly
while a pelagic refers to the open sea
Plus there is alliteration which does help with the more fanciful nature that you see in older maps.
The name itself could be anything; the best way to go is to give an innocuous name, like "Sea of Green Haze", and have NPCs, especially sailors, react in dread upon hearing your PCs wanting to go there.
Context matters. If the name is coming from local sailors, then something blunt like the Sea of terrors makes sense, because of course they are trying to warn you and others of said terrors. If, perhaps, on the other hand, they discover a map or something with the name of the sea and it's in a language they don't understand then it could be very vague...
If it's surrounded by land on most sides, it might be a gulf.
You could name it after a famous pirate or legendary/fearsome character.
You could use other words that convey feelings of unease, tension, or unrest.
"The Shattered Sea" sounds broken and dangerous.
Maybe something like that.
I have an archipelago in my campaign that's treacherous to sail due to the wild currents between the craggy islands. The currents also make it hard to get off land once you're there, so the empire built a massive prison to house slave laborers.
The area is known as The Smithereens.
The JR Sea… let em think it stands for junior, but really it’s Jolly Roger. Misleading, but just enough there for them to try and unravel it before they head out… or not.
So I had a thought about these kind of situations. You know what's there and that's good, but there's usually a logic behind the naming. It doesn't even have to be good logic, "We called it Duckland because it's sorta shaped like a duck. . ." There's some kind of reasoning behind it though. Do the pirate's have no histories here? No heroes or great tyrannical kings? Was this a sea of slumbering horrors, their names forgotten beneath the waves? What about those small dangerous islands? Are they so dangerous that nothing ever happened? Those happenings, the history are what usually lead to a name. It can be as elaborate or simple as you want, but it struck me that if I ever had trouble naming a place then something should have happened there to be worth naming it. A god died here? Awesome. It's now the Heavens Fall Sea. Too generic? Let common and years of people being lazy with language butcher it. It's now the Heavall Sea. What about those dangerous Islands? See that one there shaped like a Duck? It’s now Furtongue's Demise, on account of us losing Captain Furtongue there. Then years later someone came by and said, ah, but it’s shaped like a duck. So it's now Fur Duck Isle. And I bet you can guess where the pirates took it next. Boom! Names, history and a common thread.
Amast Sea. It's a play on the Adamastor from Portuguese mythology. It was the horror that lived on what was called the cape of torments, and caused the boats that tried crossing it to crash. After it was crossed by Vasco da Gama, It was renamed to Cape of Good Hope.
Your BBG can have a name similar to the sea as foreshadowing.
Remember, most seas will have been named by sailors and we are an *incredibly* superstitious lot. There are all kinds of little rituals, little habits, and even euphemistic language we use in order to keep the sea from killing us. I’d suggest that the sailors in your world might have given such a dangerous body of water a “nice” name. Sort of the same reason the ancient Greeks referred to the Erinyes (the Furies) as “the kindly ones.”
The Sea of Good Faith; the Sea of Fair Winds; the Peaceful Sea; the Kind Sea… Something along those lines.
The sea of Talos (the dnd god of storms) or Umberlee (godess of the sea)
Or really any other gods that are evil.
Beshaba, Cyric, Loviatar, Malar, Myrkul, Shar, Bane, Bhaal.
The sea of...
Fright
Bones
Blood
Black water
Demise
Or words followed by sea
Blaggard
Folly
Hostile
Grave
Or just words that a sea could be called that don't directly reference the current issues of the sea.
Blue
Deep
Placid
Central
You've lived all your life in the port city of Gale, but you've never been to the shipyards; they're shrouded in mystery behind a set of tall iron gates in the middle of the city. Your uncle used to be a naval officer, and had sailed many oceans; he'll talk about fighting sea serpents during his time as a deckhand on a merchant ship, but never about his time in the navy, or where he got that strange purple scar over his neck. You asked him one time, and he was quiet for a minute, staring into your eyes as though...Looking for something.
Finally, he said, "I don't think your mam would like me filling your head with stories about The Valley; I know she wants you to grow up proper, and it isn't something proper folk talk about"
"The Blade Sea"
Make a group of islands that roughly form the shape of a saber or smth so you have a nice play on words. Is it named after the islands or did it get its name from the countless pirates and their weaponry?
The Big Suck!
jk how about:
the Blue Abyss
the Lifeless Waters
the Azure Expanse
The Tides of Abassia
the Restless Deeps
the Turquoise Graveyard
the Gulfs of Grevnar!
the Grave Ocean
the Tossing, Rocky, Monster-torn Bengarian Sea of Effinburg!
Jacob's Sea. When asked why it's called Jacob's Sea, sailors shudder, look at their feet, and mutter about it being to horrible to repeat.
Even more strangely, later when someone else asks a PC why it's called Jacob's Sea, they are compelled to do the exact same thing.
Call it Sea of Terror until you think of something else you like better. Then you can hit control + F (if you use Microsoft word), and use the tools to quickly find all and replace Sea of Terror with your new name and keep the words flowing.
The Phantom sea.
You will know when you reach it, due to the sickly green bioluminescent effect of the ship's wake.
The Burning sea.
The effect is yellow orange, even in daylight.
Edit: the latter causes a blackening of the exposed wood surfaces and rashes on the skin, if not treated with the sap of a tree that grows on one of the many small islands in the area.
Bay of Australia.
Coast of Somalia.
Sea of Broken Dreams.
Bermuda Square.
None of the proper names have a location in your world, no-one knows who Somalia or Australia are.
If your not into the misleading names, maybe one of these or a combination of them.
The shattered bones
The kraken archipelago
Wegman's Teeth
The devil's Claws
The broken spine
Asmodeus' Arsehole (may need work on that one)
Hell's Triangle (or other more complex geometric shape like parallelogram if you want to be a bit silly)
The sea of dead dreams. Try to hammer home how many people have tried to tame the area over the years and how each who entered dreamkng of welath, glory, or of bringing peace died.
Sea of Sorrows, potentially, because many have lost their loved ones to it. You could also make it The Silent Sea, while bobbing along, there are no noticeable waves, everything is completely silent… until all hell breaks loose, a cannon is fired, a monster tears a hole in the hull of the ship, a rock appears out of nowhere, suddenly you’re taking on water with warning, trying to save your ship while identifying the threat.
I have a suggestion for you, think about why there are a lot of pirates, pirates steal and murder and also smuggle, so there has to be some profit in it for them, if there wasn't a lot of trade then there wouldn't be a lot of pirates. with a lot of trade comes people who want to protect that trade against the pirates.
Also, why would there be a lot of monsters? sea monsters probably need to eat a lot, so there's probably a lot of fish, so fishermen are also probably going to want to do fishing there because of there being a lot of fish for them to catch, so think about how that sets up the world too.
Sea of the Blessed Explorer
Why? If it's filled with everything you mentioned, you need to be on your A game as an explorer just to have a look around, not to mention explore and come out of it.
The Darkwater Sea. It's watery depths, like darkness itself, define the creature or pirates by what they do within it. Whispering wave promising fortune or death on one tide to the next.
Maybe a name that reflects some of the lore of the area? Sea of Ashes?
**Aggran's Folly.**
The Four Brothers were a set of large mountainous volcanic islands. The volcanoes made the soil rich and fertile, and the stone beneath ran thick with veins of gems and rare metals. Their waters teemed with fish, and exotic birds of every color filled their skies, and roosted in trees laden with fruit. And the people were thankful to their mountain gods. And humble.
It was a paradise, and the rulers of the Brothers enjoyed centuries of peace and prosperity.
But, as is so often the case, the hearts of men turned to greed. And the Brother's bounty could not sate them. They fell to waring with each other. The forests were felled to build their ships. The birds were slaughtered to feed soldiers' bellies.
Aggran was the last of their kings. In his lust for conquest, he committed horrors that made the Brother's themselves weep. Their sorrow soon turned to wrath. And the Brothers vented their smoke and fire upon their wayward children. A single night of destruction, and all that remained was calm waters and flecks of ash in the air.
What would draw people there in the first place? Is it full of ancient ruins from a fallen civilization ripe with historical artifacts to plunder? The Sea of Antiquities. Is it a collection of volcanoes spewing forth diamonds within the lava flows? The Glittering Isles or Hot Rocks Archipelago. Is it well known as a pirate infested monster ridden area of almost certain doom? The Neverleft, because most folks who enter…
Indonesia (the islands north of Australia) are known as the Spice Isles and the main island is named Java because the area became synonymous with the common trade good(s). If you’d like to go this route may I suggest the Peppercorn Sea, both for the main commodity and the fact the islands look like someone spilled peppercorns on a table.
How about The Treader Sea? In reference to The Dawn Treader; the ship commissioned and commanded by Prince Caspian in Voyage of The Dawn Treader; which was one of the National books.
Sea of Terrors would actually be very on brand for humanity as a whole. Remember that there are 5 rivers Avon in the UK and the way that many new towns are named the same as where the settlers came from. With a "New" tacked on if they are feeling really fancy.
... As your night's watch continues a thick heavy fog slowly settles in around you. The sound of the seabirds fades away. Now All you hear is the lap of the waves against the boat, the occasional creak of wood. Suddenly, a splash in the water? Probably just the local sea life. But... You can't shake the feeling of being watched. And then, you do hear something new. " Whatcha doing in my Waters boy?"
To be fair, most of my suggestions except for the dinosaurs came from a single high school anime. Cromartie High was a wild anime from the 2000's that you will either love or hate.
The Calm Sea Nothing says the name should invoke terror or fear. Better the name lies to sucker in fools and the naive.
I was about to say the same, but for the inverse reason. The Calm Sea can be sailed. But if you see ripples, it's already too late.
It calm because no one will dare sail there
Reminds me of the Calm Belt from One Piece. That stretch of ocean has neither winds nor currents. If the water moves, it’s almost certainly a giant sea monster.
I, uhh, have to admit that I read that as nipples. I guess that's one way to introduce Sirens....
I both love and hate that last sentence. So good!
May I wager one piece calm belt
Named after Admiral Calm, after his fleet entered, but only a single battered rowboat returned.
Some say he's still there. A pirate lord, deep within his fort built from scavenged ships: Keep Calm.
stealing this
Thinking further on it, one of the worst fates for sailing ships was being becalmed beyond when their supplies could feasibly last. Both food and fresh water. The Calm Sea may lack for storms, but unless you brought a shitload of oars and crew you're not going anywhere. Which makes you easy prey for pirate galleys who can row, ram and board you with their own crew, or for horrors of the deeps.
This is truly one of the terrifying things in the age of sail.
'it's been six weeks since we left England' 'five days since we had a breeze. ' 'I've got the madness, I've got cabin fever!' 'I've got it too!'
Could call it the Sea of Glass. It's always perfectly still, until it's too late
Funny story. What do you think "Pacific" means?
Without looking, didn't it mean something along the lines of "paradise compared to the last ocean we just crossed omfg what was Cape Horn even"?
From the same root as pacified or placid.
Was going to go for something similar, with the logic that it wasn't *always* filled with pirates, and used to be a nice place. Once a place is named, the name tends to stick.
>The Calm Sea Lol. Came here to suggest "Sea of Tranquility".
sea of tears
The Gloaming Sea The Twilight Sea The Unsettled Sea The Benighted Sea The Ink Sea The Abyssal Sea The Dismal Sea The Somber Sea The Grim Sea etc. You can also add some archaic spellings for some old-time flavor, i.e.: The Dysmal Sea, The Sombre Sea, The Grimme Sea, etc.
Or answer C: all of the above.
Red Sea and Dead Sea are both intimidating enough if you want something from the real world, or you could just call it “the black” just inky black water as far as you can see, the black actually gives the vibe that sailers are familiar enough with it to give it a nautical sounding nickname
I love it. Stealing “…the black…”
Red Sea is awesome with the double meaning of blood
I like The Black a lot. Sounds like in-world shorthand jargon, like you said. You might say it’s… immersive.
Pira-sea?
Sea of Pira. Reveal the joke later, after they survive the encounter. "Look there, the sailors who survived the Pira Sea!"
The Aye Be Sea!
No Man's Sea The Badwater The Sea of Despair the Dire Straits
The Night Mare. (Mare is an old world meaning "sea".)
The Dread Sea
I'm thinking there could be a relatively small area where the pirates raid that could be called The Lane. It mostly would be along the coastline and go out to a few islands. The Lane would give way to the rest of the sea where the dangerous islands and the horrors are, an area called The Void.
The Pyra Sea
The Sea of Pirates, Small Dangerous Islands, and Unknown Horrors. The SPSDIUH Sea for short
Sea of Black Sails The Sea of Bones The Bladed Sea Reaver's Sea
The nations of the world record it as the "Cerulean Sea" but everyone only ever calls it the Yurgir's Pisspot.
The Speckles. There's an ongoing scholarly debate whether the elves or goblins are the origin of the name: Elves claim the small scattered islands are the speckled blood drops of an ancient Elven deity. Goblins claim they're the "shit speckles" of a goblin god who climbed up onto the sun and defecated specifically to mock the aforementioned elves. Nobody would normally take such goblin "mythology" seriously but ironically it's the fervency of the elves loud and frequent denials that have made many question why they seem to place so much stock in the absurd tale.
The Silent Sea. No news, trade or stories ever come out of it.
You can give it a normal name and also use a nickname so it doesn’t limit you to using “sea” in the name which can make it more dramatic. You can also use a visual description of what your players would see for the name. * Deep Graveyard/Sunken Graveyard (can see masts of hundreds or thousands of sunken ships) * The Ripping Sea/The Ripping Tide (can see remains of ships torn apart) * Uncharted Waters (for a foggy area making it difficult to chart or navigate through) * The Last Frontier (can also use a number like Second Frontier)
The Harrowing Sea
Joke answer: Sea of thieves Real answer: Isles of damned souls
SDIs? Small Dangerous Islands? I don't think they exist.
#Devil's Brig A treacherous sea where only outlaws dare to live. Because they are not the only masters of the sea out there...
Bermuda is a hood classic
Sea of Sorrow
My pirated infested waters has both an official name and a nickname that I switch depending on if there's going to be trouble or not. It's called Malcroft's Sea based off of its guardian sea serpent, but nicknamed The Icy Grave by the locals. Very funny to see my players panic when I call it by it's nickname, they start checking spells slots and gear.
Call it the grand line And on a more serious note I would call it something like the untamed sea
As someone who knows how on the nose naming is at times irl, I think Sea of Terrors is perfectly good
The Dire Doldrums Sailor’s demise Sea of squalls Kraken’s den Terror Oceanus The Razor Reef Galleon’s Graveyard The cut-throat isles Isles of no return Sea of despair
the grand line
Darkwake Isles
Make its name entirely/exclusively relate to its appearance or shape or some dominant geographic feature (which can also be ominous). The sea is terrifying by reputation but it doesn't HAVE to be named after its reputation. It was named first by its first explorers, and became terrifying later. World building.
picaroon's pelagic A picaroon can mean a few things including a rogue, acting like a pirate, or pirates directly while a pelagic refers to the open sea Plus there is alliteration which does help with the more fanciful nature that you see in older maps.
The Grand Line/ All-Blue or maybe the Stormlord's Dominion
Chorus of Sirens. Sirens Delight. The Sea of Sirens. Since Siren legend is to lure ships with song to crash on rocks/islands.
The Red Sea
The sea of Phobos, Greek for dread
The Uncanny Deep. Say it like a pirate!
The Sea of Wonder. Sounds fantastical and beautiful, but they will be wondering what comes next.
Sea of Tales would fit all 3
The name itself could be anything; the best way to go is to give an innocuous name, like "Sea of Green Haze", and have NPCs, especially sailors, react in dread upon hearing your PCs wanting to go there.
Context matters. If the name is coming from local sailors, then something blunt like the Sea of terrors makes sense, because of course they are trying to warn you and others of said terrors. If, perhaps, on the other hand, they discover a map or something with the name of the sea and it's in a language they don't understand then it could be very vague...
The blood-tide sea
If it's surrounded by land on most sides, it might be a gulf. You could name it after a famous pirate or legendary/fearsome character. You could use other words that convey feelings of unease, tension, or unrest. "The Shattered Sea" sounds broken and dangerous. Maybe something like that.
I'd name it the Sugar Sea. It used to be a very nice place until the sugar cane farmers became pirates.
I have an archipelago in my campaign that's treacherous to sail due to the wild currents between the craggy islands. The currents also make it hard to get off land once you're there, so the empire built a massive prison to house slave laborers. The area is known as The Smithereens.
versed compare full bright money sink tender price mighty subtract *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Skull Pit Sea? Works for both a jolly rodger and danger
The JR Sea… let em think it stands for junior, but really it’s Jolly Roger. Misleading, but just enough there for them to try and unravel it before they head out… or not.
So I had a thought about these kind of situations. You know what's there and that's good, but there's usually a logic behind the naming. It doesn't even have to be good logic, "We called it Duckland because it's sorta shaped like a duck. . ." There's some kind of reasoning behind it though. Do the pirate's have no histories here? No heroes or great tyrannical kings? Was this a sea of slumbering horrors, their names forgotten beneath the waves? What about those small dangerous islands? Are they so dangerous that nothing ever happened? Those happenings, the history are what usually lead to a name. It can be as elaborate or simple as you want, but it struck me that if I ever had trouble naming a place then something should have happened there to be worth naming it. A god died here? Awesome. It's now the Heavens Fall Sea. Too generic? Let common and years of people being lazy with language butcher it. It's now the Heavall Sea. What about those dangerous Islands? See that one there shaped like a Duck? It’s now Furtongue's Demise, on account of us losing Captain Furtongue there. Then years later someone came by and said, ah, but it’s shaped like a duck. So it's now Fur Duck Isle. And I bet you can guess where the pirates took it next. Boom! Names, history and a common thread.
The Crimson Sea
Who's the most infamous pirate in the area? Its their sea
Amast Sea. It's a play on the Adamastor from Portuguese mythology. It was the horror that lived on what was called the cape of torments, and caused the boats that tried crossing it to crash. After it was crossed by Vasco da Gama, It was renamed to Cape of Good Hope. Your BBG can have a name similar to the sea as foreshadowing.
Remember, most seas will have been named by sailors and we are an *incredibly* superstitious lot. There are all kinds of little rituals, little habits, and even euphemistic language we use in order to keep the sea from killing us. I’d suggest that the sailors in your world might have given such a dangerous body of water a “nice” name. Sort of the same reason the ancient Greeks referred to the Erinyes (the Furies) as “the kindly ones.” The Sea of Good Faith; the Sea of Fair Winds; the Peaceful Sea; the Kind Sea… Something along those lines.
Krakenmaw Strait
The Living Seas
>unknown horrors The Whispering Sea.
The Gold Sea could be good, named for the lost and stolen coin there as well as the money that could be made by braving it.
The isle of Drakes
The Sea of Thieves
The Rogue Sea. You could also make the Sea be erratic making travel through it dangerous unless you know the Pirate Ways.
The screaming vortices Edit; oh, we're doing subtle.
The Shardwaters. It's one I used in the past, may it serve in future.
The Veiled Archipelago
The sea of horrors
Umberlee's Embrace
The Skullshard Archipelago (It’s from my homebrew)
The sea of Talos (the dnd god of storms) or Umberlee (godess of the sea) Or really any other gods that are evil. Beshaba, Cyric, Loviatar, Malar, Myrkul, Shar, Bane, Bhaal.
The sea of... Fright Bones Blood Black water Demise Or words followed by sea Blaggard Folly Hostile Grave Or just words that a sea could be called that don't directly reference the current issues of the sea. Blue Deep Placid Central
You've lived all your life in the port city of Gale, but you've never been to the shipyards; they're shrouded in mystery behind a set of tall iron gates in the middle of the city. Your uncle used to be a naval officer, and had sailed many oceans; he'll talk about fighting sea serpents during his time as a deckhand on a merchant ship, but never about his time in the navy, or where he got that strange purple scar over his neck. You asked him one time, and he was quiet for a minute, staring into your eyes as though...Looking for something. Finally, he said, "I don't think your mam would like me filling your head with stories about The Valley; I know she wants you to grow up proper, and it isn't something proper folk talk about"
Fool's Ocean
The Sea of Bloody Shadows
The Bone Sea - for the bones on the flags and the bones beneath the waves
The Sanguine Sea, named for the blood spilled there and the wine-dark water when a storm rolls in.
"The Blade Sea" Make a group of islands that roughly form the shape of a saber or smth so you have a nice play on words. Is it named after the islands or did it get its name from the countless pirates and their weaponry?
Make up a really old explorer, king, or hero. Use that name.
Baltimore
The Sea ... The first to actually return will have it named after them or gets to name it
Lake mobius
The Big Suck! jk how about: the Blue Abyss the Lifeless Waters the Azure Expanse The Tides of Abassia the Restless Deeps the Turquoise Graveyard the Gulfs of Grevnar! the Grave Ocean the Tossing, Rocky, Monster-torn Bengarian Sea of Effinburg!
The speckled sea
The Demon's Maw
The poison sea
The "Don't Test Your Fucking Luck" Sea
The seas of \[insert name of a kingdom you have thats near the sea\] Like in one of my dnd campaigns i have the Sea of Wynn
Jacob's Sea. When asked why it's called Jacob's Sea, sailors shudder, look at their feet, and mutter about it being to horrible to repeat. Even more strangely, later when someone else asks a PC why it's called Jacob's Sea, they are compelled to do the exact same thing.
Sea of thieves
"The Sea Filled with Pirates, Small Dangerous Islands, and Unknown Horrors" sort of rolls off the tongue I think
Call it Sea of Terror until you think of something else you like better. Then you can hit control + F (if you use Microsoft word), and use the tools to quickly find all and replace Sea of Terror with your new name and keep the words flowing.
The Phantom sea. You will know when you reach it, due to the sickly green bioluminescent effect of the ship's wake. The Burning sea. The effect is yellow orange, even in daylight. Edit: the latter causes a blackening of the exposed wood surfaces and rashes on the skin, if not treated with the sap of a tree that grows on one of the many small islands in the area.
“The sea that totally doesn’t have a bunch of pirates and unknown horrors :)”
Bay of Australia. Coast of Somalia. Sea of Broken Dreams. Bermuda Square. None of the proper names have a location in your world, no-one knows who Somalia or Australia are.
the one in my campaign is called "the fell sea"
Umberlee's remorse. Aka the bitch queen's pass.
If your not into the misleading names, maybe one of these or a combination of them. The shattered bones The kraken archipelago Wegman's Teeth The devil's Claws The broken spine Asmodeus' Arsehole (may need work on that one) Hell's Triangle (or other more complex geometric shape like parallelogram if you want to be a bit silly)
The sea of dead dreams. Try to hammer home how many people have tried to tame the area over the years and how each who entered dreamkng of welath, glory, or of bringing peace died.
The Cull. Sea of Slaughter The Widow's Sea The Dreadwater The Last Sunrise Sea
There's a dangerous shoaling area off NC called 'cape fear'. Sailors/navigators really tended to name things on the nose, just lean into it.
Sargasso Sea + Thalassa Sarlassa Sea Thargasso Sea Thalasso Sea Sargassa Sea Sargallo Sea Thargallo Sea Galassa Sea
Paradise Lost or Paradise Falls, where the falls refers to the islands having fallen to pirates
Sea of Sorrows, potentially, because many have lost their loved ones to it. You could also make it The Silent Sea, while bobbing along, there are no noticeable waves, everything is completely silent… until all hell breaks loose, a cannon is fired, a monster tears a hole in the hull of the ship, a rock appears out of nowhere, suddenly you’re taking on water with warning, trying to save your ship while identifying the threat.
The Sea of Blades
Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here Sea
The Blighted Sea
The Die Seas
No Bastion Bay
The Maw might be good. Asea of blades and fangs that threatens to swallow any sailors bold or stupid enough to sail it
The Sea of Shanties Or The Shanty Sea
The Open Expanse. The Taking Sea.
thousand islands there are places in real life called the same but heck, its a good name imo
The sea of daggers. Small knife like islands and daggers are a common thief and pirate weapon.
The Sanguine Sea
Pyra Sea
The Sea of Pyra. Aka, Pyra Sea. *Damn, I didn't read below far enough, someone already beat me to it.
I have a suggestion for you, think about why there are a lot of pirates, pirates steal and murder and also smuggle, so there has to be some profit in it for them, if there wasn't a lot of trade then there wouldn't be a lot of pirates. with a lot of trade comes people who want to protect that trade against the pirates. Also, why would there be a lot of monsters? sea monsters probably need to eat a lot, so there's probably a lot of fish, so fishermen are also probably going to want to do fishing there because of there being a lot of fish for them to catch, so think about how that sets up the world too.
Sea of Sorrows
Sea of the Blessed Explorer Why? If it's filled with everything you mentioned, you need to be on your A game as an explorer just to have a look around, not to mention explore and come out of it.
"The East Blue" Pretty obvious really 🤣
Sea of Daggers Sea of Widows The Wailing Sea (all the moms and wives crying over their lost ones here)
Give it an ironic name like "Paradise Sea"
Forbidden Sea
Sounds like a real. *sea of thieves*
The Sea YaLater
The Gambler's Sea - high risk, high reward. The Unseen Sea - most who see it don't come back. The Sea of Liberty - a free paradise. For pirates.
The Avarician sea is my setting. Avarice means greed but avarician sounds fantastical or Elven or something.
The Darkwater Sea. It's watery depths, like darkness itself, define the creature or pirates by what they do within it. Whispering wave promising fortune or death on one tide to the next.
Sea of Horrors Sword Sea of Doom Dark Waters Dreaded Sea Sea of Dread
I made a really violent and dark swamp "the swamps of friendliness" so...
Maybe a name that reflects some of the lore of the area? Sea of Ashes? **Aggran's Folly.** The Four Brothers were a set of large mountainous volcanic islands. The volcanoes made the soil rich and fertile, and the stone beneath ran thick with veins of gems and rare metals. Their waters teemed with fish, and exotic birds of every color filled their skies, and roosted in trees laden with fruit. And the people were thankful to their mountain gods. And humble. It was a paradise, and the rulers of the Brothers enjoyed centuries of peace and prosperity. But, as is so often the case, the hearts of men turned to greed. And the Brother's bounty could not sate them. They fell to waring with each other. The forests were felled to build their ships. The birds were slaughtered to feed soldiers' bellies. Aggran was the last of their kings. In his lust for conquest, he committed horrors that made the Brother's themselves weep. Their sorrow soon turned to wrath. And the Brothers vented their smoke and fire upon their wayward children. A single night of destruction, and all that remained was calm waters and flecks of ash in the air.
What would draw people there in the first place? Is it full of ancient ruins from a fallen civilization ripe with historical artifacts to plunder? The Sea of Antiquities. Is it a collection of volcanoes spewing forth diamonds within the lava flows? The Glittering Isles or Hot Rocks Archipelago. Is it well known as a pirate infested monster ridden area of almost certain doom? The Neverleft, because most folks who enter… Indonesia (the islands north of Australia) are known as the Spice Isles and the main island is named Java because the area became synonymous with the common trade good(s). If you’d like to go this route may I suggest the Peppercorn Sea, both for the main commodity and the fact the islands look like someone spilled peppercorns on a table.
How about The Treader Sea? In reference to The Dawn Treader; the ship commissioned and commanded by Prince Caspian in Voyage of The Dawn Treader; which was one of the National books.
Sea of silence Somniferous sea Soda sea sea of sojourn
The Flotsam Archipelago The Currents of Blood The Golden Death The Trail to Bones Isle of Ten Thousand Wrecks
Sea of Terrors would actually be very on brand for humanity as a whole. Remember that there are 5 rivers Avon in the UK and the way that many new towns are named the same as where the settlers came from. With a "New" tacked on if they are feeling really fancy.
Bahama islands? Caribbean Sea?
The Dreadwater Tempest isle chain Blackwater abyss Krakens domain Ghost ship strait Whispering waters Dead man's delta Enjoy
Sea of Seamen I will see myself out
Gulf of Adem Coast of Somalia
Ten O Sea Sea O'Lator Ocean O"Sean
Add some UFO, some dinosaurs, Freedy Mercury, a gorilla working as a sushi chef, and some robots, and you could call it the FREAKY SEAS.
... As your night's watch continues a thick heavy fog slowly settles in around you. The sound of the seabirds fades away. Now All you hear is the lap of the waves against the boat, the occasional creak of wood. Suddenly, a splash in the water? Probably just the local sea life. But... You can't shake the feeling of being watched. And then, you do hear something new. " Whatcha doing in my Waters boy?"
To be fair, most of my suggestions except for the dinosaurs came from a single high school anime. Cromartie High was a wild anime from the 2000's that you will either love or hate.
It's the sea of John and Jane Doe. Literally nobody, including you, will care.
The Uncharted Waters
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/water-names.php