The Infinite Depths, also called Sheikh'auqu and Underocean (in 130 OW+ in west Oshmondu), were a vast body of water located beneath Waterlond, and to some extent the Labyrinth Winds and Oshmondu. By Weave signing, they were part of Waterlond, and therefore were called a "layer" - more precisely, however, they are a largely unquantifiable and unnatural area.

Geography

Normally, the Infinite Depths are reached from Waterlond. Reportedly, the channel of the Sea of Worlds has a deep ravine that drops far into darkness, then opens up and into the "Infinite Depths". More commonly, the area wedged between the Outer Ring, Frostfell, Mistral Reach and Labyrinth Winds was said to have no bottom and lead directly into the Depths. Finally, the ocean floor all along Oshmondu's western edge - about 50 kilometers before it reached the edge and plunged into the air - dropped very steeply, until one ended up either in the Labyrinth Winds' mist layer or the Infinite Depths.

Some believed that the Infinite Depths were merely some kind of subterranean ocean that opened up to the surface only in the three mentioned locations, but otherwise was below ground. This explanation did not account for the fact that the Depths were bottomless: no sea floor was ever reached. Additionally, no side walls could be found: the surface's sea floor simply eventually dropped away, forming a ceiling, but never a side. The only known ends, therefore, were the ceiling and the Labyrinth Wind side, which plunged into nothingness.

Travel through the Infinite Depths was very strange. Some could swim down the Sea of Worlds rift, go about the sea there, then swim back up and easily find the rift. Attempts to measure the distance between the rift and the other openings were impossible, however, and travel times varied wildly. Sometimes, travelers on a southwards bearing from Mistral Reach would end up surfacing in the Sea of Worlds. Additionally, there were reports of an infinite way up, as if the ceiling had also dropped away.

Appearance

The Infinite Depths shone with a dim innate light, and were exceptionally clear, allowing sight to a large distance, except near the ceiling, where it was murky, and near the Labyrinth Winds, where the water was almost milky opaque. There was no felt gravity, meaning one could swim up or down without feeling a difference; people swimming down from the openings would feel the pressure easing off when entering the illuminated waters.

This allowed "coral blocks" - small or huge chunks of coral or stone - to drift across the Depths, offering a surface to build on. There was a vast self-contained ecosystem feeding at the root off of the Depths' innate light.

Some areas were apparently auspicious to the formation of "bubbles": pockets of air from the size of a pinprick to nearly a kilometer in diameter. Some were "natural" air bubbles, but some were magical in nature, allowing with an innate gravity and surface tension allowing creatures to walk on the sides and, in some cases, even build there. In other cases, the bubbles did not have this gravitational effect and remained around certain coral blocks, allowing even air-breathing creatures to build and live there.