Pelican Reef

Pelican Reef is a navigational obstacle of the Western Oceans, southwest of Rock Crescent and northeast of the Sunken Isle. It is bordered to the south by Altar, and to the north by the Pelican Narrows which divide it from Cattle Reef.

Pelican Reef consists of coral and rock stretching north to south, several miles across. The currents in the area are unpredictable and powerful, highly dangerous for ships, threatening to dash them against jagged rocks or tear their hulls open below the waterline with spikes of coral. The danger is not just to vessels but to the very creatures of the sea, catching whole schools of fish and sweeping them to their deaths. It is from this, albeit indirectly, that the Reef gains its name: Pelicans, large normally-coastal birds, nest on those few rocky islets rising high enough above the waves, and feast upon the fish which gather dead below.

Pelican Reef is not marked on sea charts dating from before the Great Contagion, and some speak that its appearance relates to the powers employed by the Scarlet Empress to drive back the Fair Folk.