The Mediterranean Throne was once a noble power, preserving peace with the land & guidance over the sea. Now Ursula the Demagogue, a witch of the coldest, most foetid crevasses of the seafloor, reigns. The merfolk do not fear her, however. "Her skin is blue but her words ring true," is often repeated by those under the charm of her political tongue, & the charm of the treasure her sea-beasts are bringing home from the Beach Wars.
To the north lies Pleasure Island. The children of Pleasure Island know well the rumor that eels will grab your ankle & pull you into the sea. Thinking their peers liars, they swim anyway. On one occasion, an overambitious eel was herself captured thanks to the whale Monstro, & held prisoner in an old bathtub. When thousands of murky lobsters crawled up the beach to rescue her, the children decided to fight to the death. And they would surely have been pinched to smithereens, had not a winged woman in an elegant blue dress descended, fighting on the front lines with them.
To the northeast lies Mount Olympos. Even water dies as it pours down the River Styx. Draining from the ocean to Tartarus, it bears the Mermaid Kingdom's toughest strike force of sharks & lobsters, who tear into the defending shades of Persephone, ruler of the underworld in Hades' absence. Ferryman Chiron flees before Ursula's new allies: beastbodied Scylla & austere Thetis, mother of Achilles.
To the east lies Agrabah. At the feet of Agrabah's walls huddle throngs of pilgrims from every land. And here shelter too two lovers, who arrived in a battered regal stagecoach full of knickknacks & fish. Suddenly, they are assailed by two enchanted sharks, their tails replaced with powerful legs! Fleeing these attackers, the redheaded lover trips & stumbles. As the sharks leap at her, she twists & draws two finecrafted blades from the scabbards on her back. In a crash of knees & fins, she slashes the hunters dead, for her arms are her most skillful limbs.
To the west lies Atlantis. As giant squid grapple the sensors of the Atlantean Leviathan, a delegation of sharks rushes past, surging into the waterways of the lost city. They carry shipwreck gold & paperwork. Ursula wishes to make a generous donation to the Smithsonian Institution, & become a minority shareholder in the Ulysses expedition. For Ursula's endgame is to be queen of Atlantis & the one profession the Americans forgot to bring is lawyer.