The Sea People originate on the islands of the Shun, the central sea of the known world. They were involved with trade since the First Shunhaurat, and had some colonies around the Shun. Writing may have originated among them, but different cities have their own stories about it.

When the ghales proliferated, ships were longer able to access many coastal cities, and the Sea Peoples retreated to their islands or colonies. This contributed to the decline of the First Shunhaurat, and in Usirenic historiography, is the primary reason for the Dark Age. (In reality, other factors, including climatic shifts, natural disasters, and the breakdown of hegemonic political power, all shared responsibility for the collapse of trade with the proliferation of the ghales.)

Near the end of the Dark Age, the Sea People domesticated the teopes, a large aquatic herbivore useful as a food source and beast of burden. Perhaps the species' most notable characteristic, however, is that it consumes vast quantities of ghales, which few other creatures eat. Many of the Sea People adopted a new lifestyle of living on barges pulled by teopoi, grazing their herds on ghales near coastal settlements and trading with their inhabitants once the ghales was clear.

As the Dark Age ended and the Second Shunhaurat became established, a roughly sustainable balance of teopoi herds and ghales was established, and the coastal Shun was again accessible for regular trade.