Let's Build Another Setting! (The Stormlands)

I wanted to get in on this whole collaborative world-building thing so here it goes. First a few rules:
-This is intended to be a fantasy world made for the use in an RPG
-Wait at least 3 hours before posting again
-Try to limit posts to 2 or 3 additions to the world
-Keep the traditional rules of improv: Don't ignore/undo anything someone else said. Try to reference additions made by other people. Build off of additions made by other people.
Without further adieu, let us begin the building of The Stormlands!

0.Context: A fairly typical low-magic fantasy world. Traditional fantasy races are present and there are established settlements and even some kingdoms. There are magic users present except in order to wield magic, one must be born with the innate ability to do so. Magic can't be learned or taught. The only exception is divine magic, which is granted by the gods to only the most devout followers. Because of this the typical priest isn't able to preform divine magic, only the highest ranked worshipers and high priests.

1. Every 40 years, a terrible storm rages across the entire world, tearing apart buildings, forests, and almost anything that isn't nailed down (though that may not be enough). The storm has various different effects depending on the region. Some places it causes horrible tornadoes and wind storms, in others it causes earthquakes, blizzards, volcanic activity, and many different natural disasters. The storm lasts for a month, at which point it slowly dies down, leaving nothing but debris behind. The people of the world have found ways to survive past the impending storms, and these methods vary around the world.

2. While a tough business, shipping/scavenging offers a high risk/high reward life style for those willing to traverse the seas. With each disaster, shore adjacent towns and marinas are pulled to sea, leaving their valuables hidden upon the sea floor. At the start of each cycle, those looking to capitalize on the profitable scavenging rush to the shores to reestablish seaside shanty towns with makeshift marinas. A handful of these towns will grow into new trading centers, however most will be left behind.

3. The Cartographers' Guild: The large scale natural disasters creates a high need for expert cartographers to quickly and efficiently redraw the maps once the damage is assessed. New mountain paths must be found, roads created to traverse around rising and falling ridges, and off the shores safe avenues through the vast number of shipwrecks and destroyed cities pulled into the ocean depths. The profession is extremely valuable to the region, and thus the Cartographer's Guild holds a highly respected role within the politics and business.

4. Magic runs true in blood, and being some of the only individuals capable of repairing the damage wrought after a storm easily, magic-blessed families form most of the nobility in the world; almost all magic-users not part of a church therefore come from noble or royal families, and magic is viewed as the purview of nobility. This creates tension with the church, and establishes three main social classes: nobles, who usually if not always have magic potential(though not always ability); the clergy, who try to display their faith and loyalty in hopes of being granted magic and also give guidance to the populace; and the commonfolk, more numerous than either of the other classes but also almost entirely unable to do magic (excepting forgotten bloodlines, bastard children, and so on). The relations between these three are often strained(church dislike non-divine magic sources, and can stir up the commonfolk against the nobles, the nobles dislike meddling from the church and upstart commoners, and the commonfolk neither understand nor entirely trust the magic they can never have, though all three have to work together to survive the Storms and keep society intact), and different regions/societies have different rules governing them(such as banning magic use by commoners, even if born to it, or instantly promoting them to nobility), but one can generally rely upon these three strata, at minimum, existing wherever one might go. Furthermore, magic is different from bloodline to bloodline; there might be a family known for their ability to imbue weapons and armor with magic, and another with a deep connection to the wilds allowing them to regrow forests after a Storm. Marriages are as often about the opportunity for children with specific power combinations as for political gain.

5. In many places, going underground is the best way to wait out a Storm, and preserve what has been created. Even in places where earthquakes are common, if not devastating, elaborate tunnel systems have been carved out generation after generation. Huge cave systems exist below the surface, and many races and species have made it their home for precisely this reason. The shifting of the earth during Storms and from the natural movement of the plates, combines with centuries, if not thousands of years of underground construction and excavation, are what has created what are known as the Stormvaults -- or the Underdark, to some, particularly those areas largely untouched by the hand of 'civilized' folk. This shifting is also what brings long-abandoned ruins, temples, tombs, and other relics of bygone ages up to the surface on a semi-regular basis, or at least to more easily accessible regions of the Stormvaults.

6. The Khanates are several dozen predominantly dwarven chiefdoms native to the Stormvaults, several of which are large enough to be considered kingdoms in their own right. While elves, humans, and gnomes make up a sizable minority within the Khanates, dwarves hold the overwhelming majority.

7. The Manhunter Clans are numerous predominantly elven nomadic tribes native to the Stormvaults. Dreaded for their fearsome warriors and their cannibalistic rituals practiced with their captives. Few survive Manhunter raids, and those few that do rarely walk away without permanent psychological damage.

8. Storm Giants are some of the only beings able to weather the Storm's wrath without protection; thus is their name. Some believe they seek magic as to bring the Storms yet more often, for they gain power from it's passage.

9. Goliaths are the distant, lesser cousins of Storm Giants, and as such make their kingdoms in lands lacking natural shelter or access to the Stormvaults without fear. Though it is not safe for anyone, even they, in the storm, they worship it as a god, or the manifestation of one, and trust that his favor will spare them, with only meager protections.

10. A majority of the surface nations with access to the storm vaults display claustrophile tendencies and an affinity to dark spaces. Although they spend most of their 40 years of calm weather on the surface (mainly for more stable food production and the relative ease of trade,) over the generations these tendencies have featured strongly in their architecture, with a strong preference for dark colors and cramped spaces, even among the nobility. On the occasions that they build large rooms these tend to be packed full of shelving, if not piles of clutter. Consequently, fires tend to be quite dangerous for buildings not built out of and filled with mainly stone materials.

11. These cultures frequently associate the color white with death, as the storms that plague the lands, and the skeletal remains that are left behind in such abundance, both fit this hue. The bright light and clouds that pass overhead are largely viewed as foreshadowing that moment when their borrowed time runs out, though people from these cultures don't generally view themselves as obsessed with death, but rather that different cultures deny how much death there is in the world. This greatly complicates views on necromancy across the lands, but almost every culture, with appropriate bloodlines among their survivors, will welcome the labor of the dead during the early stages of rebuilding.