I sadly wan't able to post a file like how I wanted to, so enjoy another long text dump for more setting info. Player Knowledge The island is about 3000 miles from the main continent (2000 less miles than the distance of USA to Europe closest points) The island is estimated to be around 1.5 million mi^2 (half the size of Australia, .7 million miles ^2 larger than Greenland) The islands are hard to reach and even harder to map, water around the island is very shallow and rocks are both under the water and surround the shores for about 50 miles out from the island One known path of relatively deep water exists to the southernmost point of the island; most ships will still only attempt this during high tide. This path leads to a sandy bay and the previously established city capital of the indigenous. The island appears to have a tropical cost while the interior is hypothesized to be mostly desert The island was discovered properly about 12 years ago. Before that, there were reports of the island from sailors who got lost and snippets from people who travelled through planes. However, constant and permanent contact was only established 7 years ago. In that time there has been two invasion attempts both routed by natural disaster. The first the ocean level sank dramatically smashing boat hulls against the bottom of the ocean only for it flood back moments later. The second a powerful tropical Hurricane came and sundered the fleet. Widely between the powers, the conquest of the island it has been agreed to be generally not worth it. Its distance, the starting of an international war, its lack of obvious wealth and resources, and the multiple magical disasters that take place due to its weak tethering on the material plane. This has resulted in the treaty of the first conference of the isle making it a neutral zone. Nothing north of the southern point of Mau-Kaut-Za has been explored. The indigenous are reluctant to let people outside of the village and the expeditions that have snuck out have not returned. Most are not interested in spending the money to search through miles of desert. The native language appears to have no known root and due to the ease in which the island leaders learned common, it was considered a waste to translate it. However, some partial translation exists of basic and unique words. The island religion is made up of ancestor and animal worship, particular respect is show to the wisps that appear around the island thought to be souls of the dead. A single figure makes up the early stories and is their god Hero, Mau-irt, who is worshipped in a manner similar to the wisps and makes up a good portion of their oral tradition. The indigenous have been explained the gods and current religion but do not seem to get it and have trouble separating that the clerics magic is not his own. Often wondering what is the point of the gods. Leaders often have a halo of either back or gold around their heads. It is not tied to alignment and has shown no purpose other than to show that they lead. The island has strange and unique flora and fauna often large and or deadly. This is commonplace for the indigenous and even the animals that resemble mainland animals have considerable differences. The “king” of the island has never been seen, at least by non indigenous, and everything has been handled through several high-ranking officials, there is debate if the king is real or if he is a new social concept corrupted from the mainland with their many “unseen” leaders that interact with the population through their own officials. The main trading commodity of the islands is culinary exports, often the strange native animal meats and plants which some have tried to pass of as a delicacy on the main land. Animals and plants that have been transported and attempted to be cultivated on the main land have died, the animals having a specific diet and the flora seeming being unable to grow by even the most dedicated and wealthiest gardeners/druids, Even transplanting, or planting in “native soil” has proven ineffective. The other thing that is trade for is small magical crystals, their properties are poorly understood, some think the crystals are useless or that they have special dimensional properties, but they are magic and plentiful. They are about the size of a fingernail and lack the traditional shine of a gem even when cut and polished. Their main value comes from the artificial scarcity that the mainland experiences and the wide range of colors they come in green, red, clear, yellow, though the most common color is a black sometimes-dark brown color. Many of the trade, missionary, and government envoy ships are leaving the island as it approaches the summer equinox, the past Three have been very bad, with magic and the planes going nuts and wreaking havoc and their calendar system is saying this one will be at least twice as bad as the last one. The island experiences a number of catastrophes as the summer equinox approaches. What is known about this is the following. These catastrophes are caused by the island being weakly tethered to the material plane or being in a general breach point where the planes are unusually close/ wall unusually thin. The native calendars system is based in ten year cycles, that main-landers have broken into two cycles of 5. o Years 7-10 are usually considered the worst o Year 3 and year 8 are usually the worst of their 5 year cycles o Years 1 and 6 are the lightest with year 6 often lighter than years 2-5 However, 5 and 10 are also traditionally very light. o The islanders have said the last 3 have been worse than average but still much better than years 7-10 and the cycle puts the current year at year 7 Almost all non indigenous leave during the summer and those who don’t die o Very few, usually the very strong, have lived through a summer confirm that the islanders aren’t just killing the people. The islanders however do not share their survival secrets. The language difference and oral tradition only exacerbate this. Many find it easier just to use this time to sail back than try to extort secrets. Also a large number of outsiders (demons, devils, fey and the like) pour into the island during this time and to quote one survivor. “these aren’t the devils you know” The island population is also very young with the median age probably under 18, with the leaders often being the eldest. The islanders live in simple wooden huts or have carved out homes from rock, forming monolithic structures. The islanders are all human even though they appear to look like elves, halflings, humans, dwarfs ect (for common player races) Native island name Mau-Kaut-Za, Native capital city name Kaingo The Capital of Kaingo has a population around 40,000 and the other know city, Sta-Rom, on the southern island has an estimated population of 30,000 from accounts of the few non indigenous that have been there and accounts of the indigenous themselves. Based on the accounts of the indigenous and the population of the known cities most people estimate a total island population between 500,000-750,000. The lack of good estimates and descriptions by the indigenous some have estimated the total island population to be closer to 300,000. Some more generous estimates put it at over a million. The reason you are here: The islanders have placed a plea for assistance with a series of task to help prepare the island for the approaching equinox, due to the havoc, chaos and danger of the last 3; your groups have agreed to help to stop a bigger incident. Reasons why you could be here: (you do not have to choose from this list just some general ideas) You want to study o The language and culture of the people o The biology of the island o The islands weird magical effects You want to spread your religion You want to build a better relationship with the indigenous for your group You are escaping persecution either personal or from a group Your group hates you and gave you this task to at worst; get rid of you for a long time, or best you will die. You have some kind of fetish for killing, big, weird, or dangerous animals. You want to get famous for exploring the island Despite traditional wisdom you think you can get rich off the island You or your organization are just really swell guys who love helping
