HamSandLich
MEAT WIZARD
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Gazetteer - The West I
Centuries ago, the wyld washed over far western Torac and left the inhabitants of the island with nacreous pearly teeth. Isolated since the Contagion, recent rediscovery by foreign traders has brought nothing but hardship to the Toraci. Now raider ships regularly prowl the waters around the isle, seeking victims to abduct for their teeth. Driven inland from their coastal villages, the Toraci huddle in the island's rocky interior, at the edge of bordermarches once deemed forbidden. There, community elders try to dissuade the youth from bargaining with the raksha Sindimirajah the Taipan-Eater, imprisoned long ago by their ancestors.Newest of Wavecrest's significant islands, Clasp was recently formed by an undersea volcanic eruption. While still fairly small, overship over the island is still fiercely disputed among the archipelago's royal lineages, who wage campaigns of subtle sabotage against each other's nascent settlements. Complicating the matter is the presence of Dynastic youths on their Grand Tours, who flock to the isle to observe its harsh natural beauty and sled down the smooth solidified lava flows. As the island is slowly colonized by wild flora carried upon the wind, a rare variety of wood elementals is also found upon Clasp, embodiments of that pioneering life as it breaks up the solid lava into soil.
On Gunting, where serfs and slaves labor on massive breadfruit plantations, a barber assassinated a tyrannical datu, sparking an uprising that grips the island to this day. While the royal family retains a grip on the port cities and their fortified plantations, the countryside is held by the rebels, who fly the symbol of open barber's shears on their banners. Warrior aristocrats trained for generations to fight with panoplies of crocodile leather armor and sawtooth swords now contend with peasant martial artists who wield sharpened shears, poisoned hairpins, and folding razor swords.
The remote isle of Asij is named for its residents, a trio of prehuman giants also called the Asij. Each bears a head like that of an elephant atop a lanky frame thrice the height of a man, but with a single eye positioned right in the center of the skull. The Asij giants contort their prehensile trunks to play eerie, disorienting music and claim to have done so since long before humanity's first days. The giants channel magic through these songs and can affect the island's winds and currents with their rhythm. One of the giants is a powerful seer who can glimpse the weave of fate, the second a reclusive artificer who despises humanity, and the third a gluttonous maneater who lures in sailors to enslave and eventually devour. In spite of their differing attitudes, the Asij are all amiable towards each other and will come to each others' aid when imperiled.
Panantukan cannot be easily approached, for the island's volcano regularly spews lava high into the air, which cools into buoyant boulders similar to but far harder than pumice as it falls into the ocean. These natural seamines drift about the waters around the island, gouging the hulls of all but the most skillfully piloted ships. Yet treasure hunters and heroes flock to the island, for it is the abode of Indruja the Eight-Limbed Thunder, former western god of war, and his court of martial spirits. Once every seven years, the gods of the far west hold the Sky-Piercing Swordfish Tournament, where warriors brought to Panantukan by various spirits of sea and sky compete in contests of holy violence upon the mountain slopes. While the winner is promised a boon by Indruja, not all contestants are willing participants, several are hapless but promising warriors shipwrecked on the island's shores by spirits in search of champions.
The long island of Skirlin was conquered by the people of Azure generations ago, but the Skirlinfolk are unruly vassals and Azurite officials regard the isle as something of a hardship posting. A land of windswept grassy hills, Skirlin's people are shepherds, tuber farmers, and breeders of domesticated moa, which they use as mounts and beasts of burden not unlike the austrechs of the Southern Threshold. It's the moa that make Azure so interested in the isle despite the cost of holding it, the large birds are more sure footed than horses, and better suited for the climate and geography of the West. Skirlin moa riders are used as shock cavalry by Azure's armies in the Neck, riding down foes largely unused to fighting mounted enemies.
The paradise island of Clemency would be a jewel in the crown of any empire. Its fertile volcanic soil nourishes immense flowers and trees whose fruit dwarfs the sea lions that bask on the outer rocks. Swarms of hummingbirds, dubbed The Millions by visitors, frolic in the air, feeding upon nectar and fruits. Indeed, the empire of Makelo has recently founded a colony upon its shores to harvest the delectable fruits, unaware of why Clemency has stood uninhabited for so long. A peculiar phenomenon occurs during the latter third of the year, as the fruit falls to the ground and rots. The rotting matter seems to trigger a reaction in the normally docile hummingbirds, turning them into voracious carnivores. Normally the creatures devour insects, fishes, and small game during this fallow season, but will eagerly mob and kill humans if they get the chance. These ravenous swarms prevent long term settlement of the isle and obstruct attempts to study the ancient ruins within the jungle interior.
A decade prior, the Realm's navy slew the behemoth sea serpent Xanthophidius to protect their tribute ships, sending the god-beast's corpse to the depths riddled with a thousand harpoons. As the sea serpent's miles long carcass settled upon the seafloor, it has become home to ten thousand varieties of benthic scavenger. The peoples of the undersea name it The Godsgrave and give it a wide berth, for not only are siaka common in the waters, the creature's rotting organs irregularly spew hazardous fluids into the surrounding waters. Rumors persist of strangely intelligent hagfish and giant spider crabs nesting in the depths of Xanthophidius, their consumption of its flesh instilling them with its lingering grudge against humanity
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