The Quaking Isle

Off in the distance, Alistair watched the wave smash into the shoreline. On any other island, a wave forty feet high would have ripped up trees and scoured the beach, but there were no trees on this side of the Quaking Isle, merely jagged rocks on the beach, thrown about by the wave impact. 
"Don't worry, we're not actually landing. We're just picking up water before we head to the Tree." Isolde pointed over the ship's railing at a small cluster of boats anchored in the distance. "The Quakers do it for us."
"I assume that's not what they call themselves. Seems a little on the nose." Alistair took a step as another shudder went through the ship. "Though the name is appropriate."
"The Kheim think the name is funny, actually, but given the rate we're paying for water I'm sure they're willing to let us call them whatever we want." Isolde turned her attention to the island, where a large number of birds were flying in circles midair. "Looks like another quake's about to hit. Let's dock with the Fleet before one of these waves roll us over. I have no desire to sail back to the Capital in a lifeboat."

Geography

One of the distant east islands in the Eastern Saibh archipelago, the Quaking Isle is well away from the great circular trade routes, at the very end of a sequence of islands leading into the vast emptiness of the North Feryll Sea. To some degree, nearly all of the freestanding islands past the great Eastern Promontory exhibit some element of volcanism, past or present, with a general increase in intensity the farther east one travels. The Quaking Isle is the capstone of this trend, with nearly daily earthquakes, though with no eruptive action.
The quake activity is the likely reason why the island avoids being the typical island volcano, instead being a comparatively low elevation landscape riven with ground rifts, water flows, and jagged outcroppings, which reshape themselves on each major motion of the earth.

Ecosystem

The Quaking Isle is typical of far-north islands of Eastern Saibh, a humid and tropical climate with plentiful fish and bird life. One unique feature of the island is the caverns within the ground rifts, which host large burrowing wurms uniquely adapted to the constant creation and destruction of the undergound.

Localized Phenomena

Though virtually unknown in West Saibh, earthquakes are a common event across the eastern archipelagos, but nowhere is quite like the Quaking Isle. Most earthquakes will rattle buildings and perhaps cause someone to stumble. The quaking at the Isle is far more severe, with permanent land based structures torn to pieces by ground shaking, new rock outcroppings being lifted a hundred feet into the air, and old ones shattered in destructive rockslides.
Worse than the shaking, however, are the colossal waves that smash into the islands in the area within the hour of a major quake. One Principality Navy Captain likened it to the hand of an angry god simply sweeping the shores, leaving nothing but silt and sand in its wake. Expedition parties to the island cannot linger on the shorelines and must ascend to higher ground to avoid dying to one of these waves.

Fauna & Flora

One of the reasons the Kheim are still here instead of relocating to a safer island is the richness of the animal life. The fishery here is nearly as productive as that at the Grand Reef of the Stagonids, and the island is teeming with game animals, most notably a deer-like species the size of an oxen. The wurms are also notable, but less as an animal to be hunted and more as a natural hazard to be avoided at all costs, as the wurms are armored and mostly invulnerable to ordinary hunter weapons. One famous Etoilean hunter has proposed attempting to kill a wurm by bombarding the island with a Siege-sail to try to hit a wurm with a flywheel, but the Navy flatly denied the request.

Natural Resources

Expeditions onto the island have noted a constant flux of raw ores surfaced on the island's jagged interior, and samples returned have contained rich gold veins, but the nature of the island likely precludes any actual mining effort. Other than the minerals, the island is the last location before the open sea for any ship to take on freshwater and supplies, and Captain Isolde of the Skyhawk resupplied here on each of her attempted voyages through North Feryll.

History

The roiling seas have proved a daring challenge to intrepid naval explorers, but the waters around the Quaking Isle test the limits of Etoilean shipbuilding. More than one ship has strayed too close to the shore of the Isle and foundered after being struck by one of the quake waves, and most captains are advised to drop anchor at least a mile offshore.
Despite the rather absurd conditions, a hardy community of locals, the Kheim, have established themselves off the island in a settlement called the Fleet, a flotilla of outrigger boats and floating platforms anchored to a deep hole off the shore, shielded from wavestrikes. The Principality maintains friendly trade relations with the Kheim, though the effectiveness of Etoilean Progress is suspect without the ability to build on solid land.

Tourism

Though far too dangerous for the ordinary type of tourist, committed naturalists and adventure seekers will put in for the trip out to the Quaking Isle on one of the regular trade power-sails, and the bravest (or most foolhardy) of them will attempt to make landfall by hitching a ride with Kheim in an outrigger, as the Kheim regularly visit the isle to collect potable water. Etoileans making landfall is actively discouraged by the Principality for obvious reasons, but the Kheim charge hefty fees to serve as guides onto the island, and are willing to row ashore anyone with the means to pay, with the understanding that the Kheim are likely to leave people to their fate if conditions deteriorate.

Type

Island

Inhabiting Species

• Greatwurm of the Quaking Isle