Isle of Ratha
Geography
When discovered, the island was covered almost entirely in plains and savannah, with a series of cliffworks in place that divided the island into relatively neat tiers. As construction began on the lower tiers, with city infrastructure and dockworks and banks and bars cropping up everywhere, the northernmost, uppermost tier became more and more farmland. Eventually, the first three tiers became a giant city-complex, with elevators and sewage systems and an underbelly, while the fourth tier remained relatively untouched, giving way to rolling hills and pastures and farmland as far as the eye can see.
Ecosystem
With the size of the city, growing every day in every direction, there is very little of the natural life that once flourished on the island remaining. Only the fourth tier, the northernmost section of the island, is home to any native species that might remain, including a silver-colored species of wolf not found anywhere else. Beneath the city, on the third tier, as they delved deep into the rocky underbed to dig the tunnels for the sewage system, engineers discovered a species of over-large scorpions which, apparently, fed on stone and lived in tunnels of glass, now known as the Caverns of Glass . These scorpions are extremely aggressive, and their stingers are loaded with a virulent venom which can kill an adult human in approximately ten minutes, with no known antidote. Their stingers and venom sacs are a valuable commodity, though most explorers find the risk not worth the reward.
History
Discovered by explorers from Therengia in 151AV, plans for it's colonization began immediately upon their return to the mainland. Nearly two years later, in 153AV, the cornerstone of the city on the island was lain and colonization was officially completed. Though they could not have known it at the time, in the span of only sixty years, the entire island would become one of the largest and most extensive city-complexes in the entire world, with a per capita density rivalling that of River Crossing far to it's west.
Tourism
The island draws a fair number of tourists to it's shores every year, mostly to visit the beaches on the first tier. There is a large shipwreck on the western edge of the island which draws a number of treasure hunters to Ratha, as it's cargo was gold bullion; however, the wind, waves, and local sprites have now taken over much of the wreck, and it claims a number of lives each year. No gold has ever yet been recovered, though amateur and professional hunters alike find the Wreck of the See'rah to be a tantalizing destination.
Alternative Name(s)
Ratha
Type
Island
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