Styracedon

Even before the rise of the Great Empire in Vistilia, the verdant archipelago of Styracedon in the east was known as a great center of art, culture, and sometimes flawed philosophies about the nature of featherless bipeds. The rival island states fell quickly, and usually peacefully, to the expansionism of the Great Empire, and quickly became an integral part of the fledgling Empire. The fourteen largest islands, each dominated by a towering cone shaped mountain, were selected to become provincial seats of power led by a Patricci personally appointed by the Emperor. From within the hearts of those fourteen mountains, large gemstones were discovered that sparkled and shone like the brightest stars in the night sky, and thirteen of these gemstones were donated to the Emperor to be made into the Crown of Stars.
It was known to the initial settlers of Styracedon that those towering conical mountains were in fact volcanoes, but it was believed that they had long ago gone silent and cold. Unfortunately for their distant descendants, they were mistaken. Starting in Unember of the 501^st year of the Great Empire, a series of earthquakes of escalating intensity in the region warned that things were quickly changing. For most, it was already too late. On the 2^nd of Dutober, every single volcano in the archipelago erupted at once, a cataclysmic wall of igneous fire, incendiary ash, and flying pumice stone. It is said that the eruptions were so loud, they shattered windows on the western coast of Vistilia, and could be heard as far away as Ettany. Not only were the inhabitants of Styracedon burned away and buried by blankets of pyroclastic ash, the sea routes to the east beyond Styracedon became impossible to navigate as they were choked by boulders of floating pumice that still rained down from the skies.
The eruptions continued for hundreds of years, only subsiding enough in the sixth century after the collapse of the Great Empire for people to venture back to the islands without the trip being a certain and fiery death. Few people will still willingly visit such an obviously dangerous place, however, and those who do are usually there to mine sulphur or ash to sell in Vistillia, or are looking for surviving artifacts buried in the ruins. Lava floes and hailing pumice are still lethal though, and it is not unheard of for entire expeditions to vanish.
In the last decade since the Upheaval in the East in the 1670^th year, the volcanic activity has been steadily increasing once again. The few safe routes between the blankets of pumice rock are becoming more and more narrow, and fewer ships make the journey unscathed. Many merchants who visit the East are worried that the way may soon become completely impassable once more.
Perhaps the most unfortunate truth of all is that the debate about the nature of featherless bipeds was never settled.