Orsturejya

Orsturejya is an island in the Aedrinaran Islands lying in the vaniri sea between the Eighth Kingdom of Aedrinar and Asrinheim. The 12th largest island in the whole archipelago and the 7th largest in the kingdom of Aedrinar. A hilly and cold island, Orsturejya (Eastern Island) is dominated by a rugged inland landscape commonly used for livestock herding with a lowlying and sandy coastline suitable for clay mining.
Home to the ancient city of Orsturkirk, the island has been on the frontier between Ice Elf andAedrinarian cultures since the mythic age. Like the rest of the archipelago, Orsturejya is a volcanic island, but differs in how no active or extinct volcano can be found on the island. Rather, the leading theory is the island was formed by the collapse of a super volcano origating in what is now the Dragonbreaker Sound, the sea between the eastern islands, which would eventually collapse into the ocean.  

Geography

Orsturejya is an oval shaped island with a coastline of 40miles long. Its coastal regions are largely flat sandbeds with steep clifflands whilst its interior is a rugged and hilly landscape with Mount Ornir, a relatively short block mountain that domaintes the interior of the island. No natural rivers exist, but ephemeral streams form from the top of mount Ornir from Flowertyme through to Appelfall, giving the island a lack of above ground freshwater sources outside of melting snow and coastal glaciers.

Mount Ornir

Sitting at the heart of the island, Mount Ornir is is a generally small mountain by Aedrinaran standards (567m, 1860.24ft), and creeps its way to its peak in the centre of the island. Snowcapped at all times of the year, the lower elevations see a gradual thaw and spring and summer grasses, whilst the areas around the major settlement of Orsturkirk is more fertile and thawed.
The mountain, despite its gradual incline and comparitvely low height, has deep channels, crevices, and cliffaces that make asscent difficult. Small dirt paths used by animal herders who live around the mountain's slopes frequently use these, and live in small shepard huts at various levels.

Freshwater

For the majority of the year all of Orsturejya's freshwater is contained in snow and underground aquifers. Freshwater is supplied to Orsturejya by channeling these aquifers into an underground via a qanat to distrubutes the water to wells. Water is also gathered by melting and purifying snow or desalinating salt water. The full nature of these underground natural channels are unknown, as the cave system that exists on the island is tight, narrow, and hard to navigate or investigate further.
During the spring and summer, small streams form sporadically atop Mount Ornir and spread down to the coast as a gradual thaw and warm air pushes in from the south.

Eagle Glen

Eagle Glen is a small woodland area concentrated near the slopes of Mount Ornir. Tiny but dense, this thick area of evergreen tress maekes for perfect roosting ground and the home of smaller animals such as arctic foxes, hares, rabbits, and insects as well as fruit producing fauna and Aedrinaran Honeybees and their hives.

Ecosystem

LIike the rest of the archipelago, Orsturejya has a frigid, arctic environment suitable only to the hardy Aedrinarans, frost giants, and ice elves who call the island chain home. Winter fauna and flora are still plentiful thanks to the deep reserves of underground aquifers and the extrophillic type of life that exists on the island chain.

Common Animals

• Griffons
• Reindeer
• Goats
• Giant Goats
• Winter Wolves
• Gryflacons
• Terrasic Puffins
• Robins
• Northern Redpolls
• Moonbirds
• Lesser Auks

Common Flora

• Blue Spruce
• Jurgen Pines
• Sudurejyan Spruce
• Red Spruce
• Winterberries
• Crowberries
• Heart Plants

Natural Resources

Orsturejya's coastline is muddy and sandy, perfect for clay production. Small homesteads and the tiny vilage of Redharbour produce an abundence of clay brick and raw claw for export and use in creating pottery. Although paling in comparison to Kriegerholm's production of clay and pottery, the island still has a thriving local economy on it.
Mount Ornir and its narrow cave systems allow for iron ore and some common gem mining alongside coal. This is primarily found in the southern face of the island around the village of Blackmine. The quanities of mining are largely used for local production, with only small amounts exported.
The major natural resources of the island is its plentiful goat and sheep pastures and herding. The Aedrinaran Sheep help produce wool, which is turned into cloth and parchment, earning the island's only major city of Orsturkirk its nickname of City of Scrolls. Production of sheep and goat products alongside cloth and parchment make for the island's largest industry and greatest export.

History

Orsturejya has been settled since the mythic age, originally by human tribes. A coven of forgotten gods cultists are recorded as having lived here, their names and relics lost to time and the 'purification' of the island by Heimdall. Since then, early Aedrinaran settlers lived in small nomadic family structures likely herding the plentiful goats and deer found on the island. A permanant structure existed near present Orsturkirk, the original Eagle Library of the Seven Skalds.
During the age of 1000 clans, two feuding clerics of Aegir and Njord named Haakon Seawhistler and Murag the Fury landed on the island to wage war. The threat of destruction to the local Eagle Library saw the skalds negotiate a peace treaty between the two, and the establishment of the High Temple of the Seas near the library. The local nomads would flock to the region around the temple for trade and the earliest settlement of Orsturkirk was established.
The hamlet around the temple grew into a town under the protection of House Kirkguard, and was a small, permanant, fortified town by the foundation of the 2nd kingdom in 1672, 1a. The island would also be amongst the first regions to enter the Third Kingdom of Aedrinar in 2760, 1a, which saw the settlement of Orsturkirk begin to truly flourish and the island's population swell.
In the fourth century of the second age, the island was occupied by House Salinir. This short occupation lasted until the arrival of House Dragontooth who bested the elves at the Battle of Feather Caves, a location believed to be somewhere near the peak of Mount Ornir. A second vaniri invasion began in 810, 2a and saw the island's population reduced by a third in the Arson of the Kirk. Peace over the islands would be established by Ragnar IV Wintersheart in 810, marking the last time a foreign force would occupy the island.
An economic boom would overtake the island during the fifth kingdom (1930, 2a-2136, 2a) as the island's people would join the Aedrinaran invasions of Prima Terra and bring wealth and resources back to their home. The establishment of a second major settlement in the south west of the island, named Tyrshelm, was built as second port and manufacuting settlement. This wealth would gradually decline following the collapse of the 5th and 6th Kingdoms and the beginning of the Great Interregnum. The island's population and wealth gradually declined, with Tyrhelm beging destroyed by House Stormbarer and Orsturkirk returning to the only permanant settlement.
By the 7th Kingdom, Orsturejya was again a major island under the rulership of local born King Olaf III Kingmaker. His death and the disasterous rulership of his last surviving son, High King Karl III, brought a further disaster to the island as its population were thrust into a multi-front war with the Elven uprising in the eastern isles and the Stormbarers of the Eastern Hold. A further loss of life and the abaondment of smaller homsteads inland occured during the Calamity of the Terrasic.
Slow resettlement occured during the Third Interregnum period as the population gradually recovered. By the Eighth Kingdom of Aedrinar more hamlets and villages had been established, primarily Redharbour and Darkmine.
In 1052, 3e, The Eastern Crisis between the humans and elven settlers of the eastern islands was threatening war between the two peoples. Both blamed each other for the loss of ships and attacks on coastal regions. In truth, this was the Scion of the Seas spreading chaos to further its own power and infuence.

Flag of Orsturejya

Type

Island

Location under

Aedrinaran Islands

Included Locations

• Orsturkirk

Owning Organization

House Dragontooth

Characters in Location

• Vanar Salinir