The Cayman Island
A British Overseas Territory like The Bahamas and Bermuda, the Cayman Islands are famous as the world’s leading offshore hedge fund and the world’s second largest tax haven (after Switzerland), leading to the Cayman Islands having more registered businesses than its population of some 55,000 people. The territory is made up of three islands: the Grand Cayman (home to the capital, Georgetown), Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman. The Caymans are known for having virtually no direct taxation: no income, capital gains, or wealth taxes. The government makes most of its income from tariffs on imported goods and fees charged to financial institutions and businesses. Popular legend likes to attribute this to “The Wreck of Ten Sail,” when Cayman Islanders helped to rescue a fleet of ten merchant ships, one of which carried the son of the King of England, who excused the islands from all taxes thereafter, but there’s no evidence the incident actually occurred.
Tax-shelters and off-shore shell companies on the Cayman Islands belong to corporations like Brande Management, Delphic Inustries, Grant Conglomerates, KessKorp, Majestic Industries, and many others. This makes their sealed financial information of keen interest to hackers, thieves, and law-enforcement and makes it likely that representatives of those companies make regular visits.
The relatively low-lying islands are prime hurricane territory: the Caymans are hit or see a “near pass” by a hurricane roughly every couple of years, and storm surges make for regular flooding during many of those occasions.
Otherwise, the Cayman Islands see relatively little in the way of the unusual or superhuman. The criminal Devil Ray once made use of stolen experimental marine-life control technology to control large numbers of stingrays (which tend to gather in the coastal waters). There was also an incident at the black limestone formations known as “Hell,” where a demon-worshiping cult took the appellation seriously and used it as a site for a ritual to summon their infernal patron (which was, fortunately, prevented by the timely intervention of Siren).
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