"The decision to place prisoners upon Lampuato was not made lightly. After the disastrous final days that led to the Mekonggan exodus to Lahat, the physical and spiritual aspects of the island were poisoned, and life on the island was considered unsustainable. The gods of Lampuato have fallen and become monsters - the soil refuses to produce life - the great lagoon of Rano Moko is filled with deadly waters. Ultimately, it was decided by your grandfather that for those who had transgressed Kosalo deserved worse than death, and the prison villages on Lampuato were created. Your father chose to continue this policy - now that you have become King, it is your choice whether you will as well." - a report to King Manggala upon his taking the throne of Lahat.
Desa Penjara is the largest of the prison villages on the cursed and barren island of
Lampuato. It is located deep in the blasted interior of the island, overlooking the poisoned lagoon of Rano Moko. Life in the village is difficult - the prisoners are obligated to grow what food they can, and rain provides the only safe drinking water. In dry times, the rainwater is extended with the waters from Rano Moko, but this has a number of side effects including exhaustion, nasuea, cramps, and diarhhea.
At night, the former gods and spirits of the island haunt the prisoners. They are only shadows of their former glory, but their diminished power has not reduced their rage at the human race. They vent their anger at the prisoners in their huts with nightmares and apparitions of horror. They particularly tempt the prisoners with visions of great feasts from the last days of the old kingdom, showing each dish as a cannibal's concotion that both entices and disgusts. More than one starving prisoner has been driven to consume the flesh of another by the combination of hunger and madness. Others have pulled the corpses of fish from the lagoon, fooled by their refusal to rot into treating them as food. Eating these tainted things invariably leads to a prolonged and painful death.
For those who leave the village, the landscape is unrelentingly hostile. Ghosts of the old forests crowd around the wanderer, harrying them towards dangerous cliffs or deep pools of toxic water. If they do reach the seashore, the waves batter them, attempting to smash them between water and stone, only ceasing when the victim is too injured to flee - then the spirits withdraw to watch them die. Only the royal naval base is spared the attacks of the spirits, and only because of the extensive wards that guard its perimeter from them.
The lifespan of a new prisoner in Desa Penjara is measured in months, not years. Hunger, poison, and terror erode their soul, and murder and suicide are frequent occurances. Sickness is common as well, with diseases that are prolonged and moderated by the island's angry ghosts to maximize the suffering they inflict. When it rains, it as though the sky is hurling the sea upon the village, and the huts do little to protect their inhabitants from the deluge.
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