Pakani Island
Paradise within barren lands
Pakani is a wasteland, a shame of Ironfoot. Thousands of years ago, before the humans came, us magisters warred over it with powerful spells. Now inexplicably the seas around it are rough and even the Capital Fleet Flagship Island Wind dares not navigate it. The island, while observed through a telescope, appears cool during the summer and downright frigid in winter. Not much grows there, due to the freak storms and droughts that pass through there with frightening regularity.The island of Pakani was drained of luck near the end of the Magister Wars before humanity came to the Ironfoot Isles, due to a large-scale civil war between Noralin loyalists and Pakani rebels. After the Dakuina (Great Storm), the island did not recieve aid from the Noralin Kingdom they belonged to, leading to many unnecessary deaths from hunger or plague. Some disgruntled islanders, under the leadership of Ravana, Bandit Commander, decided to revolt and form their own island society. Loyalists, under the island elders Olivia and Mui, formed their own alliance and hunkered down in the coastal ports of Rienapol and Pakani. However, soon the Sack of Rienapol occurred, as Olivia, Oracle of Pakani herself did not have enough troops to defend it. Her forces fought a valiant rearguard action, allowing many citizens to flee to the relative safety of the Leylan Heights and the Pakani City proper. Reinforcements led by Mui, including several master magisters, hunkered down to fight off the enemies at Leylan. Mui was able to pull off a Defense of Pakani at Leylan, setting up luck-intent traps below the hills. When the enemy bandits arrived, the first wave was taken down by the traps, while the second wave hunkered down below the heights and started firing their own luck-intent enhanced arrows and setting up their own traps. A third wave journeyed west to outflank the forces, but were stopped by Olivia in a valiant defense outside the city proper. However, this time Olivia was unable to hold and was killed in action, with massive lasting luck damage to the outer limits of the city. Fighting raged on around the island and in the areas around the island. Due to the setting of many luck-intent traps and the draining of luck from much of the island's wildlife, the island started to resemble its current shape. Soon, however, due to several defeats on both sides, Ravana and the Elders met for peace and they were able to hammer out an agreement. They would secede from the Noralin Kingdom. Pakani was thus left isolated from the rest of the empire as time passed. Deciding that Noralin would likely use force against their 'act of revolt', Pakanians took the step of withdrawing even more luck from the seas around them, creating the infamous Shifting Shallows. Ships tend to be grounded on shallow sandbars, with treacherous rip currents, sharp rocks and changing winds. The small amount of luck gained from the coast they placed in a small region to help them live on farming.Cartographer-General Clara, Society of Magisters
Exiles
Historically, 'exiled' members of the Eastern Alliance (Northern Barrier Kingdom and (former) Kingdom of Mitrand) were sent to Pakani, an apparently wintry and desolate island, with a choice to commit suicide with a crossbow or to try to row to shore and die a slow death from starvation. Many chose the crossbow, unaware of the hidden city inside the cliffs. Most others drowned while trying to row to shore. Out of nearly seven hundred exiles, five hundred of them committed suicide, one hundred eighty drowned, and twenty were able to reach the central Free City of Desolation. Out of all of the twenty, nineteen chose to stay in the city and one (The Spark (Arctic Flame)) chose to leave and go back towards Mitrand, ending up inciting a revolution and breaking the Eastern Alliance. The Arctic Spark was sworn to secrecy about the place, and he carried the secret with him to the grave, only telling it to the Arctic Wind (Soraya of Mitrand, his wife), who herself sent one of her children to the island as gratitude for the Free City taking care of her husband.Geography
The island is roughly rounded in shape, with a bay in the center, as a former volcano caldera. The outer rim is slightly sloped, but there are no cliffs as in Lanasu (Island). The island is unusually cold for its location, even though it's supposed to be in a temperate oceanic zone. The island is subject to periodic earthquakes, seemingly at random. The seas around it are also unusually rough, and even the Order of Aeramen does not venture here.
Pakani by ElementalShrike
A map of Pakani, showing (in the farthest outskirts) light blue as normal luck seas, dark blue as drained seas (rough, with potential to wreck ships), dark brown as drained land (barren, cold, few living things), and the two green areas as normal or above-normal luck zones maintained within the drained zones.
paradiso ex inferno
"paradise from inferno"
Alternative Name(s)
Desolation Point, Inaccessible Island
Type
Island
Location under
Included Locations
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
Related Tradition (Primary)
Related Myths
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Interesting backstory. I like how strongly you tie magic to your world. Do the people still live on that island, or did nature manage to wipe them out until now?
Ah, still working on it, just wanted to submit it rn. Anyways, the people still survive, everyone just doesn't know about them. Which is why when the The Spark (Arctic Flame) got exiled here, he survived and went back to screw everyone.