Black Ray Island
In the quicksilver sea floats a colossal, long-dormant manta ray whose skin has crusted over with stone, soil, trees, and now an entire district. Heaven’s authorities rarely visit Black Ray Island. As a result, it’s become a flourishing center for business of dubious legality. Situated along a valuable trade route in the southwest sea, the island is a port of call for maritime shipping, whether to avoid the inconvenience of overland travel, dodge taxes and kickbacks levied on trade, or smuggle illegal goods. Such valuable cargo usually consists of fine materials imported from Creation, such as Randani pottery and spider-silks from the city-state of Oqu, alongside treasures that ambrosia can’t replicate — the magical materials, celestial peaches, and other wonders. While Black Ray Island is officially a mercantile center, it’s actually dominated by the Riot — an ever-shifting congress of pirate leaders. Joining the Riot is a path to wealth and power for anyone who can keep a crew together, whether they’re a god, elemental, or even mortal. While internally quarrelsome, the crews are collectively an armada to rival any naval power in Heaven and have banded together in ages past to drive off those few celestial authorities who’d bring them to heel. The Riot also acts as a moderating force, keeping crews from attracting too much of Heaven’s attention and bribing officials to look the other way. The island is itself a valuable resource. Locals mine meat and ray-leather through deep shafts cut into the creature’s semi-petrified skin. Those mediums and thaumaturges who can commune with the slumbering ray — called Rayspeakers — carefully manage these operations to maintain the creature’s health and cooperation. Operations that irritate or significantly damage the ray meet with natural disasters and popular revolt. While the ray drifts at a glacial pace, the Rayspeakers can coax it into a general trajectory, though they only do this as the Riot instructs. They choose these courses years in advance to adjust to shifting trade routes or exert control over enigmatic sea-gates — great coral rings or standing banks of pearlescent fog that connect Yu-Shan’s quicksilver sea to Creation’s waters. Beyond its value as a port and pirate republic, Black Ray Island is a place of games and contests. Prize fights happen every night for stakes as low as a round of plum wine and as high as fabled artifacts or deeds to powerful manses. Gaming dens can be found throughout, including one of Plentimon’s rare heavenly establishments. Once every three years, the crews of the Riot gather in a ceremonial hunt that sees nine sacred treasures spirited away by chaotic winds to the corners of Heaven’s seas. Those who return with one or more receive a greater voice in the Riot and nine days of inexplicably fabulous good fortune.
Type
Island, Floating
Included Locations
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