Long Abandoned, Yet Still Lived
Reputable thieves, murderers, rapists, and the dishonored all inhabit the Island of the Ashamed. The Island of the Ashamed is primarily used as a dumping ground by the Roscrean Empire to discard of their disgraceful and unruly citizens. There, the criminals fend for themselves against the relentless weather of the ocean, terrifying beasts on the land, and perhaps most deadly, each other. The Roscrean Empire cares nothing of the well being of the criminals they abandon there. In fact, the likelihood of death on the Island of the Ashamed is so great, prisoners and guardsmen alike have dubbed the exile, as "The Deadly Execution." Once a criminal is dumped just off the coast of the island, their only chance of survival is to swim towards the island and fight against the rough sea. Once they swim their way to the harsh beach, they must fight and survive against many threats just for a chance to survive. Guardsmen on the ships where prisoners are tossed overboard, often make bets and cast lots, over who will even make it to the beach, and who will be claimed by the sea.
"If only they knew what waited for them on the island, they would gladly die in the sea."
-A popular saying by guardsmen and sailors.
Most of the island is covered in baroness, allowing few plants to grow, and those that do, are not often friendly. The middle section of the island is barren, and rocky, having many sharp rocks that are quite large, jut out into the open air, causing there to be dramatic views for anyone to witness. To the south west, lies a long forgotten, dead forest. A once thriving and living forest, now remains still and silent, as even a twig snapping would echo through the dead land. Just north of the dead forest, lies dark and brooding mountains, that have long since seen vegetation grow on their depressed sloops. With jagged ends, and pointy summits, it makes it near impossible to climb these imposing mountains. The Occasional dwarves or trolls, and maybe perhaps wild life that would usually inhabit mountains, are nowhere to appear on these mountains.
To the far east, lies the rugged, and rocky beaches of the Island of the Ashamed. With broken ships in almost all directions, and rocks that house rather unforgiving wildlife, none could stand to stay on this horrid beach before long. With waves occasionally crashing and high tides, none are safe from the sea quite yet if they reach the beach. Continuing west, lies deep swamps that house only deep bogs, and murky water. Civilization would be next to impossible to create in these conditions. The dead and wildered trees, however, begin to end at these murky swamps. However, far beyond these swamps, lies a beautiful forest. Some would think that a forest this alive and well, would be impossible to exist on this island. Few, if any even know of its existence, however the forest is too thick for any city to be constructed. Perhaps this forest is a testament to another time, and perhaps, this forest is more than meets the eye.
Not much is known of the islands wildlife and vegetation, besides the wild animal, Honders, which are large, buffalo like creatures with split, square shaped horns, leaping from the ground and onto their prey, despite their weight.
There are few notable seasons that occur on the Island of the Ashamed. Most of the year is full of constant dread, and chilliness, that can bring any man to his knees for too long. However, the forest to the north, grows during the would be spring time, and recedes back to its original borders, during the other seasons.
The Journey of Worth
"We do not test those who make it to our little town, no, we leave nature to pick those who are of worth." -Leader of the small town on The Island of the Ashamed.
Once a year, a small ship fleet of Roscrean ships, full of prisoners, at least three hundred strong, are brought over from the port from the city of Mundersburg. There, prisoners from all over the empire are brought to the Island of the Ashamed, before being thrown off the sides of their captor ships. This is the start of The Journey of Worth. The prisoners must then make their way over to the beach of the island, all the while fighting off waves, creatures from the ocean, and even other prisoners. From there, once they land on the crude beach, they must fight their way and avoid the sea, which tries to drag them back into the murky depths. There on the beach, many prisoners use loose boards from crashed ships to attack one another, and those that are lucky enough to either kill enough, or escape the bloodshed, are able to escape to the mainland of the island. From there, those that remain must reach the only town present on the island, for that is their only chance of survival.
Hickleberg trees are in abundance towards the west of the Island, along with small flowers and plants, that extend towards the swamps on the edge of the forest. The rest of the island remains barren, with only the toughest and sparcest of plants being able to survive elsewhere on the island.
Hickleberg wood, small ore veins, hard rock, fresh water.
The First Expedition
When the Island was first discovered, in the middle of the third Roscrean Empire after a fishing boat crash landed on the island, a rescue ship was sailed to find and save any survivors. Instead, they found an entire island, with a crashed ship along its beach. The survivors were rescued, and brought to the Roscrean mainland to tell of the existence of the island.
Funding was soon approved for an expedition to the island, to see if it was habitable, and if it carried any natural resources than could be used. Five ships set sail from Roscrea, but disaster would soon break out when rough tides, and terrible wind would crash three of the five ships onto the beach shore. The remaining ships soon built a hastily built port on the rocky side of the island, temporarily settling down in the shabby port.
Teams were then set out across the island to discover any resources, but all groups except one came back empty handed. Most groups simply wandered around in circles, since all rocky terrain looked about the same. One group was forced to turn around when they met impassible swamps. But one group was able to find a small, ore vein of iron ore, on the slopes of the mountains of the island.
The group reported back their findings to their base of operations, telling and bragging of their success in finding the ore vein, a promising start for a mining colony that could make certain funders very rich and renowned.
The Second Expedition
With the promise of at least one ore vein on the island, word quickly spread to others on the mainland of Roscrea, many desperate miners hoping for funding to create a mining town on the island. However, information on the climate and condition of the island were purposely withheld, as to not deter any possible funders. Eventually, the necessary funding for a second expedition to the island, which was temporarily named, Labosh Island, after the funder of the expedition, Hains Labosh.
Twenty ships then sailed from mainland Roscrea, to Island Labosh, to create a mining colony on the island. But just as the first expedition started, many ships were lost at sea, or crashed onto the beach and coast of the island. The town near the mining town started with only a quarter of the original population than planned, and with poor equipment, either lost at sea or not brought, the town was cheaply built.
However, the colonists did not plan for the harsh conditions and wildlife of the island, and many buildings and even the town's walls were brought down by the weather, causing flooding, fire and overall horrible living conditions for all those who were unfortunate to settle on the island. To make matters even worse, the soil on the island was not fertile enough in order to grow crops, leading to food shortages.
The actual mine itself, was set up successfully, and miners began to strip mine the vein of ore, in hopes more would uncover as they work. However, as they worked, and the vein became more and more depleted, they soon began to realize that there would not be enough ore to create a continual profit. With ore running out, and the mining town crumbling to shambles, the expedition was called off. The survivors left in their remaining ships, leaving behind a crumbling town, along with their hopes and dreams.
The Transformation
Now that Labosh Island was no longer in use, and the ore had been depleted, the island sat idle, dead. Labosh, however, did not plan to waste his gold so easily. He brought another proposal to Roscrean officials, to make the island a natural prison. Labosh's idea was to make use of the islands natural high tides, and horrible environment, to make it an inescapable prison, keeping prisoners away from Roscrean life, and stopping them from ever escaping.
The Roscrean officials accepted to try Labosh's idea, and sent a small contingency of no more than thirty prisoners, towards the island. The prisoners looked towards the ground in shame the entire way towards the island, giving the name to the island; The Island of the Ashamed.
The original plan was to drop the prisoners off on the makeshift harbor the first expedition had created, however the harbor had been almost completely destroyed, and the tides were simply too rough and high to dock on the island. Instead, the Rosecrans dumped the prisoners overboard, near the beach, as they watched the prisoners swim to their new home.
Ever since, that is all the island has been used for, dumping off the unwanted and repulsive on this crude island, keeping those who would harm the empire away from sigh and sound. That, is the story of the Island of the Ashamed.
Fort Jahovvak.
Along the northern part of the Island of the Ashamed, lies a smaller, and perhaps even more rugged island. The Roscrean's thought this smaller island to be perfect to construct a small fortress to have a military presence on the island, no matter how small.
The reason for the fort was to be able to watch just in case, if the prisoners of the island ever decide to try and escape, the guards of Fort Jehovvak. would be able to send word ahead to warn the mainland of the impeding prisoners.
Here, a contingency of soldiers, no more than fifty strong, remain in the crumbling and neglected fortress, keeping watch over the dark and brooding island. Food and water is brought over from a small ship that ferries the supplies back and forth, being the only connection with the outside world.
Alternative Name(s)
Labosh Island
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