The Island of Shaanti
Peace Through Isolation
"The story of economic progress is one of perseverance, flexibility, and initiative. The astute merchant will notice that this is also the story of military progress. If one wishes to succeed over one's rivals, then the intelligent man sees the market as a battlefield to be navigated and his goods as his soldiers. The terrain of market warfare changes from location to location, and one would do well to be familiar with the various types, as the prepared merchant is the victorious merchant. Islands, even small ones, may prove to be more lucrative than expected, especially if it has yet to be exploited..."
- The Merchant's Geographic Primer, Chapter 1
Geography
The Island of Shaanti is Zamzara's westernmost inhabited island - the only land farther west is Yama's Head. It covers slightly more area than the The Burning Archipelago in the east, and is just as hot, but not as wet. The vast majority of the island is flat - a small mountain separates the northwestern part of the island from the rest, and this area is far more moist and rugged than the rest of the island. Most vitally, there are no documented entrances into the Nashya anywhere on the island, even 300 years after The Kalyugi ended. Like all coastal areas of Zamzara, the pull of Solga & Lunala have rendered the coastline treacherous to navigate, as there are nearly 30 meters of difference between high tides and low tides.
Fauna & Flora
The lack of Nashyan entry points has done little to save the indigenous life found on the island. For the first few years after The Kalyugi, the only monsters that found their way to the island were birds and fish, both of which quickly annihilated the native animals. They stood no hope of defeating their infernal counterparts and were hunted into extinction. Shortly afterward, seeds of the more plant-like monsters were introduced into the ecosystem through the birds that flew from the mainland to the island. In a desperate bid to stop them from overrunning the island, the humans imported monsters of their own with the hopes of taming them for defensive purposes. This ecological war has raged for the past 250 years, with neither side making progress against the other.
Natural Resources
The Island of Shaanti has extremely arable land, and the monsters here have been carefully hunted for generations, resulting in a weak, but moderately-sized population that is still ripe for exploitation. The people of Shaanti were adept hunters before The Kalyugi, and a combination of their knowledge and instincts led them to cull the strongest monsters as soon as they reached the island, leaving the weakest to breed the next generation. This was only possible due to the preserved infrastructure - without it, they would have been overrun like the rest of humanity, it just would have taken a little longer.
For centuries, the main value of the island were its vast and seemingly infinite reserves of tin, and many members of the Zamzian Empire were happy to put the Shidtai to work mining it. Unfortunately, the mines began to dry up over 200 years ago, and today there is nearly nothing left in them, and they are mostly abandoned or refitted for another purpose. When The Merchant's Guild came into power shortly afterwards, they soon realized Shaanti's greatest resource - its isolation. There are few monsters or other cities nearby, which made it a perfect place to hide one's wealth. The only concern are occasional pirate raids from the Burning Archipelago, which are easily repelled.
That makes for interesting locale.