Ocean spanning
This 1700 mile long chain of volcanic islands lies in the eastern hemisphere of Fels. It almost neatly bisects the ocean of Thalassic. Most of these islands are nothing more than out-croppings of basaltic and other igneous rock, home only to migratory birds, marine mammals and other wildlife.
Geologically, the Archipelago was formed by undersea tectonic action as two plates collided, forcing uplifting and volcanic “hotspots”, much as what happened with terrestrial Hawaii. Few of the islands are still actively volcanic, but earthquakes and tsunamis are a real risk, especially in the southern extent of the Archipelago.
The islands, even pre-Collision, were never greatly inhabited. The overwhelming majority of them are simple islets or volcanic juts in the expanse of Thalassic. They presented a navigational hazard to early seafarers, but this has long since ceased to be a main activity on Fels. The only island that is still inhabited is the former original Settler retreat of Stykonma.
Stykonma was originally settled by the Settlers as a holiday retreat for its staff and the well-to-do passengers their craft carried. For the time leading up to the Collision, it was a fashionable island resort renowned for the tranquillity of the surrounding ocean, the lushness of the imported terrestrial jungle vegetation and mountain climbing on the island’s central volcano, as well as its tremendous isolation from anywhere else the founders had made settlement. Geographically, it resembles a lot of islands in the equatorial regions of Fels, such as the more well-known Huuna.
This halcyon situation existed up until the Collision. Once the forces of odylicism took hold, the Settler’s technologies and sciences crumbled. The folk who weren’t destroyed outright fled nigh into the jungles to hide and cower as the powers of magic asserted themselves. After several thousand years of near-Palaeolithic existence, a stranger came to dwell among the tribes.
This stranger is far better known to folk elsewhere as Cydain, so-called father of the Coterie of Myre and elsewhere.
Cydain thought to move outside the Argence and become a god of men. This he succeeded in doing, subjugating the primitives of Stykonma into obeisance. Cydain’s rule is now desultory and fickle; his attentions are usually elsewhere, generally dickering with the subordinate cabal of supernals that followed him.
Cydain has revealed to certain of his adherents in the Three Rivers that he has a paradisical abode elsewhere on Fels. Many have sailed the empty seas of Fels to emptier lands in search of fabled Stykonma (for Cydain revealed the name as well). Cydain ensures that no man will find it, as he has surrounded Stykonma with misleading winds, arcane hints of doom and a host of monstrous creatures dwelling offshore. So far, the only being which has come to Stykonma to challenge Cydain’s hegemony was Ge Diomala.
Cydain defeated Ge Diomala with ease, and the latter left in a rage, eventually finding his way to Nelucium in Forosth, to found the religion of The Final Sound. None of Cydain’s purported subordinate gods have revealed themselves to their followers and those who worship Cydain as their lord and deity hold this information dear to their hearts. The folk native to Stykonma see Cydain as a tremendously muscled man who walks among them, head illuminated by a nimbus of blue light, meting out justice, reward and tribulation to any who he sees deserving of such. There are no accomplished odylicists among their number, nor any literary tradition and the lifestyle of these folk is generally hunter-gatherer.
One of the islands is a hideaway for Gelliam Mosandre ton Kergephoros.