Kapa Island (Cah-pah Island)
Calamitous Heartland
"It's a terrible place, lad. That's why they raid to get what they need- their land does not provide as ours does."
"But why then do they take captives and rape the women? They cannot have need of that."
"That, son, is a choice."
Geography
The island is made up of rough, rocky hills- even the beaches are stony. Most of the stone is metamorphic and hard to work, but some remnants of the island's volcanic formation can be found- shards of obsidian, washouts along old lava tubes. There are freshwater springs, but they are few and hidden in the rock. It is far from a beautiful place, except for those who find the most extreme austerity in nature to be beautiful.
Ecosystem
Only hardy plants which need little soil or water, and which are resistant to the heat that the stony landscape collects can survive here. Small groves of adamantine oak collect in shady pockets, but no true forests. There is little in the way of food for sentients that the land provides, but a few herbs unique to the environment grow here. Largely the scrubbrush is grazed by goats, which are in turn preyed upon by the populace and aerial predators such as griffons.
More life can be found underground, thriving in the sheltered caves where most of the water can be found. No plants grow, but a wide variety of mushrooms build colonies which feed cave fish, insects, and lizards, which in turn feed subterranean predators like giant spiders.
There are no reefs surrounding Kapa, but the cave system underground does break into the ocean in places, leading to shelter for certain marine life. Cephalopods are common, as are eels and fish of middling size. Smaller birds of many types migrate through, but they do not stay long on Kapa. This is partly due to the danger of predation but mostly because of lack of food. Kapa is merely a place to rest their wings before pressing onward.
Ecosystem Cycles
As Kapa rests almost perfectly on the equator of Arianas, summer lasts almost all year. Rains are infrequent, but when they arrive they tend to be violent. Winter, if it can be considered a winter, is a cool season lasting no longer than four months and never requiring furs or a time of rest for the organisms which live there. Unfortunately this means that the stony landscape is continually exposed to the heat of the sun, and can become a baking inferno at the height of summer.
History
The island was formed by volcanic activity, as most islands in the Sered were. However, unlike most, Kapa got the short end of the stick. Volcanic deposits have not made the soil rich and loamy but instead stony and too hard for all but the toughest plants to break down and hang onto.
Per the oral history, the original inhabitants were giants and their kin. Then a band of orcs, having escaped the Blighted Plateau and taken to the sea, arrived and destroyed every trace of their residence on the island. In time the band grew into a tribe, then to several, scattering across the landscape.
Now, four orc tribes (Anreese, Bawta, Kohnew, and Kypkak) call the place home. They live in the cave systems, out of the sun, and raid for everything the island does not provide (which, admittedly, is about everything). Each tribe has built a fortress against the others, seeing each other as rivals almost without exception.
Tourism
While Kapa is not beautiful, there are wonders which may be considered worth the trip. Grand, luminous fungus colonies, unusual geography, and entirely unique fauna such as the bio-luminescent geckos which can grow to titanic size in captivity.
However, almost no outsiders ever see these things. Those that do wish they did not- for these are captives taken in orc raids. If one is seeing the wonders of Kapa, it can be assured that the experience will be as short as it is painful.
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