Skeli (Sk-eh-ll-ee)
The Verge of the Void
"Aye, Skeli is beautiful, but that beauty is a trap. I suspect the only reason we know about the wonders there at all is some kind of rumor planted as a lure."
"But... who would want people to go there and be disappeared?"
"Who knows? But if we remove that possibility the facts don't add up. If nobody ever comes back, how do we know the place is so glorious to behold?"
Geography
Skelli is an oddity- a short range of cindercone volcanoes positioned at a deepwater drop-off. The spires reach no more than 1100 feet into the air, but the island remains unsettled due to the high prevalence of hostile earth and fire elementals. While the island is built up from below as the fault slips and magma flows up out of the hotspot, silt also erodes from the currents flowing down into the drop-off, creating a beautiful earthfall below the surface of the water. The beaches are a blanket of red and black volcanic rock, at once beautiful and dangerous- hot and sharp to the touch.
Ecosystem
The island is more populated by monsters than true flora and fauna. The high rate of volcanic activity discourages plant growth except where the mountains become beach and even then growth is frequently razed by lava flows. Aerial monsters such as rocs roost on the heights and swoop down on ships which pass too close. Fire and earth elementals of all sizes run rampant, and as they don't need to eat cause as much destruction as they please to reorganize the landscape.
Ecosystem Cycles
The weather doesn't appreciably change from season to season on Skeli- it's hot and miserable year-round, with the only relief coming from the breezes off the sea.
History
The island formed slowly as volcanic activity arose along the fault line slip, and from the beginning elementals called the island home.
For awhile there were no others who could gain a foothold- then the orcs of Kapa attempted to take the island over. The island is still called "Kah Xenbedy," or "Bloodletting" to them, as so many were slaughtered in the war. Their oral traditions claim that among the elementals were two great generals, giants of their kind, who entirely overwhelmed their forces. They hold that the red of the rocks on the northern shore is a stain from the blood of their fallen ancestors.
With that threat extinguished, quiet and relative peace returned to Skeli. The occasional explorer or inquisitive type would get too close and go missing, but it wasn't until centuries later that a conquering force attempted to capture the island again. This time, it was the Lohikarmm Empire, which sought to make the island a stop-over point on the trade route to Tanagra. After a settlement vanished mysteriously, and several pacification forces disappeared without a trace, a survivor finally returned to report. Upon learning of the scale of the elemental problem, the Empire decided to invest in larger holds and greater provisions such that the island could be entirely circumvented. They discarded the obvious embellishments of the delirious soldier, however- surely there was no genie general and no underground fortress filled with captured slaves. The young man was sent to a sanitarium, and unfortunately never recovered.
In the modern day almost everyone avoids the island. Those that have no choice but to stop over take shelter in the ruined remnants of an Imperial colony at Vapaa Harbor, and an orc fort at Hilbitma. To do so is to take a risk of discovery, and so it is recommended that stays be short, lest you disappear just like all the others.
Tourism
While there is great natural beauty in and near Skeli, tourism is just too much to risk. A few foolhardy souls do go out there from time to time, to see the earthfall or observe the wildness of nature, but almost none return.
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