The Ramshackle Islands
"It ain’t the storms nor the reefs you should fear-nor even the black-sailed bastards lurking ‘round the shoals. No, lad, it's the islands themselves. They’ll take what’s left of you if the sea don’t finish the job." -Captain Orin Hark, survivor of Fort Hopeless.
The Ramshackle Islands are Everwealth’s forgotten sentinels, a jagged sprawl of ship-splitting peaks and fortified docks stretching hundreds of miles west from the kingdom’s northernmost point. First settled not for comfort, but out of sheer necessity, these islands were Everwealth’s desperate answer to centuries of war, ensuring that no fleet-no pirate horde, no would-be invader-could slip past its northern waters unchallenged. For six centuries, including the Schism’s hundred-year bloodbath, the Ramshackle Islands have remained an unyielding maritime fortress. Here, the sea does not forgive, nor do the islands themselves. Poor navigators and the unprepared often meet their end in the cruel gaps between the peaks-what seems a safe passage revealing itself to be a hidden mountaintop, waiting like a butcher’s blade to carve a ship’s hull apart. The result? Sailors do not take risks here. They cling to known routes, even if it means congested ports, lengthy tows, and navigating their vessels like glass figurines through the maze of towering stone. And should a ship be wrecked? Only fools attempt the rescue. Cold waters, jagged cliffs, and the ever-watching presence of Fort Hopeless ensure that any soul lost here is lost forever.
Geography
The Ramshackle Islands are a fractured spine of stone, remnants of the Cloudrend Mountains’ furthest reach into the Laughing Sea. Rising sharply from the water, their cliff faces are sheer, their shoals riddled with unseen hazards. The channels between them are tight, deceptive, and forever shifting-a map drawn today will be worthless tomorrow, as the tides move debris, collapse passages, and reveal new deathtraps in the ever-changing labyrinth of rock and water. Despite their hostile terrain, the islands hold a natural harbor-one of the few reliable safe havens in the northern sea. It is here that Everwealth established its northernmost port, a place of war galleons, dockyards, and naval command, its infrastructure barely holding against the ceaseless salt, wind, and sea-worn decay.
Ecosystem
For all its brutality, the Ramshackle Islands teem with life, though little of it is friendly. The waters churn with wreck-serpents and reef lurkers, scavengers that have learned to follow the islands’ deadly reputation, feeding on the remains of those who fail to navigate its treacherous paths. Schools of blackscale pike prowl the depths, their jaws strong enough to crack bone, while above, stormgulls and dusk-petrels wheel endlessly, feeding on whatever scraps the sea spits back. On land, the steep cliffs offer little soil, but within the few pockets of windswept woodland, hardy creatures have carved out a living-gnarled mountain goats cling to rock faces, while shadow-lurking foxes stalk whatever birds or rodents dare stray from cover.
Ecosystem Cycles
The Ramshackle Islands never rest. Spring brings violent gales that scatter wrecks, shift channels, and bury old dangers beneath new rockslides. Summer is the only reprieve, when the waters calm just enough to allow necessary resupply, repairs, and trade-though the air is thick with rot as scavengers flock to feast on the remains of spring’s shipwrecks. Autumn ushers in the first chills, a warning of what’s to come, while winter turns the islands into an unholy trial. The winds sharpen, the tides turn erratic, and ice-laced waters claim any who fall into them.
Localized Phenomena
- The Lantern Maw - A deceptive "safe passage" that has claimed hundreds of ships. In certain light, it appears a clear, open channel, but beneath the surface lurks a series of jagged, unseen peaks, waiting to rip through any hull that dares attempt the crossing.
- The Tethered Dead - Wrecks caught between two cliffs, trapped like broken marionettes, their skeletal remains hanging over the channels. Some say the wind passing through their shattered hulls mimics voices, a warning to those who would repeat their fate.
- The Gilded Abyss - Every decade, the tide pulls back unnaturally far, revealing long-forgotten wreckage coated in gold-like mineral deposits. Many have tried to salvage them. None have returned.
Climate
Life here is wet, wind-beaten, and unkind. The air is thick with salt, the wind is never still, and fog clings to the peaks like a second skin. Storms are frequent, rolling in from the open sea with violent, unforgiving swiftness. In winter, gales turn into razors, cutting through sails and flesh alike, while even in summer, rain and mist remain constant, ensuring that nothing ever dries, nothing ever rests.
Fauna & Flora
- Blackscale Pike - Ruthless, bone-crushing fish known for attacking anything in the water.
- Reef Lurkers - Snake-like scavengers that coil through shipwrecks, stripping them of anything organic.
- Tidewood Trees - The only stunted, salt-hardened trees that manage to root into the islands’ hostile ground.
Natural Resources
- Coal Mines - Essential for Everwealth’s warships, heavily exploited despite constant collapse risks.
- Salvaged Wreckage - The islands’ deadliest secret, the seabed is littered with riches, but no sane sailor dares try to claim them.
- Stone & Iron Deposits - Carved directly from the cliffs, used for fortifications, shipbuilding, and war.
History
The Ramshackle Islands were never meant to be settled. They were a necessity, not a choice. For years in the early days of the Civil Age when tensions were still high, Everwealth relied solely on Wardsea as its maritime stronghold, leaving its northern flank dangerously exposed. This weakness was exploited time and time again-raiders, foreign fleets, and opportunistic privateers plundering the coast with impunity. That changed during the Schism. As Everwealth fought for survival, the islands became a bastion of last resort-an outpost raised in haste, then reinforced, then fortified, until it became a permanent, grim necessity. Now, the islands stand as Everwealth’s northern wall. A place of warships, mercenaries, and the condemned.
Tourism
The Ramshackle Islands hold one of the most feared prisons in Everwealth-Fort Hopeless. Or, as prisoners call it, Fort Glassbeds. No one leaves Fort Hopeless intact. Some bite out their own tongues at the mere mention of being sent here. Others arrive in chains, only to disappear into its halls, never seen again. And yet, rather than hide this brutality, Everwealth embraces it. "If you will not follow the law, you will not be treated lawfully." A message carved into the very stone of the fortress walls. A warning to all who would dare defy the Ram’s Head.
"If you ain’t here for war, work, or a prison sentence, you shouldn’t be here at all."
Alternative Name(s)
'The Dagger Reefs', 'The Fractured Watch', 'The Ram’s Horn', 'Port Prison'.
Owning Organization
Comments