Vork
The second largest island in the Forbidden Isles, at about the size of your world’s France, Vork is the headquarters of the Kingdom of Xu
The second largest island in the The Forbidden Isles, Vork is about six hundred miles long and four hundred miles wide from its widest points, shaped in what some might say is like an obsidian blade, though this is a rough analogy. The island’s climate is comparatively warm and wet despite the higher latitude due to an ocean current from the tropics, and so has temperate forest and even rainforest in the northern coasts, while more open terrain in the south. In the centre lie the ruins of a lost people whose existence likely predates even Olm. It is likely they are the ancestors of the modern Xollin people, though this remains to be verified, as the Xu rarely let the Dominion’s archivists enter such sites.
Geography
Surrounded by the fertile waters of the Sapphire Sea, the land in Vork is a mix of forests, open woodland and plains, with the Kaigon Mountains near the centre feeding the River Xol as well as Lake Olomonz in the west. The Xu’s oldest settlements tend to be on the east coast more often, though settling near the river and the plains-heavy southern coast has also been helpful. The primitive Xollin prefer to dwell in the forests where it is easier to dwell than for centaurs, though the natural dangers here are certainly of note.
As only the southern plains and parts of the east coast are suitable for large farming, efforts have been made to cut back at the island’s forests, though fears this will damage the river system to the north are regularly voiced by the pious parts of society, and the current king has no intention of disturbing these sacred sites.
Fauna & Flora
The forests of the island are full of the Bluegrove trees, named for the bluish tint to their bark. Growing anywhere from ten to forty metres in height depending on the local conditions and age, their signature appearance combined with their durability makes them useful to trade with other nations, turned into furniture, idols to the gods, shields and the infamous Xu-longbow. They are deciduous plants, molting their leaves during the autumn and going bare during winter.
Stripescyther
The most charismatic animal native to Vork as well as the smaller islands off the coast like the Kilgrids is the stripescyther. A forest-dwelling relative of the ripper found across Porpuda and introduced to Tzunar, this animal is a stealthy ambush predator that sneaks up on prey such as deer, aurochs, bears, blue murks or even young shoveltooths, grappling with its middle limbs, uses its hand-claws to stab vital organs while the jaws wrap around the back of the neck. Agile and lucky ones can even catch a griffolope mid-flight! The claws are especially used when dealing with larger prey where a strangling bite isn’t as effective, to cause bleeding and shock to bring down prey. As the name suggests, they possess striped fur which they used to camouflage when ambushing prey. The third eye inherent to scythebeasts is very useful for this creature as it grants it a large degree of binocular vision and even a degree of trinocular in certain angles. The singular claw on the arm is straighter and more sword like than that if the ripper, used like a knife. In males, the right claw can be almost three times the length of the left, and is used for fighting amongst one another. They vary in size depending on the region, with the smallest living off smaller islands being little larger than a large dog like a wolfhound. Those living in the forests are noticeably larger, in par with the rippers of Vunk, the largest of that race, though with a lower, more compact build. Little is known about those in the mountains except they often possess tawny or even white fur. The tail as with many scythebeasts is long and muscular, and in their case ends with a sharp tip, resembling a wasp’s stringer, sometimes used in mating. Unlike the Mao-Grii of the east, however, this tip is only involved in display and is not a weapon in and of itself. Revered on the islands by the native humans, and feared among Xu, they certainly deserve their iconic status.Great Moon Bear
The largest bear in all of the Isles, these fearsome forest dwellers survive on almost anything the environment has to offer. Getting their name from their dark, almost blue fur and the white, crescent shaped symbol on their chest, they are very territorial and aggressive, capable of overwhelming even stripescythers and wolves in combat. Rarely seen by centaurs, they are revered as gods by the Xollin, and are believed to cause many deaths of Xu explorers alongside the stripescythers. Males of this beast can be as tall as a fully grown centaur at the withers, and with a much bulkier build, suggesting these beasts could reach more than ten feet tall on their hind legs. Females are only three-fifths of the size, but are no less fearsome, especially when their cubs are threatened. It seems they do not compete with the smaller black bears that dwell in the trees, and brown bears are absent on Vork, so these assume the position of most iconic omnivore in the region.Shoveltooth
Herbivores present here include various species of deer, a local variant of aurochs, four races of woolly monkey, and the shoveltooth. In many ways similar to the tuskers of Tzunar, shoveltooths like to dwell around rivers and lakes, and are good swimmers, found throughout the Forbidden Isles and even having a dwarf form living in the Northern Isles. Those of Vork are the most common and largest however, due to a combination of a cooler climate and more intact wetlands. These animals feed on a mix of semi-aquatic plants and bark, using their teeth to shovel up aquatic vegetation as well as to grind on bark to extract the nutrients. Preferring open forward and wetlands, they nevertheless migrate across the plains during winters when waters freeze up, but avoid competition with the blue-murks by feeding on bark rather than grass. They surpass those animals as the largest native animal in Vork, at almost three metres tall at the shoulder and weighing almost six tonnes for the largest males; a half bigger than those on Tzunar. The reasons for this are unknown. They also have a black and white colour scheme rather than the grey that others elsewhere have.Natural Resources
The rich bark and minerals of the nearest mountains make Vork economically viable, while the waters surrounding are rich in fish and seaweed, making food, gold and other minerals relatively easy to access, particularly since the current king began extensive mining projects in the caves near the mountains. Due to the more herbivorous nature of centaurs compared to humans, they have less need for sheep and cattle, tending to keep them in relatively sparse quantities, and more for the benefit of the rich than for the average citizen. The Xollin, have domesticated a local form of pig as well as aurochs to feed themselves, and also are said to hunt the woolly monkeys that dwell in the forests during summer, and retreat to the mountain hot springs during winter. The northern coast’s diverse bird population are particularly regarded, and often harvested from the city of Dio, originally built by Olm under the ruins of a lost native city, initially known as Dunz.
Alternative Name(s)
Xu
Type
Island
Location under
Included Organizations
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Related Ethnicities
Characters in Location
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