Crab Lands

The Crab Lands are a Wild West + Aztec inspired community of pirates, wild beasts, and jungle top communities.

Ah yes, the "Crab Lands". home of diseased pirates, carriage sized crocodiles, and deadly falls from walkways just below the jungle treeline. No thank you.

-Kibal, Worldly Bard

History

Only found roughly 42 years before The Second Arrival, the Crab Lands history has been cobbled together via oral storytelling, discovered ruins, carvings, conversations with its natives, and crude art pieces. Lacking a fully formed writing language, it is suspected that many gaps and issues exist within the History of the Crab Lands, and as such it is to be considered "generally accurate" and "within 10 years for listed events". A brief summary can be found below;
Aelphias, a plant-like humanoid species engaged in irregular and long-lasting military conflicts with the other island Snake-like natives, the Vishkanya, which are believed to be ancient ancestors of the now more integrated species of the same name. When the main Aelphias population centers were destroyed by a hydra under the Vishkanya's control, it split into two separate tribes. The more social and technologically inclined Western Tribe and the more xeno-phobic and druidic eastern tribe. 
Pirates discovered the islands in roughly 45 First Arrival Era (FAE), and set up an outpost as a safe haven in case of needed repairs, trading, or safety from outside forces. The Western tribe discovered this outpost, and for a decade observed it and it's residents with seemingly no desire to engage the strangers. In 33 FAE, pirates exploring the island stumbled across Aelphias hunters, and engaged them in combat, before they were overwhelmed and their outpost raided and destroyed. Raftgown and Goldscape pirates would continue to attempt to set up new outposts and frequently were repelled by the island natives. 
After years of constant battling and losing, the pirates began to notice Aelphias using their firearms and cannons, and eventually in 32 FAE, a totally unique design of the native's creation. Shortly after these novel firearms began production, the Eastern Tribe officially denounced and exiled their western cousins, leading to further cultural strains in the western tribes morals and desires. Evenutally, Goldscape, curious of the constant pirate activity heading towards an unknown landmass, discover the island chain and it's natives and attempt diplomacy with the Western Aelphias. 
After years of sending gifts and peace offerings, a cleric and paladin of The All Mother would manage to convince the tribe to open their borders to explorers and traders. With peace made and a loose promise of decreased pirate activity, irregular trade ships would arrive at the island for it's various exotic plantlife and materials. Upon the discovery of rare alchemical ingredients and a special type of crude whiskey, this trade would significantly ramp up in 10 FAE. 
With new regular trade routes, Luraid would send ships to investigate the area suspecting the growing wealth of Goldscape may be due to a secretly discovered landmass, and discovered the Crab Lands, similarly making peace with the tribes. Luraid began to send regular explorers, seeking arcane knowledge, the history of the island chain, and to map out the archipelago completely. 
In 3 Second Arrival Era (SAE), the Western Aelphias have begun to regularly construct and export their own model of firearms, accepting magical items or other technological goods as trade. With the new materials and equipment, in 4 SAE, the Western Aelphias tribe begins to construct ships capable of deep water exploration and underwater travel due to the Aelphias relatively low requirement for air. Shortly after, in 6 SAE, rumors of Aelphias underwater ships with undead crew from Malward begin to surface, increasing fear of "ghost ships from under the waves" across the seas.

Geography

Due to the wide swath and tight grouping of dozens and dozens of island chains, it is near impossible to give detailed explanations of all the named and unnamed land masses and features across the Crab Lands. Generally, each island can have some of, but rarely all, of the following features:

• Sea Cliffs and Caves (With caves possibly being totally submerged)
• Rainy Jungles and Boggy Marshlands (Typically together, creating sucking mud for miles.)
• Active Volcanoes
• Atoll and Lagoons
• Sand or Pebble Beaches

Politics

There are 3 large identities across the Crab Lands that all claim some stake across the islands and often the waters connecting them.
The Tortagona Pirates, which all run and manage induival strongholds and cities. They may squabble with eachother, but generally use their forts as launching off points to hit merchant vessels and do occasional coastal raids. No single leader unites them, and each pirate town or fort may have different rules, leaders, and support structure.
The Linin Free People, who are individual towns and villages of former sailors and pirates that claim to live under one banner. Typically though, this is just thought of as frontier towns that have to dote justice and law themselves in the form of Sheriffs and posses. They are generally enemies of the pirates, preferring honest jobs as snail ranchers and farmers to sell goods. They typically avoid coin when possible to keep pirates disinterested, and commonly use bartering systems, even when they travel outside of the crablands.
The Yuan-Ti tribes, which are all independent of each other in everything but appearance. They generally are doted as religious warlike people that tame local monsters to conduct raids on the Lininan's, but fighting between tribes is common. They reside in massive stone temples, pyramids, and complex winding cities that dwarf any Pirate or Lintina settlements across the Crablands.

Demographics

The Crab Lands are a melting pot of various stranded ships, merchants and pirates from across the world. As such, they have possibly the most diverse races in single cities, excluding the Yuan-Ti, who do not accept outsiders into their cities. Notably, the crablands does have the highest population density of Aelphias in the world.

Type

Geopolitical, Country