Heart of Aqshy

The Heart of Aqshy is the huge volcano that rises out of the ashen plains of the Ashen Island and far into the sky, towering over all else in the Lost Archipelago. From beneath this enormous rocky carapace magma bubbles and flows, ever pushing towards the surface. Until it flows out in great rivers that carve their way down miles of mountainside, burning a channel through the wastelands of Ashen Island before they hit the scalding seas surrounding it and cool. Hardening into volcanic rocks, precious geodes and rare ores. Ash plumes soar high on the hot air around the lava, carried up into the atmosphere to be seen for thousands of miles around.

Waves of heat roll off of the Heart of Aqshy so hot they are felt throughout the island, this scorching air that brings with it a sulfurous smell and an acrid taste of smoke. Constantly blowing and fiery hot winds carry this foul air to the South and East, scouring the land in its path of all ordinary life, and leaving blackened plains behind.

Flora and Fauna

Yet creatures still live in this seemingly barren volcano, creatures able to survive the lava and the heat. Atop the food chain sit the magmadroths, huge volcanic lizards, lava drakes that hunt, live and incubate their eggs in the searing heat of the volcanoes underbelly. Aqshy Crows make their roosts upon the Heart. Lesser salamanders and lizards are their prey, omnivores and scavengers that feed on whatever they find. Largely the rock skinned fungi that grow there, living off nutrients in the sulfurous up-drafts. The massive Tuskux can be found along its coast lines. Removed from the food chain slightly, for they have no predators and feed only on plants, are the mysterious Svardons scaly reptiles with a shell of solid rock. Despite their size they go all but unnoticed as they wander the lower cave systems searching for fungi. Only when caught unawares are they seen, for if given even a few seconds warning, they curl up in their shell, and look like nothing more than another pile of rocks. They are not timid however and if forced to fight will do so brutally, with charges like an avalanche and a clubbing tail like a boulder.