Welcome to the Ocean

Unc. Nk.--

Grat for the support! Maestro prolly would've given the nod without it, but your weighing in was a real boost. I'll do my best to keep on top of this. Still would be extra grat if you stumble on anyone else who'd also like to take a fling at it.

Elan

Greetings, and welcome to my description thesis.

My name is Elan Straibala, and I am an Eihlarian scribe studying to specialize in explanation. My goal in undertaking this project is to create a comprehensive guide to the modern world, as suitable for introducing vastlanders to the history and cultures of the Cluster Islands as islanders to the same of the Vastland. The contents at this time are woefully inadequate, and heavily unbalanced in favor of information about the islands, but I aim to improve that ratio as our vastland outpost team produces more reports.
You may be thinking that this is an excessively ambitious project for someone who is not yet accredited, and you are correct. However, the idea was not originally mine. I am continuing work begun by someone who intended to put together a similar guide, but was unable to complete it. I feel tremendous respect for the effort she put into it, but I feel obligated to note that despite her attempt to be as accurate as possible, there are many cases where she clearly fabricated information. Much of it I will admit is plausible, but some is outright ridiculous. Therefore I will be revising existing articles in addition to writing new content.

The Ocean and Islands

Our world is a cluster of islands surrounded by a limitless expanse of water. The wealthiest and most influential islands are in the center of the cluster, engaging in trade across the Inside Sea between them. Other settled islands lie some distance into long ocean gaps, and depending on context may or may not be considered part of the cluster. The only known edge to the ocean is at the Vastland, far to the west, where we now know our ancestors came from.

Our Recent History

At this writing it is the 2070th year of the Volcanic Era, which began when the underground heat from our mountains was first used to run machinery. For most of the era the Cluster Islands have each governed themselves individually, with neither interference nor cooperation from other islands. That's not to say there haven't been conflicts, but until the last hundred years those were confined to individual islands. Tiderider families controlled transportation of people and goods between islands for most of our history, and were indifferent to island concerns.
All of this changed with the installation of the conduits, 70 years ago. These tracks connect the islands, and specialized boats can travel between them in a fraction of the time of traditional sail. For all the undeniable advantages of this increased connectedness, the associated danger was immediately realized when the conduits' inventor used them to form a multi-island economical and political organization called the Unity. It quickly turned from an autocracy to a tyranny, and it lasted four decades until it was overthrown.
At this time the islands are all once again independent, although there is a pan-island advisory council. I would like to be able to say we are a world at peace, and compared to what things were like under the Unity, that's mostly true. But recently there have been more sabotage attacks on the conduits, and raids on smaller islands hint that the old Unity forces haven't been completely eliminated.

Water Seekers

There is another reason that the previous two thousand years have been mostly peaceful ones. There is an area of the ocean called the Eddy which attracts people with a certain type of strong watersense. Called Water Seekers, they appreciate the calmness of the Eddy, and find the sensation of people in distress to be distracting. There are many documented incidents over the Cluster Islands' history of Water Seekers suddenly arriving on an island in the aftermath of a natural disaster or event of violence.
Then the Water Seekers themselves became victims of an unnatural disaster. With no warning, a previously dormant undersea volcano erupted directly beneath the Eddy. While there is no documentation to prove it, it is commonly accepted that this was a deliberate use of the Eruptor, the very weapon that the Unity later used to threaten island governments into compliance.
In the decades since the Unity's dissolution, the Water Seekers have experienced a resurgence. The New Eddy is based on the island created in the eruption, and while it is not the same organization that it was before, it is a hopeful sign of the world's recovery from the Unity's dominance.