12-04-2015, 10:55 AM
Since all of you have to be from somewhere, I'm going to start posting my writeups about the different islands here. Sorry it's a big chunk of text, but with twelve islands there's a lot to say.
I'm still working on them all, mind you. But for starters, here's the first six months of the year. Expect the rest in a couple of days, or maybe later today if I don't sleep
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January: Tiaanuare
January is not as cold as its sister island, December, but is still a cold wilderness. Although the island is nowhere near the poles, there are periods of extended daylight in the summer and extended night in the winter along with instances of aurora borealis. The winters are harsh and the spring and summer are small and fleeting, which means that many cold-blooded races tend to steer clear of this island while creatures designed for the cold often thrive. Some will even come to the port city of Kula on January to vacation.
Although the inhabitants of January are not as wary of technology as December, the inhabitants prefer living the frontier life and living off of the land. Since crops don’t fare well on January but fishing is plentiful, many of the dwellers are carnivores and omnivores with a high population of bears, wolves, raccoons, opossums, and mice. There is also a constant flow of people coming in with the hope of making their fortune panning for gold and people going out who have either failed to make that fortune or locals who want to see what life is like elsewhere.
January’s primary appeal within the Calendar Islands are the mines. The island is very rich in metal including iron, copper, and gold. There are also sources of oil, natural gas, and coal but the largest mines are owned and regulated by the local chimenticore roosts. It is also rumored that the two largest gold mines on the island are owned by a certain elven accountant.
February: Peeperuare
Febuary is the third of the three winter islands and even though it has a colder climate than most of the islands it only has four months of winter as opposed to the six months January gets and the nine that December experiences.
Whenever someone says they are going to the February island, it is assumed that they are going there for a party or a tryst. Many couples go there go there to get married as well, especially during the Rose festival held every year. The festival occurs when a rosebush in the main square of the island’s capital opens its first bloom, which means that the festival’s date is never quite easy to predict.
Unfortunately the island has a darker side as well. The mayor of the island, Damba Khari (known by most as simply D. K.) holds strongly to the belief that the paler your fur color is, the more ‘pure’ you are. It is no coincidence that all of the powerful families on February have white fur while the more poverty stricken sections of town have races with darker fur. Pedigree is also important and if your family is not a pure member of the species you might be frowned upon. Tourists are often an exception to this rule as February makes a great deal of its income from tourism. The natives are also heavily encouraged to hide this particularly dark side of the island’s social climate from non-natives.
March: Maati
The first of the trio of ‘Spring’ islands, March is heavily populated by avians and insectoids. The vegetation is lush and green with massive towering trees.
The thick jungles hide dozens of small factories where many of the mass produced items on Aukate are made. They don’t do much development, but when an item is ready to be mass produced and distributed to the general public it was most likely made on Maati. An example are the tablets everyone uses. If you have a personal tablet it was probably made on March. Many textiles, appliances, and tools are manufactured there as well. The local population of insects seem perfect for factory work with many factories being own by specific hives, the equivalent of a ‘family business’ were a family to have hundreds and hundreds of members.
For transportation, there is an extensive tunnel system under the island that serves both the chimenticores and also much of the local insect population as well as many roads that chimenticore carts travel down to deliver the island’s goods to the port city of Kukulu where they are ferried off to the rest of the islands.
But the population is more than strictly avians and insects. Many people from the other islands come to help supervise production, maintain machines, and some just come to enjoy the amazing scenery as there is no other place on Aukate with trees that rival the tallest redwoods and caves that could keep a spelunker happy for years.
April: Aperira
Aperira is an interesting contrast of wild and tame. Jungles with wild tribesmen roam the darkened rainforests that cover this island, but there are numerous pockets of civilization that have completely mastered their environment.
Many people view April as the perfect vacation spot and often come here to relax and unwind amidst the peaceful locals. There are many rental cabins with fishing, hiking trails, and lots of shopping for the visiting tourist. The locals that live in the towns are well known for being friendly and welcoming and as long as you don’t go too deep inland all you’ll see is a lovely little paradise.
Deeper in is another matter though. Although there are many varied feral tribes living in the untamed jungles, the derogatory term for all of the tribesmen are ‘Jaguars’. On April, you can be a mouse and still be called a ‘Jaguar’, and the term is not complimentary on Aperia, even if that is what your species is. Because of this, most of the spotted cats who live in the coastal towns claim to be leopards.
May: Me
Every place with a significant population needs a place where the food comes from. On the Calendar islands, that place is May. This island is blessed with fertile soil, green pastures, and a climate perfect for growing most anything. It is also the second largest island in the calendar island chain, with Aukate as the largest.
May is where cows, pigs, chickens, and even a few fish farms are as well as sprawling grassland for grazing and crops. Many students will come here and work off internships and earn extra money by working the various farms. Some are simple farms that grow corn or soybeans and are run by a family. Some are hydroponic labs that grow lettuce without soil.
June: Tiunu
June is populated by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures along with many species of ‘extinct’ animals. Some dinosaurs are ‘correct’ in that they have feathers, but some look more like Hollywood dinosaurs simply because they were designed partially from imagination as much as realism. The inhabitants of June are fiercely independent and when Fox took Rex’s place they seceded from the islands. They are currently in negotiations to rejoin, but there are many stipulations.
One of the biggest things to note about June (besides the big hurking dinosaurs wandering around) is it's lush vegetation and many tribes of smaller dinosaurs living in the wilderness. the plant life is vibrant and healthy and the soil is more fertile and viable than May, but the moment someone so much as whispers about cutting areas down for farmland the natives get in an uproar. Thus, that particular resource has never been tapped.
June is largely self sufficient but exports some lumber, a great deal of bamboo, and minerals to the other islands.
------------------------
(More later)
I'm still working on them all, mind you. But for starters, here's the first six months of the year. Expect the rest in a couple of days, or maybe later today if I don't sleep
---------------------------
January: Tiaanuare
January is not as cold as its sister island, December, but is still a cold wilderness. Although the island is nowhere near the poles, there are periods of extended daylight in the summer and extended night in the winter along with instances of aurora borealis. The winters are harsh and the spring and summer are small and fleeting, which means that many cold-blooded races tend to steer clear of this island while creatures designed for the cold often thrive. Some will even come to the port city of Kula on January to vacation.
Although the inhabitants of January are not as wary of technology as December, the inhabitants prefer living the frontier life and living off of the land. Since crops don’t fare well on January but fishing is plentiful, many of the dwellers are carnivores and omnivores with a high population of bears, wolves, raccoons, opossums, and mice. There is also a constant flow of people coming in with the hope of making their fortune panning for gold and people going out who have either failed to make that fortune or locals who want to see what life is like elsewhere.
January’s primary appeal within the Calendar Islands are the mines. The island is very rich in metal including iron, copper, and gold. There are also sources of oil, natural gas, and coal but the largest mines are owned and regulated by the local chimenticore roosts. It is also rumored that the two largest gold mines on the island are owned by a certain elven accountant.
February: Peeperuare
Febuary is the third of the three winter islands and even though it has a colder climate than most of the islands it only has four months of winter as opposed to the six months January gets and the nine that December experiences.
Whenever someone says they are going to the February island, it is assumed that they are going there for a party or a tryst. Many couples go there go there to get married as well, especially during the Rose festival held every year. The festival occurs when a rosebush in the main square of the island’s capital opens its first bloom, which means that the festival’s date is never quite easy to predict.
Unfortunately the island has a darker side as well. The mayor of the island, Damba Khari (known by most as simply D. K.) holds strongly to the belief that the paler your fur color is, the more ‘pure’ you are. It is no coincidence that all of the powerful families on February have white fur while the more poverty stricken sections of town have races with darker fur. Pedigree is also important and if your family is not a pure member of the species you might be frowned upon. Tourists are often an exception to this rule as February makes a great deal of its income from tourism. The natives are also heavily encouraged to hide this particularly dark side of the island’s social climate from non-natives.
March: Maati
The first of the trio of ‘Spring’ islands, March is heavily populated by avians and insectoids. The vegetation is lush and green with massive towering trees.
The thick jungles hide dozens of small factories where many of the mass produced items on Aukate are made. They don’t do much development, but when an item is ready to be mass produced and distributed to the general public it was most likely made on Maati. An example are the tablets everyone uses. If you have a personal tablet it was probably made on March. Many textiles, appliances, and tools are manufactured there as well. The local population of insects seem perfect for factory work with many factories being own by specific hives, the equivalent of a ‘family business’ were a family to have hundreds and hundreds of members.
For transportation, there is an extensive tunnel system under the island that serves both the chimenticores and also much of the local insect population as well as many roads that chimenticore carts travel down to deliver the island’s goods to the port city of Kukulu where they are ferried off to the rest of the islands.
But the population is more than strictly avians and insects. Many people from the other islands come to help supervise production, maintain machines, and some just come to enjoy the amazing scenery as there is no other place on Aukate with trees that rival the tallest redwoods and caves that could keep a spelunker happy for years.
April: Aperira
Aperira is an interesting contrast of wild and tame. Jungles with wild tribesmen roam the darkened rainforests that cover this island, but there are numerous pockets of civilization that have completely mastered their environment.
Many people view April as the perfect vacation spot and often come here to relax and unwind amidst the peaceful locals. There are many rental cabins with fishing, hiking trails, and lots of shopping for the visiting tourist. The locals that live in the towns are well known for being friendly and welcoming and as long as you don’t go too deep inland all you’ll see is a lovely little paradise.
Deeper in is another matter though. Although there are many varied feral tribes living in the untamed jungles, the derogatory term for all of the tribesmen are ‘Jaguars’. On April, you can be a mouse and still be called a ‘Jaguar’, and the term is not complimentary on Aperia, even if that is what your species is. Because of this, most of the spotted cats who live in the coastal towns claim to be leopards.
May: Me
Every place with a significant population needs a place where the food comes from. On the Calendar islands, that place is May. This island is blessed with fertile soil, green pastures, and a climate perfect for growing most anything. It is also the second largest island in the calendar island chain, with Aukate as the largest.
May is where cows, pigs, chickens, and even a few fish farms are as well as sprawling grassland for grazing and crops. Many students will come here and work off internships and earn extra money by working the various farms. Some are simple farms that grow corn or soybeans and are run by a family. Some are hydroponic labs that grow lettuce without soil.
June: Tiunu
June is populated by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures along with many species of ‘extinct’ animals. Some dinosaurs are ‘correct’ in that they have feathers, but some look more like Hollywood dinosaurs simply because they were designed partially from imagination as much as realism. The inhabitants of June are fiercely independent and when Fox took Rex’s place they seceded from the islands. They are currently in negotiations to rejoin, but there are many stipulations.
One of the biggest things to note about June (besides the big hurking dinosaurs wandering around) is it's lush vegetation and many tribes of smaller dinosaurs living in the wilderness. the plant life is vibrant and healthy and the soil is more fertile and viable than May, but the moment someone so much as whispers about cutting areas down for farmland the natives get in an uproar. Thus, that particular resource has never been tapped.
June is largely self sufficient but exports some lumber, a great deal of bamboo, and minerals to the other islands.
------------------------
(More later)