Isla Aukate
Thread Rating:
  • 2 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Calendar Islands
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 Wink


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)
Here are the rest!

July: Tiurai

Many people think July is one of the most magical of the islands because the creatures native to the island are fantastical and some have glimmers of magic themselves. Dragons, unicorns, chimeras, and many other such creatures claim July as their home. The natives are all very proud and stick to their home although some of their children (and a few of the adults) will go off to sew their wild oats before settling back home. The result is that if you happen across a winged cat, or a lion with more than one tail, or a rat with three heads, there is a very good chance they have family that can be traced to one of the mythical races on July.

Another reason why many people seek to live elsewhere is that there is an unspoken caste system on July with the dragons being at the top of the hierarchy and controlling most of the governance duties of the island. They live in fortresses built into the mountains while everyone else lives in villages below or in the vast expanses of desert outside of them. The coast is ringed with a thick jungle that makes entering or exiting difficult if you don’t know the paths. Because of this, July is considered the most mysterious of the islands and is rumored to have many secret treasure troves and other hidden things.

August: Aukate

Aukate is the largest and most populated of the islands and is the last of the three ‘summer’ islands. The central governmental hub is here along with the main base for the military service (the minions) and most of the schools and major research facilities. Out of all of the islands, Aukate has grown the most from the technological and cultural renaissance brought on by Fox’s reign as many new buildings sprung up very quickly. The most impressive of which was the lair itself.

The island is unofficially divided into regions, The Lair region is where most of the Overlord’s facilities are located. The student region houses most of the schools and colleges. And the Residential region is where most civilians live and shop and work. There are also some independent laboratories and small colonies of villages, but for the most part Aukate is the melting pot of the Calendar islands where people go to learn, live, and serve the islands they love.

Tepetema: September

The first of the three Fall islands, September is harsh and rocky and difficult to tame. It has a high population of reptillians who seem to thrive in the harsh elements. There are pockets of forest and a few lakes, but overall September is full of rocky canyons and hills. Some people whisper that there might be ruins full of treasure and secrets here, but few are willing to hunt for them.

Just like it's harsh environment, September houses some harsh industries. Most of the facilities where metal is smelted and fuel and chemicals are refined are on September. Raw materials are prepared here and then shipped to the other islands as needed. Because most of the items requested are from March, most of the business on the island is with that one. Unofficially March is a sister island to September and many of the insectoid and avian workers come to help the refineries on September.

Also, most of the waste generated on the other islands ends up here. Anything that can get recycled will be, and the rest are put in landfills that are handled as environmentally friendly as possible.

October: Okotopa

When you hear of an island where predation is legal and where you may hunt, kill, and potentially eat a sentient species the images conjured up are of large predators attacking defenseless prey animals and lording over them like harsh cruel masters. Well, wipe that image out of your head because October is nothing like that at all.

All too often someone decides they’re going to get in touch with their ‘feral’ side and go to October and hunt. What usually happens is that they get off the boat, make it about half a mile into the jungle there and they are instantly beset upon by one of the tribes of herbivores or omnivores. These tribesmen (the rats and mice particularly like playing with the predator tourists) will usually strip the predator naked, tie them up and laugh at them for an hour or so, and then drag them back to town and drop them on the ‘no predation allowed’ side before returning to their village. The predator animals that live in the forests are usually either irredeemably insane and genuinely dangerous, or have very precise bargains with the nearby prey tribes. All of the predators that live on October are genuinely dangerous, even to each other.

Out of all of the islands, October is the most unknown and most mysterious. Although it is technically part of the Calendar islands and are subject to the Overlord, they have no representatives and no leader. And nobody is willing to go in and try and negotiate as all of the ambassadors have ended up stripped naked and tossed back into town.

November: Noema

Yes, there are humans on Aukate. There are quite a few, actually. And most of them call the last of the fall islands, November, their home.

With Fox’s reign and the expanded need to import items from external sources from time to time, the humans of Aukate serve a particular niche. They and they alone can venture forth and work the boats that carry things and do the face to face business dealings outside of Aukate. Consequently humans live very comfortable lives on the islands and have almost guaranteed employment from the moment they can work on a ship. There are a few nonhumans on the island and many humans who venture to other islands to seek their fortunes in other ways, but for the most part many of the native human population are happy to have well paying work and have settled here.

Because of the export work, the shipyards and storage warehouses for the islands are primarily located on Noema. It is also the only island where actual mechanical engines are used as they are needed to power the large cranes used to unload cargo and pilot the cargo ships.

December: Titema

December is the one island nobody wants to go to willingly if they can help it. Titema is where criminals and the mentally ill are sent. The few people who live independently are colonies formed from people who objected to the sudden technological renaissance on the islands and wanted to get as far from it as possible. The governor is a bear who creatively refers to himself as ‘Polar’.

The magical barrier that shields the islands from prying eyes is generated on December, and the presence of electronic devices weakens it so excessive use is forbidden and any ships that come in are thoroughly inspected for contraband just in case someone tries to smuggle something in. The tablets that are in such heavy use on the other islands are completely useless here and if you are caught with one it will be taken and destroyed.

One thing this lack of technology has spawned are ‘low tech’ innovations where many amazing devices have been built out of clockwork or are controlled by pulleys and gears. The facilities that house criminals and the mentally ill have a few technological items but they are limited and heavily monitored.


And finally, these are not the only islands on Aukate. There are many smaller islands but they're not large enough to hold a large population or any significant industry. This does not give players free reign to invent an island if they don't like what they have to choose from. But it does mean that there's more to the islands than just these twelve.
Finally <3 Twelve interesting islands!
One question: how far or near are the islands between each other? I wonder it due to the extreme variety in climate: are they spread on a good chunk of latitude or it's caused by some magical quirks?
(12-05-2015, 10:56 PM)TheSphinx Wrote: Finally <3 Twelve interesting islands!

They're about 20-40 miles apart. Some less, some more. Enough that you can navigate them by boat in a few hours.

And the variety of climate is a quirk of magic. Although it is nigh impossible to directly tap into it, the magic of Aukate is strong and manifests in things like this.

Interesting trivia: Every four years the island of Aukate gets an actual snowy winter.
Thanks! But now this raises another question: what relation and attitude do people on the Islands have with this magic? A huge spell that shields the archipelago, humans that live centuries, extreme climate variety... do people know about its presence and just acknowledge it as trivial? Or they don't know about it? Basically, how would a generic character react if he were told about all this? Do we know about the existance of magic itself? Since we're not allowed to play magical characters, I feel this could be a useful information to define a character's behavior and knowledge about his/her own world.

A generic character might know that long lived humans and climate controlled islands are 'off' but it is also all that the character has ever known so it wouldn't be that strange or different. Most people on the islands know that their origins were from a 'mad wizard' and the islands were this wizard's playground originally. The wizard is gone but he made the islands to last and function without him. (Some say the natives rebelled against him, some say he ascended and gave the islands to his creations, some say he's still around)

So to a generic character? That's just how it goes. Unicornis on bicycles? Eight foot tall carpenter ants? A winged snake? Sure... whatever.
"Sure, whatever" is an interesting stance on the matter XD
Thanks. I'm sure problems won't arise during RP, but it's good to know how one should react. Can I assume that any reference to real magic outside the myth-shrouded wizard would be met with skepticism?
How big are each islands, compared to islands in our own realm and between themselves?

Aukate is the biggest one, but does it compares in size with Hawaii, Corsica, Australia? Ok, maybe not Australia... :p What about the other islands, in terms of size and shape?
Aukate is the size of the big island of Hawaii. The other main islands, (june july etc) range from 3/5ths to 3/4ths the size of Aukate. There are also many lesser islands dotting around that range in about 500-1000 sq miles and some that aren't terribly habitable but are used for hubs and training Such as Kuakua the boot camp island which is pretty small, something around 100 sq miles.
Ok, thanks. That makes for a quite large archipelago then.

Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)