Suliel Island is the largest and northernmost inhabited isle of the Ilyrean chain. Steeped within the frigid, ice-locked waters of the Borean Ocean far north of Sapience, its remote shores play host to a variety of factions that all struggle for power over the gelid snow fields and tundra.
Geography
Suliel Island is surrounded by the choppy Borean pancake ice of the distant north, beyond the Tundra of the Northern Sapience mainland. It lies at the northwest end of the Ilyrean chain, and to date is the farthest northern land save a small, uncharted islet beyond the rough waters to the northeast. Suliel lies at a longitude comparable to that of Kamleikan, though its latitude is displaced nearly as far northward of Kamleikan as Kamleikan is from Ashtan. Two passages have been discovered leading to the isle: an eastern passage that curves in a wide arc around the uncharted northeastern shore of Sapience, and a western passage that rounds the Ishana Peninsula.
Suliel's local geography, a wasteland of broken, rocky ice fields, can be disconcerting to prospective navigators. At the south end is a southward-projecting peninsula upon which a native settlement has sprung up. To the northwest lies a conscription camp of mixed Sulien and mercenary ranks, and east of that is the original mercenary encampment. Rising from the centre of the isle is Suliel Tower, an ice-hewn palace populated by fell arctic creatures. A natural harbour squats upon the eastern lowlands, and a man-made dock extends from the native settlement off the western coast.
History
Eldest among the Sulien settlements is a native village upon the southern peninsula, founded by survivors of a shipwreck from Kamleikan. Oral traditions state that the waves encountered were three times as large as the ship, and after a maritime battering that left the vessel nearly in pieces, the lost travellers were forced to land upon the first isle they came across. A graveyard was dug for those who did not survive the ravages of the storm, and eventually a village sprung up around it.
More recently, a band of mercenaries came to land upon the isle. Led by Lord Vesnor and his lieutenant Oliviar, the mercenaries were promised riches and power beyond compare for their role in helping Vesnor free a mysterious entity known only as the "ice-god." Many native Suliens have joined the mercenary camps, whether to attain the wealth so grandly promised to them, to protect their homes and families, or by conscription.
In the wake of a storm that broke up the choppy northern waters and pancake ice in midwinter of 463 AF, Inuad Stormsong Cholla'Yi, captain of the ship known as the Icedancer, landed upon the east coast of Suliel as the first of an exploratory vanguard. A month or two later, the native Suliens took advantage of their Sapient visitations and constructed a manmade harbour upon the western shore of the isle.
Fauna
Across the endless and winding reaches of the Sulien tundra roam aggressive polar bears, hulking omatu, arctic foxes, silvery normines, greater yawos, herds of hardy reindeer, docile tundra wolves, and speckled harp seals. Stranger, more malevolent creatures roam the interior of Suliel Tower: iridwyns, lokela beasts, lesser yawos, living statues of ice golems, and gelid hydras.
Inhabitants
- Anaman, the warrior
- Avhor, the village chieftain
- Crissa, the warrioress
- Dharia, the Sulien cook
- Eldharen, the healer
- Emo, the architect
- Garadh, the Hunter
- Kindor, the master trainer
- Loridha, the huntress
- Miren, the watchman
- Oliviar, the overseer
- Radhen, the fisherman
- Teroq, the trainer
- Velkan, the Dwarven blacksmith
- Lord Vesnor
- Vhilen, the head fisherman
- Zhingidh, the Keeper