1000 Islands

Aeaea
An island of repose that appears to lost travellers heading home. It is governed by a powerful sorceress who attempts to help travellers with their quests, but first wants to find out as much as she can about them. She does not have much contact with the outside world, so uses the arrival of travellers to find out about it. The island is most likely to appear as travellers are headed home with treasure from a quest.

While the sorceress appears to be the one beguiling visitors, it is actually the island-plane that she has created. The island is flush with goodberry trees and bushes that provide for its inhabitants, as well as colourful peacocks that are delicious to eat. Overall, a character cannot wilfully leave the island until the one-year anniversary of their arrival. They can be relieved of this curse, but will spend weeks to investigate things that should take days as they slowly loose interest in leaving. After suspecting the Sorceress, the food, even the sky, they might eventually (with a DC 30 investigation check) be able to figure out that the allure of the Island comes from a permanent sympathy spell that targets heroes. The spell is broken simply by performing an unheroic or cowardly act. Otherwise it fades after one year.

The governing Sorceress (An Archmage and the Island’s guardian) knows the origin of the spell, but she is the one who cast it, so she is not willing to reveal this secret. She wants to host the party for their entire year, but other travellers might turn up or already be there as well.

Antillia
A perfectly rectangular travelling island with seven port cities that correspond to Abqaria, the Feywild, the Shadowfell, the Underdark, and three ports in Ardun. The island is 50 miles wide and 200 miles long. This island can only be reached by use of a map that depicts it in relation to a port city from which travellers must leave, and they can only arrive in the designated port city corresponding to their continent, and vice-versa for leaving the island. If the island is approached from any other place (with the use of a map) travellers are shipwrecked on the coast. The seven cities are constantly warring with one another.

The seven cities of Antillia obviously carry the character of their corresponding ports in other planes, however because they are constantly at war, there is no short-cut to creating trade routes to other continents through Antillia except for the black-market routes that already exist. The entire Island is run by its guardian, a Beholder who governs the united underworld and keeps the surface factions in constant war to prevent them from rising against him.

Annwn
An island of transcendence where bodies are deposited by priests of fey-related death gods. Once deposited, the bodies rise in the majestic form of Dryads, tied to their graves on the island instead of trees. The island is full of these dryads, whose bodies represent their material bodies in prime condition, even if they never achieved such a state in life. They do not need to eat, but visitors do. Likewise, the death dogs and ghouls on the island do not bother its regular inhabitants, who spend their time singing, drinking and making merry, but these guardians will seek out the living.

The island appears to be part of the Feywild, with huge hardwood trees and broad leafed plants covering its surface. It is about four miles across in every direction, with no towns or villages, but family plots of graves and small family temples where dryadic ancestors reside. These temples can offer protection from the Wraiths of the Harvest Moon. The sky, like the Feywild, is constantly covered in aurorae except for one night every year when the full moon rises and the island descends into the Ocean of Death.

Every year on the Harvest Moon the island descends to the Ocean of Death where wraiths take the souls of the dead on the island, either willingly or unwillingly. These wraiths hate the living more than anything and will target them first of all, but will also give the dryads an extra year of paradise for helping to destroy the living who are hiding on the island. The island returns to Manatuana after 24hrs have passed.

This island is guarded by a pair of young green dragons that have been charged with keeping order on the island. They are forbidden from harming the regular inhabitants of the island, but will stalk and interact with living beings who have found their way there. This relationship usually concludes with some sort of ransom or exploitation on the part of the green dragons, threatening the visitors with death or worse if they do not reveal important secrets or offer satisfactory tribute.

Argadnel
An island of Repose.

Avalon
An island-kingdom of Repose that only appears when one is lost in marshes on a quest given by a social superior (especially a king). It hosts a large apple orchard and castle, both welcoming to visitors. There is a small dock that serves as a port to Emain. Leaving Avalon will deposit travellers in the marsh nearest their quest goal. Avalon’s Guardian is an elderly knight (Warlord) who is always stationed in the castle to defend it.

The castle of Avalon is eerily empty aside from the Guardian knight, and in the place of a throne room or court, there is a huge round table situated in the base of one of the larger towers. The party will be given rooms in the towers, and will quickly find that pacing through the halls and eating at the banquets becomes an irresistible fascination. They will be absolutely driven mad with expectation, waiting for the lord of the castle to return or for some other guest to turn up. This spell will only be broken once another adventurer does show up, reveal their quest, and take up residence in the castle.

Baltia
Transcendent Island covered with beautiful Baltia trees that ooze an irritating honey-like sap. The Island descends into the Elemental Plane of Fire every 3 years, emerging with the Baltia trees scorched into pure amber, their seeds now fertile. The island is uninhabited except by amber miners, Baltia dragons (pseudodragons), and Baltia dryads, and can only be reached by those who have been there before. The miners build some small wooden buildings periodically, but others they build from stone to ensure they survive the fire. The island is guarded by a young red dragon and the ent Baltia.

Baralku
Island of the Dead for followers of celestial, beauty and sea goddesses. Can only be reached if navigated to with the aid of a ghost by following a star. Ghosts can clearly see the island, but no other living or undead creature can until they arrive there. When Maven is in transit of the sun (about once every 400 years), the island ascends to the Plane of Maven for 4 hours, where it appears in the middle of a lake and allows living inhabitants to cross into this plane of existence. When Maven is in transit of the moon (about once per year), the island descends into the Ocean of Death for 24hours and is scoured by wraiths.

The Island itself is roughly circular, about three miles across, with a large temple in the centre. The temple is built to house the many statues of the star, beauty and sea goddesses. Dead bodies deposited here regain their most healthful form and behave as dryads, bound to their corresponding goddess statue instead of a tree. The statues do not permit non-believers on the island and have ''helmed horror'' stats. The temple has a circular courtyard in the middle with a 30ft pole in the middle. On top of that pole there is a string of spider silk that ascends all the way up to Maven. Diviners and priests can use the string to cast augury and divination at will. One of the women on the island is bound to the pole instead of a statue and is the guardian of the island (a war priest). She is not removed when the island goes into the underworld but remains to guard the island until she passes that duty on to another.

Brasilia
Island can be sailed to normally for one day every seven years, appearing off the Western coast of Europa within sight of the mainland.

Brittia
An Island of the Dead. Can only be reached while sailing with a dead body during the day. Visitors must not be in an ocean-going vessel, must declare their intent to go to Brittia and drop 2gp into the water. Fog surrounds the ship and they soon come ashore. At night the island descends onto the Ocean of Death, however wraiths do not come onto the island. They wait near the shore for the inhabitants of the island to send the bodies in little canoes built for the purpose called coffinboats. The inhabitants of the island build and send off the canoes, and in return are not visited by or taxed by any authority. For this reason the island is usually filled with runaways, bandits and wanted men. The bodies that are not sent away rise as ghasts and ghouls 24hrs after their arrival to the island, and if any taxman or bounty hunter comes to the island the guardian will hunt them down.

Brittia is always cloudy during the day, and about a mile out from shore there is a constant fog. Sailing into this fog sends ships back to wherever the captain of the ship arrived from. The island has a port city where most of the activity happens, however it is about two miles across, and its shores must always be watched. If a body is left at the shore and not sent away, a ghoul will roam the hills looking for a meal until it is eventually dealt with. Sometimes entire warships arrive on the shore, having all of their crew killed in battle or disease, and they must quickly be cannibalized into coffin-boats to be sent away within 24hrs. Otherwise the wood for coffinboats comes from coffintrees, which grow very quickly on the island and grow hollow. The island is guarded and its basic rules maintained by a horned devil named Baltan of Brittia.

Buyan
Can only be reached by sailing from land against an incoming tide or sailing into land during an outgoing tide. Home to three storm giants and a number of sun dryads.

California
The only island which connects to land in the Prime Material Plane. If travellers walk north until they are lost they will appear somewhere on the west coast of the Spirit Continent. The island cannot be reached by land. It is ruled by a queen called Califa (A medusa) and inhabited by dryads similar to those of Waqwaq, but instead of being bound to wakwak trees they are bound to the whole island, only Califa is bound to the ent Caw-Leaf.

Chryse
An island-city of transcendence with a large sun temple at its centre and an excess of poisonous snakes. It has a port to Chrysargos and can only be accessed from the Prime Material plane by sailing into the sunrise or sunset. On the Solstices at noon it ascends to hover just below the burning clouds of the Plane of Fire for six hours.

Chrysargos
These twin islands each have mountains that have huge deposits of gold and silver respectively. Otherwise the islands can only be found by heading east while lost at sea. The sea between these islands is fresh water and each has a port facing the other across this sea. Each island is visible from the other and they are Islands of Repose.

The Western Island has a city sprawled across its south side from the port to Chryse to the Eastward Port. Only the northern mountain of the island is uninhabited, however it is covered with the cottages and shanties of prospectors. Mining is governed by the Oligarchy, which takes a tax of gold from all that is pulled out of the mountain. The most remarkable thing on the island is the temple to the Sun, which was built by humans several hundred years ago. The islands originally appeared to be part of the Shadowfell, with only luminous clouds and no sky, but the temple was built that emits and retracts a false sun every day in 24hr cycles. It is a 15 foot diameter gold and diamond ball that rises and falls from the Temple of the Sun.

The Eastern Island is not as vibrant, and sells most of its silver to the Shadowfell, but also has the vast majority of industry as its foundries can operate on the coal pulled from their mountain. Both islands suffer an infestation of rust monsters that hamper mining operations as well as constant battles with foreign states and organized crime rings attempting to infiltrate the cities. They have an extensive and cooperative police and military force that consists largely of wizards and priests.

The lake is home to the guardian, a twin-headed silver and gold dragon with an electrum body.

Crockerland
This travelling island appears to explorers who are looking for something. It appears to have much of that thing, and the explorers can take samples home as proof to their benefactors, but are usually required to make an extortionate deal to do so. The island cannot be found by those looking for it or those who have been there before, it is guarded by an Efreet.

Dunwich
This is a very strange transcendent island. When a maiden from a coastal village is heartbroken and throws herself into the sea or otherwise kills herself in the ocean, her heart will return as driftwood to the village. The villagers then have three days to find and drown whoever broke the young woman’s heart or else the entire village will be washed away in a storm and sent adrift in the Elemental Plane of Water for 100 years as it gradually dissolves and decays. These islands are known as Dunwich or Drownwitch, there is only ever one at a time and it can only be reached from the shore where the village had been washed away.

Elaea
A travelling island that can be found when travelling across a body of water that separates two states. It can be intentionally travelled to if two state leaders (such as kings) agree to meet there to discus policy. The people of Elaea are mostly humans, though there is a large number of half-elves as well. Their economy is based off of brokering deals between powerful states and their local politics are formed of a republic. There are no open markets or taverns, but rather expensive hotels and brokers. Rival kings and their entourages from distant lands arrive every few months, sometimes overlapping eachother as their negotiations go on. Eleae can also be reached by agreement of inter-planar lords, but not by those feuding over a land-locked or oceanic boundary.

Emain
An island of repose with a port to Avalon, but found at sea. This island is also covered with apple orchards but has no castle. The people there live a simple life and love to be entertained by stories of heroism. They are the heroes retired from Avalon and their descendants.

Emeraldia
A travelling island that appears to those lost headed south. It is composed of condensed fog and the ice-covered wrecks of other ships that discovered it. Ships that stay anchored there for more than six hours become locked in ice, however the other ships make alluring targets for grabbing supplies or treasure. These ships are often plagued by ghosts, ghouls and zombies of frozen crew.

Estotiland
A travelling Island that can only be reached by means of a forged map with a fake island on it. A captain who believes the island is real and heads there arrives instead at Estotiland, twenty mile long rectangular tropical island with a city in the middle. Accustomed to receiving bewildered travellers, the Estoti are happy to welcome, orient and trade with their hosts before sending them off homeward. The Estoti are aware of the nature of their island and welcome visitors with good humour. They are often sad to see their friends go, however, since the island cannot be reached intentionally it is very uncommon for anyone to return. For this reason, they will also never leave the island.

Fortunate Isles
Three islands of transcendence that can each be seen from the other. They can only be reached by invitation from a god who has a temple there and each year they ascend to Elysium.

Gwyddno Dyke
A travelling island that protects shores from massive storms. Faint bells can be heard coming from the sea a few days before a massive storm in any of the Shadow Planes. During this time the island of Gwyddno Dyke can be accessed. The island is about twenty miles long and less than a mile wide, punctuated by canals with flood gates. It is inhabited by gnomes, but sometimes the gnomes are not paying attention and let a storm surge through the canals to devastate coastlines.

The island itself appears similar to the feywild, with broad leafed trees stretching up from its fertile banks and a dark sky punctuated by both aurorae and the moon and stars. Its gnomish inhabitants happily work its canals while they raise sheep, bees and some trees, their small town of Gwyddno housing some two hundred in burrow homes under massive tree roots. Their flood gates catch the power of the storm surges to run their mills and looms as well as to propel the island through the ethereal realms to the site of the next big storm. The mayor of the town is an astronomer, and generally knows where the island is and where it will be headed next.

Hawaiki
A very large island that shows traits of transcendent, travelling, and repose. It appears in an open ocean for one generation, its people spreading out and trading in the area, then it disappears for one generation as it ascends to the Elemental Plane of Water. It later appears once more in some other ocean, repeating its cycle. Those born on the island only ever want to leave, descendants born off it only want to return and stay there. The generations are marked by the kings of the island, thus kings alternate between Ocean Kings and Explorer Kings. When an Ocean King dies, the island ascends to a material plane ocean to be ruled by an Explorer King and vice-versa.

Hufaidh
A travelling marsh island that appears and disappears with marsh flooding, moving every wet season. It is always either in Abqaria or the Prime Material Plane, alternating between the two and is home to both Jinn and humans. Humans who reach the island lose proficiency in all their languages.

The island is slightly cooler than Abqaria, never getting to infernal temperatures, and since it is mostly marsh it does not suffer from dust storms. The inhabitants live in reed homes built on stakes or barges and speak Abqari, while a few speak a local dialect of Hufaidh. Visitors find that they are able to communicate with the locals, as all visitors discover that they can speak tongues. When they leave, however, these visitors quickly realize that they have forgotten all their languages and now only speak the insane jibberish of Ralishazi.

The people of Hufaidh are weary of travellers. They make an income raising some swamp crops, fishing and raising their giant water buffalo. Their guardian is a Marid overlord.

Jomsvik
A travelling island fortress inhabited by mercenary dwarves. The island fortress is exactly 1000 feet in diameter, perfectly round, with a rampart and palisade sticking up out of the water. This outer defense is punctured by a stone tower and gate that can allow the narrow Joms ships to pass through. Visitors are ferried from their moorings outside the gate into the small port that can only fit four Joms ships. The leader of the island can have it appear a few miles of the coast of an enemy shore, but requires powerful magic item to fuel his forge to do so. The Joms dwarves can therefore be hired out for a good price and the promise of excellent plunder.

Kibu
An island of transcendence that is equally linked to the Shadowfell and Prime Material plane such that visitors from one can only travel back to the other. The island itself descends to the Ocean of Death every 25 years for one year. It can only be reached by sailing west until one is completely lost.

Kitezh
A travelling island that appears on the shores of lakes with a very devout populous of water worshippers. The town is wealthy and inevitably comes under attack by local lords as the inhabitants refuse any overtures of politics, claiming the lake will protect them. Indeed, when faced with invasion the island disappears into the lake and emerges in another lake somewhere else.

Lanka
This travelling island is home mainly to Rakhshasas and can only be reached by them. The island is a small mountain chain with a huge city in the middle, and a massive fortress in the middle of that city.

Mu
This transcendent island is one of the largest in Manatuana, at over 400 miles across in every direction. It can only be reached by using the Mu language to translate coded messages that exist in common nursery rhymes and monumental inscriptions all over the world. The island is inhabited by warring tribes of Yuan-ti and lizardfolk who use it as a base of operations to spy on and influence hundreds of petty kingdoms all over the world.

Ogygia
An island of repose that is home to many dryads and other such creatures as well as one titan overlord. The island is often found by the intention of the dryads who hear about a hero and wish to detain him or her for their own entertainment. They then direct the titan to have the island appear before the hero in question and do not allow them to go home until they have been entertained for several years.

Onogoro
A small island of repose with a palace or castle in the middle. The courtyard has a pillar that if circumambulated will create the perfect romantic match for the visitor. The couple will then be accommodated in the palace until they conceive a child. The child will be eaten by a coven of sea hags that live under the island, at which point the visitor is free to leave.

Panchaea
A transcendent island with a large temple complex that holds the records of every god. This island only appears to clerics and paladins invited by their gods, and glides around the divine planes.

Penglai
An island of repose that has everything one could ever want at the base of a beautiful conical mountain. If one climbs the mountain (a difficult task with no clear benefit) they are then able to see that the island is not magical except for its illusions. The inhabitants believe they are eating and drinking delicious food, but they are wasting away. They believe they are healed or surrounded by dead relatives, but they are not. These visitors are then able to leave the island.

Penmaenmwar
A magnificent castle built on a spire of rock inhabited by a line of human kings who cannot live anywhere but on the island. The island’s rise above the water level (and therefore size) is dictated by the opinion the peasants have of their king. When the peasantry wish for the castle to sink into the sea, it does, only to appear somewhere else and start again.

Pitt
An island with very few natural resources and an enormous coral reef. Ships are very frequently wrecked on the reef of this island, where a large band of pirates lives off of shipwrecked supplies. While virtually all of those shipwrecked on the island are men, the leader of the Island, Captain Pitt, has forged an alliance with the Horned Lady to supply wives for the well behaved men. These wives are lemures disguised by magic as beautiful young women, and the children are all teiflings under the command of the Horned Lady.

Planctae
Not an island, but a large archipelago of dangerous rocks and rock-like sea monsters. This is a travelling island that appears when everyone on a ship is asleep.

Ravenser
A fortified travelling island inhabited by dwarves and humans that appears in important and well populated fjords, deltas and estuaries and can be accessed like a regular island. The locals insert themselves into politics rather heavily-handedly however the island can be dismissed to some other place simply by whatever legal means exist in the locality. Therefore if it turns up in a kingdom, the king can at any time dismiss it, if it turns up in a democracy it can be voted away with a referendum.

Ravenspurn
A travelling island of repose that appears when criminals attempt to land in a new continent. The quaint town and noble lord attempt to turn such criminals to good.

Rupes Nigra
A huge magnetic island, 33 miles across, that appears when sailors follow a compass or a ship is made of magnetic metals. The island is so powerful that any ferrous metals within a mile will fly to it (as if falling under the influence of gravity), and once they touch its surface will be impossible to remove. The rock also sits at the centre of a giant whirlpool, making oceanic navigation away from it impossible. The island is covered by rust monsters and other scavengers.

Scheria
A travelling island that appears only to those lost during storms that last more than 24hrs. The island hosts a city of people who are able to build ships that can sail effortlessly to any place that the captain is remembering, but cannot otherwise steer.

Strand
An island of repose with a terrible fate. Strand is a beautiful and rich island dotted with small villages and usually one large central township. The island is at peace, and the town’s docks connect it to various ports in all the shadow planes. The problem is that every hundred years or so the island, which is an oddly shaped mass floating in the sea, rolls over to submerge some part of itself and raise another part out of the waters. This exposes the ancient settlements, angering and raising the undead, and a decade or so is spent recovering from those events, resettling the new lands, and rebuilding a new capital township.

Stymphalia
The original lands of the Stymphalian birds, this island is found in a marsh, and only appears when someone is on a quest to find it or to find the birds. Travelling through the marsh out of the island, however, can lead to any marsh in any of the other planes that the traveller is familiar with. Thus the birds can live on this island and hunt many dozens of marshes at the same time.

While the island and the birds are the centre of many myths and cults, they both originate in the pre-dawn time under Pazuzu in mysterious circumstances. All that remains of that history is an unseen portal above the island that leads to Pazunia, where the birds migrate to breed.