Post by Kurosaki on Mar 10, 2011 22:55:57 GMT -5
Created by Matthew.
Name of Island: Houma
Size of Island: 170 Kilometres across.
Location: Location changed: Now in Dream Island
Flora and Fauna:
Houma Island, also known as the Island of Witches, is a large, cold island in the farthest corner of North Blue. Dark and spooky, covered in looming pine forests and home to a large variety of traditionally creepy creatures - giant spiders, bats, toads and so on - it is generally considered a less than optimal place to be. In truth, the animals spend most of their time preying on one another rather than on the population, so unless you run straight out into the forest you're not in any particular danger. Houma has practically none of your usual farm animals - cows, sheep and pigs simply couldn't avoid getting eaten by the exceedingly large population of wolves and giant bugs.
On the other hand, Houma Island is home to a staggering amount of medicinal (and recreational) herbs, and the fertile soil is ideal for growing nearly anything that can stand the cool weather. This helps to compensate for the fact that nearly everything is covered with dense areas of forest, forcing most to grow any crops they need in their own gardens. Vegetables grown on Houma often turn out rough, bumpy and colourless, often beyond recognition. No one really knows why this happens, but it does hurt the tourism business something fierce.
Inhabitants:
Houma is rumoured to be a island of black magic, whose women consort with the devil, invoke the powers of the netherworld and so on. None of this is true of course, but the supposed witches gleefully propagate these rumours anyway, something made a whole lot easier by the island and its population simply being so creepy.
There is one thing about the rumours surrounding Houma Island that has a grain of truth to it, however. It is said that the witches of Houma have the evil eye, that can cause a man misfortune simply by glaring at him. Many of the islanders are incredibly superstitious, and believe in this rumour themselves - which has lead to them developing the strange habit of avoiding eye contact with one another at all costs, for fear that the person they're looking at might have the evil eye (even wives and husbands don't trust each other enough to look one another in the eye). Of course, no one among the islanders believes him or herself to have the evil eye. The truth of the matter is that the Houma population contains a high number of those that could one day awaken haōshoku haki, though since the island doesn't have any particular warrior traditions no one ever develops that gift very far. Among them all they have some of the world's creepiest stares, though.
Houma Island is a fairly isolationist community, the island itself has few ports and it's rare for merchant ships to pass by - as such, they have no reliable way of importing dyes and food. As a result, the main source of food for the islanders are the creepy animals that live on the island, and most of the islanders' clothes are either grey or black. This has lead to the infamous association of dried bat wings and eyes of newt (etc.) being associated with witchcraft, when in truth they're part of perfectly mundane cooking recipes, and also to the stereotypical image of a witch's dress.
NPCS:
Wrong Georgi, mayor of Houki Town. A large and burly man with a prodigious neckbeard, who rules over the lumber industry with an oaken fist.
Granny Goldgather (Isadora), mayor of Kuroi Town. A wrinkled old hag with enormous eyes and a prominent beak of a nose. She really is quite friendly, though most people flee from her maddeningly intense stare - even the villagers of Kuroi only have the courage to talk to her while turning their backs. Most outsiders are shocked by their rudeness.
Merriweather Taro, mayor of Koumori Town. Mayor Merriweather is a tall, slim and buck-toothed man, who is in a state of permanent boredom. He hates living on the isolated Houma Island but takes his job too seriously to abandon it before he dies. Unfortunately, Koumori town hardly ever needs his help, so he's mostly stuck doing nothing at all.
Town(s)/Village(s)/City or Cities:
Houki
Houki Town is the northwesternmost settlement of the island, and it is there that most of Houma Island's carpentry and fletching gets done. The town itself is roughly circular in shape, with thick wooden palisades surrounding it as a ward against curious forest monsters. Inside of the wall lies a collection of greyish black houses, seemingly scattered randomly around the area. Most buildings are either hunting lodges or workshops belonging to the Wrong family, the foremost carpenters of the island. Houki Town is a prosperous if somewhat gloomy settlement, though it holds the island's only docks, meaning that it is pretty much the only one of the island's towns visitors ever see. Houki gets very crowded on market days.
Kuroi
Kuroi Town is the island's largest settlement, which is smack dab in the middle of the great pine forest, and a lot of people live in and around the town. The people in Kuroi spend a lot of time trying to cut down the large, gloomy trees that surround the town. However, aside from the fact that the blackish-grey wood is terribly depressing to work with, the monstrous animals living in the woods occasionally take offence at being evicted, and gobble up the villagers. As it stands, the villagers are barely keeping up with the forests rate of regrowth. A lot of the villagers are farmers, and the vegetables and fruits from Kuroi sustain those who cannot or will not grow their own.
Koumori
Koumori Town is the smallest of Houma Island's three major settlements. It is an incredibly boring place, unless you find giant spiders, wolves and such exciting. Most people in Koumori are trappers, who trap the furred creatures of the woods in traps, which litter the forest outside of Koumori. As a result the village is practically never in any danger, and since they produce virtually all of the island's notable trade goods, they pretty much buy everything they need from the other towns and foreign traders, and never have to worry about a thing. Except, of course, for the fact that everything around them is grey and depressive.
Island History:
Houma Island's history began when the island was nothing more than a deformed lump of rock in a big puddle of water. Then nothing happened for some millennia, until the great explorer Wrong Reuben supposedly discovered it while leading a raiding force into unknown waters. Stumbling upon a bit of unclaimed land, the explorer and warrior Reuben immediately settled it and proclaimed it his own. The wolves and other monsters, he reasoned, could be dealt with later. Centuries later, they still haven't been dealt with.
Not long after they'd begun to settle the island, the visitors noted its colourless and creepy nature. This would suit them perfectly, they reasoned, as the island made a daunting sight to any would-be invaders that might attack the island in the future. Cutting their way through the forest and any creatures that stood in their way, they fortified their position and sent others further into the forest to lay claim to any natural resources it had to offer. Problem was, no one ever came.
When the founders of Houma island finally received their first visitors from the outside world, they had gone through three generations of islanders, and none of the latter had much of the fighting power or the ship-building skills of the former. They'd come to develop a perpetual wakefulness and aggressive posture, that gave them a creepy appearance, and the visitors were chilled to the bone at the macabre cooking recipes of the islanders. When the visitors returned to the outside world with news of a strange, dark island full of wild-eyed, ghost-pale people, Houma Island's reputation had been made.
Name of Island: Houma
Size of Island: 170 Kilometres across.
Location: Location changed: Now in Dream Island
Flora and Fauna:
Houma Island, also known as the Island of Witches, is a large, cold island in the farthest corner of North Blue. Dark and spooky, covered in looming pine forests and home to a large variety of traditionally creepy creatures - giant spiders, bats, toads and so on - it is generally considered a less than optimal place to be. In truth, the animals spend most of their time preying on one another rather than on the population, so unless you run straight out into the forest you're not in any particular danger. Houma has practically none of your usual farm animals - cows, sheep and pigs simply couldn't avoid getting eaten by the exceedingly large population of wolves and giant bugs.
On the other hand, Houma Island is home to a staggering amount of medicinal (and recreational) herbs, and the fertile soil is ideal for growing nearly anything that can stand the cool weather. This helps to compensate for the fact that nearly everything is covered with dense areas of forest, forcing most to grow any crops they need in their own gardens. Vegetables grown on Houma often turn out rough, bumpy and colourless, often beyond recognition. No one really knows why this happens, but it does hurt the tourism business something fierce.
Inhabitants:
Houma is rumoured to be a island of black magic, whose women consort with the devil, invoke the powers of the netherworld and so on. None of this is true of course, but the supposed witches gleefully propagate these rumours anyway, something made a whole lot easier by the island and its population simply being so creepy.
There is one thing about the rumours surrounding Houma Island that has a grain of truth to it, however. It is said that the witches of Houma have the evil eye, that can cause a man misfortune simply by glaring at him. Many of the islanders are incredibly superstitious, and believe in this rumour themselves - which has lead to them developing the strange habit of avoiding eye contact with one another at all costs, for fear that the person they're looking at might have the evil eye (even wives and husbands don't trust each other enough to look one another in the eye). Of course, no one among the islanders believes him or herself to have the evil eye. The truth of the matter is that the Houma population contains a high number of those that could one day awaken haōshoku haki, though since the island doesn't have any particular warrior traditions no one ever develops that gift very far. Among them all they have some of the world's creepiest stares, though.
Houma Island is a fairly isolationist community, the island itself has few ports and it's rare for merchant ships to pass by - as such, they have no reliable way of importing dyes and food. As a result, the main source of food for the islanders are the creepy animals that live on the island, and most of the islanders' clothes are either grey or black. This has lead to the infamous association of dried bat wings and eyes of newt (etc.) being associated with witchcraft, when in truth they're part of perfectly mundane cooking recipes, and also to the stereotypical image of a witch's dress.
NPCS:
Wrong Georgi, mayor of Houki Town. A large and burly man with a prodigious neckbeard, who rules over the lumber industry with an oaken fist.
Granny Goldgather (Isadora), mayor of Kuroi Town. A wrinkled old hag with enormous eyes and a prominent beak of a nose. She really is quite friendly, though most people flee from her maddeningly intense stare - even the villagers of Kuroi only have the courage to talk to her while turning their backs. Most outsiders are shocked by their rudeness.
Merriweather Taro, mayor of Koumori Town. Mayor Merriweather is a tall, slim and buck-toothed man, who is in a state of permanent boredom. He hates living on the isolated Houma Island but takes his job too seriously to abandon it before he dies. Unfortunately, Koumori town hardly ever needs his help, so he's mostly stuck doing nothing at all.
Town(s)/Village(s)/City or Cities:
Houki
Houki Town is the northwesternmost settlement of the island, and it is there that most of Houma Island's carpentry and fletching gets done. The town itself is roughly circular in shape, with thick wooden palisades surrounding it as a ward against curious forest monsters. Inside of the wall lies a collection of greyish black houses, seemingly scattered randomly around the area. Most buildings are either hunting lodges or workshops belonging to the Wrong family, the foremost carpenters of the island. Houki Town is a prosperous if somewhat gloomy settlement, though it holds the island's only docks, meaning that it is pretty much the only one of the island's towns visitors ever see. Houki gets very crowded on market days.
Kuroi
Kuroi Town is the island's largest settlement, which is smack dab in the middle of the great pine forest, and a lot of people live in and around the town. The people in Kuroi spend a lot of time trying to cut down the large, gloomy trees that surround the town. However, aside from the fact that the blackish-grey wood is terribly depressing to work with, the monstrous animals living in the woods occasionally take offence at being evicted, and gobble up the villagers. As it stands, the villagers are barely keeping up with the forests rate of regrowth. A lot of the villagers are farmers, and the vegetables and fruits from Kuroi sustain those who cannot or will not grow their own.
Koumori
Koumori Town is the smallest of Houma Island's three major settlements. It is an incredibly boring place, unless you find giant spiders, wolves and such exciting. Most people in Koumori are trappers, who trap the furred creatures of the woods in traps, which litter the forest outside of Koumori. As a result the village is practically never in any danger, and since they produce virtually all of the island's notable trade goods, they pretty much buy everything they need from the other towns and foreign traders, and never have to worry about a thing. Except, of course, for the fact that everything around them is grey and depressive.
Island History:
Houma Island's history began when the island was nothing more than a deformed lump of rock in a big puddle of water. Then nothing happened for some millennia, until the great explorer Wrong Reuben supposedly discovered it while leading a raiding force into unknown waters. Stumbling upon a bit of unclaimed land, the explorer and warrior Reuben immediately settled it and proclaimed it his own. The wolves and other monsters, he reasoned, could be dealt with later. Centuries later, they still haven't been dealt with.
Not long after they'd begun to settle the island, the visitors noted its colourless and creepy nature. This would suit them perfectly, they reasoned, as the island made a daunting sight to any would-be invaders that might attack the island in the future. Cutting their way through the forest and any creatures that stood in their way, they fortified their position and sent others further into the forest to lay claim to any natural resources it had to offer. Problem was, no one ever came.
When the founders of Houma island finally received their first visitors from the outside world, they had gone through three generations of islanders, and none of the latter had much of the fighting power or the ship-building skills of the former. They'd come to develop a perpetual wakefulness and aggressive posture, that gave them a creepy appearance, and the visitors were chilled to the bone at the macabre cooking recipes of the islanders. When the visitors returned to the outside world with news of a strange, dark island full of wild-eyed, ghost-pale people, Houma Island's reputation had been made.