Spirit Isles

The Spirit Isles is a small floating archipelago located in the Southern Hemisphere, just within the Antarctic Circle, of Emycelium. These islands are generally quite isolated, with little contact with the greater globe.

The marinis are an ethnic group of serukians that inhabit the Spirit Isles, living a mutualistic lifestyle with the native wildlife. The Spirit Isles are named after ghostly apparitions that wrap around the archipelago, concealing it from nearby landmasses.

Geography, Location & Climate

The thick veil of mist coating these islands keep the climate at a cool temperature. These islands are continuously moist, the plant life thriving as a result. There are fifteen major islands in the archipelago, each with more than a square kilometre of habitable land. Almost seventy thousand minor islands scatter themselves in the vicinity.

The Spirit Isles is around seven kilometres away from the nearest land-mass. The Spicy Sands, the southernmost coastline of continent Mycela, is the closest land-mass. During times of extremely harsh winds, typically a period of two days per year, the sand from this beach will drag across the ocean and combine with the mist, creating an uncomfortable environment to breathe in.

The islands themselves are densely forested, with both mega and minifungi, and plant life. Wrapping round, weaving through, and pooling in the centres of these islands are rivers, streams, and lakes, its water containing magical healing properties. This same water is filtered and expelled by some of the native fungi, such as tower faucet mushrooms.

Ecology

The Spirit Isles has a thriving ecosystem of semi-aquatic, winged animals. Some common species include coldwing wrens, asphalt crows, wrands, toluns, winged foxes, and spirit sheep. Many animals frequently migrate from one island to another, cycling through ecosystems on different islands. Each species works in harmony with one another, and food webs require each animal to function. Taking one out could have drastic effects on the archipelago as a whole, so marinis do not allow tourists.

Marini

The marini are a group of serukians that live exclusively in the Spirit Isles. They discovered this archipelago almost a thousand years ago, after exploring what was beyond the Spicy Sands, and have never looked back.

Their lifestyle is dependent on the animals, plants, and fungi of these islands. The marini live in giant tower faucet mushrooms, the water they produce powering their homes. Their semi-aquatic lifestyle is one of a kind, and recent generations have even started to develop webbing between their fingers and toes to aid in swimming.

While the marini are very respectful people, as all serukians are, they forbid any tourist or visitor from approaching the Spirit Isles, out of fear that their precious ecosystems would collapse.

Type

Archipelago

Location under

Emycelium

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