Inis Míol Mór

Rising from the storm-tossed waves of the Roiling Sea like a great beast, it is easy to see where the island gets its name. A small, but imposing, mountain dominates the center of the island like a great spine. The name, Míol Mór, or Great Fish, references how this imposing sight appears like a terribly vast whale on the horizon. During the Season of Harvests, the oak forests around its base and along its slopes turns orange-yellow and for all the world makes the island appear to be a great whale crashing amidst a sea of flames from a distance.

Geography & History

Geography

Starting from the rocky shore line, the island is covered in flat earth with tall, green grasses carpeting the open fields before the forests' tree line. From there, gnarled oak and ash roots make the terrain difficult to traverse. The forest slopes up into the grey mountain, simply referred to as Míol Mór, and is only passable via a series of difficult to locate slopes that meander up into the scarce hidden vales tucked away among the mountain's cliffs.

History

There is little recorded history of Inis Míol Mór prior to the Year of Invasions. However, sometime just after the Fomorii invasion, a group of adventurers known as the Fianna Mór made their way to the island with the express purpose of retrieving horses to aid in the war effort. The horses had been spirited away via Carach from the Horselands in order to save them from the depravations of the sea-raider enemy.

Legend states the Fianna Mór not only saved the horses and foiled a Slurian plot to take over the island, but they managed to find a long-lost temple to the Ardruid Unknown. Ensconced within this temple was an ancient lexicon; a key to recovering the lost language of the Fwoarian peoples; Cawr. The warriors, having saved the island and the horses, returned to Lwyg-Rath leaving the lexicon with the Ard Banríon Cassair an Nathair so that it may be given back to her people.

November 21st, 2024 March 25th, 2026

Ecosystem & Species

Ecosystem

The island is temperate and sees the full run of the wheel of seasons. There is an abundant amount of wild life all throughout the year, though much of it hibernates during the Season of Sleep. The forest turns fiery red and yellow during the Season of Harvests and becomes a travel destination for nobility and huntsmen during that time.

Flora & Fauna

Animals like foxes, gulls, rodents and even a scant few wolves that hunt deer can be found on the island. These beasts tend to lurk among the boughs of the ancient forest that rings the mountain. The forest itself is not thick, with very little ground vegetation, but the terrain is snaked through with great roots of the ashes and oaks making travel nightmarish.

While the island itself is inhabited by a few caern-hearths, another type of creature makes its homes there. Said to be descended from the fish of the sea; Slurians, a wild and feral people with icthyian features who are seemingly hostile to creatures not of their kind. These "people" inhabit some of the waters just off the shore and a few tales speak of them finding secret ways into the mountain's vales via underground rivers that connect to some of the mountain springs.