Fortress Islands

The Fortress Islands are a small island chain east of the Cocoon Islands. Although there are more than a dozen islands in this archipelago, only three are habited, these being Jagar, Don Bachir and Talon. They earned their name from the huge fortresses that stand tall on each one of those.

## History

The Fortress Islands were known by the people of Scimitaria for hundreds of years, although their remote location and barren lands made them inadequate for any colonies to spring up.

Instead, the first ones to inhabit these islands were people from the Isle of Wizards, just a hundred years ago. Coming into contact with the Death Blossom of the Cocoon Islands, Linus Roshe, Grandmaster of the Ancient Order of Most Practical Wizards, made it his life goal to contain this primordial evil and prevent it from spreading to the realms of men, elves and more.

Unable to conduct a full scale attack on the Cocoon Isles, he ordered eleven grand fortresses to be built on the islands to the east (each one giving their name to the respective island it was erected on), their size rivaling the largest forts of the Laurentian Crusade. Nowadays, only three of these strongholds are manned and inhabited, while the rest lie in ruin.

## The Forts

Out of the three fortresses that still stand, Jagar is the largest (in fact, it's also the largest out of all the originally built forts), being able to house almost three thousand people at its fullest extent. Nowadays, however, only a few hundred people remain on each one of them.

At first, very few from the Isle of Wizards volunteered to be stationed in these islands, or abandon their livelihood in order to move there. To ensure that the fortresses would be able to stand vigil at all times, the Order of Wizards declared that the fortresses would function as a penal colony of sorts; most criminals, lowborn or highborn, human or elf, man or woman, wizard or not would be sent there instead of being banished elsewhere or executed.

The people of the fortresses would be able to elect their own leaders, and each person was to be assigned to a different position according to their own skills and abillities. Each fortress has their own commander, with one Grandmaster being elected among the three commanders of the fortresses.

The main function of the fortress islands is to prevent the Sea of Webs from spreading out of the Cocoon Islands and into the Scimitarian continent. As such, patrols around the Cocoon Islands are common, and raids on the islands themselves are not unheard of, although are generally discouraged and few have any success. The code of the Wizards also dictates that the people of the fortresses should deter sailors and other travellers from travelling towards the Death Blossom's territory.

Over time, many people have gone rogue, trying to escape the fortresses and either escape into Scimitaria, or even try to raid the Cocoon Islands for the valuable gems that these islands possess. In addition, only a fraction of the Isle of Wizards' criminals are now sent to the fortress islands, whereas this was the opposite when the fortresses were first built. These factors, alongside the many mutinies that have occured over the years, are some of the reasons why the fortresses' population and power has deteriorated in the last decades.

### Demographics

Most of the people in the fortresses are former criminals, condemned to serve there, although a few ones are volunteers, with some even coming from outside of the Isle of Wizards. The inmates sent to the fortress islands are made to swear an oath that forbids them from deserting the fortresses (under the penalty of death), whereas anyone that's stationed there voluntarily is free to come or leave as they please. Naturally, the fortresses are mostly inhabited by men, with the few women (usually Amazons) there residing in their own, separate common rooms. Humans are the most common race, but there have been a few Drow, Hobbits, Orcs and even Goblins and Gnomes that have served in the fortresses. There have also been cases of Wizards cast out of the order and sent to the fortress islands, with some even serving as commanders and grandmasters.

## Economy

The fortress are self sufficient when it comes to food, due to the abundance of fish in the archipelago. Apart from fishing, there are a few domesticated animals, with small scale farming also occuring. Trade does occur between them and other nations of Scimitaria, mostly Chrysovica and the Blesire States. The fortresses' main exports are steel, marble (extracted at specific quarries around the islands), iron and various alcoholic drinks brewed and fermented by the people of the forts. Their main imports are lumber, food and livestock. The Isle of Wizards' government also supplies them at a semi regular rate.

Some common occupations at the islands are builders, miners, cooks, sailors, fishermen, lighthouse keepers, stewards, scribes and carpenters.

## Geography

The Fortress Islands are extremely rugged and rocky, with almost no trees growing there. The coasts are mostly cliffs made of basalt. The islands are of volcanic origin, although the volcanoes are now dormant. The few resources of the islands reside in the form of iron and coal mines, as well as marble quarries.

Each island has its own large fortress built on it, although Jagar is the only one that has had a small town sprout outside the fort's walls (with just a hundred inhabitants today). There are three large lightouses built on each corner of the archipelago. Each of them are manned by two people at a time, usually chosen by a draw amongst the fortresses' populace.