Mannaro

### People Of Note

Blackfin Sharptooth (wereshark, head of the coast guard)Gerrard Tickerson (werecrocodile, merchant general)

Somewhere in the Arawaki Islands is a large island that is almost completely hidden in perpetual fog. An island where packs of feral animals are a common sight, the lands are wild and a massive dark castle looms at the center of it all. This island is Mannaro, home of Felgrum Dios, the wererat king.

No one is sure who built the castle, nor how long it has been on the island, but the current resident has had control of it as well as the rest of the island for decades and does not appear to be losing that power any time soon. The surrounding land is mostly wild, with only a handful of buildings here and there. The population of which is almost completely lycanthrope in nature. Wererats, werewolves, weresharks, werebears, wereboars, werecrocodiles, and various other were-creatures largely dominate the northern side of the island. Though they do not get along well with one another, they keep their grudges mostly to words. Things only really get violent when they head too far south. There one can find an equally large and aggressive population of ratweres, wolfweres, sharkweres, bearweres, boarweres, crocodile-weres and other shape changers. The people to the north being humans who turn into animals, they believe the people to the south are simple beasts who should be slaughtered. Meanwhile the people to the south who are animals that can turn into humans see the people to the north as a diseased people who only seek to spread their virus and destroy everything. Felgrum generally does not care about either group of people so long as they pay tribute to him. Those who do not are made examples of to keep everyone in line.

A small population of people who are neither lycanthropes nor shape-changers do manage to live out an existence on the island as well. These people band together and are always on the move because the rest of the island tends to hunt them for sport. They are a collection of various races that collectively call themselves the Zingaro. The Zingaro have learned to remain hidden and read the land so as to avoid predators. Rumors say that this uncanny ability to avoid those they wish to avoid is due to an extremely high proficiency at divination magic. They supposedly know all that has happened, is happening or ever will happen on the island. Whether this is true or not is hard to say as few ever manage to find them, much less speak with them on such matters.

Visitors to the island must first petition the king for permission to enter. Those who are granted permission are provided an amulet that serves as proof that the wearer is under the king's protection. Those who are not are open game for anyone on the island. While not all of the inhabitants are bloodthirsty enough to hunt down illegal tourists for the fun of it, there are enough of them that it is not exactly a healthy proposition. The amulets are magical and release a scent that the denizens of the island recognize and know not to hassle. Attempting to forge these amulets is considered a capital offense, though that has not stopped enterprising charlatans from making fakes (which often do not fool anyone due to the lack of scent) or replicas (which may or may not pass scrutiny).