Lost Island

The Lost Island is a landmass just off the southeastern coast of Peraith, home to the tribes of elves and a few human colonies. It is renowned for being difficult to access and dangerous by humans, with the name referring to the many attempts at colonization that have vanished without a trace or been torn apart by native wildlife. For the elves, however, it is a quite equitable home.

## Geography

The Lost Island is separated from Peraith by a long channel approximately fifty miles across. While it isn't a long distance, this channel is nearly impossible to navigate by boat due to the speed at which seawater rushes through it, deflecting off the southern coast and trying to travel back east. The island itself is roughly bean-shaped, with two mountain ranges bracketing a plain near the middle. Smaller islands dot the northern and eastern coasts, which experience far milder currents.

## Ecology

Ecologically, the Lost Island is the closest place on Esaethys to a true tropical environment, due to the abundance of warm water flowing from the northeast. The middle of the island is wet and hot all year round and covered in jungle that humans find wholly impenetrable.

The elven inhabitants of the island are a large part of why this forest is so wild and overgrown; their accelerative effect and the excess magical energy that tends to gather around them has hastened the pace of evolution and created an environment where durability and lifespan are far more vital for survival. While the areas around elf camps proceed at normal-ish speeds and have balanced ecosystems, flora and fauna native to these regions is adapted to a far harsher environment than anywhere else on Esaethys. When removed from that environment--or growing in areas of the island where there are no elves--these species are incredibly dangerous and highly invasive.

## Culture

This heading is specifically about the elven culture found on the Lost Island. While there are humans on the outskirts, their cultures have not diverged much from their Sinthwyli and Littroan roots. The elves on the island, in contrast, have established a wholly unique culture. Due to the destructive effect of their magic on the world around them, they tend to avoid built structures, living in nomadic groups which commonly eschew technology beyond that which can be made in a few days, since it's unlikely to last longer than that in the hands of an elf. Constant movement--up to once a week, in some regions--is required to keep any area from becoming much older than another, spreading the entropy around and keeping the jungle fertile for hunting.

Those that do invest more in craftsmanship tend to use still-living materials for building. One example of this is the stalkhouse; an elven structure formed by planting a square arrangement of short trees so that the branches will intertwine, forming a set of walls mostly resistant to wind and water. With the addition of a few boughs or a grown canopy as a roof, this can be a comfortable and long-lasting home for an elven tribe.

Elves do not use written language, though most are fluent in at least one script due to their origin as humans. Instead, they convey information orally, and storytelling is the primary artistic medium among elves. Due to their incredibly long memories, most elves have at least some skill at passing on oral history, and a significant minority spend their time creating new stories when not busy with chores.

Humans are almost entirely irrelevant to the average elf's life. There is nothing a human can offer an elf that will last, with the exceptions of gold and alchemically-created materials. Even then, they have nothing to exchange, and their cultures tend to place an emphasis on mutual aid over barter. The only use of humans to elves is reproduction, and this is done extremely rarely. Lost Island elves have special ritual sites for the process; a human will usually be taken there after wandering into an elven territory and becoming too sick or frail to leave. The process is seen as a mercy, but most elves still feel guilt about it.