Pyrinnay Islands

## The Pyrinnays

The Temple of Itzel a Chalwu on Pyrinnay Sho

The Pyrinnays were the largest island chain outside of the control of the Blessed Agency of Shipping Coordinators. There were more than one hundred islands in the chain, though most of them were small. The islands were formed by volcanic eruptions over centuries. "Pyrinnay" meant "island" in the local language, so while they were formally referred to as the Pyrinnay Islands by the Agency, most locals called them the Pyrinnays. The islands were two and a half weeks to the east from the Crib of Ik Kulwa, the nearest Agency hub.

The people of the Pyrinnays had a stratified society divided into two factions: the Peace Faction and the War Faction. In practice, these two factions were more like a local authority and an international authority, meaning the War Faction, for example, dealt with international shipment.

Besides their strong knowledge of the weather, they were the best practitioners of weaving and sewing magic in the known world. This was to the point that no masters of the art existed in Agency territory and any magic clothing found in Agency territory was probably shipped there by Pyrinnay traders. That said, the Agency had a policy of heavily discounting magic fabric in an effort to undercut Pyrinnay trade.

* Pyrinnay Chewk - The largest of the islands on the Pyrinnnay chain, this island contained the city of Chewk and was the main hub of Pyrinnay government before the civil war. It was famed for its massive plaza and stone buildings. It had one pier for Agency shipping on the east end of the island. There was also a large dormant volcano on the island which had been surrounded with temples to the water sprites.
* Pyrinnay Lees - This was the southernmost of the Pyrinnays, where there was a school of meteoromancy (weather prediction) that even the Agency accepted as a high-quality educational center. There was also an Agency pier book here that was reinforced, allowing for instantaneous contact with Agency personnel over long distances.
* Pyrinnay Sho - This was the location of the major temple to Itzel-a-Chalwu, the biggest of its type in the known world. Besides the normal temple functions, there was also a large hospital on the site. It was defensible because of a wall that surrounded it.
* Pyrinnay Neim - The location of a Peace Faction checkpoint and small processing prison.
* Pyrinnay Uru - This island contained a series of elevated, human-made chinampa-style islands where salt water was processed through filtration and used to grow the majority of Pyrinnay food.

### Holy Calendar

The people of the Pyrinnays used a combination of the weather and the date to perform intricate divination. Rather than the Agency solar calendar that marked the Year of Organization, the Pyrinnays used a calendar of twenty-one months which were each twenty days (except for two special months, Rust and Hope, which were both only a few days long). Most people in the Pyrinnays used their birthdate as their name, so a person born on, say, Sixteen Canoe would also have been known as Sixteen Canoe. The major exception to this was leaders of the respective factions, who typically took the name of a god upon ascension to the throne.

### History

In 1100 BYO, people from the coastal community of Qo arrived on the Pyrinnays after fleeing the attack of some sort of monstrous creature.

In 90 AYO, the Blessed Agency attempted an invasion of the Pyrinnays but failed. In 125 AYO, the Agency tried once more to conquer the islands; when this invasion failed, the Agency signed a peace treaty to allow one Agency pier and two Agency pier books on the islands.

In 158 AYO, a civil war between the peace and war factions erupted when Lord Six Weaver of the Peace Faction refused to marry the daughter of a man who killed his uncle. In the resulting chaos, Six Weaver fled the islands.

In 200 AYO, the seeds of the civil war were planted again when Peace Queen Two Rabbit prevented the her husband from marrying War Faction scion Four Salamander. The situation was exacerbated when Queen Two Rabbit failed to predict a major hurricane which hit the islands, destroying portions of the plaza and temples on Chewk.