Skip to main content

[FICTION] The Geography of Naxos: The Leoi Lands / The Barony of Mykonos

     The ancestral homelands of the Leoi, the island of Mykonos is a dramatic landscape of expansive rolling grasslands, lush jungle, and sharp grey peaks overlooking the sea.

    The only permanent settlement, O Protos, lies on the north shore, where the plains meet the sea. This "city" exists as a complex to house the Baron of Mykonos, and to host the visiting bands when they visit, or at the annual meeting when the various leaina decide matters for all Leoi.

    The plains of Mykonos, ironically, are some of the most fertile farmland anywhere in the Duchy, which for strict carnivores such as the Leoi who subsist off of hunting, fishing, and very limited herding, does little good. As such, these rich grasslands remain largely undisturbed. 

    To the western portions of the island is a track of jungle; unlike other islands, these trees hold religious significance to the Leoi, as only leaina may enter as part of their coming-of-age rituals, or during certain lunar events. 

    To the east sharp grey stone mountains hug the Sea of Kitaigida. They are rich in silver and precious gems, which the leaina allow limited mining of by outside Naxians who have sworn to not damage the surrounding lands.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[GUEST WRITER] Healer/Weapon by Nico

  General content warning: This is a piece about the crossroads of our current socio-political landscape, through the lens of the author’s upbringing and life experience.  Mentions of emotional and physical abuse, rape, religious trauma, gun violence, school shootings, racism & hate crimes, and others. Topics and themes touched on are handled respectfully, but told unflinchingly.                                         W H e a l e r       p              o                      n It’s 2005. I am being raised to be a weapon.  I’m ten, or so. They split the boys and the girls off...

[Guest Writer] Gemini by Brian Rydquist

Editor's Note: This is a content warning for those sensitive to certain topics; self-harm, child loss, graphic descriptions of violence.            Sylvia bent over the lifeless bodies of the newborn infants she had just spent six hellish hours delivering. Screams of anguish poured from her diaphragm, blood soaked her nightgown from the waist down. Her husband William knelt beside her, stroking her shoulder in a futile attempt at comfort. The midwife, an elderly Inuit woman, knelt on her otherside. “Please miss,  you must lay down. Your body has suffered incredible stress, the birth was not a good one.” “My babies, my babies, this can’t be!” Sylvia shrieked, deaf to the woman’s words. “Shh, shh,” William was muttering as he rubbed her shoulders. “Maybe it won’t be, I have already sent for the spirit leader of my tribe. He should arrive any moment.” “Don’t be a fool! How dare you give my wife this false hope! You can clearly see the babie...

[FICTION] Tales from Port Astor | The Loamy Gloam

      During the lockdown, a ghost ship came into the harbor of Port Astor. With so much of the city in chaos or silence, few at the time even noticed its arrival. More did bother to pay attention, however, when word got out that an entire Coast Guard  boarding team vanished after boarding the vessel. When they sent the second team, no traces of the original crew of the ship, or the first boarding team were found.      The name of the ship was The Eastern Gloam, which was seen over a decade ago leaving for the Far East, with a crew of scholars and academics. And the only trace of anything they found aboard the ship was a carved phrase on a bulkhead: "LOAMY GLOAM".     Fearing another illness, the ship was towed out and eventually scuttled. Since then, however, a number of disappearances have been tied to the return of the ship, with the phrase "RETURN TO REST WITHIN  THE LOAMY GLOAM" showing up again and again over the years, and then us...