Iridian Isles

The Iridian Isles are a Governorate of the Unified Governorates of Benacia within the Benacian Union. From 1718 AN the Governorate has been a designated resettlement zone for persons of the Benacian Labour Reserve who had been retired to the islands as being incapable of completing their sentences but who were deemed ineligible for rehabilitation into the Harmonious Society on the Benacian mainland.

Geography

The island group is located in the Istvanistani-Benacian island chain, and consists of four large islands and two minor ones.

All the Iridian Isles have white sandy beaches and an interior of rolling hills or mountains covered in jungle. The only exception is the southeastern island, which consists of a rocky plateau with grasslands and tropical forests, surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs. On a few places there are stairs carved into the side of the cliffs, on other places there are climbing holds.

History

The Iridian Isles are a former county of Shireroth and were expected to form a governorate within the Unified Governorates of Benacia from 1679 and on, but the Treaty of Hareffa Lunti ceded the islands to the United Isles. After the collapse of the United Isles, the isles were used as a testing ground for various chemical and biological weapons. The islands, and their surviving native population, were declared a protectorate of the UGB in 1711 AN and closed to outsiders until 1718 AN.

The Iridian Isles did not have a single common government, instead each island governed itself according to custom and tradition. Each island wasinhabited by one tribe, and each tribe was led by a Chief and a council of elders. The Chief was selected by the heads of the families of the tribe every time the position falls vacant, which was quite often. A traditional way of replacing a tribal chief was either a failure to prevent a violent accident, not seldom falling off the cliff outside The Village, or to accidentally release poisonous insects in his domicile. While a Chief was in office, he ruled his tribe and his island as he saw fit. He was usually required by custom to consult with the council of elders, but the advice it renders is only as binding as the Chief's desire to not have an accident. The island that the capital The Village is located on is held in communal ownership by all tribes, and is the only place where the tribes have contact with the outside world, including people from the other United Isles nations.

The Village was used as a meeting place for tribal leaders when common issues needed to be discussed, or there was a conflict between the tribes or members thereof. Since there was no common leadership, conflicts and issues were either resolved through discussion, or through fighting.

The indigenous people of the Iridian Isles were distinctly tribal, with strong and fierce loyalty to their families and their tribe. All property and all resources on the island were held in communal ownership within the tribe, and no one can claim any additional right to it other than their share. All the tribes are also violently opposed to outside influence, to such a degree that foreigners and even members of other tribes are strongly discouraged from landing on the islands. Disregarding these warnings was seen by some foreigners as a fun adventure, while others felt a pressing urge to spread the latest good word about deities and other such nonsense to the islanders. Such a visit typically ended in a long swim to Florencia or Naudia'Diva if one was lucky, and an invitation to dinner if one was unlucky.

After a long period where the primitives of the isles had come to fancy that they were to be left in savage isolation by the outside world, they were finally intruded upon by landing parties of the Maritime Forces of the Benacian Union Defence Force. For the first time in the lives of many, their villages and encampments concurrently came under bombardment from grey warships anchored offshore. The first blows fell during the twelfth month of 1707 AN, and as the tribesmen fled into the undergrowth there too they were assailed by the metal beasts overhead, as helicopters flew continuous sorties spraying a noxious yellow liquid which killed all forms of plant life and caused horrible blisters upon exposed skin. If swallowed or inhaled, the substance would cause convulsions, frothing of the mouth, and death within forty-eight hours. The natives were not to know that they had been selected by Benacia Command to serve as test subjects for a new chemical formulation acquired by the Raspur Pact from former Unit 666 scientists in the aftermath of the Treaty of Gaelen's Landing earlier in the year.

After a fortnight of this treatment, a forty-man exploratory troop, clad in onerous rubberised suits and respirator masks, was put ashore to conduct an analysis of one of the attack sites. They found a blasted wasteland where all forms of plant and animal life had miserably perished. Even the soil had begun to succumb to the malevolent effect of the chemical treatment, crumbling into a yellowing grey dust which was borne away in great clouds by even the lightest wind. The fine dust had worked its way under the protective clothing of at least some of the party, specifically those tasked with collecting soil samples as part of the toxicology analysis. By the time the eighth member of the team had been lost to the blistering and convulsion sickness it had been decided to withdraw the BUDF personnel from the island and to continue observations via remote monitoring systems.