Kana Vasa Islands



The Kana Vasa islands are made up of three major islands: Mahi, Vaka and Sire, along with two smaller islands: The Twins. The three main islands are extinct volcanoes and the rough terrain is covered with temperate rainforest.

The Kana Vasa Islands are home to the Rahi Vasa Company, and the seat of their capital and government. About 2.7 million people live on the islands as of 1 AG, spread over the capital and largest city, 6 major cities, 33 significant towns and numerous smaller villages.

Population
The 2.7 million or so people that live on the Kana Vasa Islands are all technically employee-citizens of the Rahi Vasa Company. The majority species is Bawa with Humans leading the minority species. Population is distributed along tribal lines, and while there is no violence between tribes, most people accept they should only live in certain areas or neighbourhoods.

Climate
The Kana Vasa Islands are sub tropical, with large amounts of sunshine and rain. They do not have a monsoon, but are often hit with tropical storms ranging from the merely wet to catastrophic. Buildings and dwellings are well adapted, so even serious storms are often weathered without incident.

Mahi
Mahi is the western most main island, and the steepest and tallest of the mountains. It is the most densely populated with 1.3 million people living on it. Due to the higher population and seat of government it acts as the main hub of the islands. It is aproximately 160km wide and 90km long excluding the south eastern peninsula. On the longest axis, Mahi is about 180km long.

Geography
Mahi Mount dominates the island, rising to over 5000m above sea level. Its extinction event occured in preshistory, with a secondary caldera to the west of the main summit exploding. The slopes of Mahi Mount are rough, with many deep, wide valleys formed from collapsed magma tubes of massive size.

The rough geography is counter intuitively the best for settlement as it provides the best shelter from the vicious storms which occur in the area.

The valleys are densely rainforested with rich fertile soil while the ridgetops are exposed and windswept. The four main harbours are relatively steep, with little flatland near shore, but further from the centre of the island, the slope to the waters edge decreases.

Settlements
There are four main cities on Mahi. Valivesi the capital, in the western harbour. Kivana is a crafting centre in the northern harbour. Rikoni is an internal trade hub in the eastern harbour. Sukonu is a short distance from Valivesi in the southern harbour.

Valivesi
The capital of the Rahi Vasa Company and largest city. Approximately 35,000 Bawa live here with 5,000 people of other species. The steep fortified port city is tucked tight again the caldera walls, and has extensive ports, warehousing and trade facilities. There are two large, but steep roads leading over the hills to the east and north west. The ridges along the large and deep harbour have squat, yet tough forts on them, and the mouth of the harbour has statues of Mother Ocean and Father Land. The limited land area and poor access to trees has resulted in Valivesi building more stone and plaster buildings than would otherwise be used, with multistory buildings common, each story being a single large room and used like a tribehall.

Valivesi is controlled by the Smiling Merchants Plainface, Redeyes, and Cheekscar in a close alliance, forming a powerful block in the directorship.

Kivana
In the north of the island, Kivana is the second largest city and is less densely populated than valivesi, with about 16,000 people, almost exclusively Bawa. The stone and plaster architectural style of Valivesi meets the wooden style of most of the rest of the settlements. The city is famed for its crafthalls and shipbuilders who use the greater area to build the things which would be too expensive to build in Valivesi. It is managed by Sunset, who ensures that the shipyards are running smoothly.

Rikoni
Rikoni is in the eastern harbour of Mahi, and is primarily an agriculture and aquaculture hub for the other two islands. With more flat land, the population of 13,000 is much more spread out, with fields and plantantions extending through it almost to the waters edge. It has large processing facilities, as it conducts a lot of the internal food trade of the Rahi Vasa Company. Rikoni is run by Greenstripe, a Bawa chosen for their farming knowledge as much as their business savvy.

Sukonu
A harbour city, although not as large as Valivesi, it serves as a satellite city, with about 11,000 people living there. While geographically close to Valivesi, it serves as a cheaper, more dangerous trading centre for people who can't afford or don't want to come too close to Valivesi itself. It is not uncommon for people to work in Valivesi for a few days, then walk or sail to Sukonu to stay with family. Bluehalf works with the three Smiling Merchants of Valivesi, but is considered distinctly independent from their trio.

Nonogon
The Nonogon is the military and governmental fortification which sits high above Valivesi, and is the seat of government for the Rahi Vasa Company, although the Smiling Merchants only spend a portion of their time there. It is partially underground, dug into the side of Mahi Mount and houses the required documents and people to run the company if Valivesi is ever taken, however unlikely that may be. Regular meetings of the 6 Smiling Merchants of Mahi occur here, with less regular meetings of all nine, as Redjaw, Goldteeth and Sable have to travel from their islands.

Vaka
Vaka is the northermost island, and most culturally isolated. It is a quiet and lowly populated island with only one main centre sprawled along the southern coast and a total population of roughly 500,000. It is the most densely rainforested and considered to be wilderness. It is approximately 180km wide and 135km long.

Geography
While Vaka Mount is not as tall as as Mahi Mount, only reaching 3300m above sea level. The terrain is even more hostile, with sharp, narrow valleys resisting cultivation or settlement. There are a number of secondary peaks which result in a maze-like series of valleys rather than the radial ones of other islands.

The unusual valley configuration causes a number of lakes to form and heavy rain can result in unpredictable flooding, so most rivers have wide flood routes and are avoided due to their dangerous nature.

Settlements
The largest settlement and only significant port is Camp Vaka, a large and distributed hunters city of about 7,000, resulting from infill of hunters camps. It is spread through the dense forest on the south of the island, with houses and work areas places where they fit among the trees. The Wild population of Pillpig provide much of the land based economy, and those on shore are dedicated to hunting and supporting the hunters with weapon making, leather working and meat smoking and salting. The hunting and and meat industry is overseen by Redjaw, and they have proven successful and are looking to grow the settlement by a significant amount.

Sire
Sire is the largest, warmest and flattest island. More populated than Vaka with about 900,000, it is agricultural in nature, with the low mountain leaving plenty of flat land to farm. It is the island most closely assosiated with the Father Spirit of the land. It is approximately 150km wide and 180km long.

Geography
Sire Mount is the shortest and flattest of the three main mounts. Due to a massive eruption early in the volcano's life, the upper half of the mountain was destroyed. Following eruptions have resulted in most magma coming from secondary vents, leaving a gentle slope to the ocean, and a wide and flat summit. The elevation of this summit ranges from 1250m at the edges to 1000m in the middle, due to infil of the old caldera. The rainforest on Sire's slopes consists of much larger trees, spaced further apart as the island is more exposed to storms and smaller trees can often be destroyed. Crop plants are easily farmed on terraces without having to clear excessive amounts of forestation.

The bowl-like summit of the island is more sheltered than the rest of Sire, leading to easy cultivation of farmed trees and dense forestation.

Settlements
The settlements of Sire are farming communities on the south western and eastern bays, with much of the rest of the coast being mangroves and reefs. The Cross Sire Road travels from Sugar Bay over the summit of Sire Mount to Pitevo, and is the main route most logs are brought to port for processing and export.

Sugar Bay
The south western bay has a long slow slope which receives large amounts of sun and plenty of rain. The city is a large producer and processor of sugar cane, with many large plantations and distilleries operating in a loose network of sites. Sourcane, Banana and Conconut are also extensively farmed in this region.

Sugar Bay itself is a city of tall wooden buildings, with a feeling of a wanting to be a big city, yet can't manage it. There is a rapid pace of expansion, and 13,000 residents state "they can feel it growing". Goldteeth is known to be aggressively pushing this expansion, and is offering good finance terms to those who want to expand here.

Pitevo
The eastern side of the island has a more shaded climate, which results in the production of root crops, flax and spices. The populace is smaller than Sugar Bay at 7,500 and are more spread out. Their vali are tribally oriented, although a shared processing and port hub bring these semi communities together. It is in this isolated community Sable seeks to bring quality to the crop production, increasing the potency of spices produce among other things.

The Twins
These two islands are unsettled, and left as navigation aids with only a lighthouse and a small spiritual contingent on them.