Old Twins

The Old Twins are a pair of large islands in the Wounds. Once the center of the powerful theocratic nation of Rashareka, after demonic invasions of the islands began in Y9266^* they have become almost entirely lifeless and depopulated.

Geography

The two Twins, each around 90 miles long and 20 miles wide, appear to almost circle around each other, together enclosing an inner sea. Volcanic in nature and heavily mountainous, as are many of the islands of the Wounds, the Old Twins once teemed with life that thrived in their rich, ashy soil. Their palm forests were home to all manner of creatures, mundane and magical alike, as were their beaches, coastal waters, off-shore reefs, and mountaintops.

Today, however, the Old Twins are very different. The demon incursions have rendered both barren, rocky, and ashen landscapes - the little life that manages to reestablish itself in the half of the year when the demons are away, seeds that float across the ocean and birds that fly in from nearby islands, are inevitably consumed once the demons return.

History

The Old Twins were inhabited for millennia, long home to some of the most prosperous and materially wealthy communities of the Wounds, who took advantage of the islands' great natural bounty. Eventually these grew and united into the nation of Rashareka, ruled by a holy dynasty that worshiped the volcanoes of the Twins, a precursor faith to the modern Beating Heart. For centuries Rashareka was one of the cultural hearts of the Wounds, the site of its largest cities that brought travelers, traders, and pilgrims from as far away as Phersu and the Chain.

This prosperity dramatically and immediately collapsed when the first planar tears opened in Y9266^*, first on the north island but soon quickly spreading to the south as well. Demons poured forth, sweeping through the cities and landscapes alike, ravenously devouring all they found. The survivors fled in whatever sea-going vessels they had, heading in whatever direction was fastest as Rashareka disintegrated. The demons continued to rampage for months before the planar tears, and the demons themselves, suddenly disappeared. After some initial wary expeditions reported no remaining threats some intrepid explorers began to cross the island in search of the source of the tears, yet they were themselves attacked again six months after the initial invasion as the portals re-opened and the demons returned. This began the cycle that continues to the present day; the tears open and the demons arrive on the Old Twins on the 175th day of the year, spread out in search of life to consume, then disappear once more without a trace after precisely 168 days.

With each ongoing demon-season less and less life reestablishes itself on the islands, and thus the demons have begun to move farther and farther out into the ocean. The locathah of the Wonder of the Seas, a massive and beautiful reef, found themselves refugees as well as the demons tore into the ancient corals. Now known simply as the Corpse, the reef is today a lifeless husk, home only to errant fish and the predators that pursue them.

Centuries after the initial invasions, the descendants of those who fled the Old Twins can be found across the Wounds. The largely gnomish and human populations of the islands have assimilated into the Keleta-Ru and Fanakara, some joining existing tribes and peoples and others forming their own. The locathah who once lived in the reef are now known as the Bakari, isolationist and fearful as they hide within their protected lagoons across the Na-Gaesa Ocean.

Today the Shieldbound are some of the only people who regularly return to the Old Twins. Militant demon-hunters based in the Protectors, an archipelago to the southeast, every demon-season the Shieldbound make the journey to the Old Twins in an attempt to halt the spread of the creatures farther into the Wounds. Xitaxokhu sahuagin hunting parties also make the trip, heading north from the Gekhuknaka Trench to undergo their rites of passage.