A group of islands off the Seacleft Coast, home to the Tuktuk people. The islands are dominated by dense jungle and mysterious ruins, with settlements clustered along the coasts and rivers where the turtle-folk have built their warrior culture over generations.
The Tuktuk claim these islands as their ancestral territory, though they took them by conquest and settlement within recorded history, not ancient occupation. Whatever peoples lived here before the Tuktuk arrived left only ruins behind. The turtle-folk found the islands, fought for them, and made them their own.
Tuktuk Villages
The Tuktuk organize themselves by clan and village, each settlement a defensive holdfast centered on extended family groups. Villages are built to withstand assault: thick walls, choke-point approaches, communal structures that can shelter the entire population during attacks. The architecture reflects a people who expect to fight for what they have.
Mtrako — The primary settlement on the Tyvern island, an eastern coastal village and the main seafaring base. Shipwrights work here, building the sturdy vessels the Tuktuk use for fishing, raiding, and trade. Mtrako's warriors are the most likely to interact with outsiders. They raid foreign shipping and occasionally engage in legitimate commerce. The village maintains a rough harbor where non-Tuktuk ships can anchor, though visitors should expect close observation.
Jungles of Tyvern
The interior of the Tyvern Isles is covered in thick tropical jungle, dangerous and wild. The Tuktuk have cleared areas around their villages and maintain paths between settlements, but the deep jungle remains untamed, home to predators, ruins, and things the turtle-folk prefer to avoid.
Black Forest
Located in the jungles near the Tower of Gwyndar, the Black Forest is an unnatural place where nearly all color has been drained away. Your shadow can leave your body here, becoming separated and wandering independently, a deeply unsettling phenomenon that can result in permanent loss of one's shadow.
Large ogres that have lost their shadows live in this forest, hunting by the absence of light rather than its presence. The forest is extremely dangerous, as those who lose their shadows often lose part of their essence, becoming hollow and susceptible to possession by shadow entities.