Yoake Shima

the Forbidden Island

Yoake Shima, literally Dawn Island in Nanash, more commonly called Kinji te Shima, Forbidden Island, by the Boon, is one of the seven large islands that make of the Na Boon archipelago in the Dark Hemisphere of Aldern. In the past it was called Nanas, with some scholars ascribing it as the fabled Nan Karas, the land of the Nanaras culture, the mystical ancestors of the Boon. The island is the southeastern most island of the archipelago and often the first island travelers from the major continent of Ethae encounter when traveling to Na Boon. This has led to many legends and tavern tales throughout the Light Hemisphere of a land of monsters and wild men no longer human. Yoake Shima is all of these rumors, and more, and no native of the archipelago live on the island, having the same fears as the foreigners. Travel to the island is limited due to these fears. Teikoku law forbids travel to the island.

The island is a wild land with a misty haze often covering much of its interior. Jenuwan Order priest stationed on the archipelago estimate at least half the island is covered in a Shadowfell. However local scholars with more knowledge of the islands, and understanding of Shadowfells, claim it much more. They will say the island is not oozing the darkness that is present in Shadowfells, but rather some other energy from Beyond Aldern that keeps the island wild and untamable. Boon myth tells that each of their islands having a soul, and Yoake Shima's spirit will not be subjected by man as the other islands have. Yoake Shima, in the Boon legend, is the womb of the world, creating life in the begin. Several of these legends claim the island will bring yet another new creation into being at the end of time, destroying the world.