The Oras Archipelago

OVERVIEW   An isolated island chain known variously as the Oras Archipelago (Ugor-safruna Oras in Old Tongue, the name used most commonly by outsiders and the Tisseri), Tşotşorynkatartarksurys (meaning "the Dragon Isles", the name used by the indigenous dragons and those under their influence), Nurupotali (the name in Ate'ian), and the Heretic Isles (a general epithet dating back to the Orasi Crusade). The isles are home to an apostate elven kingdom and the only draconic civilization on the surface of Koru. Despite its remote location, the Oras subcontinent has had a profound impact on the world, the implosion of the Orasi Crusade having sown the discord that eventually led to the cataclysmic events at the Battle of Sakavi.   GEOGRAPHY   The Oras Archipelago rises from an unusually high oceanic plateau which sits only a few hundred meters beneath the surface. Stretching south across the Taivani Ocean from the arctic for almost 8,000 km, the Oras are quite isolated. Icecrown, the northernmost populated island, lies roughly 1,200 km from Thovan (a journey of five to six days sailing in good weather, although icebergs and sea monsters pose a danger even then). As a result, most of the historical and cultural contact between the isles and the rest of Koru has occurred via Icecrown, and cultural ties persist to this day. Krara̰ng, at the southern end of the archipelago, remains the most culturally and linguistically distinct. The long north-south extent of the chain means that the islands are home to a wide range of biomes.   The islands can be divided in two ways, either into Northern and Southern or Greater and Lesser. The first method is political, dividing the islands between the lands historically pertaining to the Tisseri Kingdom and those historically controlled by the Empire of Scale. Despite the collapse of these polities, the division remains in use and divides the islands into the Northern Oras, which comprise Icecrown and the smaller Brean controlled islands to the south, and the Southern Oras which consist of everything south of the Haunted Isle.   The second division is physical and groups the islands based on size, with the two largest islands of Icecrown and Krara̰ng being the Greater Oras and the remaining, much smaller islands being the Lesser Oras.