Eyes Of Moth

The Eyes Of Moth are relatively young in the grand scheme of the world and the millions of years that Humans and other races have laid their claim to it's expansive surface.
 
  But the Eyes Of Moth are still young by comparison.
 
  This young caldera arrived on the world's surface only a few million years ago and was inhabited several thousands of years later after it had been discovered by a floating tribe of explorers after they had fled their former home in search of new lands to grow, but it is more the story of how it was formed that intrigue many.
 
  Legends speak of a great celestial beast that had been flying through the cosmos in search of the source of a great light that it had seen on it's journey and that it had been so enamored by that light that it spent millions of years flying in one single direction and never once deviating from it's path, even passing millions of brighter and greater stars along the way. So entranced was this beast that when it arrived to the source of the light, it's love for it was so great that it sent itself plummeting straight into the planet's surface. It happened to land in the center of a relatively young island at the center of which was a large volcano that was on the verge of erupting, and the force of the collision is what drove the cataclysm to take place, destroying hundreds of miles of land and vegetation in the process.
 
  What followed can only be described as a blessing.
 
  The Eyes Of Moth are named after this being who crashed into the land so long ago, and they are considered to have been blessed with the same creative and destructive power as possessed by the strange celestial being who created them. Despite the land having been so devastated by the eruption and subsequent flooding, the lands again proved their strength and resilience and grew back from the ashes to once again become lush and fertile. The land that remained after the incident had formed a large land ring around a great open sea at the center of which stood the ruined but standing remains of the same volcano, albeit much smaller than that which had come before the eruption that had taken place. These five islands are supposedly named Moth, Muth, Mono, Mene and Maan by the locals, but to the rest of the world they are simply known as the Eyes Of Moth. There are counted to be eighteen villages scattered around the islands with one of them being completely abandoned of Human life or other races, instead being used as a breeding and preservation ground for the known animals that have been living on the caldera for the past few thousand years or more. These villages in no particular order are listed as follows: Aegon, Aecae, Isca, Vaili, Tuntu, Afensau, Gila, Capreae, Higun, Bobau, Betang, Tasi, Birmai, Takha, Gulapa, Gigia, Alba Regia and Arbor Felix.
  The settlements of Alba Regia and Arbor Felix are the two largest in the caldera and act as the caldera's pleasure city and capital city respectively, after the former was destroyed in a storm and was rebuilt again in the early sixteen-hundreds into it's new life as a pleasure resort and city. Such venues as bars, brothels, spas, massage parlors and other types of locations have been the draw for the vacationing public ever since the city was rebuilt, although this city is not inhabited by and employing the caldera natives but rather foreign folk with a desire for adventure and a new life outside of their comfort zone. For some reasons known and others unknown, locals avoid this louche city to remain in their home villages on the surrounding islands. 
 
  The villages in the caldera are not known to have modernized much in recent times, living mainly in wooden homes or huts with single or double rooms of typically large size but with the modernizing acceptance of allowing vehicles such as battery or solar powered scooters and bikes as a faster means of transportation and not much else. They have built villages that can hold above ten-thousand, but this height of population is not very common amongst their people as they prefer to stick to their roots if they can and keep their population small. Of the sixteen villages scattered over the caldera, only three are believed to have struck their peak of ten-thousand-five-hundred while the rest remain below seven to six thousand. The two cities of the caldera have settled around one to three million depending on the time of year, thus leaving the population at an average mean of about four-point-one-million year round when the vacation season is either just ending or just beginning, wherein it can fluctuate by a few thousand or so. 
 
  The villages of the caldera have maintained peace with the capital city and the resort by reaching an agreement concerning settlers and vacationers in that permits and written requests must be sent by law to be either confirmed or rejected before the travelers can reach the caldera, especially if those permits are being written for the vacation season when the cities reach their peak populations. On average only a few dozen outsiders a year are welcomed into these villages, but they must adhere to a strict regimen of cleanliness so as to avoid contaminating the natives of the caldera, all of whom are Human and have not been entirely vaccinated against certain illnesses present in the modern world. They do not travel from the caldera and to the modern world outside either, again for reasons of illnesses as well as other types of exposure that would feel much too foreign to allow them to live or integrate comfortably with their surroundings. 
 
  One of the few staples sold by the caldera to the world outside is the Ekete Melon, a large melon roughly oval in shape and colored a soft orange-yellow color. It is hard to the touch but hides a sweet tasting inside, although it hides a toxin within that, if consumed, can cause stomach and bowel irritation which is thankfully not lethal after being ingested. This melon must be bathed in a special mixture after being deskinned to remove the toxin from the fruit, which forms on the surface of the mixture as a thin, white foam. 
 
  Another staple are the sour but rich Keafruit, which is small and roughly square in shape and grows from tall trees local to the caldera itself. This fruit is green in color and is favored for it's rich interior which can be liquified or crushed into a mash or paste to provide flavor to other dishes. 
 
  After scientists had taken many years to analyze the stories told to them by the locals concerning the legend of the forming of the caldera and the subsequent reason behind it's name, they were quick to connect this myth to a time period of roughly seven million years earlier or more, when a large meteoroid fell through the atmosphere and struck the same volcano on the young island that eventually created the caldera. This same meteoroid was vaguely shaped as a moth-like object, possibly leading to the conclusion by the natives that the thing that collided with the island was in fact a massive creature of the same name. To the extent of having named the caldera as the Eyes Of Moth, there resides on a small unnamed island near the remaining volcano a small islet. On this islet is a building standing three floors tall and about the size of a small church, which is known to the locals as the Temple Of Lamp. The islet is unfortunately subject to flooding during certain periods of the year, where the islet and the church are not accessible during this flood period. The dock is covered over as is the first floor of the building until the tide has moved back, at which point the building and the islet become accessible again. 
 
  One of the most major sailing trips to the caldera was onboard The Grandfather, a massive steamer ship built with iron as well as large paddlewheels that was carrying over three-thousand passengers on the voyage to reach the city of Alba Regia. It was one of the first times that the natives had seen a ship of that size and they were initially left quite shocked and worried that they were being invaded by a surprise attack, although they soon learned the voyage was carrying vacationers to Alba Regia, but that it couldn't sail beyond the caldera's mouth because the ship was too large to safely pass through while attempting to leave space for other trading vessels to navigate the same opening. This voyage took place in the nineteen-hundreds, at the height of the early steamship age when the technology was just being developed and tested on the open waters. The voyage was meant to be a delivery cruise as well as a major-length sea trials test for her engines and her paddlewheel technology, all of which took place under smooth skies and had succeeded for a vast majority of the voyage save for the last day, when the furnaces unexpectedly ran out of coal and forced the ship to ride on it's own power until it reached port. This forced coasting initially scared the captain as he had no idea how the ship would operate without proper propulsion to guide it or slow it down, but through a method of cutting power from unnecessary ship systems and delivering it to the screws and rudder, he was able to perform an emergency maneuver that brought the ship safely alongside port rather than into it, as he feared that even at the lesser speed the ship was traveling they might damage the dock and the port where the ship was to be docked after it had returned safely from it's voyage.