Paminta

Paminta is the largest island in the Paminta Archipelago. Once renowned for the quality of its spices, it has, for the past decade, been occupied by the Tagápulo Empire, which uses it as a naval port to support its westward expansion. During the invasion, Paminta's plantations were burned to the ground, and the Empire has made no meaningful effort to restore them. This is due, at least in part, to ongoing conflict with the island's surviving natives, the Puluna. Though most of the population was killed in the conquest, the survivors retreated into the island's mountainous interior, from which they wage a guerrilla war against the occupying Tagápulo. While their resistance has not seriously threatened the Empire's military hold on the island, it has nonetheless prevented any attempt at civilian resettlement or the revival of the plantations.

Since the invasion, the Tagápulo Empire’s naval forces have rebuilt only the harbor at Lambé, allowing the island’s other settlements to fall into ruin - or burning them outright to prevent the Puluna guerrillas from using them as shelter. They rarely send troops into the mountains, where the terrain favors the guerrillas. This has produced a stalemate: the navy holds the lowlands and the coast, while the highlands and mountains remain under Puluna control. Whenever the guerrillas strike at the naval encampments, they risk losing fighters they cannot replace, whereas the Tagápulo suffer only minor inconveniences. In the long term, the Empire believes it can simply starve out the Puluna, effectively besieging the mountains.

Notable Spirits

According to the Puluna, the island of Paminta is the body of an ancient, black-scaled dragon that sleeps beneath the central volcano, Lina Muna. They believe that if the dragon awakens, the island's stability will collapse: the volcano will erupt, and the land will shake. To prevent this, Puluna priests dedicate their spirits to soothing the dragon for the first century after their deaths. Each priest once had a shrine devoted to this sacred duty, where the living brought offerings to sustain them. The upheavals of the past decade have severely disrupted this tradition, and many Puluna now fear that the dragon will soon awaken as the priestly spirits fade for lack of support.