La grande Phare de Troy

The island is said to be the remains of a large meteor that crashed into Teolin only thousands of years ago. The island is a solid piece of rock and wizards claim that it was formed and hardened as much as it is today when it flew right between the two suns around which Teolin circles.
The island is very small, measuring a little under a mile in diameter in all directions, save for the direction "up". The island with its steep sides reaches up to the sky and most days the bottom of the clouds do not fly as high as the peak of the island which stands over six miles into the sky. At the top of the island, there is a small plateau where a wizard has once build a small house constructed entirely of ruby. Once the house was finished, the story says he cast a eternal flame spell on the house and as such the house seems to be ablaze now at all times. As such the Grande Phare, which literally means the great light, was established. The fire on the rock point is so intense that you can see it for many miles around. Some, who know where to watch claim it can be seen over fifty miles from the island itself. The fire is magical in nature and so does not consume anything, it is not even warm to the touch. The house is not inhabited as such, but a watch is kept there at all times to keep an eye on the surrounding islands, the weather and the ships travelling in the neighbourhood.

La grande Phare de Troy is an island located in the middle of a region known as Troy. Many smaller and larger islands are located here and the region of Teolin is well known for breeding horses. Some of the surrounding islands are especially well known, like for instance La Fleche Folly, where many heavy warhorses come from.

Movement

As La grande Phare measures only around a mile in diameter, most places are rather easy to reach, save for the fact that many houses are literally build one above the other. Many a stair needs to be climbed to reach the top of this island and those who do not leave early in the morning, will not reach the top of the mountain before the setting of the sun.
All the paths are steep and most of them feature stairs as well. As such horses and other animals are rare guests on La grande Phare de Troy.

Geology

The island is a solid rock that has plummeted from the sky a few thousand years ago. Near the base, extensions have been build, so ships can anchor in the harbour. Further up the slopes, a ring of houses has been build around the island. The higher you go, the less houses you will encounter and currently there is a building stop on the island, as the lower rings of houses are in danger of collapsing under the weight of the houses higher up the mountain.

Political situation

A long time ago, when the wizard who created the burning house left, he established the political situation for La grande Phare de Troy.
The wizard who is responsible for maintaining and controlling the burning house, is also the leader of the town of La grande Phare. This leader has the right to disband his post for only two months each year, during which period, a replacement is appointed. The replacement wizard is in fact appointed the new guardian of the fire in case the guardian of the fire might not be able to continue his service.
Once every five years on the first day of Con-Cluer, the guardian of the fire may step down and appoint a new guardian of the Fire.

Crime and Justice

With so many wizards living in such close quarters, not many dear to take items not rightfully theirs. Wizards tend to nasty means to protect what is theirs and the harbour master tends to be a wizard as well. As such it is difficult to smuggle goods from the island.
It seems most people are so deterred by this that crime is not a serious problem on La grande Phare.

Magic

Magic is a everyday part of life on La grande Phare de Troy. However this is mainly arcane magic. Not many people are even aware of the fact that divine magic exists. As such divine magic users may sometimes see very odd reactions.

Revered gods

The two gods that have established a shrine on this island are Isis and much more recently Poseidon. As magic seems to be the main religion on the island, not even a god of the last journey has established a shrine on the island. However for those that want a proper burial, there is no place on the island anyway and so for this, people tend to travel to La Fleche Tordu.

Main population

The main population is formed by humans, although many elves come to visit the burning house, that they consider to be a funny trickster game. However the elves do recognize the importance of the fire house and so they occasionally step in to take the position of guardian of the fire.

Economy

The main export product for this island is protection and safe passage thru the Troy area. As such, all ships passing within a certain distance of La grande Phare or mooring at any of the islands under it's influence, pay a small compensation for this.
Furthermore, the island harbours a small research institution for magical science and thus derives some income from visitors.
The island mainly imports just about everything one needs to live, including all the materials to build houses and the like.


The Teolin Setting
Copyright 2001-2005 Ylorea's Adventuring
Last update 15-12-2004