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Raltuin
Updated: Sept. 26, 4:52 p.m.
This island is a canonical part of the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting. You can still edit it, but aware that the admins may revert your changes if they don't align with the overall vision of the setting.
Summary
This island is a perfectly symmetrical pyramid of marble rising from the sea. It appears to have been man-made. Nearly every man on the island has two jobs, one as a priest of some kind and the other, that by which he supports himself.
Size: 1 square mile
Population: 800
The deepest divers report that the step pyramid of which the isle of Raltuin comprises the top goes as far down as any man can dive. In the center of each of the four symmetrical sides of the marble pyramid is a flight of stairs leading down into the sea. Atop the pyramid, both day and night, a ritual continues in a forgotten tongue involving anywhere from a dozen to two hundred of the island’s men who don various sequined and feathered ritual garments.
The south and east sides of the pyramid have been transformed, over the generations, into rich, terraced farmland where olives, avocados, maize, flax and sugarcane are grown. The soil is made from the islanders’ waste, crushed shells and the enormous kelp they harvest at sea. A small herd of alpaca are kept in one area of the south face for sacrificial purposes. The north and west sides are fully enclosed in huge group dwellings or pueblos made of concrete of coral and lime. The west side is the dwelling of the women and children; the north is the dwelling of the men — it is called the Priest House as every man on Raltuin is initiated into the priesthood at the age of twelve.
Women are barred from the Priest House and men are only permitted to stay in a woman’s room in the other pueblo, the Society House, as long as the woman who owns it does not tire of him. When a man is no longer welcome, the woman makes it known by throwing his shoes into the sea. Then she renames her children.
Both men and women work in the farms but only men may handle the alpacas. Both men and women go to sea in the enormous dugout canoes made from ancient trees but only the women are permitted to harvest the giant kelp or deal the death blows to the narwhals whose horns the islanders sell to obtain lumber, crushed limestone and their other necessities.
