Crish and Varg

Crish and Varg is an island group over 900 km north of Cape Cadal, the most northwesterly point of Anásthias. It is named for the two largest islands, but the group includes six smaller islands plus rocky islets, many appearing and disappearing with the tides. In ancient times the islands were a single large landmass known as Kikarich, which gradually shrank and diminished with sea level rises over successive epochs.

Crish is the largest and most populous island in the group, being a maximum 125 km long and 70 km wide. Varg is approximately 80 km long, but so low-lying that during high storm tides it becomes four separate isles. Crish and Varg are green-vegetated, though there are many virid species cultivated for various purposes. The shallow seas surrounding the islands are rich in greenfish, the staple food of the inhabitants, plus a number of unusual green food crops which have been bred in isolation from the mainland.

During the Jade Epoch, around 10,000 BME when sea levels were lower, the two islands were combined in a single mass, “twelve days' walk from end to end” (approximately 600 km). It became home to a West Thalsic people who called it Kikarich. The Kikari developed their own distinctive language and culture, and the island civilisation became home to numerous tribal kingdoms. In later ages the island kingdoms were drowned, the survivors fleeing to higher ground to eek out a primitive existance.

The islands were only vaguely known to the Empire of Dor-en-Sann and the few Therist missionaries sent here from Ororr have met with little success, mainly due to the incomprehensibility of the local languages.

In the 9th century, an expedition of Ororran priests-militant visited the island, taking a group of children back to mainland Ororr and trying to give them a thorough Therist education. They were returned to the island with the intention of spreading the religion, but instead they brought division and disease which wiped out half the islands' population. Consequently Ororrans are considered the “Death-Bringers”, and visitors to the island today are met with violence and shunned.