Akupara Island (Geography)

Akupara Island is an island situated atop a giant turtle known as an Akupara, the last one of its kind known to exist. On the island live a series of oriental humans in isolated towns and villages. These people share the island with amphibious beings known as the Kappa. For a seperate article about the people and history of Akupara Island, see this article.

The Turtle's Back
The bulk of the habitable island is on the Akupara's shell which spans about 700 miles from front to back and, at its widest point, is roughly 350 miles wide. Further inhabitable space exists on the floating islands tethered to the shell and Akupara Island's various smaller atolls.The island's other intelligent species, the Kappa, are known to have civilisations based in air pockets on the underside of the Akupara's shell.

Much of the mainland is made up of sweeping valleys, flowing fresh water rivers and lakes but depending on what region of mainland you are in, the scenery can be dramatically different. The lists below will go through the geographical differences that are unique to certain regions.

The northern region
Because of volcanic activity in the northern regions of the island, all the water nearby is coloured red from volcanic minerals found in the waters sources. As the water flows towards the deltas and back into the sea it turns back to normal water. It is assumed by locals that this is because the water loses its volcanic minerals as it heads further away from volcanic earth.

As well as the water being different, the lush trees seen in other parts of the island of gradually replaced by bamboo forests as you go further north. The bamboo reeds come in a variety of colours ranging from khaki green to ochre and beige to shiny black and are typically about 20 to 25 meters in height although reeds as tall as 85 meters can be found in certain denser areas within the forests. These bamboo forests are patrolled by Basan, a species of large flightless birds that breath fire.

The northern region also has small pockets of sand dotted around although none of these are big enough to be considered a desert. The sand is mostly beige coloured but, as you move closer to the volcanoes, this is gradually replaced by black volcano sand. Where sand covers geyzers; large, crystal like pillars of glass are formed. As they are formed they are shot skyward and, because of the trajectory from the geyzers, land to form mazes of glass columns. The glass columns are so large and so numerous that it said to have taken hundreds, if not thousands of years for these mazes to form. Needless to say, because of the amount of natural glass and the ease of glass's manufacture by people, the north of Akupara Island is the islands largest glass producers. Exotic glass items are also shipped abroad as expensive decoratives.

Rock formations in the north typically consist of igneous and metamorphic types. Rather ironically Sandstone is very common in the lower regions of the north whilst, as you get higher, the igneous and metamorphic types are more common. The formations are either very smooth in surface or very jagged and are typically either sandy coloured of dark grey in colour. Towards the peaks of the volcanoes it is possible to find rather large chunks of crystal and precious stones, which are considered valuable by the locals because of the danger involved in acquiring them.

The eastern region
The eastern regions are abundent in the large sweeping valleys which the island is famous for and also boasts enormous peaks which tower over everything else on the island. This region is also home to the floating islands.

In the lower reaches lush forests prosper whilst in the higher regions small shrubs bloom amongst the mountain rocks. Numerous small streams start up hill and gradually trickle down and meet up to form large rivers that cut through the valleys. Large formations of Limestone are common in the east as well as formations of igneous rock.

During the spring time, this region is typically coloured in a palette of light greens. As it goes into summer the greens get deeper in shade until autumn where the leaves on the trees and the blades of grass change to fiery colours. Reds, oranges and yellows colour the landscape. Because of wind meandering through the valleys and because of the region's place above sea level, the east is highly susceptible to heavy snow and blizzards.

The southern region
The southern region is the flattest area of Akupara Island. A traveller will go for miles without seeing any noticable difference in the landscape. The regions is moderately hilly but most of these only vary in height by about 20 to 30 meters every few miles. Travelling here is far from safe though since the south is notorious for flash flooding, especially as spring begins and the ice from the top of the eastern mountains melts. certain areas of the southern plains can remain submerged for days or weeks on end with no land visible in any direction. It is also dangerous travelling during summer because of draughts.

The high grounds of the south are typically employed as farmland for both crops and animals. When floods do occur, farmers seize the opportunity to collect flood water and store it for summer in preperation for any draughts that may happen.

All the towns in the south are situated on high ground as a precaution. When floods do happen, these towns often become their own little island until the water clears up.

The western region
In the west, as you move towards the midlands the area is full of forests whilst the areas further to the west are very swampy. Most human civilisations in the west are in or around the forest. This partly because the forest obviously has resources that are considered valuable by the humans but it's mainly because people are afraid of the Kappa that they think live in the swamp.

Kappa communities do live in the swamp but the human towns and villages do not know this for sure. They merely speculate through a few glimpses that some people claim to have seen.

The midlands
The midlands are where all the different regions meet and, thus, shares traits with all the regions but also has some traits of its own. The midlands boasts a large number of canyons that cut their way through the center of the island as well as several enormous craters that are home to several big monsters.

Around the canyons and craters are rock formations coloured in ochre but beyond these are lush woodlands full of beautiful Akuparian blossom trees which are said to look fantastic in springtime. The east and south also have these trees but not in the numbers which the midlands have.

The Floating Islands
There are two floating islands tethered to the back of the Akupara's shell. Both are attached to the tallest mountain on the Akuparian mainland and both are interconnected by the web of a giant spider monster that is said to live in a cave on the underside of one of the floating islands.

Both islands have their own water supply which is created by high altitude rain and snow. Because of the altitudes that these islands fly at, they both remain covered in a white blanket of snow for most of the year with only a few weeks in summer where the blanket thins. This unveils small flowers which make the islands incredibly colourful for a few weeks whilst the snow is gone but these quickly get covered again and die. Other smaller shrubs also exist which live throughout the year but are not any where near as nice to look at.

The floating islands have a series of evergreen trees that provide the islanders with materials and food. Although the evergreen trees grow fruit which are edible, the islanders are rather partial to making sweets from the sap that comes from the trees. Other foods on the island come from animals that are bred within the communities. Cleverly insulated buildings are also made to keep vegetables and fruit plants. These buildings are electrically lit, built partially underground and are covered in thick layers of snow to insulate them further.

Running streams and rivers mean that water is always available regardless of the temperature. These running streams also create giant waterfalls that plummet back down to the mainland. The waterfalls intensify during summer when the snow melts.