Stegos

We left for Paratorna and on the way, we passed by Stegos, which we could only see as an area of darkness by the horizon. The captain kept well away from the island, and for good reason: any ship that gets to close sinks. The people of Stegos have been cursed by Shamash himself. This happened almost two hundred years ago, when a Trinsmyri fleet closed in on Albarunzia. The city was entirely relying on the Stegosi to defend it, as the population were sworn to the god of truth. But when they saw that they could do nothing to stop the Trinsmyri fleet, they betrayed their vows and turned against their former allies, and decided to plunder the city before the Eelskulls could. As it happened this occurred on the day of a solar eclipse.

When the Shar Kishatin saw this betrayal, he called down a terrible curse on the Stegosi people. And lo! When the sun returned, the darkness refused to leave the island of Stegos, and the people's navy sank. Since that time, no one has been able to come to or leave the island, which is still under constant darkness. Not even birds can get there. They simply fall out of the sky if they try to approach it. No one knows if anyone still lives there, of course. One legend says that the curse will be lifted once the great arena in Mea Plakole is filled to the brim with the skulls of the city's descendants. As grim as that sounds, there is no way of knowing if it has any truth.