The Isle of Arsonists
The Isle of Arsonists, fifty miles from Banhoesea, is where all of the arsonists are sent. It is blackened and scorched from the many fires that are set by the gibbering insane, and full of the blackened stumps of trees.
Often smoke is seen rising from it, and most captians order their crews to stay far from it. Yet it has plant life of a kind...rich green grass grows in the winter, along with certain grape vines that only grow in a scorched area.So in the winter when rains make burning almost impossible the arsonists enjoy sweet purple grapes.
In the summer finding food is a major problem.Some manage to eat lobsters that they catch in lobster pots, some eat rasins, some kill and eat each other and some end up starving to death. Very rarely, some ship's captain might take pity on them and give them some food.
There is a serious risk of being caught up,when the grass dries, in the fires set by the lunatics, and burnt alive before being eaten.That is the most dangerous time of the year.The arsonists are put ashore with only one set of clothing,so even if it avoids being burnt, after a few weeks it smells and looks disgusting.Many have wounds or pink scars from small, non-fatal burns.The sane hate the lunatics with a passion but are grossly outnumbered.
At the highest part of the island,where flames cannot reach, is a small clay ziggurat sacred to Jove, which is on the top of a dormant volcano, so there is allways a fire burning within it.Both the sane and the mad respect this holy place and will not do anything to damage it.
The arsonists must sleep in the open air,without bedding, in all weathers, since the lunatics burnt down the huts that had been built for them and the fires spread to the huts of the sane.