The History of Soporus, as known by the Villagers

The first shipwreck victim arrived about 100 years ago. His name was Joren Highsteader. We know this because he left behind a journal tucked inside a leather pouch in a poorly made cabin on the beach. His journal, though smeared by moisture and missing the first few pages, provide the known history of Soporus.

In his journal, he described waking up on the beach with no possessions except the clothes on his back and his leather pouch. And no memories. Fortunately, his journal provided some help there. Apparently, he was an ambassador returning to Seven Cites, though the journal remnants did not say from where.

After a few attempts at exploring he simply wrote “Note to self, do not go into the hills. Too Dangerous.” And then later he wrote, “Avoid the dead.”

How he died is unknown, but his bones, identified by the crest on his signet ring matching the one the leather pouch, were found near one of the creeks.

Forty years later a flotilla of refugees passed by the bay and was destroyed. Over the next several days, a few survivors washed up on the beach, seemingly all strangers and all missing memories. Combining their fragments of memory they pieced together their shared past as refugees, but little else.

This began the initial settlement of thirty-three. After many attempts to leave by sea were foiled by the strange currents, fog, and jagged rocks, the villagers settled in. It was then that the name Soporus took, as these refugees finally found peace.

With occasional additions to the population by way of shipwreck, the population is now a healthy one-hundred-forty men, women, and children.

Newcomers always try to leave and are always stymied by the same boundaries as their predecessors; the limestone cliffs to the north and south are too slick to climb and are inhabited by fierce bloodhawks, the bay opening is impassable and there seems to be nothing to the west where the cliffs meet but hills full of boar and other dangerous beasts.

About twenty years ago, a particularly adventurous group went to explore what one of them thought might be a door in the western cliffs above the hills. Two children had secretly followed and what they saw can only be described as horrific. None of the adults survived. Since then it has been taboo to go past the hills.