Dainube – Live on the rocky/mountainous side of the island; mostly work in the strip mine for meager wages and scratch to survive.
Naibu – Live on the fertile side of the island; mostly work on the plantation and have small plots of land for subsistence farming.
X’hra – The indigenous people of the island; nomadic hunter/gatherers
X’hra
It is a hard knock life for you. The X’hra originally colonized this island thousands of years ago; your oral history tells you that your ancestors were the first people to build boats that could travel the sea, and that they found their home when they discovered this island. Life was wonderful until about 400 years ago another group of seafarers found it too and pushed you into the desert and mountainous regions. They had superior military technology and you were no match for them. They took the best part of the island. You managed okay though, living in the desert and the mountains, and occasionally raiding the Naibu, until things got even worse about 100 years ago, when this new third group arrived and they were pushed to the mountains, and ever since then you have had to survive in the desert. led you to this island made up of a network of small bands of 10-12 extended family members each; marriage partners are found when the bands meet at different times of the year for harvesting and ceremonial reasons. Now, you survive by the skin of your teeth. The strip mine that moved in and started operations about 50 years ago has been using part of the desert to dump all of the toxic waste and byproducts from the mine, and the plantation has been using part of the island to dump all of their expired pesticides and other toxic waste. This has not only had a big impact on the health of your people, but has also killed a lot of the plant and animal life that you depend on. Not only that, but poachers who fly in on helicopters from other countries have been coming as part of a fad called “safaris”, where wealthy people who want to be big bad hunters can pay a guide to fly them to remote parts of the world and shoot things. You have some connections with the Dainube, the second poorest people on the island. Life is rough. But recent developments have given your people some hope…. Maybe things can get better.
Naibu
Life is not much, but it’s better than the Dainube’s or the X’hra’s! Your people were the second group of people to colonize this island. You descend from a culture of fisherman, and your ancestors discovered this island about 400 years ago and easily pushed the X’hra out of the fertile region. Over the next couple of generations, they established a thriving society on the fertile side of the island that was based on fishing, farming and tending animals. The dictator that was just overthrown was a member of your culture. However, your society suffered too under his regime, which benefitted mainly himself. A multinational agriculture company came in about 50 years ago, leased most of the best land for itself, and ever since your people have pretty much had to work on the plantation for low wages because your little plot of land will not support you and your family all by itself. The Dainube were the biggest players in the revolution that finally overthrew the dictator, but they were not without support from your people. Now the question is, what can be done to heal old wounds and move forward?
Dainube
Life has been really hard for your people. First, your ancestors were removed from the mainland hundreds of years ago, back when this island was their colony, because they were considered “undesirable”. Unfortunately, the island was already inhabited by a society of pastoral farmers, who drove your ancestors to the rocky, practically uninhabitable side of the island. Your forefathers managed to survive by raiding the farms of their wealthier neighbors, and also by forming a trading partnership with the indigenous population, a tribal society that somehow managed to survive in the central desert part of the island. You raid the Naibu and trade what you can for food and tools and other items. There has been some intermarriage between your people and the tribe, so your culture does feel an allegiance to them. Now you mostly work in the mines; the mining company came in about 50 years ago, and since that is the only job available, you do what you have to do to survive. The dictator that your people had the biggest part in overthrowing made sure that you stayed in your place. Well, now all that has changed, but the question is, what are you going to do now?
Geography
The island is shaped like Australia. It is only about 1/3 its size though. It has an interior desert basin rimmed by mountains, which border the sea. The coastal ranges bordering the sea are low elevation mountains that have vegetation and wildlife; the western ¼ of the island is mountainous and rocky, with little vegetation. A flank of fertile land juts out from the east side, extending from the outer slopes of the coastal mountains to the shore, and is more than enough to feed all the occupants of the island, but only the Naibu and the multinational corporation really benefit from it.
Climate
Tropical; arid interior
Resources
A wealth of mineral resources exist in the mountainous region of the island; about 20% of the land is arable and fertile.
