Wumpa Archipelago

The Wumpa Archipelago are a collection of three islands and several atolls located partly within and south of the Great Australian Bight in the Southern Ocean, roughly 251km west of Tasmania. The islands were once believed to be continental fragments of a lost continent, once presumably thought to be those of Lemuria. Research in later years revealed that the Lemurians of the Wumpa Archipelago were survivors who had migrated to the islands from South America, after a previous cataclysm on a lost continent somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The archipelago are today believed to be continental fragments of Gondwana left over from when Australia split apart from Antarctica 50 million years ago.

The islands have several endemic species unlike any else found in the world, some of the most notable being its hyper intelligent carnivorous flora and iguana species. Many animal species on the island were brought there when the colonizing Lemurians brought their American fauna with them from South America. The islands have several natural wonders which origins are currently complete mysteries, the most notable being its world tree Nadrassil. The islands are protected by the Barros Act, of the royal society, which prohibits any country from illegally colonizing, settling, or studying the islands.

The most allusive feature of the mysterious islands are their vast networks of underground caverns and mines, which house magnetic crystals and gems that powered the advanced analog machinery of the Lemurians. The gems would go on to cause the civil war which destroyed Lemurian society, and today roughly 20 gems are known to be hidden across the island in various vaults and secret caches. These gems when correctly harnessed are able to conduct energy similar to that produced by nuclear plants, and are a keen body of interest as a power source for interstellar travel.

The native inhabitants of the isles today are the primitive descendants of the more sophisticated and advanced parent Lemurian civilization, that collapsed shortly after a brutal civil war ravaged their society. Their presence on the islands is still felt strongly today, and littered across are countless of their ruins, preserved through magick and innovative architectural foundations. Most of the ruins are condensed on Wumpa Island, though Cortex Island still has the megalithic Lemurian Palace.

The Wumpa Archipelago were mostly unknown to humanity and never discovered due to the magnetic energies caused by its powered minerals which clouded them from satellite imagery. Only one occassion preceding the Cortex Corporation's explorations is known, when Spanish and Australian forces made landfall during the Second World War. Neither nation was ever able to return, and reports of their missions remained a secret until their declassifications following the island's rediscoveries. This rediscovery too k place in 1996 when the rogue scientist Neo Cortex discovered the island from his blimp after an extensive search for the lost continent of Lemuria. Cortex immediately claimed the islands as an "asset" of the Cortex Corporation and purchased them from the Wumpian peoples for a measly sum. The scientist then spent the next four years building a base within the ancient palace on the abandoned and vacant third island, while also developing a massive factory on its adjoining isle.

Cortex would go on to be responsible for the Mutant Vortex Crisis, after he amassed a small army of rapidly evolved mutant animals which dramatically changed the ecosystem of the islands forever. Out of the three islands, N.Sanity Island was the least affected and encountered little to no mutant or scientist presence, Wumpa Island was largely colonized, and Cortex Island was completely changed forever. After the conclusion of the crisis, agreements were made internationally to preserve the islands and to prevent further interference.

Etymology
The islands are named after their endemic fruit and cultural symbol, the wumpa, which in Wumpian roughly translates to "purple" or "violet skinned fruit". The fruits habitat stretches across two of the three islands, and is related to other fruits in the prune family, such as prunes.

The word archipelago is derived from the Ancient Greek ἄρχι-(arkhi-, "chief") and πέλαγος (pélagos, "sea") through the Italian arcipelago. In antiquity, "Archipelago" (from medieval Greek *ἀρχιπέλαγος and Latin archipelagus) was the proper name for the Aegean Sea. Later, usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands (since the sea is remarkable for its large number of islands).

The Wumpians have their own name in their Wumpian dialect for the archipelago, being Pitakuma'due which has no direct translation but is an amalgamation of root words for "garden isles". This is similar to the name used by the Lemurians for the islands which was Alkumateki.

Geography
The Wumpa Islands formed from continental fragments 50 million years ago after Australia separated from Antarctica during the Cretaceous period. Geologically, the Wumpa Archipelago has strong geological compositions leftover from the Gondwana continent which once linked Australia and Antarctica together. Today, the archipelago consist of three large main islands of roughly similar size, a miniscule amount of islets, and a handful of seamounts. The three main islands, adequately named the Wumpian Islands and referred to as such in the rest of this literature; are located at a more southern latitude than Tasmania, but apart from Cortex Island do not reach any further towards Antarctica. The collective proximities to the icy continent have a dramatic impact on the climates of all three islands. Cortex Island being the southernmost, is naturally the coldest of the three and has more sparse tropical vegetation in comparison to its sister lands. N.Sanity Island is the only island to not experience snowy winter seasons, while Wumpa Island though tropical in the summer can experience heavy snowfall during some winter months.

Wumpa and N.Sanity are large islands and each have a similar surface area as Tasmania, while Cortex Island is comparatively small and only 2/10ths their size. N.Sanity Island has a surface area of 61,609km, Wumpa is smaller at 44,711, and Cortex Island is the smallest with an area of only 6,014 kilometers. Together, they are similar to the size of Honduras.

The archipelago is tectonically part of the Indo-Australian Plate, and shares it with Australia; but what differentiates the two lands is the fact that the Wumpa Archipelago is still largely Gondwanian in its composition. When Gondwana split from Australia, most of the former continent receded into the ocean and merged with the Indo-Australian layers. This recession caused a weight inducing effect that lifted certain layers of rock closer to the surface, raising the archipelago out of the ocean waters. A side effect of this expected occurrence was the unexpected compression of minerals that resulted from the trimerous merging of tectonic and continental plates. The compression of the minerals gave them a high magnetic density, and are the core reason behind the island's elusive history.

The nature of these minerals is explored in more detail within the Unique Properties section of this article.

N.Sanity Island
see N.Sanity Island

N.Sanity Island is the largest of the three islands, and has by far the highest population of indigenous Wumpian peoples, with Wumpa Island itself only having a very tiny population. The island is mostly wilderness, and has the smallest amount of Lemurian ruins present out of any of the three islands as the Lemurians never had any major colonization efforts there and mostly viewed the island as inferior until refugees flooded its coasts during the Lemurian Civil War. N.Sanity also has the most wildlife, and has been largely unaffected by the ongoing Mutant Vortex Crisis. The island is divided into two western and eastern halves by the calm Wohandari River, which flows from the natural wonder of the skull shaped cave of Gua'teng. During March to June, the river can become dry due to extreme summers, and several animals base their migration patterns off of the seasonal flooding and droughts of the marshes surrounding the river.

Wumpa Island
see Wumpa Island

Wumpa Island is the second largest of the three islands and the southernmost, even experiencing a strong winter season. The island has the highest density of Lemurian ruins of the entire archipelago. Two massive Lemurian cities survive on the island, the first being the Lost City of Lemuria and the second being Sunset Vista. There is a small Wumpian population in the western half of the island, but it is barely comparable to the largest presence on N.Sanity Island. The island is defined by Nadrassil, a massive world tree which reaches 914 meters into the sky. Cortex Co has also established a small presence in two opposite ends of the island, linked by a large underground mining network that exploits the island for its gems. The island also has one of the oldest surviving lighthouses.

Cortex Island
see Cortex Island

The smallest of the islands is Cortex Island, which being viewed as cursed by the Wumpian peoples, was abandoned upon Cortex's arrival. Cortex initially tried to demolish Lemurian Palace upon his arrival, and spent many months trying to tear away at the foundations of the palace, but supernatural magicks prevented him from doing so and all efforts were met as naught. Cortex instead resolved to inhabit the palace itself and make it his own, and subsequently rebranded it as Cortex Castle. The island today is environmentally devastated, with little wildlife that has survived Cortex's exploits. The island also has mountains that are snow covered all year round.

Climate
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbenton_High_School The three Wumpian islands are located due south of Australia, with N.Sanity existing laterally towards Tasmania's southern edge, and Wumpa and Cortex being further southward, more in line with New Zealand. Put simply, the islands experience a climate typical of temperate islands in the South Pacific.

What is notable however, is that all three islands experience winter seasons. Specifically, Wumpa and Cortex experience winters cold enough to bring snowfall to even their lowest altitude regions. The islands also experience monsoon and drought seasons, and all three experience periodic snowfall in their mountains.

Wumpa Island is the southernmost island and has the coldest winters out of any, Cortex Island is a close second with its peaks being ice capped all year long. N.Sanity Island is the northernmost island and consequently the warmest out of the three.

Pre-Lemurian Period
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWVU-FM

The Wumpa Archipelago despite its elusive nature has a long history of hominid inhabitance, though human activity on the islands were historically insignificant until the arrival of the Lemurians in 4111 BC. It was first believed that the Lemurians were the oldest culture to inhabit the islands, but archaeological evidence has shown that the Lemurians were not the first inhabitants of the isles and were precluded by an earlier group of hunter-gatherers. This mysterious race has been broadly designated as "Pre-Lemurian" peoples by modern anthropologists, and are believed to have migrated across an ice sheet extending from Australia roughly 30,000 years ago. Little is known of their culture, as they left behind no lasting structures and most of their populace were assimilated following Lemurian colonization. Most knowledge of these people has been extracted from bog mummies in Hulktker, scattered fossils, and surviving Lemurian texts. For the purpose of simplicity, the pre-Lemurian culture will be described aptly as Proto-Wumpians or suffice; protos for short. Summarily, when taking this group into account, the archipelago has been inhabited by a total of four cultures over the course of its history.

The protos descended from a small group of nomads that travelled over an Australian ice sheet during one of Earth's ice ages. Remains have been found to be primarily of Polynesian descent, though genetic analysis on bogified remains have suggested an admixture with other hominid groups. This admixture is revealed fromthe shared haplogroups with modern Indo-Australian and Polynesian people in the DNA of mummies. This suggests that the initial migrating group(s) was composed of two races which then mixed over generations. It has been suggested by anthropologists that the Polynesian ancestors may have been relatives of New Zealand's Maui, though this theory is now disputed given the more modern insights into the role that Lemurian migrations made on those cultures. Whatever the case may be, these two cultures, either together or at separate times, migrated to the islands and eventually mixed into one hybrid race. Traits of this hybrid race would persist across all Wumpian cultures, as the Lemurians would go on to absorb much of these genetics.

The protos were a primitive people who never developed anything beyond stone age technology, they were always forced to rely on hunting and gathering, and never achieved agriculture despite the rich fertility of Wumpian soil. Despite their technological retardation, they were able to spread across all three islands via rudimentary reed based rafts that somehow withstood the Island's proving waters. These tides have been hard to withstand, even for modern ships, and perhaps the protos only achieved this through chance luck after generations of attempts. Proto remains have been found from the Wohandari River on N.Sanity to as far as icy caves around Cortex's tallest peaks.

Anthropological remains suggest that protos had strong familial bonds, and many mothers have been found buried with their children. Only one excavation of remains has been dated to preclude Lemurians, while the rest have mostly coincided with their early colonization. It is unknown how much the Lemurians had an influence on these protos' culture. Other facets of mummified discoveries include the revelations that these people incorporated the use of flint based tools in their daily lives, and that their diets were largely plant based. Their diets were perhaps biased to vegetation as Wumpian fauna proved challenging to hunt. Tribes were led by despotic chieftains, and protos were forced to think creatively in order to survive the untamed wilds of the archipelago. Many proto skeletons that have been discovered were heavily scarred and fractured, with visible bite marks, especially of reptiles. A notable skeleton is the remains of the Basket Man on Cortex Island, whose bruised digits' show signs of extensive bow usage, indicative of a hunter profession.

The tribes were not equally distributed in population, and Cortex Island was surprisingly the center point of proto activity. There are several theories as to why the least hospitable and smallest of the islands somehow had the highest population of protos. The most common is the displacement theory, which suggests that the tropical islands had vicious flora that posed a constant threat to tribes until the plants were culled by the Lemurians. Other theories are more pragmatic, such as the one that Cortex Island simply has the best conditions for fossil preservation, and that archaeological remains were less vulnerable of decay but not necessarily indicative of higher populations.

When the Lemurians arrived to the islands, they kept tablet records of their earliest interactions with the protos, as well as their activities on the islands. These tablets are commonly referenced in surviving texts, but for the most part are completely lost. Additionally, cave paintings in the mountains of Cortex Island show that the protos had a pictographic script which was rudimentarily hieroglyphic. It is possible that free protos who were sufficiently assimilated into Lemurian society helped contribute to these recordings, though likely adopting Lemurian script.

The vanishing of these early scripts is elucidated upon when reading Ghides' histories of the early scholar towers. Groups of disgruntled proto rebels burnt down scholar towers on N.Sanity, which housed all the known records of pre-Lemurian history. Ghides writes that the terrorist attack was a direct message of cultural suicide from the protos, who sought to erase themselves completely from the Lemurian society out of racial shame. History preceding the Lemurians is now mostly lost, and only discernable through the archaeological analyzation of pre-Lemurian excavations, which are limitedly few in number.

Protos were not aware of the archipelago's distinctive power gems and did not possess the technology required to mine their properties. Proto technological progress never evolved until Lemurian influences shared their innovations with the tribes. The nature of the islands may have been different prior to the Lemurian arrival, and the volcano on Wumpa Island (today extinct) was also active during several periods predating the Lemurians. Volcanologists have suggested that the volcano may have experienced its most active periods starting 24,000 BC, and may have been another deterrent for proto inhabitance. By the time the Lemurians arrived on the islands, the volcano had already subsisted and become extinct.

Lemurian Colonization
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Guzm%C3%A1n

In 4480 BC, there began a period of heightened solar activity that is believed to have contributed to the cataclysm of the original Lemurian continent in the Pacific Ocean. In the aftermath of this fiery holocaust, Lemurian survivors fled by ship to several regions in Central & South America, as well as Asia, and would later found Mesoamerican and early Asiatic cultures in these regions. Over time, these societies would devolve into primitive limitations, but many legends of these migrations were recorded in their respective mythologies. When the Lemurians travelled to the Wumpa Archipelago, it became the region that would best keep the ancient continental traditions of the Lemurians alive. This continued until the society was once again, like their ancestors, destroyed due to forbidden knowledge.

The Lemurian colonists of the Wumpa Archipelago were travelers from the South American colonies that arrived on the islands circa 4111 BC. In the decade preceding this, Lemurian societies in the region were becoming bloated and overpopulated. There was civil unrest developing quickly, as the primitive farms were not able to feed the overwhelming population and famines were beginning to cripple outlying communities. Fearful that the famines would lead to widespread unrest in the capital, a group of magicians began organizing movements to travel elsewhere. These movements were opposed by the government, and many magicians were hunted down and killed. Where one would be killed, two more movements would rise in its place, and no matter the level of violence, the mission to flee from the continent continued on. Finally, a movement in the city of Re saw the organization of five ships and nearly a hundred individuals, led under the leadership of four magicians.

These skirmishes continued even after the voyagers left South America, and the civil unrest would go on to lead into revolutions that molded Mesoamerican cultures towards the more traditionally familiar Mayan societies. Most of the pureblooded Lemurian leadership were slain, and a gradual decrease in culture would ensue. Even at the time of this unrest, the transition was already visible and work had already begun on the Mayan Long Calendar. Effectively, Lemurian civilization in the Americas had ended, and Mayan culture had begun. This cultural influence was carried on so strongly in the Wumpa Archipelago, that early explorers actually categorized Lemurian ruins as direct subsets of Mayan architecture. Historians even thought that the Lemurians were perhaps Mayan settlers, and only through extensive research were the ties to Lemuria discovered. Once the migration history was put together by historians, it became clear the true connection of these seemingly unrelated cultures.

Two of the five ships were lost in the journey across the sea, and many colonists passed away from illness or malnutrition. Two of the magicians died, and one became so ill that he died shortly after reaching the archipelago. The journey itself lasted roughly a year, and the Lemurians barely had the technology to make this journey feasible. The Lemurians were advanced seafarers for their era, but struggled to survive the realities of sea travel. According to inscriptions, they safely made landfall on Cortex Island one year later, though this is hardly believable as even modern day ships struggle to reach Wumpian shores without experiencing damage to their hulls. It is more likely that they crashed upon the island's shores, resulting in even more deaths.

It is relevant to mention that the Lemurians brought with them on this voyage, skunks and other American fauna, that would later become part of the Wumpian wildlife. Skunks were commonly kept as pets by the Lemurians, and even today are kept as pets by Wumpians; one of the few traditions still practiced. Unfortunately, these invasive animals led to the extinction of several preceding endemic species, such as the bullnosed mouse and Wumpian gecko.

The Lemurians landed sick and hungry. In their vulnerable state they were immediately met with hostile resistance from the protos. Bloodshed was widespread at first, and the Lemurians barely survived these earliest conflicts. The Lemurians were outnumbered and only managed to hold the attackers back due to their more advanced understanding of technology and infrastructure. The protos soon became fearful when they realized the ingenuity of the Lemurians, and quickly became defensive. This allowed the Lemurians time to advance and gradually overwhelm the natives on Cortex Island. The protos on the other islands were ignorant of the ongoing invasion, and no inter-island contact was ever made. When the Lemurians eventually moved on to Wumpa, it was to the complete surprise of the protos living there.

After the absorbaiton of the Cortexian protos, the Lemurians spent the next two decades developing an infrastructure strong enough to conduct a campaign across the archipelago. The population of their civilization tripled during this time, and agricultural fields blossomed in the untouched arable terrain. The military campaigns were led by the famous warrior Hom, and the chieftain Mekmeku. In a little over 100 years, the protos were completely assimilated into Lemurian culture.

Early Lemurian society, especially on Cortex Island, struggled due to a small population and an inexperience with the local environment. The Lemurians observed the ways the protos had adapted to their environment, and quickly made adaptations of their own. To further compensate for their primitive state, the fledgling communities were forwarded using proto slave labor. The protos had notably darker skin and a lower cognitive ability than the Lemurians, therefor they were efficient slaves. The Lemurians also forced protos to fight against their brethren in all conflicts, so that they would consistently have an advantage of numbers. As much as possible, survivors were enslaved rather than executed. Though miscegenation became more common place later on, at this time it was viewed as taboo given the context of the conflicts.

Lemurian society remained simple, and followed chieftain structures that saw the magicians as the head of state. Essentially, the societies were for the time being, primitive copies of the grander and more complex societies in the Americas. Two of the four magicians died during the voyage to the Wumpa Archipelago, and one died early on in one of the battles against the protos The surviving magician, Ganzen Mekmek, became a significant leader of the Lemurian colonies on Cortex Island until his death 20 years later. He was succeeded by his son, Mekmeku, who led the military campaigns on Wumpa Island, and his son's son, and through them was established a monarchial system that lasted for the next 400 years.

The period following the assimilation of the protos were for the most part peaceful. Lemurians strongly gravitated towards Wumpa Island, where they felt a permeant and deep connection to the world tree, Nadrassil. The Lemurians developed a mythos around the tree, and all of its mythology placed the tree as the pantheon of early Lemurian paganism. The tree was seen as a seat towards the skies, and citizens of low class were forbidden to travel to the tree's highest reaches. Temples were built at the bases, where peasants and soldiers could visit the bark, but only nobles could ascend to its higher branches. The emperors of the early Lemurian dynasty were coronated at Nadrassil, as per the tradition that started with Mekmeku III. It became forbidden for Lemurians to travel to its pinnacle unless they were of noble status, and it was there that emperors were coronated.

Even before their golden era, the Lemurians were some of the most "learned" fallen angel societies on Earth. Their societies were comparable to others during the time, but with technology even more sophisticated than most of their fallen peers The Lemurians wrote down one of the earliest and most extensive records of law during this time, but it must be noted that these were not in any way comparable to Aryan law. They were led by a theocratic monarchy of emperors which would continue all the way to the fall of their civilization, with little gaps of governmental restructures in between.

Power Gems and Societal Frictions
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Steinberg_(conductor)

The most culture shifting event to impact the Lemurians was their discovery of the power gems deep under the Cortexian mountains In 1433 BC. These gems are highly compressed remnants of the ancient Gondwanian plate, and contain a structure that is highly electromagnetic and when conducted correctly can channel forces that are able to telekinetically manipulate objects. Mining operations at the time were being expanded in order to provide composite iron for the construction of another Iron Bull for the Lemurians. The iron bulls were idols being used by the Lemurians for the purpose of human sacrifice, which the incumbent emperor Gutemosk was expanding under his new tyrannical rule.

The mine had slowly been digging deeper under the earth for years at this point, and had only broken through the Godwanian plate and reached a cavern abundant in power gems. The ignorant miners, not knowing any better of the gem's nature, struck them and upon this event, a nova of energy caused Cortex Island itself to quake violently. The disaster was seen as the actions of some demonic creature under the mountain, and soldiers were sent into the tremoring mountain to rescue the trapped miners. One fearful laborer carrying a gem in his pocket started to feel strange. The gem would glow in his pocket and when surprised by the soldiers, he accidentally unleashed a beam of energy towards them that broke open another chamber of gems.

Eyewitnesses attested to the gems energies, and they were studied for their unique properties by the empire's leading gemologists. When the power of the gems was realized, the Lemurian emperor Gutemosk established a decree that gave him ownership of all minerals of the mountain, and had them sent to his palace on Wumpa Island. The Lemurians were not yet sure how to channel the gems energy without causing widespread destruction, and Gutemosk had them fastened into rings and jewelry for him and his consorts.

Most of the population of Cortex Island had already fled from the island as rumors were quickly spreading that it was cursed. The royal family knew better, and quickly moved to the island and began a massive effort to redesign the island as the political capital of the Lemurians. The Cortexian mines were cut off from the civil populace, and most of the palace's construction was around the old foundations and caverns. Only those trusted individuals were allowed inside of the mines, and guards used slave labour of criminals to ensure nothing was stolen. This slave labour would from then on persist in Lemurian society until its civil war.

Politics were heavy at this time, and Gutemosk was forced by courts to find a resolution to rampant distrust and superstition. To control the masses, Gutemosk explicity began to display the power of the gems using destructive and primitive methods. To move this agenda even further, Gutemosk began a political revolution that saw a new kind of paganism take over Lemurian society and replace the old method of thinking.

All gems mined from the caverns were being sent and locked within different wings of the palace, and astrologers and geologists studied ways to channel their power most efficiently. Some of these gems remained locked away until Cortex rebuilt the palace in 1992 AD and discovered them in his explorations.

Lemurian society flourished because of the gems, and it was during this era that many Lemurian wonders were built. Lemurians of the old pagan idols were systematically attacked in a series of pogoms during the Gutemoskian Revolutions. Lemurian culture entered a golden period of art and literature, but unfortunately became increasingly left wing and experienced societal degradation.

Lemurian Civil War
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunting_(Nixon_novel)

In the early 900s, Lemurian society began to enter a breaking point when independents began obtaining control of power gems and establishing their own borders and factions within the empire. Many independents would form personality cults around themselves, and as hauntings were reported all over the Wumpa Archipelago at this time, the government was being used as a scapegoat from these independent states. Rumors talked of sightings of evil spirits around old cabins on N.Sanity Island, with the first sightings reported around old cabins on N.Sanity Island, and rumors were abound that deep carvings into the earth had released a fearful and terrible evil. When dissenters staged an event in one of the Lemurian cities, violence broke out between the two opposing factions. This eventually led to a civil war between the two once unified islands, which over the years led to the complete destruction of the Lemurian civilization.

921 BC is seen as the specific year when the civil war reached a high point, and the loyalists and separatists lashed out over who would control the ultimate colored power gems. At this time, the Lemurian ruling class had overused their power to create a slave class to labor at the mines. The skirmish intensified when the Lemurian city state of Kakesh summoned help from a small dissident group in order to protect the valuables, the Lemurian emperor Morg responded by occupying the small village state. When Morg was exposed as a corrupt emperor, he took drastic measures to silence anyone who would expose him.

Aku Aku and Uka Uka were some of the leading cult members during the war, with the former being a loyalist and the second a separatist. The war had broken into all out warfare that led to the destruction of multiple cities and the collapse of an entire plateau on Cortex Island. At the climax of the war, Aku Aku and Uka Uka transferred their bastardic essences into physical masks as a means of surviving the war. Uka Uka was locked within a tomb on Cortex Island by his brother, who then afterwards helped the surviving Lemurians flee to N.Sanity Island. Kufu III led the survivors of the war to N.Sanity Island, as it was the only island not completely irradiated with fallout.

Aku Aku would later go into exile, until reemerging at the start of the Mutant Vortex Crisis.

Waning Years
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Humphreys_Davies

Most of the survivors of the cataclysms on Wumpa and Cortex island were farmers and mill workers who were barely literate and had little to no political or knowledge of the power gem's magicks. The Lemurians were on the grip of their nails, and were not able to continue on their sophisticated societies with their families gone. When Kufu, the last emperor, died in 876 BC, his offices died with him and the Lemurians were not able to find for him a replacement. Kufu before his death also had all the power gems in his possession hidden across the islands. Returning to their former cities was never an option for the Lemurians, as the islands were covered in electromagnetic fogs similar to fallout which prohibited the Lemurians from returning to them.

Lemurian society on N.Sanity slowly devolved over the next 700 years, and while they were able to build a few structures on the island, nothing ever amounted to what they had achieved in the past. Attempts were made, mainly political, to jumpstart Lemurian infrastructure through the use of smiths and forges, but without the proper harnessing of the power gems nothing was ever satisfactory.

By the turn of the millennium, the Lemurians had devolved into a primitive culture who had at this point even abandoned woodworking.

Wumpian Era
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_(The_Legend_of_Zelda)

The Wumpian Era lasted two millenniums, and during this time the people made very little progress and mostly lived on a technological plateau. The Wumpians prided themselves over being pureblooded remnants of their past society, and began developing caps as their progression into a new culture. The Wumpians also searched for Aku, who was missing for unknown reasons. The Wumpians consciously chose to avoid stonework and mining, as its dangers remained ingrained in their collective memory. This was a leading reason why they were never able to progress technologically.

The Wumpians would become obsessed with Canaanite rituals at this time.

Egyptian Colonies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999%E2%80%932000_Primera_B_Nacional

Second World War
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Eord%C9%99hn%C9%99

During the second world war, Spain was strictly neutral and did not participate at all in war efforts, though they quietly supported the Axis powers. In secret, the Spanish Army under orders from the Franco were searching for potential landmasses the Axis could use as possible transport bases to New Swabia. A trade deal was developed between the two countries, and as Germany at this time was making sweeping victories across mainland Europe, the importance of a lasting economic relationship with the growing nation seemed important. The Spanish agreed to explore the Southern Ocean in exchange for their continued neutrality and reduced taxation on German bought goods. The agreement was made in secret, and was known as the Bedrock Agreement.

The Spanish put their resting airforce to use and continued on several expeditions across the ocean, until one pilot noticed that his magnetic equipment would constantly malfunction when in proximity to a certain swathe of the ocean. The pilot reported this to his commanding officer, but was largely ignored until two other pilots reported similar occurrences days later. Under the leadership of Juan Yague, air commander at the time, a small squadron lifted off from a private base in Tasmania and circled around the areas where the strange readings were observed. The squadron looped for roughly an hour with no luck, they began to head back when one pilot noticed land beneath them and shouting excitedly on his radio, the others quickly followed him and made landfall.

The Spanish were not aware of it, but their communications were being tapped by a nearby Australian cruiser which followed them to the island. Shortly after landing, the Spanish soldiers were attacked by Wumpians and most of their planes erupted into flames when the indians threw ignited spears towards barrels of oil being unloaded for fuel. The Spanish were stranded, and the Australians found themselves in a similar situation when they were unable to breech their small ship away from the coast's jagged rocks. Both factions were stripped from their communications, and it wasn't long that conflict broke out between them when an Australian soldier made the first shot against a Spanish officer during a tense standoff on the beach. The next two weeks were met with constant fighting, as the Spanish and Australians were also being swarmed by a third enemy. Many soldiers were kidnapped by Wumpian indians, and eventually a ceasefire was reached when the survivors decided to overtake a rescue mission to help their friends.

The rescue mission was a success, and a small group of Australian soldiers escaped the island using a rowboat from the stranded Australian cruiser, alongside Juan Yague who barely escaped with his life. Both militaries reported what had happened to their governments, and were ordered to never speak of the event again. A few weeks later, the Australian government sent a private expedition in search of the islands but all efforts were met with failure.

To this day, some mines are still present around the small camps that the Australian and Spanish forces built while there.

Rediscovery
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasugano_stable

The island was rediscovered by Neo Cortex during his search for the lost continent of Lemuria, who he believed to have been the lost continent of a race of fallen super beings. When his personal computer algorithms showed that wind currents in the Southern Ocean were bypassing certain areas and collecting in storms around certain unmarked locations. Satellite imagery showed these regions to be large swathes of empty ocean, and Cortex resolved to explore the area himself. As the mad scientist would later discover, the wind currents were gathering around a hidden archipelago clouded by magicks.

When Cortex made landfall on the islands, he first docked on the cliffs nearby the gates of the Lemurian Palace. His presumption was that this regal building standing atop the rocks as a crown was clearly the beaconing centerpiece of a thriving civilization. The scientist would go on to find the palace completely empty, abandoned, and the rest of its island with it. This was seen as a perfect location to set up a temporary base, and Cortex unloaded his supplies there and began making preparations to colonize the islands.

Initial contact with the Wumpians was short and decisive, when they denied Cortex's placating offers of copper coins and ingots. When the Wumpians attacked Cortex and his crew, Cortex suffered a near fatal blow to the jaw. Cortex did not hesitate to kill nearly a hundred Wumpians as a show of force and after fleeing the Wumpians did not dare attack again. Cortex from this point refused to wander the islands without ushers at his side. They were not seen until weeks later, when the Wumpians amassed an army against Cortex's camps on the island. Their previous leader, Kotutapup died under mysterious circumstances in his sleep, and was replaced by the obviously controlled Papu Papu.

Papu Papu inherited the Mask of Dominion from his predecessor, which was used as a channeling focus for Uka Uka to brainwash the Wumpian leaders into servitude. Papu Papu ordered his armies to cease all attacks at once, and the leader offered several Wumpian goods and even livestock as long as the scientist would not intrude on their island.

Royal Society Explorations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leishmania_braziliensis

In 1991, a streak of serious droughts caused by the Cortex Corporation's interference with magnetic gems began to affect Tasmania and refused to go away, continuing into the proceeding years. The activities had caused sea winds that had usually blanketed the island with rainfall to be drawn towards a bubble around the Wumpa Archipelago. Australia and its island state were in no way unfamiliar to the hideous reality of droughts and their effects on habitats, but these droughts were significant in their continuance and severity. The circumstances were mysterious and unprecedented, and were widely studied by scientists both domestic and international. As the agricultural sectors of Tasmania began to suffer and dwindle away, intervention was becoming increasingly necessary. Meterologists had initially contributed the droughts to unprecedented and unexplained levels of moisture loss in the Southern Ocean, possibly due to "climate change". This was of course, nonsense, and anyone of merit was immediately aware that the circumstances were not in any way contributable to this hypothesis.

The Royal Society was the first significant organization to dedicate a team of scientists to solving the Tasmanian mystery, part of this team was scientist Richard Doss, who would go on to unravel the magnetic peculiarities of the Wumpa Archipelago and use them to pinpoint the islands' locations. Unfortunately due to disagreements with the team's management, Richard Doss voluntarily resigned from the team and continued his research in private. He was followed by the team's resident journalist, Chloe Parker, and for the next months she documented Richard's efforts in a video documentary for the London Gazelle.

Doss, Parker, Edward, and Miles, traveled together towards the hotspot of the magnetic signatures, and had crashed upon the island.

Mutant Vortex Crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodlawn,_Erie_County,_New_York

Neo Cortex and his associate N.Brio long had plans for world domination, which were never able to come to fruition due to their lack of charismatic and organizational ability. Psycopathic and with superiority complexes, the two viewed themselves as superior to the rest of the human race and sought to purge all of society save for a select few, in order to usher in a newer society that accepted outcasts such as themselves. After discovering the Wumpa Archipelago, the islands were seen as a perfect base of operations for them to launch their attack.

Their plan to achieve this goal was known as the Elimination Model, which required a renewable army of super soldiers to carry out their plans. These super soldier plans failed, and a new idea to use animals was first sparked when a rat accidentally walked into one of the test stations and was severely mutated. Tests were met with continued failure for nearly a year until a group of Cortex's explorers discovered a cache of three power gems in an unmarked cavern underneath the palace. Analyzation immediately connected the island's magnetic energies to the gems, and even a rudimentary understanding of electromagnetic energy saw them as the perfect power sources for exponential energy output.

Cortex and N.Brio began to redesign all of their machines and technology off of this new source of energy, and it was through this that they reached breakthroughs. They developed two devices, the first being the Evolvo-Ray, a machine that rapidly corrupted animal brains to levels of flawed sapience. This device was mostly designed by N.Brio, though Cortex insisted on taking the credit. The second was Cortex's Cortex Vortex, which was a device meant to indoctrinate subjects into perfect soldiers.

The two machines were used together to create an army of 450 super soldiers, 117 of which were clever, 46 were semi intelligent, and 20 were intelligent. Cortex had plans to continue building his army to a level of millions until attacking Australia with an offensive strike of batillions and nuclear weapons, but was never able to go through with these plans.

Wumpian Initiative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showtime_at_the_Apollo

Attention swarmed around the efforts of Richard Doss and the Royal Society at the Wumpa Archipelago, and their participation during the Mutant Vortex Crisis. Support was rampant for the organization, and a convention was held in Sydney, Australia to determine where the involved countries would go forward in regards to the archipelago. The convention was broadcasted live on television, and multiple witnesses put forth the idea of the Royal Society forming an initiative to oversee all future activities on and around the archipelago.

Unique Properties
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacher_River

The power gems of the Wumpa Archipelago exist only in caverns underneath Wumpa and Cortex island. N.Sanity Island is free of any power gems, and is why the Lemurians fled there following the Lemurian Civil War.

The magnetic energies of the gems created a ripple affect that caused light to bounce off a sphere around the archipelago, thereby completely concealing it from satellite imagery. To summarize in more complete terms: light would not interact with the electromagnetic fields themselves, although the presence of a strong magnetic fields indicated the presence of a media: which interacted with the light, scattered it, and was also affected by the magnetic field. This same phenomenon also led the 10 Mile Effect, which explained how compasses were influenced to sail around the isles from a distance of roughly ten miles. There was also a tributary speedway spawned by these energies which allowed tides to encircle the islands, effectively leading ships off track almost consistently when sailing around the area.

Magicks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XI_of_Sweden

The Lemurian peoples who once dwelt on the islands used the endemic gems to fuel magicks, and it was in part this forbidden knowledge that led to their downfall. Magicks were mostly orchestrayed by the Lemurian council, who demanded that the workers respect them. The remnants of the magicks can still be seen today in some of their ruins, where pillars seemingly float without hindrance or support. Similarly, the masks of Aku Aku and Uka Uka attest to the esoteric and corrupt knowledge of the Lemurians, and it was this magick that cloaked the island from view for so long. It is believed that when Cortex discovered the archipelago, it was because that the mask Uka Uka used its last remaining bits of power to uncloak the islands from his view.

The magick can be seen in the ruins of many Lemurian ruins, and the fact that these ruins survived the great Lemurian cataclysm can only be because they were protected by some kind of magick. Similarly, when Cortex attempted to tear down the foundations of the Lemurian Palace, he discovered that even his most powerful drills could not bear past the rock.

Cultural Symbol
The islands have been referred to as some of the most beautiful on the planet, with unique ecosystems untouched by time and giant natural wonders.