Sapphire Archipelago (Midnight)
For sapphire gems, see gem.
The Sapphire Archipelago is located in the Midnight Ocean.
Note: Eleven extinct points are indicated by stand-alone league points.
Contents
Geography
- Beta Island*
- The Horseshoe Crabs
- Iris Island
- Remora Island
- Uxmal Island
- Verdant Atoll
- Vernal Equinox
* denotes capital
Features
The Sapphire Archipelago produces mostly sugar cane, and very little wood. Sapphire tends to mimic the Opal Archipelago in that it holds many rare commodities, and the brigand payouts are modest at best. However, Opal spawns heavily in minerals, while Sapphire spawns mostly herbs. Butterfly weed, yarrow, pokeweed berries, and madder are a few of the herbs spawned in the Sapphire Archipelago, although the rarest herb, Sassafras, is not produced in Sapphire.
Therefore, when pillaging in Sapphire, as in Opal, the merchant brigands should be a primary target, as they should reward you with fairly decent herbs.
History
The Sapphire Archipelago was the last archipelago to have an island opened up for colonization. The first island opened was Remora Island, a small outpost. The flag Widows and Orphans, who had possesion of Orca Island, had declared intention to take this island. However, on the day of the blockade, the flag Crimson Tide defended the island entirely.
Remora remained uncolonized for a week, when the flag Blood Eagles took the island. The controversial practices of this flag created a small flame fight in the political section of the Puzzle Pirates forums. This fight reached its peak when the fort's name was revealed to be "Whocutta Fort".[1] Due to public pressure, Blood Eagles quickly changed the fort name. Soon after the fort and distillery were on the island, the flag Allied Foundation took Remora. In the meantime, opening Remora allowed Beta Island to be colonized.
Beta, being a capital island (which allowed it to buy sapphire gems), is highly desirable as it was the first island opened to spawn yarrow, a very desirable herb. Beta is also the only major wood spawning island in the archipelago. Hence, whoever controls Beta, controls the rest of Sapphire. Finally, since Beta spawns sugar cane as well as wood, the primary ingrediants in rum, distillery owners flock to Beta to avoid shipping these bulky goods.
The flag Renaissance, with the aid of Dead Parrots Society, declared intention for Beta, as did Allied Foundation. Yet it was the flag Water Sleeps that ultimately took the island. Water Sleeps maintained control of the island for quite a long time. However, in October 2008, the flag Folie Circulaire took control of Beta.
The final island of noteworthy feature lies on the outer portion of the archipelago, a large island called Uxmal Island. Currently, The Uprising is the only flag that has declared intent for this island.
