Help me flesh out an island setting! (Exalted)

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'm gearing up for an Exalted campaign, set in a tropical archipelago. I've got a map drawn up, and some broad strokes about the area as a whole, but I could use some help fleshing out all the islands. All I need at this point are neat thematic elements or evocative concepts that I can use to build plots and further develop areas as they become relevant. From my game intro:

The game will start on an island in the Ciangor Archipelago, a chain of islands at the southwestern extremity of the Realm and off the North-African-y coast of An-Teng. The thirty-seven islands are owned by the great families, lock stock and barrel. In better times there were frequent "wars" over the islands, with fleets and soldiers clashing more for the sport of it than anything else. Since the Scarlet Empress' disappearance and the beginning of civil war in the Realm, most of the useful forces and commanders have been recalled to be used in more important areas of Creation, leaving something of a power vacuum.

Things are, as usual in the Age of Sorrows (or really any RPG), not fantastic in the Archipelago right now. There are thousands of out-of-work local soldiers, betrayed and abandoned by their former Dragonblooded commanders. The demon-pirate empire of Bluehaven has eyes on the islands, as do rebellious forces in An-Teng. The local pantheons have begun to squabble over worship again. Strange creatures have been sighted in the waters as ships-- and even, a few months ago, the entire atoll of Three Palms Cove-- have begun to disappear without a trace.


https://i.imgur.com/sVaDB0B.png



House Cathank are noted for their military might, fielding and hiring out the best legions in the world. The whole house has a disciplined, pseudomillitary vibe. They're not fans of Houses Sesus and Tepet.

Jalis: Big
Pho Tien
Coral Rain Helm
Phan Hung




House Cynis are decadent socialites, leaders in fashion and trends of all sorts-- and specialists in the trade of slaves, drugs, and other luxury goods. They're close with House Sesus.

Chian Ranat: A massive island, Cynis owns the northeastern regions and Sesus the southwestern.
Khan-Chakta
Three Palm Cove: A small island in the center of the archepelago, used as a prison by House Cynis (and anyone who paid them). Two months ago, it vanished without a trace.




House Ledaal pride themselves as the most loyal servants the Realm has. They have less economic power than many of their rivals, instead concentrating their efforts on guarding the borders of creation. They're not fans of House Ragara.

Nam Ranh: Big




House Mnemon are proud and ancient, known for both piety and poetry. They make money through architecture and construction, and are closely associated with the state religion/supernatural police, the Immaculate Order.
Blood Plague Island: Not really controlled by anyone, since the entire island is quarantined. For unknown reasons, the Great Contagion that once killed 90% of Creation still lingers on its shores-- should it escape, millions will die. To keep the world safe, the island is surrounded by sorcerous currents and powerful aquatic demons.

Cheosok: A small island off the coast of Blood Plague Island, the Immaculate Order has a major stronghold here, dedicated to preserving the quarantine.
Tarajur: Big
Ban Beng
Sargam
Falling Star Cove
Il-Johun




House Nellens are bureaucrats and traders, with their fingers in all sorts of pies. Other houses look down at them for thinning bloodlines. They, in turn, have problems with House Sesus and V'neef.

Phakeo: Big
Lhokdore
Vinh La




House Peleps are sailors, through and through-- love of the sea runs throughout the house. They field great navies and trade fleets, but recently lost control of the imperial merchant fleet to the newly-risen House V'neef. They get on well with House Mnemon, badly with Nellens and Sesus, and hate V'neef.

Atun's Head: A very small, rounded, stony island, only interesting if you know the truth-- it's the helmet of an unspeakable enormous statue of an ancient, subtly inhuman warrior that stands on the sea floor. No-one lives here, and sailors swear there are strange currents around the island caused by the statue moving hundreds of feet beneath the wave.
Amber of Loss
Charoite Khal
Wyldhome: This island is a weak spot in the fabric of creation, where the endless chaos of the Wyld spills forth into the stable world. Fair Folk regularly set sail from its coast-- if not for House Peleps' patrolling fleets, they might have overrun half the archipelago by now.
Turquoise Through Sorrow
Jade and Violet Harbor
Burning Glory
High Vinari
Lost Vinari
Fallen Vinari




House Ragara are awful. Openly, they're bankers, with nearly every other house in debt to them to a greater or lesser degree. Quietly, they're into sorcery, demonology, and even sketchier stuff. No-one likes them, but they're rich as ****.

Home of Lost Currents
Ninh Duong
Cam Duong: A heavily forested jungle island where, centuries ago, a sorcerer bred plants to grow into beautiful living ships. House Ragara has since rediscovered her gardens, and has begun growing and selling luxury flower-yachts to the Realm's rich and famous.




House Sesus are another military power, but while House Cathank believe in discipline and honor, Sesus has strong interests in intrigue and subterfuge. They're close with House Cynis and Mnemon, and don't get on with House Tepet.

Chian Ranat: A massive island, Cynis owns the northeastern regions and Sesus the southwestern.
Manwas
Ponlaya




House Tepet is a fading power. They were once great heroes and generals; now they're in decline. They get on with House Nellens and the secretly-revived Iseli.

Iselsi




House V'neef are ambitious newcomers. They were supported by the Empress, who gave them control of the imperial merchant fleets that once belonged to House Peleps. With her gone, they pretty much stand alone.

Cheotam




House Iseli was destroyed many years ago for treason against the Empress, but they've been rebuilding in the shadows. For obvious reasons, they don't hold lands in the archipelago.

[Cluedrew]

All I need at this point are neat thematic elements or evocative concepts that I can use to build plots and further develop areas as they become relevant.So you are looking for plot hooks and area details?

I'm not so good on plot hooks other than that vague idea of make sure a couple of houses are actively doing something right now.

But if you want things to fill it out, I'll start with the common folk. I may have missed it but I did not find a single mention of fishing in any description which is probably the main industry in an area like this because people need to eat and you don't have a lot of farm land here. They fish to feed themselves and it could be their main export as well. And that implies harbors, places to build ships and whatever the medieval equivalent of a canning factor is. For all I know it is large supply of salt.

What about the base people and culture? Is there effectively one ethnic group here? Are there any cultural regions within the island? Is the a native/colonial divide?

Also I think you need more land marks on the islands. Some that caught my eye because they sound like feature-of-island names (although if that is the main feature of the island it could become the island name): Falling Star Cove doesn't appear to have a cove marked on it, nor can I figure out where Jade Harbor and Violet Harbor are located. Where are the cities, the seats of the various houses, those lost armies probably aren't evenly distributed and you probably have little fishing villages ringing islands with major populations, which islands are those? (Where are the population centers?)

And that is everything that jumps to mind.

[lightningcat]

For all of the major Houses to have holdings in the area, it needs to provide something important. Likely rare spices, stuff like nutmeg or cinnamon was worth more than gold in RL for a long time. Although sugar or coffee is also a good option. Maybe it is something magical, like a good supply of black jade. Fishing is good for the peasants, and might be a nice bonus for the Houses, but they want more for their time and effort.
You might also want to mark any manses on the map. These are usually House strong points. But if they are not, why is that. Can one only be claimed by solving a riddle, or defeating a beast without harming it?
Sorcerers are useful, but not generally popular. Are there enough of them in the area to have their own subculture? Are they generally welcoming to each other, or more standoffish than normal?

[arrowed]

House Peleps Islands ideas:
Turquoise through Sorrow - site of a particularly gruesome battle a few centuries ago, whose fort now hosts a large number of war ghosts under the command of a maddened, undead general. The fort itself might even be a shadowland. The rest of the island now hosts only a small village that does not venture out a t night.

Burning Glory - The lighthouse that currently stands on this island is not, in fact, the first, but is built over the ruins of a First Age laboratory. The majestic glowing tower that once lit the seas about is gone, but the basement levels remain hidden, with treasures not touched nor seen for millennia within.

Lost Vinari - It is a common joke among sailors that everyone knows where Lost Vinari is, but no-one knows how to get to it. This is because the resident sorcerer decided to cloak the island in magical fog that diverts the ships of mortals. While the sorcerer is very powerful, they are highly reclusive, as they are actually a (Lunar/rogue god/other being capable of Celestial Sorcery) who has struck a deal with House Peleps in exchange for their privacy.

[Grod_The_Giant]

For all of the major Houses to have holdings in the area, it needs to provide something important. Likely rare spices, stuff like nutmeg or cinnamon was worth more than gold in RL for a long time. Although sugar or coffee is also a good option. Maybe it is something magical, like a good supply of black jade. Fishing is good for the peasants, and might be a nice bonus for the Houses, but they want more for their time and effort.
You might also want to mark any manses on the map. These are usually House strong points. But if they are not, why is that. Can one only be claimed by solving a riddle, or defeating a beast without harming it?
Sorcerers are useful, but not generally popular. Are there enough of them in the area to have their own subculture? Are they generally welcoming to each other, or more standoffish than normal?
Hmm... that's a good point. My original idea was that the area is a tropical paradise that basically gets used for vacation/pleasure islands-- it's reasonably close to both the Blessed Isle and the Caul, without any other powers or particular dangers in the way. But you're right; it's worth thinking of a deeper reason for their interest...


House Peleps Islands ideas:
Turquoise through Sorrow - site of a particularly gruesome battle a few centuries ago, whose fort now hosts a large number of war ghosts under the command of a maddened, undead general. The fort itself might even be a shadowland. The rest of the island now hosts only a small village that does not venture out a t night.

Burning Glory - The lighthouse that currently stands on this island is not, in fact, the first, but is built over the ruins of a First Age laboratory. The majestic glowing tower that once lit the seas about is gone, but the basement levels remain hidden, with treasures not touched nor seen for millennia within.

Lost Vinari - It is a common joke among sailors that everyone knows where Lost Vinari is, but no-one knows how to get to it. This is because the resident sorcerer decided to cloak the island in magical fog that diverts the ships of mortals. While the sorcerer is very powerful, they are highly reclusive, as they are actually a (Lunar/rogue god/other being capable of Celestial Sorcery) who has struck a deal with House Peleps in exchange for their privacy.
Cool ideas, thank you!

[Clistenes]

Along the western coasts of the western islands and on some small islets west of the archipelago there are some mysterious pyramid-like buildings. Nobody seems to remember when and by whom they were built, since when they have been there, there are no records about them, and people seem strangely apathetic about them...

In truth, each of these pyramids is a low-level manse (no living space inside) designed and built by a cabal of deities of Nature and of Magitech, allied with local Elemental Courts, and with renegade Dragonblood, Godblood and mortal sorcerers and geomancers.
Some gods from the Bureau of Nature, concerned with the erosion of Creation and the expansion of the Wyld asked for help to some of the gods of magical technology and artifact creation (most of them greatly diminished in status and sidelined since the Usurpation) who, in the hopes of recovering some of their relevancy accepted to design a manse-artifact able to keep the Wyld at bay in a similar way to the Jade Obelisks...

The divine cabal managed to avoid the attention of the censors and of inquisitive divine rivals by lining a lot of pockets, and started the creation of a new defensive line for Creation, hoping that, by the time the incredibly slow and inefficient Celestial Bureaucracy noticed it, the usefulness of their creations would be far too evident and they would be forced to sanction it...

The Sidereals, however, discovered it, and, while positively impressed by the few pyramids that had been completed, they decided that such technology was too valuable and that endeavor too important to be left in the hands of a small group of low to mid level deities, many of which (the horror!) had worked very closely with Lunars nad Solars in the past... So they arrested the gods on fake charges (they wanted to keep the pyramids a secret) in order to force them to give their magitech to the Sidereals.

But the magic artisan gods had been expecting the Sidereals to come for them since the Usurpation (most of them were strong Solar supporters, after all) and disappeared before being seized, escaping with the help of a device crafted by Autochton himself.

The Sidereals, of course, have decided that the runaway gods are dangerous traitors and conspirators rather than accepting their mistake, and they are pursuing them ruthlessly. They have also made their best to make the pyramids disappear, so as to avoid less enlightened members of the Celestial Bureaucracy to accuse them of putting Creation at risk by ruining a potential bulwark...