All About Colony Island

Notes on Colony Island

This page is a work in progress. There’s so much more to tell about Colony Island. Please come back and visit this page again.

Colony Island is located on the East Coast of Florida, in the fictional Royston County. It is almost four miles long and about a mile wide and is bounded on the West by a dense, almost impenetrable swamp. The estuary of the Royston River forms the Southern Boundary while on the North, a narrow creek that drains from the swamp separates the Island from the marshes and low-lying land. It is the only inhabitable ground in the immediate area.

The backbone of the island is ten to fifteen feet above sea level with the land sloping gently down to the sea and connected, by a small bridge, with a similar mainland ridge at the North West end. Other than this point, the only practical way to reach the wooded island is by water. Given the terrain and physical isolation, it was the perfect place for a colony of merfolk to live and flourish.

When Colony Island was first settled is open to debate since at the time, merfolk had no written language and relied on oral histories to keep track of things. Some argue that it was as early as 1650 while others insist that it was around 1725. In all likelihood, the settlement was done gradually and it seems reasonable that the island was known to merfolk well before it was used as a place to repair nets and boats.

While it is commonly agreed that the early settlers learned much of their crafts at human settlements, just where those settlements were is, once again, open to debate. Since the Bahamas are within easy swimming distance of Colony Island and English quickly became the primary language of the islanders, it is more than likely that this was the source of much of their learning.

Much to the disdain of the feral merfolk, those living on Colony Island began to adopt human ways and customs . . . up to a point. Even so, it was hard for humans to discern that the residents were anything other than isolated – and slightly odd – fisher-folk.

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