Demeaux Island
"I & M has a funger operation here, felling giant bolegus shrooms for building materials, harvesting kirralee for its 'medicinal' properties. It's a desperate little outpost of something like civilisation."
"Oh hello, Captain! Thank God for visitors. We'd go quite mad out here otherwise, ahahaha. Quite mad. How can we be of assistance?"[1]
Demeaux Island is an island in the Unterzee covered by an overgrown jungle of mushrooms.[2] The Iron & Misery Company have an operation here to harvest the massive fungi for various purposes: giant bolegus mushrooms are used as building materials, while kirralee fungi are a form of medicine.[3] The island also has a population of blemmigans.[4]
Demeaux Island employs contractors who work miserable and monotonous jobs.[5][6] The workers subsist only on mushrooms,[7] and eating too much can turn someone into one,[8] heralded by "sproutlings" appearing in their eyes and hair.[9] The fungi here can be dangerous in other ways too: they can be poisonous, hallucinogenic, or trigger intense anxiety when consumed.[10] To cope with the environment, the fungers occasionally set up blemmigan fighting-pits for "entertainment."[11]
The Affable Factor is the manager of Demeaux Island.[12] He works for Mr Iron and the Admiralty, both of whom are suspicious of each other,[13][14] and his dreary surroundings and lack of contact with his family cause him no shortage of stress.[15] He is the brother of Lorenzo of the Seven Against Nidah, though he does not think highly of his revolutionary ideals.[16] He also knew the Irrepressible Cannoneer in the "old days," but he would prefer to keep his past activities undisclosed.[17]
Development[edit | edit source]
The name "Demeaux Island" is a pun on "Demo Island," as this island was the first ever added to Sunless Sea.[18]
References[edit | edit source]
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