Adari

Adari (uh-DAR-ee) was a volcanic island in the northern hemisphere. It was a very diverse and varied place, with a mixture of people whose distant ancestors lived on the island, people who immigrated very recently, and everything in-between. The population of Adari was composed of a number of disparate groups, and there were no major cities or centralized government. Groups varied in the degree to which they have adopted IU technology, customs, and language.

History
The people of Adari had not encountered people from other islands until the arrival of the Island Union in -59. The IU and Adari were each unimpressed by the other, and they agreed to leave each other more-or-less alone. This state of affairs has continued into the present day, although Adari recieved a flood of refugees from Nezuma and Skobra in the wake of the War of the Atolls.

In the years prior to the launch of The Ingenuity, Adari had been substantially affected by rising sea levels.

Government
Unlike the other islands, Adari had no central government. Instead, different groups had different decision-making processes – some had a hereditary chief, others an elected chief, others a group of elders. When necessary, the different groups would send representatives to discuss island-wide matters.

Culture and Values
The culture of Adari was substantially different from that of IU nations. In many parts of Adari, the idea of living in a low-impact way was of high importance. They believed that people were only one part of the island and of the world, and could live without the rest of it. Respect for experience was also a unifying trait of the population.

Although the inhabitants of Adari had chosen to prioritize their own culture over assimilation into the IU, they did adopt some technology that was developed in the IU for the purposes of improving quality of life. Precisely what was introduced varied by group.

Culture also varied significantly between groups. Some groups on Adari were composed solely of members whose families had been on Adari for centuries, while others had members who had moved to Adari from other islands.

Language
Adari had no official language. Each group spoke their own language, though many Adarian leaders also spoke Cosprak, and groups had adopted it to varying degrees.

Creation Myth
The following is one of many Adarian stories of the world's creation:

Before there was land there was sea, and before there was sea there was sky. The Ancients lived in the sky, but all was not well. It had come to be that the sky was not enough for them, and the most ancient of the Ancients decreed that the time had come for some of them to take their leave of the sky. At this, the remaining Ancients began to cry, and their tears fell from the sky and became the sea.

Reluctantly, some of the Ancients began to leave the sky and went down to the sea. But some of them refused to do so, and conflict broke out. The most ancient of the Ancients was killed, and as his blood fell from the sky, the islands were formed.