Occido-Caldera

Occido-Caldera refers to the prehistory of Caldera, before the first Volins settled the country and established Volinia. This period of history is characterized by the lack of human presence on Caldera, and thus the prevalence of species of animals that otherwise went extinct elsewhere.

Etymology

Occido-Caldera is a portmanteau coming from two different languages. Caldera is Spanish for "melting pot", referring to the volcano on the island of Caldera. Throughout the later part of Occido-Caldera's history, the volcano was inactive, thus being a caldera, but for the grand majority of Caldera's history, the volcano was active. The first part of the word, occido, is derived from Latin "occident", which means "going down". This refers to the fact that the sun sets in the west, and the Calderan island was located where Cronans would see the sun set. Some Cronan tribes believed that Caldera was an island meant for containing the sun itself.

Coastal Cronans

The indigenous Cronan peoples didn't settle Occido-Caldera because of a difficulty to access. In fact, many Cronan villages were established alongside the coast of mainland Crona, overseeing Caldera. The Coastal Cronans believed that Occido-Caldera was social taboo, and that no one should ever set foot on the island should they anger the sun and break its containment.

The mild climate with plenty of resources alongside the coast of the Cronan mainland allowed the tribes plenty of leisure time for social pastimes, travel, and trade. These tribes also took accurate records of genealogy and tribe history. This accounting is how modern historians know that a big reason for Caldera never being inhabited is because of social interdiction. Thousands of years ago, Caldera was once an active volcano, and this caused entire coastal Cronan families to die from ash and molten rock. These families fled inland and stayed there for years, accounting that the island must have erupted because the containment of the sun failed, letting the sun leak out. It was believed then for millennia that traveling on the island of Caldera would certainly kill you, as it's where the sun sits. Archaeological evidence has only shown two cases of humans sneaking onto the island and being killed by wildlife or falling rocks, possibly contributing to the ancient theory that setting foot on the island resulted in death.

Wildlife

The most famous example of unique wildlife developing in Occido-Caldera because of a lack of human influence would be the Calderan Finch. This type of bird has beautiful blue, gold, and red plumage, and is believed to have once been common all over Crona, but was hunted to extinction in the mainland due to its easy to spot nature and supposedly delicious meat. Many Cronan tribes once considered the bird meat to be the same meat that higher powers would eat, but once the Calderan Finch was nowhere to be found, it was quickly forgotten about in most cultures.

Most examples of Calderan wildlife include tropical climate birds not elsewhere seen in Crona, but there is also a species of rodent called the Capybara which was introduced to Crona from Australis, and the Capybara was outperformed by native species to the point to where the Capybara also went extinct across Crona except for the island of Caldera, which features no predators of Capybara.

Eventual Settlement and creation of Volinia

Inland Cronan tribes combated each other for control of land and resources, which resulted in the expulsion of Volin people from mainland Crona. Being from the inland, the Volin people were unaware of the social taboo of setting foot on Caldera, and the Volins settled the island wholly, while announcing it as a gift from their god Mashk. The Volins settled the island hundreds of years after the Caldera was created, so no Volins suffered the same fate by volcano that had created the social taboo for Coastal Cronan tribes.

After decades of settlement, the Volins established a rudimentary nation, called Volinia.