Henderson Island

Henderson Island is a place of remarkable, unspoiled beauty.

Hidden deep within the foliage of the island, guarded by the coral atoll, is a lagoon that was once the temporary home of an advanced civilization. The submerged volcano that once bubbled up through this space has left a hidden world that seems as alien as its long-dead inhabitants.

Once you get to the island and climb the atoll, you will need to navigate through dense forest to the Northern midpoint of the island. As you begin to descend towards the tiny lagoon, you'll notice stunningly beautiful rock formations. As you near the level of the lagoon, you may be able to clear back the vegetation and unearth small signs of the civilization that once lived here. Cave mouths will lead you into an elaborate tunnel network where you will be treated to stunning mineral deposits, tidal waterfalls, and a world of caverns that are as beautiful as they are deadly dangerous.

Beware! Advanced medical facilities are a long way away.

Geography

Henderson Island is located in the south eastern section of the Pacific Ocean on Earth, approximately 3000 miles from anywhere. The island is roughly oval in shape with the volcano being located just north of the geographic center of the island.

Fauna & Flora

This pristine environment hosts numerous local plants, many of which only exist on this island.

While there is only one mammalian species (the Pacific Rat), and a handful of reptiles, the island is home to a wide variety of bird life. Birds nest everywhere on the island, including some flightless species.

Natural Resources

The island is known and farmed for the wood of two trees, miro and tou. There are no other known natural resources.

The most abundant resource is its natural, untouched beauty.

History

Around 600BC, a crashing Harperion ship landed near the north end of the island. These aliens built the settlement of Podarces around the remains of their ship and set up a beacon to call for help.

Over the next 400 years, the aliens attempted to remain undiscovered while relying on their native ability to fly to bring in resources from other places around the world.

The Harperions vanished from the area around 200BC, and historians believed they had been rescued until the research of Lenore Janning revealed their true fate.

In the heart of the island is a depression, where Podarces was located, by the side of a naturally occuring lagoon.

This depression was actually the mouth of the long-dormant volcano. In 200BC, the volcano erupted suddenly, encasing the settlement in ash and lava. While many of the island's occupants were able to take to the air, it is believed that they were quickly smothered by the boiling hot air and ash, falling to earth to be lost forever in the sea.

Only their limited technological remnants remained, spread throughout the planet, untended, whispering their wishes and calls for help to an echoing emptiness that slowly returned to the forested landscape we see today.

Beneath the soil of the island lies the remnants of the ship and the stunningly beautiful settlement of this once thriving avian race.

Tourism

Extremely limited: there is no approach from the air and it is a very long boat ride from anywhere.

Those interested in extreme tourism who want to get away from it all may find this a perfect destination. However, it is considered a protected location due to the fragile nature of the local flora and fauna.

This article is a stub.

I'll be adding more content to this article in the future.

Alternative Name(s)
previously known as: San Juan Bautista, Elizabeth Island
Type
Volcano
Location under


Cover image: by Ron Van Oers via Wikipedia

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