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The Settlement

Werrolda's Settlement has been created from whatever materials come to hand. Random bits of metal, timber and plastic. Bits of ships and planes. High-tech solar panels, wooden wheels and odd-looking machines.

On Stormworld everything is used and as a result, one of the most important, and dangerous, jobs at the Settlement is to tour the nearby beaches after a Vortex to try to salvage items dumped from other worlds before the ocean waves and huge tides claim them.

While the basics are pretty primitive, Werrolda has already mapped out her future township. To that end, in the middle of the Settlement the Barter Tent has been erected.

The Barter Tent has a tent roof that can be dismantled if a Twister is approaching. Most importantly it is a place where people can meet and trade, providing a central structure literally and metaphorically to the Settlement. On a nearby hilltop is the makeshift Beacon that guides people to the Settlement.

The people live in make-shift shelters including lean-to's; small, open sided huts; and tents. Sheets of tin and plastic line troughs made from various materials to collect water from the hillsides during the infrequent storms and feed into a central tank. There is also a hidden diversion that directs water into a reserve tank known only to a few.

Within the Settlement are a few people with applicable skills including Lhinrade, a former carpenter who built the Beacon for Werrolda. Mainly they are urban types whose survival techniques are better suited to modern city streets than Robinson Crusoe style islands. Their personalities and their predicament lead logically to that wonder of human civilisation: factional politics. While Werrolda's vision is for a community that unites everyone in Stormworld in a common cause, others (lead by Hintor) want to hold on to what little they have and restrict access to the Settlement.

Nearby are the small patches of land where the Settlement members grow crops. Further inland are the Sighing Peaks where Werrolda holds important meetings of the Settlement and a location which she regards as a special symbol of Stormworld.

Progress at the Settlement, in spite of all the difficulties, was steady if slow until about six months before our story starts when the Drogue arrived.

These flybike-riding young marauders set up in their redoubt on top of a red rock cliff on the far side of the large island where the Settlement is located. Then they started raiding. What was Werrolda to do about this?

At the start of our story, she has already cut a deal with Gol Hati, the Drogue leader, agreeing to supply her with food and water in exchange for a cessation of the raiding. Early on (in Ep 2) Gol goes back on her word and carries out a raid. This considerably weakens Werrolda's position and encourages Hintor to challenge her leadership.