Ian’s Island

Ian's Island is a small chunk of granite that stands roughly five miles off the coast of Ianapalis. There is almost nothing of real use that occurs naturally on the island: its only small cove is far to small to accommodate modern shipping, there are no precious metals, and nothing outside of the green moss which typifies the Shield grows there. A few fisherman used the rocky peaks of the island as an outpost to get at the relatively poor fisheries offshore.

One of these fishermen ended up giving the desolate rock the first name that stuck: Rânsa Ádien, or "Adie's Island." His wife, Adie, had died in childbirth while at their hut on the southern shore of the island and he wished to honor her. Long after the fisherman had died, those along the shore kept up the name. When, some five hundred years later, the King of Shadoran became hard-pressed by a host of Foothillsmen and built a camp upon the island, he called it Dûn Ádien, Adie's Fortress. That monarch was the man who would become in 1697 High King Ian I, the first monarch of the Grand Empire of the Shield.

As the power of the monarchy waxed over the following century, visiting noblemen and ambassadors, whom the new palace was designed to intimidate by display of wealth, came to call the rock "Ian's Island". Over time, the word became 'Iansisle,' which was soon the preferred shorthand way to refer to the Grand Empire.