Island 1
_{Stara Luka's bay on the S/SE coast}
Type	Island
Climate	Mediterranean
Geology	Limestone karst (like Hvar and Brač)
Styles	A, B and C
Settlements	Stara Luka, Smokovje, Pržina, Gradina, Valponte
Affiliation	Seat of a count (Stara Luka); a landholding family (Valponte)
Status	In development: first demo level

Island 1 (Mediterranean)

Island 1 is the first island of LOAA: a sunlit Mediterranean karst island of limestone coasts, olive and vine terraces, dry-stone walls and cypresses, in the manner of Hvar and Brač. It holds the first demo level, Stara Luka.

Geography

The island model the planners work from:

A coastal ridge runs roughly east–west behind the south coast.
The harbour bay lies on the S/SE coast, with Stara Luka at its head and Smokovje on the slope above.
Behind the ridge is an interior basin (polje): fertile red soil (terra rossa) and a small river fed by a spring at the foot of the central highlands.
The river leaves the basin westward through a gorge and reaches the sea at a gravel cove on the W coast (Pržina).
The one main road climbs from the harbour, through the hill village, over a saddle in the ridge (Gradina) and down into the basin (Valponte).

The coast/interior boundary is the crest of the coastal ridge: everything on the seaward side is the coastal belt (style A), everything behind it is interior (style B).

Winds

The Adriatic winds shape how things are built: - Maestral (NW, summer afternoons), bura (NE, cold and gusty in winter), jugo (SE, onshore and wet). Stara Luka's breakwater faces the jugo; its smelly trades sit where the maestral carries the smell out to sea.

Settlements

#	Name	Belt	Style	Role
1	Stara Luka	coast	A	the island's port; fishing, salting, boat building
2	Smokovje	coast	A	farming hill village above the harbour
3	Pržina	coast	A	poor fishing village on the W coast
4	Gradina / Castelliere	transition	C	garrison and toll post on the ridge saddle
5	Valponte	interior	B	inland market town at the bridge

Plants

Native and ancient species only: cypress, olive, holm oak, stone pine and Aleppo pine, bay, myrtle, rosemary, lavender, fig, mulberry, caper, and Posidonia seagrass meadows under the turquoise water. Not agave, prickly pear, palms or eucalyptus.

History

As far as the docs go: an Illyrian hillfort people, the Delmatae, held the headlands in the Iron Age; the Romans quarried catacombs and built tombs; in the 1300s patrician families and a Venetian-influenced culture shaped the towns. See History of Island 1.