Earth Dragon Island
Earth Dragon Island boasts the smallest population of inhabitants of any of the El Nido islands. It is inhabited by the followers of Arcus Levine, who live primarily in the shoreside village of Arcusville. They have little to offer to the rest of the islands, although it should be said that Arcus is well-loved by the fairies of Feypoole and has the easiest time negociating for large quantities of water to be moved off the Water Dragon's Island -- something that was absolutely vital in the early days of the Arcusville settlement.
Humans are not alone on Earth Dragon Island. In fact, the majority of Earth Dragon's sentient humanoid population is comprised of the native Fossickers, who dwell in the sandy caverns beneath the Island's surface. These tall, worm-like humanoids (whose seven-foot-tall segmented invertebrate bodies have four arms, two legs and three vertically-aligned eyes) are usually belligerent to outsiders, but Arcus was able to broker a deal with them when he first came to the island, and the Fossickers are now allied with (or at least tolerant of) the Arcusville settlement. It was the Fossickers, in fact, who first taught the Arcusville settlers how to tame the Kanks (see below).
Earth Dragon Island is one of the most desolate of all the El Nido islands. The inhabitants survive by two main subsistence methods: hydroponic farms (created with technology and equipment that is by now technically stolen from Termina College), and the herding of Kanks (also called Sand Aphids), a breed of giant insect which the settlers have tamed and domesticated. The Sand Aphids susbsist off what little vegetation (in the forms of scrubs and cacti) grows on the island, but are also petrivores and take a good deal of their nutrition from the very sand and rock that comprises the island itself. It is the Kanks' excrement that the settlers feed off of; they produce from their rectal openings a viscous, sweet honey-like substance which fulfills the settlers' dietary requirements for protein quite nicely -- convenient, in part, because Earth Dragon Isle has little else in the way of animal life and some of the poorest fishing in all of El Nido.
A tertiary source of subsistence is trade -- something which the people of Arcusville have learned they cannot rely on simply because they have little to offer the rest of the islands. Still, they have become reliable as middlemen in the drinking water trade because of Arcus' popularity with the fairies.
