Great Morak Island was the largest island in the known world, covering more than a million square kilometers. Across the Jade Sea Gate Strait, it faced the city of Qarth.
The island divided the tropical waters south of Essos in two, with the Summer Sea to its west and the Jade Sea to its east.
West of Great Mokra Island lay Vahar Island and Little Morak Island, while Elephant Island lay to the south, and Whip Island and the more distant Isle of Thunder lay to the east. These islands all produced various spices and rare birds and beasts, making trade exceptionally lively.
Northern Great Mokra Island consisted of plains, hills, and woodlands threaded with rivers, while dense forests flourished in the south. Dangerous primeval forests covered roughly half the island.
Pharos City stood at the mouth of a great river on Great Morak Island's northwestern coast, surrounded by farmland and a dense population. The city center alone held two to three hundred thousand people. Counting the villages scattered throughout northern Great Morak Island, the population numbered at least five million.
After Daemon led five thousand soldiers of the Royal Legion to capture Qarth, Otheryon immediately detached two thousand troops to seize Pharos City as well.
With its fertile soil and plentiful rainfall, this region was Qarth's most important source of grain, vegetables, and fruit. Though the Red Waste was vast, it had almost no arable land-a potentially fatal weakness for a kingdom.
That was why the shrewd Otheryon had swiftly seized this great granary of the Summer Sea. With this enormous island, where crops could grow year-round, supporting its rear, the Kingdom of Isilia no longer needed to worry about food.
Over the years, Otheryon had not only established a Royal Legion military farming base in central Great Morak