[center][color=olive][size=18][b][ About the Island ][/b][/size][/color][/center]
[list][size=11]The Tauric Peninsula – or, as it is sometimes known, the Chersonesus Taurica – is a quiet place, in modern times. A small jut of land located on the coast of Ukraine, it is now called Crimea. In the island's past and mythology, however, it was known as Taurica. Once a mysterious portion of Ancient Greece, it was home to glorious temples and fantastic myths. One of these stories, [i]Iphigeneia in Tauris[/i], described how any foreigners who would stumble upon the island's shore were instantly condemned to human sacrifice. All of this was an infamous display to the Gods of Greece, in attempt to appease them and bring the mortals good fortune.
Or, perhaps... It wasn't that simple.
Welcome to reality. Those "human sacrifices", while appearing to have been presented to the Greek gods, were not what they seemed. In truth, they were the first step of bizarre, ancient human experiments conducted by a collective of priests known as the Kubri. These ancients had long ago tapped into an odd combination of science and magic, and were borne of those Egyptian priests who first developed the process of embalming for mummification. While mummification can be explained by science, however, the Kubri experiments were far more elusive.
Let us go back to the birth of the Kubri. Back when civilization was new, and the now well-known Gods of Egypt were first envisioned, they were nothing but forces - powerful ideas, if you will. The sun was the God Sun, and death was the God Death. They did not have visual symbol-forms to speak of. Embalming was developed, as a means of giving the Soul a place to live before the body decayed. It was then that a small number of the priests of mummification began to delve into more mystical forces. The rogue priests' discoveries terrified the other members of their clan, and so they were shunned from their practice. Exiled, yet together, the Kubri had begun.
They continued to practice the very thing that banished them from their previous art. This magic that was bestowed upon them included splicing the wild force of animals with the souls and form of humans. It took many years, but eventually the Kubri perfected their work. In one evening, in a grand display of magic and power, the gods were finally given faces and names – in living, breathing form. By techniques as mysterious as the outcomes, the head of a jackal and the body of a man became the living god, Anubis. By merging animal and human, new, fantastic creatures were proclaimed to be the source of previously unexplained forces. Suddenly, gods such as Horus, Bast, Thoth, Sekhmet, and Sobek reigned on high in a secretly man-made immortality. Where the gods went, or if their bodies were actually mortal, is unknown. Their personalities and images obviously continued throughout the eons.
The secret society of god-creating priests, however, continued on - undetected. Through the ages, their clan traveled to all the great empires of history, introducing new, half-animal, half-human deities and creatures to whatever area they dwelt in. Eventually, the travels of their lineage brought them to Greece, and the peninsula of Taurica. In the flood of Greek myths and stories of the time, Taurica became known for its story of Iphigeneia in Tauris, which, actually, was partially true - that of the human sacrifices of foreigners. This island in particular became a hub for the Kubri, in which many of their rituals took place. The "sacrifices", all of which were promptly cleared away from the public, were actually the first incisions in the experiments of the priests. It was on Taurica that legendary creatures such as satyrs and centaurs came to be, the "taur" in centaur being a little-known allusion to the island.
Eventually, Greece and the later empire of Rome fell from power; the priests realized that they were reaching an age that did not as readily accept their creations as gods. It was this that caused their permanent inhabitance of the Tauric Peninsula - always living in secret, conducting their experimentations underground and hidden from the public.
Perhaps it is imbedded into the modern human’s nature, but the priests’ fascination with the marvels of ancient Greece never truly died out. Two of the Kubri's previous successes in particular - those of the centaur and satyr - continued in theme in their later experiments. The concept of combining the strong upper half of a human - the half containing the unmatched intelligence of the human brain, dexterous arms and artistic hands, and the Greek-worshiped features of the human torso - with the strong, wildly powerful, hunter-half of the wild beast, fascinated them greatly. Their endeavors continued on, this time with the goal of not creating gods, but of creating a perfect human. They were, in essence, aiming for a being that had all the intelligence and progressive abilities that modern man possessed, combined with the instincts and powerful body of the wild animal. Ideally, this "neo-sapiens" would contain as much "beast" in the subject as possible, while still keeping the essence of "man". This goal was, they believed, the only thing that would ensure the further success of the human race.
Time wore on, as the Kubri reached closer and closer to attaining their perfect species. As modern human expansion progressed around them at what seemed the speed of light, the clan realized they needed a place of their own. Luckily, they were not without locations – Greece alone contains 1400 islands, of which only 227 are inhabited today. Of these, only 78 actually have a population of over 100. With the massive amounts of money they had collected by being in the business of creating gods for centuries, the Kubri traveled back to their old country of Greece, and bought a small island far from the shores of Crete. There, they established the state-of the art facilities they use today, and named the place Taurica Nesos (for it means Taurica Island in Greek). The island is enclosed, guarded, and armed to the teeth. The numbers of those who enter are few, and those who leave are even fewer... for anyone who enters the [i]new[/i] island of Taurica is destined to be a Taurian forever...[/size][/list]
