The Forest Sprite Pirates

There is generally an island that is generally in the middle of the Undeniable Ocean, so named because no one can possibly deny that there is an ocean there, even if they never can quite figure out where exactly there is. The island is a legend amongst the land dwellers, often referred to as Magnifico. According to legend, that’s what the island dwellers shout just before they attack.
Actually, they’re screaming Magnefeco, which, in their tongue, means "Bail, you humongous freaks, because we need your money and we imagine that you’d prefer it if we didn’t slit your throat as we took it!" It’s a fairly complicated language, as are most of those in The Third World. Fortunately, there is a Common Tongue, Esperanto (quite different from the Esperanto we’re familiar with, but the same basic concept. Except that it worked) which is spoken in most major cities and sounds an awful lot like our English. That is, fortunately for those who speak the more obscure languages (in the roughly northern part of the Isles of Langerham, there is an extremely complicated language spoken by a city of twenty-three. Their diplomat, S. P. Oylspart, speaks Esperanto) and those who have arrived from The First and Second Worlds.
The creatures who live on Magnifico refer to their island as Our Island. But that’s common to most species who are the dominant clan in an area. For the longest time, Farber was referred to by its citizens only as "Our Continent." So as to distinguish this island from every other island in The Third World, we shall continue to refer to it as Magnifico.
The dominant species on Magnifico are a particular breed of Forest Sprite. Forest Sprites live all over The Third World, and are, generally, benign. Or, at the very least, not malign. Usually, they leave other species alone as long as they aren’t crossing over into their forests. This is both because they like to avoid conflict and because they can stray, at most, one kilometer from their base trees. Those on the outskirts of forests are, therefore, merely by default, the diplomats, when diplomacy is needed. Fortunately, Forest Sprites do not often get involved in the world affairs, and so do not often need diplomats. Most nations do have consulates about seven-hundred and fifty meters away from all of their forest edges.
Forest Sprites tend to be about five inches tall, and are almost universally slender. This has led to the existence, in many big cities around The Third World, of Underground Forest Sprite Fetish Rings. Of course, there are Underground Fetish Rings for almost every species in The Third World, but few are quite as notable as those of Forest Sprites. There is a general, almost Third Worldwide taboo on Floraphilia. Obviously, then, there is much controversy over Bigger Folk having a sexual attraction to Forest Sprites. There is obviously the question as to whether they are animals or plants; there’s also the size issue, which tends to worry less educated people as to the safety of any Forest Sprites actually engaged in acts with Bigger Folk. More on that in a full article.
The particular breed of Forest Sprite could be easily construed as malign. They were pirates.
This job of theirs began about ten centuries ago, when Merlin came to their island. They were a happy, happy, happy island of Forest Sprites then. Didn’t bother anybody and nobody bothered them, and when people did bother them, they were always nice people, and were treated generously. Merlin, however, was rather a git. The Forest Sprites of Magnifico (which was, back then, called Joy Island) were still very generous and hospitable to him. But he really wanted an orange, and oranges were out of season. When one of the trees wouldn’t give him an orange, while it was out of season, Merlin violently struck down the tree, killing that particular sprite, and proceeded to curse the entire island so that they could not grow any citrus fruits. He was promptly thrown off the island, at which point he stuck his tongue out and struck off for parts unknown for the next two centuries.
This lack of citrus fruits did not initially bother the Forest Sprites. They had plenty of other fruits, especially bananas. Within ten years, however, they realized that Forest Sprites cannot get by on bananas alone. Because bananas lacked any vitamin C, and Forest Sprites are amongst the creatures who cannot produce vitamin C. They began to develop scurvy, which was a lot more uncomfortable than dangerous for them. Forest Sprites, using primarily magic to do everything, were not bothered intensely by the physical weakness it caused. It made flying slightly more difficult, as now they had to use magic to do it for long periods of time, but that was a minor inconvenience. However, Forest Sprites pride themselves on their magnificent teeth. And scurvy was causing their teeth to fall out. This was a serious problem, intensified by the fact that they had nothing to replace their teeth with.
One day, after twenty years of suffering toothlessly from scurvy, the Forest Sprites of Magnifico had a stroke of luck. A pirate ship had become wrecked on their shore, killing the entire crew and spilling gold and other precious metals all across the beach. Some of it was incidentally buried as the Forest Sprites approached the wreck and began to collect the gold. Some of the more entrepreneurial Forest Sprites began to use various magics to mold the coins perfectly into the shape of Forest Sprite teeth. This lead to the development of Forest Sprite Currency.
Forest Sprite Currency has not, even after more than 900 years, caught on in most Forest Sprite Communities. It consists primarily of various sorts of leaves; there are five oak leaves in a maple leaf, and orange tree leaves are the most valuable on Magnifico, as they contain vague, trace amounts of vitamin C. But they rarely stay in circulation long. The least valuable leaf is a willow leaf, as there is a strong genetic tendency for Forest Sprites to be Willow Spirits. There are one hundred grains of sand to a willow leaf. Denizens of the island often try to pass off crushed rocks or grains of dirt as grains of sand, but the counterfeits are almost always caught before being widely circulated.
These gold teeth were all well and good, until the next generation of Forest Sprites were born. They promptly developed scurvy as well, and began to lose their teeth. The elder generation refused to give up their teeth to their children, and once the elder generation was dead, the youths wouldn’t take the teeth out of the heads of corpses. It was both gross and wrong. Thus the Joy Island economy began to collapse; there was no product to sell. Forest Sprites on the island didn’t need anything besides teeth. Economists began to worry.
This point is about 70 years after the initial Magnifico Curse of Merlin. Nearly every island, village, or community has, at some point, had a Curse of Merlin, thus necessitating the differentiation. Merlin was totally an asshole. At about this point in time, there were some strange, small trees growing on the shore where the pirate ship had been wrecked. They had gone mostly ignored by the Forest Sprites of the island, until there was a sudden strong need for the Gold again. Forest Sprites began to dig up the shore, looking for even one gold coin that could be used for a tooth. Instead, they found some growing trees, in between the stages of sapling and adult. They shone with a strange glitter. Much like gold.
Forest Sprites began to try to chop these new Gold Trees down. However, upon the first swing of an ax, there was a terrible scream. And thus did the sentient world have its first contact with Money Forest Sprite Spirits.
Money Forest Sprite Spirits-so named because other Forest Sprites see them as lesser than normal Forest Sprites, thus in need of further monikers to differentiate and lower them-are great, great economists. Had they come into existence about three millennia earlier, they could easily have been the founders of capitalism. In exchange for their safety, the Money Forest Sprite Spirits came up with a sound economical model for the Joy Island Forest Sprites: Laissez-Faire, a term they made up meaning "Do what the hell you like." Essentially, a fancy name for Piracy.
Some spells and enchantments were cooked up by the more theoretically grounded Forest Sprites of the island, which, after ten years of preparation, allowed the island to move around at the will of three Forest Sprite Flotation Priests, who also keep the island aloft. They work in eight hour shifts, so as not to overexert themselves, and there are always two sets of Forest Sprite Flotation Priests in reserve, fully trained (if not quite as skilled) in the art of Island Flotation and Navigation. The island does not, obviously, float through the air; rather, it bobs on the surface of the ocean, much like a flotation raft. Or a sailboat.
So it is, for the last nine-hundred-and-twenty years approximately, the Island of Magnifico has terrorized the open seas. They assault rich looking ships, and take all the gold. It is said that in the center of the island, there is a trove of golden, and occasionally silver and even ruby teeth, nearly a hundred meters high, and at least as wide. When they assault ships, screaming "Magnefeco" at the top of their lungs, they also take all citrus fruits on the ship and, oftentimes, scuttle the ship, having no use for it. When they can, however, they allow survivors of the battle to escape on lifeboats, especially those survivors who cowered below decks during the attack. That’s how legends like this develop, you know: occasional survivors, who mishear the truth. Also, Merlin likes to brag about it every time he’s out on the town with Eris. Makes him feel like he properly fits with her.