Mocuna Islands

The Mocuna Islands, or the Mocunamois (/moˈcʌnəmoiz/), are an archipelago within Banda Sea in Maonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Mocuna Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located east of Ainakaro, west of Savai, and north and east of the Ajerri islands. The islands were known as the Spice Islands due to the nutmeg, mace and cloves that were originally exclusively found there, the presence of which sparked colonial interest from Asura in the 16th century.

The Mocunamoi Islands formed a single contiguous cultural area in Maonesia, when it was split into two in atleast 700 years ago. A new culture, the Maoyidaoan people, incorporated the area between Ainakaro to the edge of the Banda Sea, after they had emigrsted from mainland Savai and repressed the original inhabitants. They settled and became the new inhabitants of the region, which would continue to partly throughout the centuries, forming a crossroads of different cultures. Today, its population remains heavily divided among the Alydian and Irsadic people, which led to a conflict killing thousands of people and displacing half a million.

Etymology

The name Mocuna is an Asuranization that is thought to have been derived from the term used by Seiranesian traders for the region, nā mokupuni o nā mō'ī ("the island of the kings"), from the word ka mō'ī (pl. nā mō'ī). However, the original name is depicted as the Mocunamoi Islands (pl. Mocunamois).