Oh, and to add to that, a part where there are very few islands, each ostensibly uninhabitable. I'm sure some really beautiful shady stories can arise from that.

Roughly along the lines of what Hammerstar suggested - maybe we can collectively come up with the setting by having everybody think of one piece (say a city-state), describing it, then we all add it together into a setting and possibly make a map out of it! I'm not sure if that's how things are usually done, of course.

(I'm quite excited!)