Lian Yu

Lian Yu (煉獄 Liànyù, translated as purgatory) is an island in the North China Sea where Oliver Queen was stranded for 5 years, between 2007 and 2012, before he was found by Chinese fishermen.

Overview
Lian Yu houses herbs that are capable of healing almost any injury. These herbs are so effective, they were capable of healing almost any type of poison, including Floyd Lawton's Curare, and Sara Lance of snake venom almost instantly. These herbs became a necessary component to allow Oliver Queen to treat his poison-related injuries while at the same time, keeping his identity a secret.

Season 1
After shipwrecking on the island, Oliver buried his father on a hillside using several large stones. At first it seemed that Oliver was alone on the island, however, he soon learned that was not the case.

Flashbacks revealed that the island had been used by the Chinese government to banish prisoners, including the former General Yao Fei. It was then used by Edward Fyers and his mercenaries for an operation for an unknown employer. This plan involved launching a missile strike on a Chinese plane, in an effort to cause an international incident and damage the Chinese economy. For this plan, Fyers wanted to use Yao Fei as a scapegoat.

Two AIS agents were sent to free Yao Fei, but they were captured by Fyers as well. One of the agents, Slade Wilson, escaped with Yao Fei to the jungle, while the other agent, Billy Wintergreen, joined the Mercenaries.

Slade and Yao Fei got seperated, and Yao Fei found the stranded Oliver and tried to teach him some survival skills. Oliver eventually got captured by the mercenaries of Fyers and tortured by Billy Wintergreen in an effort to tell them about the location of Yao Fei. Oliver refused to tell them, and Fyers ordered Billy to kill him. At that moment Yao Fei burst in and took out Fyers before engaging into a brutal fight with the former AIS agent. He managed to knock out Billy and fled wit Oliver into the woods.

After locking Oliver up in a cave, he managed to take out some mercenaries and capture Fyers to force him to give them a way out of the island. While traveling to the plane they encountered Wintergreen and some mercenaries. Yao Fei enganged them into combat while he ordered Oliver to flee, he eventually got overpowered and captured.

Fyers then kidnapped Shado, Yao Fei's daughter, in an effort to force Yao Fei to continue working for him. Yao Fei captured Oliver and faked killing him, while handing him a map to travel to a crashed plane.

Oliver found a plane where he got confronted by Slade. The AIS agent wanted to kill him at first, believing him to be a liability. He eventually realized Oliver had some raw potential for combat and survival.

Slade began to train Oliver for an assault on an air field to take over a cargo plane.

Slade and Oliver managed to clear an airfield and were about to capture a plane, but they missed their chance when Oliver came back for Yao Fei and was captured. Slade came back and saved Oliver, killing his former partner Billy Wintergreen in the process.

They then managed to free Shado. The three of them formed an alliance, as Shado trained Oliver in marksmanship.

The three of them ended up captured by Fyers and his mercenaries. And it turned out, Yao Fei had given them away after Fyers threatened to blow up the entire forest and kill them.

Yao Fei was forced to claim responsibility for the airstrike on a video. Fyers then shot and killed Yao Fei, leaving Oliver, Wilson, and Shado devastated.

They broke free from their bonds and began to fight and kill the mercenaries. Just in time, Oliver managed to change the direction of the missile aimed at the Chinese plane, and the missile landed on the camp, seemingly killing all the mercenaries.

Oliver found out Slade survived, but Fyers had Shado hostage. Fyers tried to negotiate, but Oliver used a bow and arrow to shoot him through his neck, killing him.

Season 2
With no means to escape, the three of them were forced to stay on the island. Recovered from their wounds Shado and Slade continued to teach Oliver in combat, archery and Mandarin Chinese. They then were confronted by a small group of intruders who captured Shado, and their leader threatened her with a knife. Slade and Oliver took them out quckly, and Oliver brutally killed their leader with a stone. It was revealed a huge ship had landed on Lian Yu and they were looking for some mysterious graves.

The ship known as the Amazo began to launch explosives off on the island while looking for the ruins of the plane in which Shado was inspecting the dead bodies found in one of the graves. This alerted Oliver and Slade who raced back to find Shado only to be caught in the explosions causing Slade's hands to burn and Oliver to black out. Oliver was then transported to the ship and is kept prisoner by Dr. Anthony Ivo and his interrogator Sara Lance who survived the Queen's Gambit sinking.

It was revealed Japanese soldiers had visited the island during WW2 and had hidden a submarine on the island containing a serum wit the ability to turn humans into supersoldiers, drastically improving their strength, speed, stamina, durability and ability to heal, but also changing their personality. It turned out the crew of the Amazo was looking to collect this serum.

Shado and Slade managed to rescue Oliver and Sara. And they went on to find the serum to save the badly burned Slade. Using the serum on a dying Slade, Slade seemingly died. The group was then captured by Dr. Ivo and the crew, who led them away. An angered Ivo executed Shado in front of Oliver and Sara. Slade turned out to revived by the serum, and now possesed superhuman strenght, speed and durability. He tracked down the crew members keeping Sara and Oliver captive, and killed them all in seconds.

The group then burried Shado. During the mourning Slade gave Oliver the hood Shado wore after she took it from her late father. Later Oliver began to spot Slade displaying unusual and violent behavior. Sara informed Oliver that the reports of the Japanese soldiers mentioned that the soldiers chanced by the serum experienced severe behavior chances, Slade then sneaked off and intended to destroy the ship using a missile launcher from Edward Fyers, destroying the ship and killing the crew and the prisoners alike.

Oliver and Sara confronted him after which he threatened to kill them, and he wanted to destroy the ship to avenge Shado. Oliver managed to convince him that destroying the ship would take away their only way out. Slade realized the serum was chancing his mind and managed to calm down. The group then began to converse how they could take over the ship.

The group noticed a plane crashing after it had been shot from the ship. The group found a heavilly injured pilot (Sin her father), Slade and Oliver went looking for first aid gear, while Sara tried to comfort him. The dying pilot begged Sara to take care of his daughter before he passed away just before Oliver and Slade came up wit the first aid kit.

The group devised a plan based on deception to get on the ship without being spotted. Oliver was seen practicing his archery and agility to prepare himself for the fight on the ship. During the night Oliver was haunted by a dream of Shado blaming him for his death. After he woke up he put on the hood she and Yao Fei had been wearing on the Island. Slade Wilson was seen taking his mask. The group packed an then created a fire (Oliver lighted it up wit a arrow similair to the pilot).

The crew came to investigate and found and captured Oliver. He was then taken to the ship. Here Yvo used a truth serum to make him reveal were Slade and Sara were. Oliver told they were already in the ship and in the engine room. Panicked Yvo used the entire crew to search the ship underdeck. It was revealed Oliver had taken a drug making him immune to the truth serum. The upperdeck was now unguarded and Sara and Slade used a parachute to land on the deck. Here the group split up, Sara went to free the prisoners, Oliver went to find Yvo, Slade began killing the crew members below deck.

Oliver succesfully reached Yvo and was about to shoot him. However Yvo began taunting Oliver that he made him choose to kill Shado, and that therefore Oliver was also to blame for her death. Oliver said he would kill him anyway. But it was then shown Slade had heard the conversation.

An enraged Slade then tried to kill him. Oliver managed to escape and reach upperdeck where he used archery to take out several of the armed crew members. Sara, Vitally and other prisoners managed to jump overboard and swim to the island. Slade managed to grab Oliver and locked him up in a cage. He then killed the captain and forced the crew to accept him as their new leader. He then chopped off Yvo his arm while making him mimic how he executed Shado. After this he made a promise to Oliver that before he would kill him he would destroy everything he cared about and take away everything he loves.

In 2013 after the quake in Starling City, Oliver Queen had come back to Lian Yu and was living there again in the forests. Diggle and Felicity came over and convinced him to return. The wreckage of a huge ship was spotted in front of the island.

Former inhabitants

 * Alan Durand (deceased)
 * Yao Fei (deceased)
 * Edward Fyers (deceased)
 * Sara Lance
 * Oliver Queen
 * Shado (deceased)
 * Billy Wintergreen (deceased)
 * Slade Wilson

Visitors

 * "The Captain" (deceased)
 * John Diggle
 * Anthony Ivo (deceased)
 * Sin's father (deceased)
 * Felicity Smoak