Sea of Air

The Sea of Air is one of the four Elemental Seas that surround the central continent of Deus. Its weather is unstable and its lands equally so, making travel to, from, and within it incredibly difficult. Nevertheless, intrepid explorers have made attempts at mapping its network of floating islands, and many manage to call it home.

Air is the element of change, and as such not only the weather but the landscape itself is unpredictable. Brief periods of sunny calm can give way to howling winds, roaring thunderstorms, or pounding sleet without warning, only to shift again in mere minutes. Cyclones roam the sands as whirling pillars reaching over the tops of all but the highest islands. The islands themselves move, albeit relatively slowly, tearing apart and crashing into one another in matters of days or weeks.

Geography

Water around the borders of the Sea of Air fades into mist, gradually becoming unable to support ships designed for watery seas. Within the Sea itself, travel must be carried out over a shifting sea of sand. Many travellers use sailboats designed to skim atop the surface of the sand, but caution must be taken here, as the winds even at ground level are unpredictable in both strength and direction.

Floating high above the sand are a set of islands in various shapes and sizes. These islands can be found all the way up to the edge of the world. House Pluma keeps its headquarters on one of the larger islands, with disconnected towers on nearby land. All of the buildings are strongly reinforced against the winds, which grow even stronger at the altitude of the islands.

Ecosystem

Despite the constant change, the islands of the Sea of Air are very lush, covered in thick carpets of plant life with vines hanging as far down as they can without being sliced by the wind. Those islands that hold together for enough years can sport massive trees whose roots ensure the earth beneath them will never split, and whose branches form homes for the wyvern-sized God Hawks. Both Storm and Crag Wyverns make their homes in this Sea as well, the former riding the waves of each new storm and the latter digging semi-permanent dens into the bases of islands, often within the roots of trees.

Flocks of birds are a common sight within the Sea, migrating along the ever-changing wind patterns. Small, land- or tree-bound wildlife may call individual islands home, but such species are always at risk of being whisked away in a storm. Wyverns and God Hawks compete for the rights to hunt the smaller creatures, and each is known to eat the other given an opportunity.

This Sea is often seen as the gods' testing ground for new species of plant, which may account for its shocking biodiversity. If one manages to live on its islands, they may awaken to find that not only has a previously unseen plant sprouted while they were asleep, it's also grown to knee height overnight, and will continue to send up new shoots until it covers half the island or is ripped away by an unforeseen whirlwind.