Bells

enormous jellyfish, with bells hundreds or thousands of metres across, which float in the air above the surface of the water trailing their tentacles, which collect food (plankton, fish, whales etc) and lift it to the mouths above. They come in various colours. Nidari build cities and settlements on their backs, which drift around the entire Reach, living off of the ocean around them.
As individual settlements they tend to be small (though not always), but there are lots of them. They vary a great deal, but generally they have fewer non-nidari (and even when natives move their, jellyfish infusion is very common) and are often focused around particular activities/lifestyles. Some examples:
types of bells:

• blue: the most common and prolific breed of bells
• yellow: the broadest and most flat-topped bells, ideal for habitation
• purple: smaller bells and longer tendrils, tend to ride at higher altitudes and greater speeds.
• green: naturally covered in vegetation.
• grey: tougher and more resilient.

Uses of Bells:

• Farming, with turf-covered or –infused jellyfish – often produce specialty crops to trade. often green bells.
• Religious, philosophical, or political communes, and academies
• Specialised crafts (e.g. creating jewelry, tapestries, magic items)
• Private bells of the super-rich and powerful
• Militarised (warbells): often grey bells.

The domes slowly flex, meaning the edges of the bells are the most unstable and least valued parts of the beast to live on - collapses in these areas are not uncommon. Service areas sometimes exist within the underside of the bell itself. Houses are built with thin frames of whalebone or imported bamboo/wood, clad with woven seaweed/seagrass and windowed/roofed with transparent sheets of harvested Bell skin or oilshell.
a lack of fresh water can occur on bells, leading to dangerous dehydration and dry skin for native Nidari. dips in saltwater baths, or in the ocean far below, are therefore a common part of life on Bells, as are Brine-channelers for desalination and collector-mages who suck up rainwater and dew, working for the reservoir-owners.
nightsoil is collected and used to fertilise crops or dropped into the ocean - this can lead to parasite transmission, as well as cesspits sometimes causing dangerous infections in the Bells themselves.
carrying more weight means a higher calorific load for the Bells, which are partly wild-fed and partly supplied by the fishing-fleet. Some of the cost of that fleet falls on the government of larger bells, so there is usually some sort of tariff based on weight of goods loaded and offloaded.
when bells show signs of advanced age they are depopulated, cut free, and allowed to live out their final days in peace, sinking into the ocean from which they ascended centuries earlier.
Bells struggle to fly over land, even at altitude - they shiver and shake if taken away from the ocean for even a few minutes, and eventually die.
Individual Examples:

• the small bellswarm of Rithnidloi
• the warbell of the Rodera.
• Highbell
• The bell within The Cloudskirter

Bellswarms: groups of multiple Bells, either existing wildly or as settlements, in which case they are often linked together by bridges made of treated Bell tentacles.
Bell-moots: occurring for each bell roughly every 5 years, these are a series of large trade gatherings, fairs and festivals where bells meet up in the same place for a week or so. Some have been going on for hundreds of years. Based around the jellyfish's natural breeding/migration cycles, and now an opportunity for bells to access rare/specialist services and goods that other bells provide, as well as for cultural interchange and celebration. There are a dozen major bell-moots (Often seeing hundreds or even over a thousand bells connecting up), and scores of smaller ones. toasts and cheers and unlikely stories and good-natured insults abound; drink flows freely; deals are struck and contracts signed; for a week, life takes on a vibrant tenor

travel and navigation

Bells are slow - less than 1 knot, where a sailing ship can easily be 3-6. they could easily cross the reach in 3 weeks. Do they stop for a long time to resupply/collect food? Wait for favourable winds? Slow because they don't have sails, have a lot of mass etc. And so don't typically move at the exact same speed as the wind. navigational challenges- chiefly finding favourable winds to carry them to their various stops. Dropping sand over the side and sending smoke upwards to check on the surrounding air movements. There is also a small team of Giterikin hawk-pilots that scout out the airspace all around, earning a pretty fee in the process. anchor-tendrils and tug are sometimes used. In heavy weather, the decision may be made to cut the bridges and allow the individual bells to scatter and ride out the storm, reuniting when the skies have calmed. this is a rare occurrence, however. More often, the swarm is separated from the large flotilla of fishing ships that accompany it, helping provide food to the populace above. they typically agree several rendezvous points in advance for just this reason.
The actual crew involved in maneuvering bells is quite small- less than 50 for a town like Rithnidloi
Example route: a 106-day circumnavigation of the western half of the Reach by Rithnidloi:

• Start in Cimmati, loading and leaving – 1 day.
• 3 days to the barren isles, where 2 weeks or so are spent hopping from island to island
• A week to sarlim, where adventurers unload to explore the buried cities – 4 days only.
• ride along the coast of molomet to find winds to Sokani – nearly to the Ulthoc Forest, another 10 days. Describe the jungle, see Northern Sphinxes. Spend 2 weeks in the archipelago.
• then over to Lacrestand - 10 more days, and 2 weeks spent hopping down the coast.
• Crossing The Slick of Kerrid in 2 days, tentacles retracted.
• then a week along the Giterikin coast to Vovari Bay, where a bell-moot takes place for 2 weeks.
• returning to Cimmati, 6 days later.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

mostly confined to the Nidari Reach

Lifespan

100-1000 Years

Average Height

400-1600 metres

Average Length

200-2200 Metres

Related Ethnicities

• Nidari