The Clouds of Sjonderwold
The Sjonderwold is a land of unusual wonders, found most often in the fancies of dreamers. The cloud mountains and cloud seas that form along the ridges and valleys of the Sjonderwold are one such example.
In other worlds, when someone views tremendous masses of clouds from a distance, the viewer could be forgiven for thinking that they gaze upon a far-off range of mountains of a colossal scale. In the Sjonderwold, those mountains are real, tangible, and climbable - and sometimes, even host to unusual types of life.
By the same measure, when someone of another world looks down from a ridge into a valley and sees it transformed into a fjord of mist and fog, they would not expect to be able to sail a boat across that fjord or pull strange fish from its waters. In the Sjonderwold, entire communities grow and thrive on that very practice.
Most believe cloud formations to originate in the numerous steaming waterfalls that pepper the border between the lands of the Owl and Dragon. While that is certainly where clouds form in great abundance and with great regularity, in truth magical tangibility comes to any cloud and fogbank of appropriate size.
Adventurous types often like to explore these tangible features, whether climbing to their peaks or swimming to their depths. The same magic that keeps cloud-mountains solid enough to climb or sail across also keeps them breathable, so indulgers of whimsy do not perish because of their ambition. This magic does not make traversal any easier, however, so crevasses and ridge on cloud-mountains and currents in cloud-seas still must be overcome with skill and preparation.
As one might expect for new natural habitats, cloud-mountains and cloud-seas are home to unique and unusual wildlife. Most travelers of these features report seeing massive fish-like creatures in both cloud-mountains and cloud-seas, swimming and hunting not unlike large grouper. Wispier cloud formations are often home to effervescent eels that seem to dance in and out of the clouds along rainbow trails. Strange, lithe, six-limbed creatures gallop or swim just on the edge of sight, and lucky travelers can sometimes cajole them into granting them an unforgettable ride.
Encounters with these cloudy creatures are unnerving for inexperienced travelers, and injuries or death occur just as much from climbers or sailors reacting in surprise as from injuries at the teeth and claws of the startled or aggravated beasts.
Stranger still are the animations that the cloud formations undergo. Like all clouds, they shift in response to winds and other atmospheric conditions, although thankfully the magic that makes these clouds survivable keeps their motions slow enough for travelers to adapt.
Most bizarre is when the clouds take specific shapes, often only apparent to viewers from a certain angle and moment. Quick cloud-shapers can capitalize on useful shapes, trapping a cloud in the form of a massive ship; but more often than not these shapes are in the form of bizarre creatures. When a cloud gains a face or a creature's shape, it gains a new sentience and awareness that lasts for as long as its new form does. Generally, the cloud colossi are indifferent to creatures that climb atop them or swim inside them, but particularly irksome travelers are removed with a slow inevitability or simply flicked off if they are too much trouble.
In order to traverse these cloudy features, one needs simply a strong enough will, or at least a good focus and specialized equipment. It's often recommended, like with all new and unusual expedition, that travelers take a guide.
Thankfully the Sjonderwold is full of small communities atop ridgelines that form the ideal launching point for both sailing and climbing clouds, and these communities are also convenient places to acquire the necessary equipment. The larger communities, and those most strategically located, often develop into hubs for trade and travel, although their precipitous geography means expansion requires steep and careful terracing. Other communities form on particularly large cloud formations, although extreme care must be taken to ensure that their foundations do not disperse and cause calamity.
These communities, whether on the clouds or as beachheads, form in all clan territories, although they are most numerous in Owl lands due to the preponderance of clouds formations that are created there. Each clan tends to find different uses for cloud formations: Bear like to capture small rafts to use in their raiding, Owl like to establish small free-drifting huts and towers, and Elk use both clouds and the creatures within to run even freer than their brethren on the ground.
The Raven clan, as might be expected, were amongst the first to use the cloud-formations. They were pioneers in techniques to capture and shape clouds, and in taming the creatures that roamed within. The Raven also pioneered stringing clouds together into long, wispy paths that stretched from peak to peak, taking advantage of the magical atmosphere that protected cloud-formations to sprint across otherwise impassable terrain.
Even the Wolf clan finds use for the cloud-formations. Smaller cloud-beasts are caught and trained to serve as scouts, and roving cloud-forts act as points of observation, advance warning watchposts, and the first line of defense against possible incursion from the air. The main Wolf homeland is surrounded by towering and imposing thundercloud citadels which serve as both chilling deterrence and ominous reminder of the strength of the Wolf jarls.
In other worlds, when someone views tremendous masses of clouds from a distance, the viewer could be forgiven for thinking that they gaze upon a far-off range of mountains of a colossal scale. In the Sjonderwold, those mountains are real, tangible, and climbable - and sometimes, even host to unusual types of life.
By the same measure, when someone of another world looks down from a ridge into a valley and sees it transformed into a fjord of mist and fog, they would not expect to be able to sail a boat across that fjord or pull strange fish from its waters. In the Sjonderwold, entire communities grow and thrive on that very practice.
Origins and Species
Most believe cloud formations to originate in the numerous steaming waterfalls that pepper the border between the lands of the Owl and Dragon. While that is certainly where clouds form in great abundance and with great regularity, in truth magical tangibility comes to any cloud and fogbank of appropriate size.
Adventurous types often like to explore these tangible features, whether climbing to their peaks or swimming to their depths. The same magic that keeps cloud-mountains solid enough to climb or sail across also keeps them breathable, so indulgers of whimsy do not perish because of their ambition. This magic does not make traversal any easier, however, so crevasses and ridge on cloud-mountains and currents in cloud-seas still must be overcome with skill and preparation.
Cloud-Creatures
As one might expect for new natural habitats, cloud-mountains and cloud-seas are home to unique and unusual wildlife. Most travelers of these features report seeing massive fish-like creatures in both cloud-mountains and cloud-seas, swimming and hunting not unlike large grouper. Wispier cloud formations are often home to effervescent eels that seem to dance in and out of the clouds along rainbow trails. Strange, lithe, six-limbed creatures gallop or swim just on the edge of sight, and lucky travelers can sometimes cajole them into granting them an unforgettable ride.
Encounters with these cloudy creatures are unnerving for inexperienced travelers, and injuries or death occur just as much from climbers or sailors reacting in surprise as from injuries at the teeth and claws of the startled or aggravated beasts.
Cloud Colossi
Stranger still are the animations that the cloud formations undergo. Like all clouds, they shift in response to winds and other atmospheric conditions, although thankfully the magic that makes these clouds survivable keeps their motions slow enough for travelers to adapt.
Most bizarre is when the clouds take specific shapes, often only apparent to viewers from a certain angle and moment. Quick cloud-shapers can capitalize on useful shapes, trapping a cloud in the form of a massive ship; but more often than not these shapes are in the form of bizarre creatures. When a cloud gains a face or a creature's shape, it gains a new sentience and awareness that lasts for as long as its new form does. Generally, the cloud colossi are indifferent to creatures that climb atop them or swim inside them, but particularly irksome travelers are removed with a slow inevitability or simply flicked off if they are too much trouble.
Life on the Clouds
In order to traverse these cloudy features, one needs simply a strong enough will, or at least a good focus and specialized equipment. It's often recommended, like with all new and unusual expedition, that travelers take a guide.
Thankfully the Sjonderwold is full of small communities atop ridgelines that form the ideal launching point for both sailing and climbing clouds, and these communities are also convenient places to acquire the necessary equipment. The larger communities, and those most strategically located, often develop into hubs for trade and travel, although their precipitous geography means expansion requires steep and careful terracing. Other communities form on particularly large cloud formations, although extreme care must be taken to ensure that their foundations do not disperse and cause calamity.
These communities, whether on the clouds or as beachheads, form in all clan territories, although they are most numerous in Owl lands due to the preponderance of clouds formations that are created there. Each clan tends to find different uses for cloud formations: Bear like to capture small rafts to use in their raiding, Owl like to establish small free-drifting huts and towers, and Elk use both clouds and the creatures within to run even freer than their brethren on the ground.
The Raven clan, as might be expected, were amongst the first to use the cloud-formations. They were pioneers in techniques to capture and shape clouds, and in taming the creatures that roamed within. The Raven also pioneered stringing clouds together into long, wispy paths that stretched from peak to peak, taking advantage of the magical atmosphere that protected cloud-formations to sprint across otherwise impassable terrain.
Even the Wolf clan finds use for the cloud-formations. Smaller cloud-beasts are caught and trained to serve as scouts, and roving cloud-forts act as points of observation, advance warning watchposts, and the first line of defense against possible incursion from the air. The main Wolf homeland is surrounded by towering and imposing thundercloud citadels which serve as both chilling deterrence and ominous reminder of the strength of the Wolf jarls.
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