The Sky Seas (like "high seas" - get it?)
Summary
The Sky Seas refer to the 7 cloud layers above the surface of the world. In the first layer, static air currents drive trade routes and the migration of the floating Dwarven Thaigs. Between these air currents are comparatively static 'seas' of clouds that can be cut-across for quicker travel and exploration. Above the Second Layer, winds are more unpredictable and larger wild creatures exist. As higher altitudes are harder to reach (requiring more Aether or hasher compacting) they are less explored and more wild. "burgs" are chunks of rock that fall from the sky like shooting stars (specialized crystal (infrared) telescopes can see the heat from falling burgs)). Burgs fall from the Thermomare (where they form from elemental forces) down into the Tropomare (the 7 layers) where they cool and reach buoyancy. Some other burgs fall from the Ultimare (unconfirmed, but recent evidence really points to this), which feature plants/foliage and occasional relics of an existing or former civilization. Each of the 4 cardinal directions 'loop' but there is apparently an unending amount of sky above (though requiring exponentially more aether to reach higher altitudes) from which these burgs fall. or rather, it isn't unending, but the Ultimare is HUGE and the stuff above that is uncharted.Encounters
Threats to travelStructure
- thermomare (thermosphere, where the molten burgs fall from)
- meteomare (mesosphere - burgs fall through it)
- uncharted cloud sea "ultimare" (stratosphere - where El Dorado (called Thule) is. very few ships can reach this)
- strato 7 / layer 7
- strato 6 / layer 6
- strato 5 / layer 5 (difficult to reach. for most ships, only possible for short stints) FAST. (cirrus clouds) ~ 2 mile altitude line.
- strato 4 / layer 4 (limits of typical altitude for most ships)
- strato 3 / layer 3 raise into for maneuvers. ~ 1 mile altitude line
- strato 2 / layer 2 typical travel?. the Thaigs - the standing currents, which get to 60% of Strato5 speed.
- Casadoro hangs at the division between layer 1 and layer 2. strato 1 / layer 1 can drop down. very slow. essentially 'anchored' depth.
NEED to define where the currents are. originally i had that in layer 2, but should it be layer 1? maybe layer 1 is the stuff that's truly visible from the ground. layer 2 is specks. on thaigs: crabs. snakes with wings like coatls. lairs of tigriffons etc.
Useful Etymology for further naming
"strato-" means layer, so we could do "stratus 1, stratus 2, etc"
"pelagic" means the open sea.
"mare" means sea
Fauna
Fauna
Monsters
* Kraken [layers ?-?] tentacled creatures that live in a 'shell' made of cloud. visually imagine the hellboy stuff of those gods reaching out of their prisons. they move like a single dark cloud and reach out with tentacles to attack ships. makes dark clouds scary in a "Nope" way.food
ocean transplants
mantas. can change their patterning (from below) to look like a cloudy sky.
big predators
skill predators
flocking scavengers
. a bite will kill you and cause a lycaena to grow and burst out of your corpse
other
sphinx? [layers ?-?] -should move to desert probably? Albatross?
belongs on another page guyver invention: Crystal eyeglasses filter clouds and see through them provided the air is still - they require 'focusing' to account for the amount of vapor, which changes in turbulent airs.
Ecosystem
expand:
burgs fall into the 'tropomare' layers where they cool and find buyoancy. Scalatoran companies retreive them, mine them for useful minerals and repurpose the mass as extensions to a Thaig for landmass. This process (along with natural processes and the behavior of <skywhales> releases aether into the atmosphere. This aether is used by some species to fly, and other species feed off them. (there's a recent environmental tension where the aether needed for scalatoran ships are reducing the supply available for the animals they use as food).
Natural Resources
(populate once dwarven metals are worked out)
Type
Sea
Contested By
