Flying Islands
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From the Anglehill Geological Museum
The Flying Islands rest above the clouds of Valtena hidden away from view and part of their own ecosystem and world. They were created by levitation crystals which formed deep underground until the clusters became too large and pulled the earth out of the ground. Now, the islands are home to Halflings who are well suited to living in the extreme environment and have reached unparalleled advancement.
Geography
While each island can be seen as its own geographic location, the halflings have roughly grouped them based on similar appearances and speculated time frame for appearing. Islands belonging to different groups can end up next to each other.The Black Islands
The Black Islands were the first islands to be colonized and hold distant records of the first people to survive the initial event. They are known for having rich black soil that's ideal for farming. They have largely escaped the worst consequences of conquest and are run as independent islands-states. The islands tend to be the furthest away from the rest, and the many cycles of raising and lowering have started to cause the edges to crumble.The Grey Hills
The Grey Hills are known for having rocky hills and small mountains on them. They often sit slightly higher than the rest of the islands due to the large concentration of crystal deposits and other valuable ores. The kings who rule the islands live more like dwarves in underground halls. They tend to be insular and rarely stray far except when other islands float too close.The Northern Islands
The Northern Islands are poorly named, but they were first discovered during the coldest parts of the year. They are the least densely populated with multiple city states existing on the island with regular conflicts between one another. The land is modestly fertile, and they mostly rely on hunting and animal husbandry to survive. Notable, there are very few trees on the islands.The Southern Isles
The Southern Isles are known for their forests of Cloud Pine and being places of technological advancement and innovation. Most often, when people encounter halflings on the ground, they're from the Southern Isles. The land is poor for farming, and out of all the groups, they rely on hunting in the skies the most. They are also among the most aggressive being able to send ships out far and wide in search of more resources.The Emerald Isles
The Emerald Isles are rich in resources. They are known as the bounty of the skies for the vibrant Floating Reeds and ponds and lakes that coat the islands. Water is rarely a problem for them, and the islands are also among the newest to end up in the sky. The halflings who live there tend to be a bit taller than the rest. Cross Island is the largest and divided into four kingdoms, but most of the other islands are only able to hold one or two nations.Climate
The weather on the Flying Islands is very consistent. It's sunny everyday, and it's always cool and breezy. It never rains except when the islands are below the cloud layer. Due to this, many industries rely on the lack of rain and consistent sunlight. The seasons are marked by changes in temperature with winters becoming frigid. It doesn't snow, but the intense cold is enough to kill anything that isn't suitably adapted to it. Storms pass underneath the islands. Also, the islands move according to the wind currents. They are often subject to moving between seasons as the winds dictate. The halflings rarely have any idea where they are relative to the rest of the continent.Flora & Fauna
In the Skies
The halflings report strange fauna that only live above the clouds. Sky Rays and Sky Whales are the most striking creatures in the skies. There's also Rocs, massive eagles that hunt other large fauna. Skyfire Beetles light up the night sky, and Shimmerflies flit from island to island in search of plants to feed from. Some of the plants have also learned to live entirely in the air and collect water through condensation. Lantern Lilies are known for their petals curling to form a lantern shape, and trace amounts of levitation crystals absorbed from the ground help keep them aloft.On the Isles
The islands themselves are mostly grassy plains and hills. There are only a few forests of Feather Willows and Cloud Pine that can survive such extreme temperatures. The halflings have also managed to domesticate variants of more common livestock such as cows and pigs. They have tamed Zephyrfoxes as pets which otherwise hunt and play among the hills. Grey bison are one of the common wild herbivores who live on the plains. They are hunted by Runner Lions who have elongated fangs. Many species of flowers also manage to grow on the islands giving it a vibrant hue in the spring and summer.History
The First Islands
It's unclear exactly when the first islands appeared. In many cases, those who lived on the surface didn't survive the islands suddenly being ripped from the ground. The dwarves and deep elves were the first to be able to survive such harsh conditions. Other races sometimes ended up there, too. But at first, everyone was scattered. It was alarming to end up in a strange and new environment. Many died shortly after due to the sudden cold and much thinner air. Those who survived were able to form small bands to try and survive against new monsters in the sky. No one knows exactly where they came from either. Only that creatures would stalk them at night. The islands appeared, and some crumbled and fell away. This was all before proper recorded history, so we don't know too much about it. It might have lasted hundreds of years, maybe even longer.
Discovering the Cycle
For many years, we didn't know why it wouldn't rain only that it didn't. The only water we have available was what we could save from each new island. It was a time of great famine and hardship for the people, and there was often a great deal of infighting between any groups that appeared. Most wouldn't even survive long enough to raise children, and what children were born rarely lived until adulthood. Our numbers were few and scattered trying to make a living as best we could in these trying conditions. The dwarves were the first ones to discover the levitation crystals growing just beneath the surface of the islands. When freed, the crystals kept floating upwards, and with nothing to hold them down, they shot up and vanished faster than anyone could blink. At first, they just tried to clear the crystals as best they could. Until one of them, the great inventor Makun discovered that the crystals could be embedded into things to make them float or be weightless. He was the first one to posit that his small scale experiments could be applied to the islands themselves. Silverhain was the name given to the island he lived on, and he presented his idea to the leaders that they could sink their islands maybe not all the way to the ground, but low enough to the ocean so that they could collect more water and filter it. The elders were desperate to save their clan and agreed to his idea. Everyone began working on harvesting the crystals saving as many as they could for further experiments and letting many more vanish into the skies above them. The first five years appeared to have no progress. Makun was seen as a failure in his efforts. But he insisted that it would just take time. Shaving a crystal that was only holding a small weight was one thing. They were trying to sink the entire island. In the seventh year, Makun fell gravely ill. The dwarves were able to continue harvesting some of their plants underground to sustain themselves, but food and water was still a major concern. Until one day, the island shook. It tilted to one side with the side that they were mining being visibly lower than the rest of the island. In that moment, Makun became a hero. There was merit to his plan after all! The leaders demanded that they work on mining the other side of the island to balance out of the density of the levitation crystals. A few miners stayed to continue chipping away and making sure that the crystals didn't grow back. In the fifteenth year, parts of the island were at the cloud layer. Makun died from his illness, but his work had inspired many more to continue his legacy. The dwarves kept mining until at long last, they were able to sink the island beneath the cloud layer. At first, they didn't know how far they'd have to go to reach the ocean, but a few days later, the skies opened up, and for the first time, they felt rain. Real rain from the clouds that filled their cups and barrels. The dwarves continued to mine until they saw land and water beneath them. They were nowhere near the ocean, but they could see the rest of the world from which they had been separated for so long. Determined to share their success with the other dwarven clans, the leaders agreed to halt mining to allow the crystals to regrow. Sharing the knowledge of how to survive would undoubtedly give them power and fame. It took centuries for the island to once again rise above the clouds, and the news spread of their success.
Taming the Skies
Once the dwarves were able to live on the islands by raising and sinking them to continue to have water, more species were also able to survive on the islands. Humans and elves who miraculously survived joined the ranks, and with no other options, they married each other. Over time, us halflings came to be as their offspring. We were born adapted to the thin air and thick hair to withstand the cold. And we learned to thrive. Inventors began experimenting with what the crystals could do, and animal tamers went out into the wilderness to tame wild beasts. The skies remained dangerous, but people learned how to build small boats capable of floating and utilizing the wind currents to their advantage. And in time, we built Sky Ships. Some even learned how to build their homes above ground leaving more room for farming and pastures. Villages and towns sprang up, and we were able to live more permanently on the surface and dig deep reservoirs to fill each time the islands sank low enough to collect rain. But with these more permanent settlements, there were politics and rivalries. It was rare for anyone to encounter a real war. At most, there were skirmishes when two settlements got too close to one another and couldn't get along. But up here where cooperation is a necessary part of survival, those skirmishes were rare. The number of new islands with inhabitants seemed to dwindle over the centuries, too. More and more people were born and died on the islands, and they had no memory of the ground below. We learned to perfect mining the crystals and sinking the islands more evenly. We also developed the anchors and elevators used to trade with the people on the ground when we periodically ran into them. Sinking the islands over the ocean was preferred, however. The salt water could be harvested freely, and once the salt and water were separated from one another, we had plenty to last us for years. The invention and development of the sky ships also radically changed how we interacted with the sky. Suddenly, all the monsters that once harassed people could be hunted. Even more creatures became apparent as they typically avoided the islands and lived out among the clouds. It was incredible what kind of ecosystem existed up here that couldn't survive anywhere else. Scientists were common trying to explore and document everything they could find. Truly, there was a Golden Age for us as we became masters of our own world. Taming the Skyrunners and Cloudhoppers opened up possibilities of inter-island travel to even more people. Our lives were peaceful and adventurous, as halflings, many of the best tales come from this time.
Recent History
More recently, cities were built as bastions of innovation. The cities are few and far between, but with them, some governments began to claim ownership of entire islands. They became more like the kingdoms of the ground that philosophers and scholars of old tried so hard to warn against. Ruckers became pirates and thrived on the freedom of the skies. The world isn't so peaceful now as it once was. There are still pockets of quiet where the only thing that matters is a love of the land and wind. But those places are dwindling as armies raid and conquer. Claiming islands is now up for fierce competition. The first to discover gets to claim it, and some island countries send out scouting parties to find new islands and capture new islands from anyone else. No one is sure exactly what caused this change. It seems most likely that it was gradual as our success meant that numbers of halflings grew. The levitation crystals could make people rich on the ground, so saving every last one to sell became of great importance. But there are other rumors. Some of the whales seem more crazed than they used to. The cats that prowl the plains are more aggressive than before. Perhaps the balance of the world is off like an island mined only on one side. It tips and is unstable until enough weight is lifted from the other side to balance them out.
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