Shatterock Caldera

Shatterrock Caldera
Danger: Varies

A long time ago, a super-volcano south of the akaptor desert erupted, and a huge chunk of land dropped down to form a massive caldera. Some elements of Eidoron were lightly scattered throughout the region. However, the massive pressure, heat and the innate magic of Felarya caused an unnatural mineral to be formed. This mineral hovers at a constant level, the former ground level of the land before the eruption.

This mineral, called Lydronite is the reason for the floating islands that characterise the Shatterock Caldera. Lydronite can support only so much weight, so not all the islands are at the same height. The top of the islands are relativley flat, and have a modest scattering of forests. However, down below in the caldera itself the forest is much thicker and home to many abyssal creatures and other horrors.

Humans and human-size nagas live on the Lydronite Islands and have done so for a very long time. In the last 150 years an increase in predation by the many flying predators that live in the area has caused them to set aside their differences out of neccessity and ally themselves against the common foe. This alliance has been benificial for both races, pooling their resources has allowed them to do things that they wouldn't have been able to do on their own.

The inhabitants of the islands call people in their same generation by "brother and sister," respective to gender. This makes them feel a closer bond to one another.
All children who show some magical talent are taken to be trained as mages at a young age. They are, of course given prividges sincethey are essential for many things.
Not everyone is a mage, so everybody, naga and human is given crossbow or longbow training, as they are expected to help defend the island if a harpy gets to cocky.
Those who show proficiency in either weapon are usualy given jobs on the defense decks of the Shatterrock Airships.

The nagas and humans have dug into the floating rock to create their homes and used the rock dug up to build structures above ground However, they make sure not to dig through the precious Lydronite keeping their "island" floating.
Travel between the 3 inhabited islands is facilitated by a vehicle unique to the Shatterrock Caldera.
These vehicles, known as Shatterrock Airships are made from single huge rock that is carefully quarried from a lydronite island. The non-lydronite insides of the rock are then hollowed out. Wooden "decks" are then added to the stern. These decks are where most of the acticity in the ship takes place. Sails are attached to the 4 sides of the rock and are maintained from these decks. The decks are not open to the air, the top most being armoured with slits for crossbowmen, archers and pikemen. Some airships even have a small catapult for throwing a scatter of rocks at incoming harpies. The maximum 20 passengers or equivalent cargo reside in the hollowed out parts of the rock. The crew also sleep here, in the parts closest to the decks. The crew of a Shatterrock Airship consists of nagas and humans and one wind-mage. An extra wind mage may accompany them if the trip will be especially long or if haste is required.

Since Lydronite hovers at a constant level, the mages have developed spells for controlling the unique effect. A good mage will be able to quicky change the height of an airship. However, it is possible for the mages to tire, as they must provide steering wind well as controlling height. The mage usually resides at the bow of the airship and controls the height and wind from a well protected viewpoint. Harpies and other airbourne predators will try to "sink" the airship by landing on it and slowing or even weighing it down so it "sinks."
However, the defense deck is usually able to deter them.

For food and water, the lydronians rely on their rain (which falls quite frequentl), and runed chambers that can filter and recycle water. There are also pools of water throughout the islands, and since this area was once a massive supervolcano, the land is quite fertile, allowing lots of food to be grown and farmed. Potatoes, and various plants and trees are used for fruits and veggies.
___________________


I also edited the top a bit. This is to make a floating mineral that is derived a little bit from Eidoron, just like how different metals on the periodic table are all related in some way.

I like this idea. Floating islands, airships... It's like you read my mind and looked for things I love.

I was in the chatbox for most of place's development, and I must say, it seems very solid. I'd love to see this go far :3

Thanks. Anime-Junkie helped me develop the ideas a little more specifically. I want this to sound as felarya-like as possible, so any other advice will help ^^

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Thanks. Anime-Junkie helped me develop the ideas a little more specifically. I want this to sound as felarya-like as possible, so any other advice will help ^^

"little more?"
I thought I did a bit more than a little.

yeah you got the specifics down pretty well. i knew what i wanted, but it was you who developed the ships, and idea for the volcano.

This is interesting and really well thought off
The idea of floating islands as always been fascinating I think ^^
But I wonder how big exactly the islands are ? and what means does the inabitants have to feed themselves and drink ?

The islands are pretty massive. I can't really give a definite size to them, but they would be big enough to grow food underground, and even some in the structures above grounds. This area is also pretty populated with flying creatures, so they could even catch some of the smaller ones. I think an important part of their culture would be to figure that out, invent new ways of making food more efficiently, and spending lots of time gathering it, via traps or anything they could think of.

At least thats what I had in mind.

Here's a solution to the food problem:

Volcanic areas are usually very fertile because volcanic ash breaks down into trace minerals and other things that plants require.
Since The Caldera was once a huge supervolcano, the soil there would be very fertile. to tops of the Lydronite Islands and the caldera floor would have been coated in the volcanic ash and debris from the eruption, I don't think they'd have a problem growing food.
(Also, I got the idea that the Islands were pretty big, at least big enough to farm part of the surface on some of them).

definately, the islands are pretty massive, and the two cities/villages on the largest rocks would small, or at least somewhat small. Finding enough food wouldn't be a problem if they really tried. I'm sure over the many hundreds of years either race have invented little ways of getting food here and there.

This is a very interesting idea. I may just use it in a story... that is if you don't mind Arch. But anyhow, how exactly would they get water? I think I may have a suggeestion to fix this problem... so from what I've read the Lydronite Islands are decently sized so I think maybe they'd dig out areas of ground and perform some kind of rain dance to get rain going and then the rain water pools in those areas creating artificial ponds. Just an idea.

sure. also you could have special rooms filled with runes that extract the water from the air when it gets sucked in front the outside, magically creating the water, On top of that it could rain on the outside every so often, or get it via some weird recycling method. Theres a bunch of things you can think of.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

definately, the islands are pretty massive, and the two cities/villages on the largest rocks would small, or at least somewhat small. Finding enough food wouldn't be a problem if they really tried. I'm sure over the many hundreds of years either race have invented little ways of getting food here and there.

Potatoes. They grow anywhere and produce lots of food per acre. They're also delicious.

SuperPieGuy9 wrote:

This is a very interesting idea. I may just use it in a story... that is if you don't mind Arch. But anyhow, how exactly would they get water? I think I may have a suggeestion to fix this problem... so from what I've read the Lydronite Islands are decently sized so I think maybe they'd dig out areas of ground and perform some kind of rain dance to get rain going and then the rain water pools in those areas creating artificial ponds. Just an idea.

Water from a naturally occurring aquifer? Perhaps one or more of the islands is large enough to have a buried ancient volcanic crater on it's top.

That is, before they islands started flying around they were part of the ground. An ancient volcano created a crater on top of what would eventually become one of the islands. This volcano went extinct, but it's crater, and the crater's relatively waterproof floor, remained. Over the centuries nearby volcanos, and natural errosion, filled the crater with gravel, sand, and other relatively loosely packed rocks. When it rains, water trickles down through this filler to the bottom of the crater, but can't leave because the bottom and sides of the crater are relatively waterproof; thus the gravel and sand filled crater has become an aquifer. Some time after the crater was filled, the islands began to levitate, carrying the crater aquifer into the sky with it. So long as water doesn't leave the aquifer faster than rain puts it back in, the aquifer will never go dry.

This also give a possible source for waterfalls (though they would probably be more like water seeps than water falls); If the water level inside the aquifer reaches the top of the water-resistant crater walls, it will begin to "overflow", and probably flow through the ground to the edge of the island and then fall off.

Oldman40k2003 wrote:

Archmage_Bael wrote:

definately, the islands are pretty massive, and the two cities/villages on the largest rocks would small, or at least somewhat small. Finding enough food wouldn't be a problem if they really tried. I'm sure over the many hundreds of years either race have invented little ways of getting food here and there.

Potatoes. They grow anywhere and produce lots of food per acre. They're also delicious.

Indeed, an excellent solution. Chips for everyone.

Oldman40k2003 wrote:

SuperPieGuy9 wrote:

This is a very interesting idea. I may just use it in a story... that is if you don't mind Arch. But anyhow, how exactly would they get water? I think I may have a suggeestion to fix this problem... so from what I've read the Lydronite Islands are decently sized so I think maybe they'd dig out areas of ground and perform some kind of rain dance to get rain going and then the rain water pools in those areas creating artificial ponds. Just an idea.

Water from a naturally occurring aquifer? Perhaps one or more of the islands is large enough to have a buried ancient volcanic crater on it's top.

That is, before they islands started flying around they were part of the ground. An ancient volcano created a crater on top of what would eventually become one of the islands. This volcano went extinct, but it's crater, and the crater's relatively waterproof floor, remained. Over the centuries nearby volcanos, and natural errosion, filled the crater with gravel, sand, and other relatively loosely packed rocks. When it rains, water trickles down through this filler to the bottom of the crater, but can't leave because the bottom and sides of the crater are relatively waterproof; thus the gravel and sand filled crater has become an aquifer. Some time after the crater was filled, the islands began to levitate, carrying the crater aquifer into the sky with it. So long as water doesn't leave the aquifer faster than rain puts it back in, the aquifer will never go dry.

This also give a possible source for waterfalls (though they would probably be more like water seeps than water falls); If the water level inside the aquifer reaches the top of the water-resistant crater walls, it will begin to "overflow", and probably flow through the ground to the edge of the island and then fall off.

Supervolcanos also vent from time to time before they have their final eruption. So I'd imagine that quite a few of the islands would have small craters in them (and some not so small).
I'd imagine the water would also seep down the empty magma tubes that lead to the crater. So there would be quite a lot of water stored there.

well like I said, there's lots of things you can think of.

Is there anything else that I might be missing here to make this place better?

Okay as Oldman and Animejunkie said there could just be natural resevoirs of water on the islands but... they have to run out eventually. And when they do I'll bet they try what I suggested.

SuperPieGuy9 wrote:

Okay as Oldman and Animejunkie said there could just be natural resevoirs of water on the islands but... they have to run out eventually. And when they do I'll bet they try what I suggested.

They get replenished by rain. There's a massive forest in the caldera and a lot of the islands are forested. I'd imagine it rain's quite a bit there.

I edited the region to put in the water and food gathering as a small paragraph at the bottom. I think its important, but I also dont want to focus on every little detail a great bit.

I like it. If anything I'd try and concentrate on the backstory more, how the civilizations first got there in the first place and what convinced them to stay. For that matter it could make for a very eye-catching dynamic if this floating element was abundant enough so that samples of it could be taken and used. Think of it for a minute- a material that manipulates gravity. Let magic and/or technology play with that a little and suddenly all sorts of amazing things can happen. For building and society it would mean that which way is up doesn't matter any more. Cities could end up looking like M.C. Escher drawings thanks to localized gravity wells being made so that more buildings can fit in awkward spaces. Add a little to your shoes and people can merrily float around like men on the moon (which will be very useful if their cities are hanging from the bottom of the islands). And don't even get me started on what it could do for their defenses. Focus gravity to a single point and you could hurl projectiles like a railgun.

Mickilla wrote:

I like it. If anything I'd try and concentrate on the backstory more, how the civilizations first got there in the first place and what convinced them to stay. For that matter it could make for a very eye-catching dynamic if this floating element was abundant enough so that samples of it could be taken and used. Think of it for a minute- a material that manipulates gravity. Let magic and/or technology play with that a little and suddenly all sorts of amazing things can happen. For building and society it would mean that which way is up doesn't matter any more. Cities could end up looking like M.C. Escher drawings thanks to localized gravity wells being made so that more buildings can fit in awkward spaces. Add a little to your shoes and people can merrily float around like men on the moon (which will be very useful if their cities are hanging from the bottom of the islands). And don't even get me started on what it could do for their defenses. Focus gravity to a single point and you could hurl projectiles like a railgun.

Interesting ideas, but the material doesn't have that much manipulation power. The Airship-Fortresses are already pretty tough anyway.

Lydronians:

Originated from Master "Elziya Dreau" for his theory that a magic mineral is keeping the giant rocks afloat.

Lydronians don't view time the same way most do. To them, time is an immovable, ever present existence, and therefore phrases such as "stealing time" or "killing time" can not possibly exist to them. Likewise, their past conflicts with their ex-rival nagas, and dwelling in caves have resulted in the off-balance of sleep schedules. They sleep when tired, and wake up when rested. Also, because of this unspoken tradition there will always be people awake and asleep at any given point in the day to look over the gardens, or gather food.

Lydronians always call people of the same generation as them "brother" or "sister" this keeps friendship, and a close family-like feeling amongst each other. Young people will often take up the sport of night-hunting. Overcoming the challenging felaryan night is highly respected amongst their people, and the teens will often do this activity for bragging rights to other groups of friends. Due to their close bond with other people in their same generation, there are little to no conflicts or violent outbreaks amongst each other. The exception being the occasional trouble maker.

Terminology for plants and food often lack description under the view that it all becomes the same mush in their stomach in the end, and therefore isn't as important as a lasting object, like a bow, sword, or magic staff.

For a Lydronian to become an adult, they must perform what is known as an Act on an Adult. There is no set definition for an Act. Any act of sufficient courage, heroism or daring that is deemed to be an Act by general consensus is sufficient (although the elders can overrule).
Of course, children who want to become adults often go out seeking opportunity to do an act of an adult. Many opportunities for heroism and bravery arise from defending airships, so enlisting as part of the crew would be a popular way to become an adult.
Air Port guards (and also normal guards and airship crew) also have opportunity for this. Even if they do not perform a single act, valiantly defending the port multiple times can be considered criteria for adulthood.

They have a council of elders that discuss important matters of various kinds, similar to that of any normal government. There are 7 council members, 3 of which must be awake at all times. If a dispute occurs there must be an odd number of members awake to quell the dispute with a majority vote amongst themselves.

When time comes to mate, the two lovers who decide to marry will get together for a special rite. This rite involves the male painting a small special symbol onto the skin just above the female's vagina. Mages will often paint a rune of fertility to assure a healthy baby. The vagina is the symbol for birth, and therefore recognized as important. Due to the recognition of sexuality, they are very relaxed about it. This is partly influenced from the nagas who tend to slither around naked.
_____________________

Thoughts?

Descriptive enough, it looks pretty good. although I'm no expert in the subject myself

I have a question about the Airships

Quote :

Since Lydronite hovers at a constant level, the mages have developed spells for controlling the unique effect. A good mage will be able to quicky change the height of an airship. However, it is possible for the mages to tire, as they must provide steering wind well as controlling height. The mage usually resides at the bow of the airship and controls the height and wind from a well protected viewpoint. Harpies and other airbourne predators will try to "sink" the airship by landing on it and slowing or even weighing it down so it "sinks."

How do the spells affect the hieght? Is it "tricking" the material somehow to believe it's original height is different to ascend and descend (sorry I can't phrase that better, but this method would make me believe that with enough power, you would have no maximum height restriction), or is it affecting the strength of it, weakening it to descend and restoring it to ascend to its normal height? (which would make the original height it's maximum)

Uhm, it's been a while since I spoke about this aspect with AJ, I think it was more of the first one, tricking the lydronite I think with a spell that exerted pressure and relieved it. Though I'm not entirely sure, I'd have to go find my theories again ^^;