The Campaign Builder's Guild

Warning: Not exceptionally coherent! Read at your own risk! May cause scurvy, insomnia, and boils.

I've been bouncing around a couple of ideas for a world that is almost in the inverse of ours. Basically, the continental sized land masses would be free floating in the sky, orbiting around a core. The only real 'night' would be when the continents orbits would line up. As you get farther away from the core, it would get damper and damper, until fog gave way to the Deeps, the waters beyond the skies. I kind of liked the idea of skyships, so I built a world for them.

This world would essentially be one huge doodle-patchwork of ideas, as it gives me an absolute ton of space. It would have a very fragmented feel, I think, just by its nature.

The way I'm seeing it right now, the various continents with skyship technology would be in colonial mode, kind of like Europe in the 1490's to 1700's. Plus it would be really easy to pull in really exotic locals if I ever do run a campaign in it. It also provides a lot of tension for adventurers to exploit. I think there would have to be a neutral (or illegal) ground where the party could interact with people from other lands, a melting pot and a home-base. The real problem would be that the world is so massive, that it will be hard (read: take a loooong time) to make them stand out as much as I normally make my PC's do.

It would be a High magic setting, just because. I've noticed that the players and I have more fun running the campaign if it's high magic, because then they can get cooler items and spells, and I can use cooler, more exotic monsters. I'm thinking that the Skyships would have bound spirits to guide them through the all the slices, possibly bound to and orrery or something. Which is pretty much how I came up with the tentative name for this setting. I was figuring that most magic in the setting could be broken down into ritual and harmonic. Harmonic relies on using sound waves to manipulate the space-time continuum by way of making the individual strings alter their vibration (fantastically applied string theory). Ritual magic would instead directly fold space time in the higher dimensions by way of chemical compounds, higher mathematics, and a personal connection to the strings. Blasting someone with fire or telepathy is Harmonic, while building a teleportation channel or binding a spirit to an Orrery would be Ritual. This all falls under the heading of Rational Thaumaturgy. Gravity, Electromagnetic energy, the Core, and Spirits are examples of Natural Thaumaturgy, because they are manipulations of the fifth dimension that occur without sentient control.

 [note] I've also noticed a distinct trend for very gritty settings in this forum nowadays, maybe I'll try to break the mould a bit with something so pastiche-y that it can't be taken so seriously.[/note]

Hey, wow! Sometimes pieces of the continents could break off and rain down on the continent behind them! Talk about stone rain, I guess. I wonder how a night world would develop, entirely behind another continent.

That's some of what's running around my head right now. Please tell me what you think! I could really use the input!

Thanks,
~Helix

QuoteBasically, the continental sized land masses would be free floating in the sky, orbiting around a core. The only real 'night' would be when the continents orbits would line up. As you get farther away from the core, it would get damper and damper, until fog gave way to the Deeps, the waters beyond the skies.

YESNESS[/i]

Seriously, this is a very cool arrangement. Where's the sun (or analogous light source), at the "core"? Are all the floating land-chunks three dimensional, roughly-shaped planets? (If so, isn't there a separate night on each one, on the side opposite the light source?)

Orrery is a fantastic name for a setting with this type of geography.

Quote from: Luminous CrayonYESNESS

Seriously, this is a very cool arrangement. Where's the sun (or analogous light source), at the "core"? Are all the floating land-chunks three dimensional, roughly-shaped planets? (If so, isn't there a separate night on each one, on the side opposite the light source?)

Orrery is a fantastic name for a setting with this type of geography.

I was imagining the Core as the Sun, basically. Maybe they would view the Core differently than we would, although I think it would look basically the same as when ours rolls through the sky.

Each land mass was kinda like a piece of one layer of an onion, three dimensional, but quite thin comparatively; maybe only a mile or two thick in most places. Actually, Onionworld was the name I first gave this world in my notes. They would all have separate orbits, some horizontal, some vertical. I don't think there would be stars, since almost all life would have to be on the sides of their layers that faced the core. Although I have to admit that it would be cool to have an adventure fighting The Invasion of Eldritch Horrors from the Dark Side of the Continent. Maybe that could be the underdark of each continent.

Here's an idea for a Casablanca-like location:
 [ic=Purity City]To the skyward eye, it looked like a patchwork continent. On the ground it wasn't much different. On some corners you see Dalen alchemystics, hawking their chemical enlightenment to anyone with enough money. On others you can see the solemn and dour Telemachian Skybreakers leading meditations. Orouni prostitutes, the Goblin Mob, Merchants from even the Xenophobic human nation of Akkun ply their wares to the highest bidder. Kobold riggers brush shoulders to knees with Ogre loaders on the Twenty different Sky Docks in Purity City. Most of the architecture can only be described as ramshackle at best, thrown together by people who didn't know much about how to build things, but in the older sections, you can see the inhabitants are slowly converting their quarters into stonework.

Purity City was originally, twenty years back, a rather little known colony of religious fanatics from the nation of Drakengard, a mixed race nation on the layer of Aelith, composed primarily of humans, gnomes, and gnolls. However, not even a decade ago, it was discovered that the orbit of the small shard of land that the colony was built on was in a very advantageous place for trade, as it passed near all six of the major land masses and many of their colonies. Within a week, a mercantile shanty town had been set up, much to the religious fanatics' displeasure. They'd come this far to get away from the pathetic materialism of society, not to wallow in it. This led to some tensions between the original colonists and the new ones. This problem was solved when the merchants and their muscle basically walling the religious zealots in their own monastic compound after they set fire to half of the new city. They haven't left since, but the original name somehow stuck.

The only thing remotely resembling a government on this heavenly body of a caravan, is the Guild of Merchants, who make money on tariffs mostly, and enforce the trade codes, which notably punishes theft more harshly than murder. The Golden Protectors, the Guild's enforcers are actually for sale by order of their charter, and are quite possibly one of the most corrupt institutions in the sky. Many outlaws, misfits, and adventurers favor Purity City for just this reason. It's easy to find just about whatever or whoever you could possibly need, and you do not necessarily have to suffer the shackles of law, unless you're into that sort of thing. In that case, it's usually reasonably priced.

This also means that crime abounds throughout Purity City. There are innumerable gangs that fight a never-ending war for every inch of turf on that rock, except the Temple Quarter, but no-one knows what goes on in there. The current leaders in the war are Lightning Queens, the Monsters, and the Demaniacs. For every sentient race in Purity, there is an organized crime ring, although, the Goblins and the Sylvans have divided most of the city between them, as well as most of the more illicit industries.

Every religion is represented somewhere on Purity, except in the Temple District. Depending on how hard you look, you can find the Church of the White Night, which worships the Lady of Indulgence and provides mostly free treatment to prostitutes, to the self-cannibalistic witch doctors of the Far Reaches, so narcissistic as to believe that the only thing worth feeding on is themselves, to the hard-nosed Order of the Books of Law I,V, VII, XI, and XXVII, who are in a cold theological war with the Order of the Books of Law II,V,VIII, IX, XXI, and XVI for violations of a Divine Law not even they really understand.
[/ic]

What do you think?

[ooc=On the Order of the Books of Law]I've thinking about changing the name of this to the Church of the Divine Law. I kinda envisioned them as a church of really cold, unemotional lawyers, who are in a massive, centuries long legal battle over who runs the church. There are about a dozen different positions that are suggested. In the world the clergy act as judges/arbitrators, clerks, public defenders, librarians (of various lawbooks and trial records) and pseudo-lawkeepers, with quasi-authority with handling criminals (they can do whatever they want provided they hand over the captured to the local constables, who will take their opinions under advisory). What say you?

Also, the Core would not appear to pass through the sky.  [/ooc]

[ic=Phaethusium, the Radiant City]
Phaethusium is the moon of Emri, and the capital. It was an asteroid from the Deeps that got trapped in the gravity fold that Emri inhabits, and now orbits lengthwise around it. In 1267 LC (Lunar Calendar), Heliarch Euthyphro II of the Irenian Empire, finally had built a successful Skycraft, The Falcon, and after a successful expedition to Phaethusium, decided to build a palace on it. It was named because of the high silica content in the rock that made up the moon, that would reflect and refract rainbows of light across Emri. After about a month of construction, it was discovered that Phaethusium actually rotated slowly, about once every Lunar Calendar; in other words they couldn't build anything because it would fall off  The Calendar was corrected to reflect the new information, and the Thaumaturges began to weave spells of stability. It took then ten years to figure out a way to halt the rotation, using runic wind manipulators and Quartz focussing lenses. Within a year of Heliarch Euthyphro II's arrival on the moon, it was brought up how useful Phaethusium would be as a massive weapons platform. It was the legendary Thaumaturge Macroclese who invented the Crystal Cannon, a weapon that could take the light of a candle, and turn it into a city-destroying weapon of unprecedented destruction. Upon the successful construction of the six primary batteries of Crystal Cannon, Euthyphro II declared war on the rest of the continent, quickly conquering it by destroying every other nation's capitals. His legions of professional soldiers occupied the confused and fearful populace. By the end of his life, Euthyphro II had united Emri under the Pax Phaethusa, declared Phaethusium the capital of his empire, and begun the construction of a colonial fleet.

The City of Phaethusium is one of the most stunning sights in the Orbitals, an entire city made of crystal spires. When the Core's light catches it, rainbows are reflected out across the protective mists that cling to the floating city. They can be difficult to pilot a skycraft through, however, as they confuse the Orrery Spirits' sense of direction. Phaethusium is aptly named, as at noontime, the glare from the various hexagonal buildings can cause momentary blindness. To say that Phaethusium was built is misleading, as it would be accurate to say it was grown. Every building was magically grown and carved out, even the Pallacium, where the Heliarch and his queen, the Lunarch, live and rule over Pax Phaethusa. The  Judiciarchs are the police force of Pax Phaethusa, and rule with an efficient, if merciless fist, particularly within Phaethusium itself. Their Judicial Thaumaturges have the ability to scry through any solid reflective surface, which within Phaethusium is every single building, every single wall, and every single window.

The Religion of Phaethusium is Core-worship, like the rest of Pax Phaethusa. The Heliarch is regarded as the Core's will manifest in a human bloodline, where as his queen, the Lunarch is regarded as the moon's will manifest. Both are the head of their respective priesthoods, and live in the largest temple of their religion, the Pallacium. They are serenaded by a chorus at Coreset, and Corerise (sometimes to their consternation). This is one Coreset and Corerise only have meaning on a moon like Phaethusium. The current Heliarch, Jeremeth IV is considered to be dangerously liberal by some of the elder priests. He is strong supporter of Rational Thaumaturgy, and personally thinks that he's not Core's will manifest (primarily because he doesn't believe the Core has a will). However, he is a ruthless and cunning political player, and has thus far managed to control his and his wife's cults while pushing the boundaries of Pax Phaeuthusa farther than ever before.

The arts flourish, as do the thaumaturgies. The Arcanum Phaethusa is one of the most widely respected centers of learning in the orbital system, having produced some of the finest minds in philosophy, thaumaturgy, and mathematics. This is primarily because of both the Heliarch and the Lunarch's generous budget, as they both recognize the need for a lead in rational thaumaturgical advances.  Painting is almost regarded as a defunct medium within the Pax Phaeuthusa Primus, as most visual artists are channeled into sculpture or Lightbending, making three dimensional holographic images out of light bent through a prism. However, printmaking still thrives, as it is excruciatingly difficult to reproduce the Lightworks, requiring special inks, and the quality is poor.

Society on Phaethusium is separated into the common folk and the two Priesthoods. The Judiciarchs are a civil authority, second to the Heliarch's cult and the Lunarch's cult. Most people in the city are commoners, and in general have very little contact with the priests and priestesses, except on holy days. To most people the Judiciarchs are the face of the Heliarch's regime, and are regarded with a fair bit of fear.
[/ic]

[ic=Timekeeping in Orrery and the Time Wars]
Our life on planet Earth is fraught with cycles, the Solar cycle, the Lunar Cycle, even the stars move. In Orrery, very few readily apparent cycles are available. The Core is stationary in the sky, as the orbital lands do not rotate like a planetoid. [ooc]I need to come up with a better word for this.[/ooc] Day and night are random on the human scale, because the only time there is night is when a orbital land gets in between the Core and your position. There are no stars, as almost all livable land is facing directly towards the Core, the 'lightside' of the Orbital Mass.

The only one available is the Lunar Cycle, which does occur on some Orbitals. Asteroids usually impact the 'nightside' of the Orbitals, but occasionally they get sucked into the gravity fold that houses the Orbital. This makes the asteroid into a moon, and one of the few easily observable cycles. Most calendars run off of a lunar cycle, thus the moon as a symbol is regarded as the keeper of time in most civilized cultures. The only race to develop the idea of time without a moon is the Saprosentients of Belsarius. Their slow pulse is visually recorded on their rootlets which go from a pale yellow to deep sea green depending on how far along in their (in earth time) 12-hour cycle they are.

Once the idea of a 'moon-rise to moon-set" cycle is set, then the rest of the astronomical data can be recorded, and a year can be established. This becomes one of the 'gateways to civilization' as theorized by the philosopher Hallowbeck, the other being access to Skycraft technology. He theorized a third level far beyond anyone's grasp now, called Deepcraft, a civilization capable building a vessel able to withstand the unknown environs of the Deeps, the Waters Behind the Sky. To date, no-one has been able to find a way to even measure the pressure in the Deeps, let alone build a working model for a Deepcraft.

However, because of the difference in calendars on almost every Orbital body, nearly every Skycraft level civilization is at each other's throats over how to tell time. Most diplomatic sessions are set up by a calendar called 'Purity-time' which is based on Purity City's orbital cycle, but that still leads to confusion sometimes, particularly on the Orbitals that are closer to the core. Off and on for the last two hundred years Purity-time, the six major powers, Pax Phaethusa, Belsarius, Dalengard, Telemachos, ol-tec-sim, and Idjku, have either fought directly or through hundreds of proxy wars over which calendar they should use. Both Helicoid and Xebraxas, as lesser powers, are neutral in the Time Wars, as is Purity City. They either lack the resources or the will to force their calendar on others.
[/ic]

[ooc=Flavor of Orrery]
As I edge my way through the creation process, the feel I'm going for is Space Opera meets Lord of the Rings (Spaceships and Sorcery, Sword and Science). This means that setting may come off as campy, humorous, even whimsical at times. Expect a lot of parody of genre tropes in this setting, as I love really playing around with them and twisting them almost beyond recognition. I tend to have a darker sense of humor, so there will be plenty of darkness, but there's also going to be happier bits and lighter sides. However, one of the major conflicts of this world is going to be Colonialism vs Native Inhabitation, which quickly gets very, very ugly. As a political environ, I'm looking at Colonial Europe from 1492-1700, as well as the Cold War era and the beginning years of WWI. I'm also looking at Colonial America and early settlers in Brazil and late Aztec and Mayan cultures. I also suspect that this setting will be the final home for my idea for Mind Flayers having a tribal society.

Also, expect a lot things to be changed very quickly and suddenly, since things are still rather fluid in my head. Sorry about the 'wall of text' update. I'm going to try to draw up some visuals, maybe get a badge together, along with a banner.

[/ooc]

Ooh ohh...I had an idea. Between the light side of the continent and the dark side, there should be a mountain range. This would make it seem like the giant mountains are casting a shadow on the darkside, and there could be some superstition that the mountains were placed there by the gods to seperate the good from the evil.

  Closer to the core there could be some completely flat continents that have no dark side. Perhaps this could be veiwed as fortress's of light, the most holy places in the Orrery.


  Okay, just thought I would get that idea out of the way. Use it or don't, I don't care, its not very good anyway. Anyway, I think this is a really cool setting. I'm having trouble picturing it, however. How big is the Orrery? Like earth size with continent size landmasses orbiting around it? Or solar system size with planet and moon size landmasses floating around it?

 The solar system veiw makes alot more sense to me, but the land masses wouldn't have to be far apart. It would be considered normal to take an airship from one landmass to another to see a family member on a landmass seperated by only ten miles or so, but not to take one far away to the wilds of some jungle landmass.

 In this way you could seperate the safe comfortable feel of local lands from the wild scary places of far away lands, but still staying with the cool floating continent world theme. Unless that's what you're avoiding.

 Another question: How did you picture the backdrop of The Deep? For example, when I look into the sky, what do I see? Just gray water? Perhaps it looks like our skies because of the peculiar coloration of the water? What about at night? Without stars, wouldn't it be extremelly dark?

 Other then those few questions, I think this is a really original, creative and interesting setting.

@Survivorman: Hey! Thanks for the ideas! If you're having trouble visualizing this, don't fret, I'll hopefully have a basic sketch up of Orrery tommorow. Until then, the simplest visual aid I have right now is an onion. Each Orbital continent is a peel of the onion. These peels all orbit around small sun, just like in a solar system, except that unlike planets, these peels don't have an axis to spin on (no north or south), they just orbit around that sun. One side of each peel faces the sun, and it doesn't change, so there is a 'lightside' and 'nightside', a side that never faces the sun.

If you stand on the lightside of the peel, the sun never moves from its position overhead. The only time night would occur would be when something blocks the light of the sun to the peel you stand on.

On the nightside, you would never see the sun.  The only light you would get would be reflected off of the peels beyond you and off of any clouds and mist in the sky.

Along the edges of each peel, there would be rather intense cloud cover, because that's where the greatest temperature change is.

The from either side of the peel the sky would appear much the same as on earth, blue with a lot of clouds in it. There wouldn't be stars, but you could see other nearby peels floating through space. You can't see the Deeps from most peels, and never from a lightside. Basically, imagine that dissected onion suspended in a bubble, and you've got the basic gist of it. The size of the entire system would probably be about a tenth the size of Jupiter, I think. The major pieces are still comparitively close to the sun.

I hope that helped!

>>to the hard-nosed Order of the Books of Law I,V, VII, XI, and XXVII, who are in a cold theological war with the Order of the Books of Law II,V,VIII, IX, XXI, and XVI for violations of a Divine Law

Book V is accepted by both sides of the issue? Or did you mean Book IV for one case, correct?

Why did the orders split? I'll assume each book was written by different people, correct? Do they accept ALL of the text in any one book?

Also, where does Book III and the other omitted ones stand on this issue? Accepted by others?

Sorry for only the tiny nitpick.

I like Purity City; with their theft-over-murder laws, police for sale, obscure religions and strange gang wars.
Phaetusium is a bit too shiny for my personal taste but otherwise fits well. But I don't get it. You mention that things would fall off, and that's why they wanted to stop it rotating, but then they discovered it could be used as a weapons platform and therefore decided to keep it turning so they could put Crystal Guns on it. I thought you would mention that every building in the city is designed so that it works however gravity is oriented (which would be cool), but there is no mention of anything like that, so it makes me wonder what happened to the gravity problem.
Also, how is gravity oriented? You mention the falling off the moon-thing, but you also mention light- and darksides like they can both be travelled which would mean that gravity would be surface-oriented wherever you.
Is the inner nightless shell inhabited?
Do orbiting moons crash into adjacent shells on occasion?
I hope you are going to add some home-made races and not just use the standard ones; it would add a lot to the already exotic feel.

Thank you all for the replies!
@ Light Dragon: Nit picks are still useful. It's not like I have a ton of material up, so the finding the inconsistencies is easier. The way I see it, If a Book has been omitted it either doesn't apply to the legal battle (Book III tells the church how to count up money, basically) or it has been discredited by another two or more Books during the case. The Books of Law have no known authors. The Church of the Divine Law maintains that for a Law to exist, it must be recorded, and thus these mysterious Books of Law are believed to be the recording of the Universal Law, spontaneously generated at the beginning of the universe in every conceivable language. There is some credence to this theory, since the exact same set of books has popped up on continents that couldn't have had any contact with each other. Some posit an 'origin' race that wrote the original Books, but no-one knows for certain.

@Cataclysmic Crow: I like the idea for Purity City too, Narcissistic Witchcraft should be a state religion. I do find it amusing that what amounts to a crystal Death Star is too shiny. On physics, gravity is oriented towards the continent, even on the moons, which created the problem with the axis of Phaethusium: it had one. The continents don't. Consequently, it could still orbit regardless of whether or not it rotated around it's North-South axis. It couldn't be built on if it did because the workers would fall off. The original Crystal Cannon all hang off the bottom and the sides, pointed at their own people, while the newer, mass produced and less precise versions are all on the top.

One idea I had was to actually have layers that traded moons with another layer that passed very, very close to the other in its orbit, giving them half a year of one moon, and half a year of another. I'd imagine that if a moon crashed into another continent, then it wouldn't last very long.

Most civilizations grow on the light side of the shell ('night' come along whenever another large body interposes itself between you and the Core), and most nightsides are believed uninhabited. A couple have been explored, but they tend to be cold, barren, and dangerous. They only get reflected light, bounced off of a nearby slice, once in a while.

One of the homemade races I'm playing around with are the Dendrosentients (I think I called them the Saprosentients in an earlier post) of Belsarius. Basically, think intelligent, active, humanoid trees that talk. They also base their day on their cycle of circulation which produces a gradual color change in their rootlets. They'll call themselves 'Time Keepers' in their own language, I think.

Actually, thinking back to  Survivorman's idea of a dichotic world with all the 'good' people on the lightside and all the 'evil' on the nightside, it could be an interesting religious concept. I'm not sure exactly where I'll use it, but it makes sense to use the nightside of a continent as a sort of Hell.

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for posting in my thread and i like what im seeing here, ill try and pull myself together enough to make a good post in here within the day.

@Light Dragon: After re-reading your post I realize I didn't address why the Church of the Divine Law split. Basically, it's a gigantic legal battle over who is the head honcho over the idea of Divine Law. The problem is: because there are so many contradictory statements as to who runs the show in the two hundred volumes, it's anybody's guess as to who actually leads the Church on any given day. Talk about chaotic, eh?

@Towel Ninja: Thanks! At this point, my ideas are so vague that I need all the help I can get.

Also, I got a quick picture of what the system kinda looks like. It's monochromatic, because I haven't put in any real color yet. No text, either.

Orrery


I was also playing around with some ideas to replace Dragons, because frankly, I'm a little sick of them. Here's one of them.

[ic=Jormagund Wurms]

Hidden in the mists, on the border of the Deeps, titans dwell. We've all heard the tales of the Cloud Leviathan, with its many tentacles, and the nightmarish Golgatha that warps time around its great bulk. Neither of these is the apex predator of that lightless, vicious ecosystem.

By adulthood, the Jormagund Wurm reaches a length of around four miles, it's about four hundred feet thick at its widest. Its sinuous body is covered in massive scales, each about the size of a small skycraft. Fleshy wing-like membranes run from the spiny tail to just below the bony crest that rests on the wurm's head. The head has no eyes, but it does have a set of truly massive jaws, easily able to swallow an Idjku Charnel Barge whole. They are terrifyingly quick, with surprisingly good maneuverability to the point that it destroys what few laws of physics we cannot break with rational thaumaturgy. Their normal speed is somewhere between 30 knots and 45 knots.

Jormagund Wurms are blind. The way they see is through an extra set of nerves, running throughout their bodies, that is designed to pick up on the harmonies of magic. It is theorized that Jormagund Wurms can use these nerves to 'tunnel' through space, but the evidence is inconclusive. It does however, make them incredibly difficult to cast spells on, due to their interference on local 5-dimensional space and time. Orrery Spirits do not set off the Wurms (nor do any sort of summons or bound spirits), thankfully, but any sort of active thaumaturgy will.  So if you do travel into the Shadowed Mists, do not cast spells!
[/ic]

Ok, ill try asking some questions unasked.

What kind of weapons are common? Swords? guns?

How is war handled when say invading a neighboring island? (Do they fly over and attack? Do they have airships fly over head for bomb raids)

What kind of skycraft do they use? The setting paints the picture of the boat style airships. is this far off?

What kind of ocean life is there in the sky? How does gravity work? Can you fall off the edge into the ocean? or can you walk full 360 around the landmass if there was an easy path?

Do the islands have a "rotation" or something that is kind of on a set pattern (I think this might be answered sorry if it is)

What kinda of races of humanoids are there and how many?

Are flying animals common (i would think they would be) Because im seeing alot of flying creatures or atleast the potential value of these creatures. Stuff like Griffons could provide large advantage in war.

Btw i love the description of the Jormagund Wurms!

Another question.... What happens if the land is tethered together? Like one island shooting tons of grappling hooks on the other one?

Quote from: Towel NinjaOk, ill try asking some questions unasked.

Okay, shoot.

Quote from: Towel NinjaWhat kind of weapons are common? Swords? guns?

Swords, crossbows, and other medieval weaponry are the most common In the civilized nations. Most of the arcane methods of creating gun-equivalents are too expensive or are impractical to carry around due to size constraints (Those Crystal Cannons I talked about in Phaethusium? Each one is roughly as big around as a VW bug. Any smaller and the mirror chambers that amplify the light simply don't work). However, there will be various types of magical cannon-like devices on the myriad types of Skycraft. For tech level think 1300 AD if they had access to the ability to bend the laws of physics.

On the wild shards, it's mostly spears, short bows, and other stone age to bronze age weaponry for the most part. Occasionally you'll find a shard that has some rather advanced weaponry, but they usually have no idea how to use it.

-edit- Upon further reflection, I'd actually imagine that wars would be more like revolutionary war era tactics and strategies, with the the crossbow replacing the musket. Enchanted bolts are surprisingly cheap.

Quote from: Towel NinjaHow is war handled when say invading a neighboring island? (Do they fly over and attack? Do they have airships fly over head for bomb raids)

Bombing raids are a common tactic, but since it cannot hold ground, they do have to bring over troops and supplies by skycraft. Once the troops are on the ground, it's just like a medieval war backed up by Golems, Skycraft, Summons, magical animals, enchanted siege weapons, and Wizards.

Quote from: Towel NinjaWhat kind of skycraft do they use? The setting paints the picture of the boat style airships. is this far off?

Nope. There are, in fact, boats that sail through the sky in Orrery. To be honest though, the hulls of the various types of skycraft are unique to who builds them. Most look like the sailing ships without sails or masts, but some are weirder looking.

Quote from: Towel NinjaWhat kind of ocean life is there in the sky?

How does gravity work? Can you fall off the edge into the ocean? or can you walk full 360 around the landmass if there was an easy path?[/quote]

Gravity is a function of the fifth dimensions (the other four are left/right, up/down, forward/backward, less entropy/more entropy (time)). The various land masses create a fold in the space-time fabric, which gives us gravity. This gravity well is strong for about a hundred miles, depending on the size of the layer, and acts to pull objects toward the layer that made it. So if you were traveling fast enough to break out of the gravity well, theoretically you could 'fall' into the deeps, if you missed all of the other continents.

You also could in theory walk all the way around a land mass. Practically, it's a good way to commit suicide because of the crosswinds at the edges of each continent that would blow you around and smash you onto the nightside. Also, even if you managed to get yourself onto the other side, you'd probably freeze to death. That said, four expeditions on different continents tried your idea. Only one made it back with anyone alive. They told tales of an endless waste, snow, blocks of mercury, and cold. It took them a year to transverse it.

Orrery Spirits cheat their way around the escape velocity issue. They move by oscillating the fifth dimension around them, basically creating their own gravity well, and thus why skycraft based around Orrery Spirits (read: all of them) have their own gravity. However, their maneuverability and top speed are limited in a gravity well.

Quote from: Towel NinjaDo the islands have a "rotation" or something that is kind of on a set pattern (I think this might be answered sorry if it is)

They don't have an axis on which to rotate. However, they do orbit the Core, in a manner similar to our Solar System.

Quote from: Towel NinjaWhat kinda of races of humanoids are there and how many?

I'm using most of the traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs, kobolds, and more) and a couple of homebrew races. The ones that come to mind are the Dendrosentients of Belsarius, and Telemachans, who are modeled roughly after crows.

Quote from: Towel NinjaAre flying animals common (i would think they would be) Because im seeing alot of flying creatures or atleast the potential value of these creatures. Stuff like Griffons could provide large advantage in war.

Flying animals are common, yes. Pegasi, Gryphons, Wyverns, Rocs, etc., etc. are commonly used in a manner not unlike fighters in space opera settings. "Launch the Skyknights!" "Yes, Praetorius!" Then thirty gryphons fly out of the launch bay to intercept the enemy ship.

Quote from: Towel NinjaBtw i love the description of the Jormagund Wurms!

Thanks! I'm quite partial to them myself. I also suggest not comparing them to sandworms from Dune, because they are in no way similar. At all.

Quote from: Towel NinjaAnother question.... What happens if the land is tethered together? Like one island shooting tons of grappling hooks on the other one?

Generally speaking, as the layers drift apart the rope will break or pull out of its mooring. Even magically enhanced adamantine chain can't stand the pressures involved there. So no sky bridges.

Thanks for the questions!

With the worms and the titans i get the image of the dark recesses of the misty Deeps, occasionally lighted by eldritch bolts of lightning while an observer, in a rare moment when light shines on the wall of fog, sees a giant monstrous eye staring back for a moment before it disappears sending a gargantuan tentacle flailing out of the mist as it flies away.
Or something like that. Anyways, easily beats dragons ^^
And when you get the hang of your drawing, it's pretty cool. Well drawn when it comes to the perspective and placing of it all. Fewer continents and shells than I'd imagined, and more minor rocks near the sun. But I realize drawing (and visualising) any more would result in some problems. :p

Okay, i'm a little confused with the gravity wells. Does this alter the effect gravity has on the shape of the landmasses? Why aren't they perfect spheres like our planets?