The Air Sphere

The Spheres are mysterious places and haven’t always been as easy to reach as they currently are. Subjects of stories and legends to the people of Elandra there is little known and confirmed about them and their inhabitants and so the known information is varied. Discovering secrets of the Sphere and interacting with their inhabitants is designed to have an exploration element.

Through air we travel, communicate, breathe and lend a strength unseen but no less potent. Air moves water, feeds flames and weathers earth. When invoked its actions expand or contract, building towards a point of resistance and then exploding with singular force. However, air’s true strength echoes from its words, transmitting its purpose through whispered promises, melodic verses or bellowing declarations.

Geography

Tempestra is an open expanse of vast verticality. A place unbowed by any horizon, where scattered lands lay as floating islands, suspended about its many layers. Here travellers must venture upon the alien creatures or magically imbued vessels that sail these strange skies. Its regions are loosely born into what is called the Hierarchy of Ascendance, a caste of states divided by the height of their elevation.

The Felled

At the crushing depth of the plane is a pitch black cloud. Only vague accounts and legends speak of what lies there, but it is said that something unimaginably large coils and writhes within it. None who have ventured into the Felled have ever returned.

The Brume

A thick crimson cloud, broken only by sharp forks or burning blue lightning. Visibility is extremely low and a constant red rain slicks all that enter. Life here feeds off the lightning storms, with smaller creatures drawing power from their discharge as larger predators prey upon them. Rare are the crews and wayhouses that call the Brume their home, for life here is both rugged and perilous in the extreme. Those who live within the Brume for a significant time have their skin stained crimson by its constant rains. Such individuals earn their place among its people and may call themselves Brumeborn.

The Whistling Expanse

The true vastness of the plane is experienced in the region known as the Whistling Expanse, for its full span is equal to all the other layers combined. Few isles exist here with lengthy voyages required to move between them. The majority of the Expanse remains uncharted and full of unexpected mysteries.

The Cumulus Isles

The Cumulus Isles are a teeming asteroid field, where precariously perched buildings cling to edges of countless small rocky isles. These overhanging structures creak and sway haphazardly in vertigo inducing warrens of activity that defy gravity. Life here teeters constantly on the precipice of change. Old timers gather on overburdened caravans to swap tales of the day’s latest skyborn catch, while daring young riders weave through tight banking turns, crashing and chasing their way from one desperate scheme to the next.

The Stratus Isles

Above and beyond the busy clamour of the Cumulus far larger floating islands wait, each one separated by grand expanses of open air. These territories are controlled by the great Skywarden Households, mighty feudalistic kingdoms that enjoy more abundant resources and have space for agriculture and building projects impossible elsewhere upon the plane. Each island is between 50 to 100 miles across and plays host to many features and civil developments that may be expected beyond the plane. Tall spires with high docks for skyships and perches for beasts are common. Lantern towers designed to allow safe navigation in the dark are also tirelessly maintained.
The Skywarden Households guard their resources fiercely and each keep an armada of vessels and riders ready to defend them. They exist in a constantly shifting web of calculated intrigue and squabbling alliances. 

The Borealis Maze

Those seeking to venture beyond the Stratus Isles must contend with the Borealis Maze, a spiraling web of evershifting shards. Each shard is so sharp they cut through the very fabric of reality itself, leaving a burning trail of iridescence in their wake as they carry out their complex dance. All that touch these shards are cut, leaving no choice other than learning to navigate their pattern. Only those from High Vesper seem to know the means by which this can be done reliably.

High Vesper

The great silver city that lays atop the Hierarchy. Here The Elevated enjoy near godlike control over all Tempestra, acting out their whims through the playing of various ornate musical instruments. They may turn their talents toward a flute that shapes the winds, a harp which induces the rain, drums that call the storm or an orchestra of other instruments. These unique musical devices are each housed in structures that further amplify and resonate their intent down upon those below.
The Elevated’s general indifference towards the affairs of those below them is only broken when they dispatch members of their Choir to offer a specific individual invitation to ascend – leaving their old life behind forever. Why someone is chosen and what awaits them in High Vesper is unknown.

The Maw

Beyond the towers of High Vesper light bleeds into a violent kaleidoscopic blur and the air builds into a turbulent uprushing spiral. Few are granted access to such reaches and those who steal their way here uninvited rarely return. It is said that all who gaze into its zenith are driven mad.

Denizens of the Air Sphere

The unique nature of the realm and its magics allows various flying vessels to be created and used in ways that are not too dissimilar to seafaring navies. These craft vary wildly in size and construction method, but essentially allow capable pilots and crews to travel across the plane’s vast distances.
Other inhabitants prefer to travel upon flying beasts, which can vary in size from small feathered mounts that can carry a single rider, to vast leviathans that can move a small hamlet. The ability to tame and train such creatures is highly prized.

Avorials

Avorial Empire once ruled the floating isles of Tempestra. Now they are a scattered people, living in small enclaves on distant isles that pepper the outer edges of the Whistling Expanse – holding to whatever memories of their old ways persist. Others have made lives for themselves among the Skyborn, either by serving the Skywarden houses or scratching out a living with everyone else who lives beneath them.
Avorials are humanoid in appearance with patches of iridescent skin about their cheeks, chin, neck and hands. They have black, metallic or colourful feathered brows and extremely sharp elongated ears that are accentuated with a plume of feathers that fan back from helix to lobe. Additionally they have small feathers that extend back from the second knuckle of each finger and large talon like thumbs.

Skyborn

The Skyborn are the product of ancient planar craft, grown and cultivated by the Elevated as a prototype for the Choir who would later replace them. Unlike the Choir however, the Skyborn were rejected and dispatched from the silver city of High Vesper. They would instead find their home upon the Isles far below the Borealis Maze and ultimately find themselves absorbed into the fledgling Avorial Empire of that time.
Physically Skyborn have blue and white streaked hair and grey scaled skin of differing shades, which brightens around the cheeks, nose and chin. They have small or white crystals that grow from their scales like freckles or beauty spots.

The Elevated

Standing at the peak of the Hierarchy of Ascendance are the Elevated, enigmatic beings who live almost exclusively in High Vesper. Moving from whim to whim, they show little interest in those who dwell below.
Though rarely seen, they are often described as wearing elaborate helms, masks and headdresses that hide their faces. These are often dramatically shaped to resemble such things as a crescent moon, pointed stars, forking lightning or blazing sunlight. Their pale blue skin, when visible, is marked by long lobed ears that sweep forward into graceful points.

Flitterfolk

Abundant with energy, flitterfolk are an insectoid people with short lifespans and a hunger to spend every moment for a purpose. They are a highly varied people, intermixing and rejoicing in their physical variety. All have some form of antennae and most have wings of some description, though they do not appear powerful enough to carry themselves aloft anywhere save for Tempestra itself. 

Knowledge from the Air Sphere

Below are things that have been known to be found or gained from the Air Sphere. This is not an exhaustive list but provides some insight into what someone may look to get.

• Potent magical ingredient Both the sphere and sometimes the inhabitants are powerfully magically charged and sometimes these magical elements can be used to power great effects
• Knowledge: The Sphere of Air is vast and contains many levels with many people. They guard their secrets well but people may be able to trade knowledge for knowledge