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Vaporia: The Air of the Liberated
Topic Started: Apr 30 2013, 09:11 PM (133 Views)
Nightfury
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Vaporia: The Air of the Liberated


Dominating the trade lane between Terra Civilis and the nation of Ti, Vaporia is a monumental construction of clouds the size of a continent. Covering the ocean between Heliopolis to the north, and the scorched plains to the south, Vaporia sits above the water at a height of several thousand feet. The council of Vaporia gives it the title of ‘The Air of the Liberated’ – styling it as the free city in the west and open to all races that may reach its surface.

The cloud is at such a height that wind rarely bothers it. Clouds are packed thickly and sculpted to shape, moving as little as earth and stone over the years. It is separated into many levels at varying heights, accessible only by flight between the separate clouds.

The island itself is broken into two parts: The continent itself, of Vaporia, and the smaller island named for its capital of Aerieanis. Aerieanis is the home of Vaporia’s mysterious creators, while the main continent hosts Vaporia’s many citizens. There are three capitals on Vaporia: Aurora, home of the Northclaw clan of gryphons that migrated years ago, Brisk, the home of the pegasi who arrived far before, on the scale of centuries past. The third is known as the Three Towers – The Council tower, the Rain tower, and far above all, the Storm tower that is visible from any point on Vaporia.

Geography

To map the whole of Vaporia would take far too long and would ultimately be an exercise in futility. The city is like the wind – wild and ever changing, rarely staying the same for long, and never long enough to apply to it. For this reason, Vaporia is mapped in sections, so that someone might be able to find their way around by approximation.
In general, Vaporia is split into three tiers: The Black tier, the Rain tier and the Sky tier. The Rain tier is the middle and the largest of the three, while the Sky tier is above and the Black tier below. Each has their name for a reason – Rain because of the weather that only they experience, Sky because of its altitude, and Black because the presence of the Rain tier blocks out the sun entirely.

The Black Tier

The Black is the smallest of the three tiers, a few connected collections of islands spanning less than fifty miles. The Black tier is uninhabited but necessary in the scheme of things, as the lower mass of cloud helps to keep the greater whole of Vaporia at a higher altitude. Without the Black tier, Vaporia would be at a much lower altitude and at the mercy of the wind and rain. The Black tier is the only tier that lies at natural cloud level, with the Rain tier exposed only to higher cloud cover and the Sky tier far above any normal weather system.

The Rain Tier

The Rain tier so called because of its position out of reach of strong wind and yet low enough to be exposed to the effects of the Storm Heart (see Storm Tower below). It is the largest isle of Vaporia and houses all but a tiny percentage of the so-called Liberated. Two capital cities sit upon it, one for the pegasi and one for the gryphons – Brisk, surrounded by raked-smooth fields for the growth of food for all Vaporia’s pegasi, settled four or five centuries ago, and Aurora, so named by a rogue tribe of gryphons that settled there a millennium past.

The majority of Vaporia is a random and shifting landscape of clouds, stormy and clear, shifting as one can expect of a continent made of moisture and static charge. The nature of Vaporia is clear – nowhere is claimed unless it has a home or a business upon it, and so anyone may build wherever they like. Several smaller islands rest above the surface, the homes of any creatures that choose to live there. The Rain tier is home to many different species of creature, from the ordinary gryphon or Pegasus, to other, lesser-seen creatures – drakes, like small dragons, dot the clouds, rarely conversing with their neighbours, and the odd rogue Child of Summer or exotic Old-World flier is not unknown upon the clouds.

The Sky Tier

The Sky Tier sits far above any natural cloud, several hundred feet over the Rain Tier and kept in place only by the tethers of the Three Towers. It holds what can only be described as a castle, the housing for the higher tiers of Vaporia’s society, namely the council that runs it.

The Three Towers

The three towers are the central point of the Sky Tier, visible from every point on Vaporia. From there, the three most important values of Vaporia: Rule, Vision, and the Storm Heart. The council tower is for the ruling parties of Vaporia, the Rain Tower provides a scope through which to see all for miles, and the Storm Heart allows pegasi to survive upon the continent.

The Council Tower

The council consists of near-halves of both pegasi and gryphons, with many seats going to other foreign creatures and independent members. The other half of the council seats, numbering at two hundred and fifty of the five hundred chairs, refuse to be touched, storming and electrocuting anyone who comes close. It is commonly believed that these seats belong to the former creators of Vaporia, and so the question on the lips – or other assorted mouths – of the new residents is; why do the other two hundred and fifty allow one to rest upon them, if the others are locked for their creators?

The Rain Tower

The Rain Tower is a structure only outshone by the Storm Tower, and before the addition of the Storm Heart it was the highest point in Vaporia, and with the Storm Tower to the north it still possesses an uninterrupted view of the sun from dawn to dusk. The tower is wide, spanning a hundred metres in diameter, and topped in a dome of an interesting material found only in Vaporia: A material known as dewglass. Made of condensed clouds, the material operates near-identical to glass, save for the fact that it adheres to clouds and floats. Dewglass appears to be unbreakable; with any impact of significant force simply passing through.

The dewglass, however, is a brilliant insulator. The Rain Tower’s internals resemble something of a park - made of soft cloudbase, surrounding a tower used to survey the area for hundreds of miles around. The Rain Tower is open to all at any time of day, and is commonly used as a recreational area by all of the races of Vaporia. The tower is used as the central watchtower for the continent, controlled by the trade company that regulates the passage of airships and boats through Vaporia’s surroundings.

The Storm Tower

The Storm Tower is the highest point of Vaporia, and the newest addition to the continent as a whole. Originating from Equestria, and the Pegasus colonists from five hundred years past, the Storm Heart was ensorcelled by Celestia in order to give the clouds some very specific traits. From the magic crafted into the heart, the Storm Tower was born – a swirling tornado that tears through every layer of Vaporia, and holds each layer in perfect sync with the other two.

Each day, at dawn and dusk, a pulse races across the continent from the heart. This pulse carries the magic of the Storm Heart, and alters the cloud layers – increasing their solidity, and interestingly, allowing plants to grow upon the surface of the clouds to provide food for the Pegasus residents. The Storm Heart is unreachable at two hundred odd meters over Vaporia, the tower protecting it, and ensuring that the only mechanism allowing the pegasi to stay upon Vaporia remains intact.
Edited by Nightfury, Apr 30 2013, 09:13 PM.
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