Considering doing some GURPS adventures in the Skylands, which means I need to get cracking on the storyline, setting, races, etc. and decide at what point in the timeline we’ll be playing.
Races:
*The enchanters - A very stolid people, broad shouldered and taller than an average human, they tend to have a slightly swarthy complexion and angular facial features as if they were shaped out of clay. Their beliefs are very central to their lives. They have an animistic religion, there is no god, rather powerful forces in all living and inanimate things. What they don’t realize is they are worshipping the ancient energies embedded in everything around them that the summoners can call upon. Handed down through the generations of priests, and to a lesser extent in the public are the cryptic incantations which when mixed with a summoner’s aspected energies can control and influence these energies. They are the Catra. An individual is referred to as a Catran. Other than the priesthood, the people are very hardworking and build fine carpentry, they farm well, and are good warriors, though they disdain fighting.
*The summoners - The summoners tend to be slighter, leaner and shorter. Their skin is often pure, milky white, sometimes almost like porcelain. Typically men and women are fair haired and blue or green eyed, though a few have raven black hair or fiery red hair and tend to be powerful summoners. Their culture is very relaxed and often nomadic (within the bounds of the skyland they live on). Art is very strong, storytelling, painting, dancing, songs, and musical instruments. They are good gardeners and fishermen, they depend fairly little on livestock for a way of life. The summoners are the only ones who can still do anything magical: they can summon various aspected energies (fire, water, air, earth, ether, and nether - the last two being the forces of life and death, creation and destruction). In an intense dance around a campfire, a woman might get so caught up that a lick of flame will suddenly pull from the fire and dance about her til the song ends. It’s usually nothing more than the equivalent of a parlor trick. They are the Eowastans, named after their patron saintess, Eowes, a beautiful, mystical woman who led them from the purgatory millenia ago (actually an immortal who petitioned to save their lives after The Breaking).
*The Protectors - The ancient race that looks over the divided lands and peoples. Often they are referred to by the material each group happens to resemble: Emerald, Obsidian, Ivory. Internally, they are the Guren. Tone identifies a caste and role in society. The obsidians and ivories are the most advanced and scholarly. The ivory tend to be more focused on history, learning, and isolation, and the obsidian are more active, sometimes even violent and more willing to change, though their society overall is loathe to leave the status quo. Emerald Protectors, Sapphire, Ruby, and others fill the roles of hunters, warriors, healers, farmers, etc. though some leave their caste and perform abnormal roles. The human races tend to notice certain personality traits across each caste.
Though humans know nothing of Guren internal society or beliefs, the Guren arrive either through the Moon Plane portals in the ruins of ancient society (who were the ancestors of Catrans and Eowestans - only the Guren know they were called the Saeirf) or via the winged people who take them directly to their castles in the clouds.
*Winged people - live in floating forests amongst the clouds which are not within sight of the skylands. They are a simple people who admire the Guren as great, wise demigods. In actuality they were once great allies of the Saeirfish against the Guren, but The Breaking destroyed much of their land based culture and history. The Guren view them as an owner does a reliable dog: they love and care for them, but consider them beneath the Guren, not equal. Very few humans have seen a winged folk in a long, long time. The Guren have discouraged it for concern it might start too many questions being asked. The winged people are the Asori. The forests have a small council of elders each, and twice a year at the great alignment of the stars (the Asori give great weight to stars and constellations as they navigate the vast skies at night by them), each council sends a representative to the Asori grand council and appoint a trio of leaders for the next year. Anyone can be an elder or council member, and there are often many women, sometimes more than men.
*The Rock People and Seers occupy some skylands as well, see previous entries for those races.
The people of each skyland are isolated. They can sometimes see a distant skyland and even people on it, but there is no communication. The Guren visit them all, as part father figures, priests, royalty, and gods. They bring gifts, they teach the children for a while and take part in festivities, check on the health of the people, the livestock, and various political issues (each skyland is usually large enough for a few towns, some even have small cities with basic fortifications, and there are occasionally skirmishes between each). They tell limited stories of other skylands, and are even traders, exchanging various goods between them. The people know of the other races and peoples on other skylands, even the names of towns, skylands, races, and important figures historical and current, but not much else. A town may have an abundance of meat, but very little metals to work weapons or farming tools with and will exchange in this manner.
Some cities and peoples do know the Asori and trade with them as well. It would almost seem the Guren view each skyland on a case by case basis to determine what interaction they allow. On a very few skylands, some natives travel with the Asori to their home forests, but never to another skyland.