Glittershade is the skysland that interfaces most with The Lands Below. Families newly establishing themselves in The Spiral often stay here for a few generations, but there is still a fairly large transient population in the port city.

The locals of Glittershade are primarily descended from the earliest merchants, shippers, and builders of The Spiral. Status here is associated with one’s Family Name and how far back the name can be traced. Their wealth has been built in large part due to generations of tolls imposed on those who travel to and from the Skysland.

Nowadays, these gilded families are connected less by blood than through the meticulous preservation of long-standing business relationships, forged by both fostering children and strategic marriages.

Glittershade has remained fairly neutral in nearly all conflicts over the ages, thanks to clever politicking early in the Age of Invitation, brokering alliances and familial connections with the oldest houses of Hoffnung and the Uptown families of Stonespeir. Even after Stonespeir’s secession, citizens of Glittershade still enjoy free trade and travel with the rogue nation, in exchange for deeply discounted tolls.

When people first explored Gladehaven in the Age of Invitation, they mostly found hostile vegetation and a few scattered ruins. Exploration efforts waned for decades. Eventually, the Magicats of Sigrun’s Cradle began to make contact and found their way deeper into the wilds, where they found a thriving community, Pascua, of fey-folk and other races not native to The Lands Below.

The Gatorborn, Crocobolds, and Changelings were the first to be encountered, who were quickly charmed by the Magicats. The Magicats brought them to the city, where the explorers encountered all sorts of odd folk–Hagspawn, Centaurs, Satyrs, Rabbitfolk, Owlfolk, Battle Corgis, Fairies and more.

The reclusive leaders of Gladehaven eventually made contact with Hoffnung. They established strong, diplomatic ties, determined to avert future attempts at conquest by developing interdependence on their terms.

Gladehaven welcomes newcomers into their thriving port town, Shade Gully, but still remains cautious about allowing unproven folk into their oldest cities. And yet, those who need sanctuary are allowed safe passage through the deep wilds, and the Skysland itself is quick to turn against their pursuers.

The ancestral home of Magicats, the Cradle is pure hell for those allergic to felines.

Many folk here become Cat Herders in the aptly named city, Catterfallen. These folk consider their duty a sacred charge, and ferry the troublesome magicats around The Spiral at their bidding.

As the Cradle was Gladehaven’s closest neighbour during the Age of Invitation, there is a great deal of crossover and kinship between these skyslands, a trend which continues to this day.

The truly significant population here are magic users, which are found equally among the races. The premier school for wizardly studies– Stackfrede Academy–and its sister school for sorcerers, warlocks, and other unusual magical types–The Stacks– are a major draw for the skysland’s inhabitants.They are built onto the side of the skysland and there are small cave cities connected to the schools for support staff.

Sigrun’s Cradle is a remarkably beautiful place. The rocks that form its base are crystalline and cast prismatic lights across The Spiral and The Lands Below.

And yet there are whole swaths of the landscape that are almost entirely unknown. Efforts to map the skysland have been thwarted as features and places seem to move or disappear entirely on a whim. Efforts to connect these movements to time or place remain unsuccessful, and many a scholar has gone mad in the attempt. If people live in these strange places, their communities and intentions are unknown.

Kalte was the last Skysland to be settled, as the harsh mountainous and winter environment had deterred exploration for decades. It was primarily settled by healers upon discovery of the restorative hot springs that form the heart of a truly massive hospital complex, now known as The Hearthsprings. A few years later, they also discovered a quaint ski-resort and cosy lodges built by Mirolon.

The hospitals here are the best in The Spiral, and form the heart of most towns. Still, much of the landscape remains wild, and the scattered network of towns and villages remain close-knit, with no cities to be found. Clerics flock here, and work closely with botanists and hedgewitches from Gladehaven with their rich supply of medicinal plants. There hasn’t been as much population crossover between these skyslands, as many in Gladehaven find the harsh, near perpetual winter, difficult to manage.

In the modern era, Kalte is renowned for its commitment to the sovereignty and well-being of all people, and their steadfast neutrality during the civil war. They treated patients regardless of affiliation, which was greatly appreciated by all soldiers–and significantly less so by their leaders.

It takes a particular sort of person to live here, let alone thrive. The Odlands still belong more to monstrous creatures than its settlers.

This skysland was explored primarily by Gatorborn and Prairie Gnomes during the Age of Invitation. These folk were trained as survivalists of all flavours– rangers, rogues, fighters, and all those who support the struggle to survive on a harsh frontier.

In the years since, individualists and small communities have migrated here in exchange for homesteads, bringing an influx of eager explorers.

They settled into self-sufficient communities, butting up against the monstrous beasts that make this land home. Firewatch towers are located on the peripheries of these small communities, and travel between these pockets of people can be quite treacherous.

The fortress city of Wormwall was built around the teleporter portal. During the civil war, the residents of Wormwall remained loyal to Thronstadt, at odds with The Prairie gnomes in the hills.

The Prairie Gnomes have an extensive network of warrens that can sprawl for miles, well beyond the protections of Wormwall, and sometimes past even the Firewatch towers. These days these folk are often called Diggers for their fierce, yet doomed, resistance in the civil war. Depending on who is speaking, the term can be either affectionate or derogatory.

The Skysland Formerly Known as The Stone Hold is now Stonespeir (pronounced Stonespire), and its residents know the truth: The Spiral is only as strong as its people, and Stonespeir is where The People rule.

In the early days of The Spiral, industrious folk made the dangerous journey to Stonespeir for metal and stone. They found a Skysland whose surface was pure hell, regularly flooded by the Skysland above, Everember.

The settlers instead carved out a city beneath the surface. The Clinging Towers of Downtown were built down instead of up, using the Skysland itself as a shield. Each tower housed a founding family, and each family soon became fabulously wealthy off resources. They called themselves The Metal Barons.

But Stonespeir only truly began to thrive when Everember’s wrath was soothed, and the pair of Skyslands were bound together with The Chains of Friendship. Now that the surface was no longer flooding, people were able to build towards the surface and into the sky.

Incredible wonders were discovered during this period expansion– veins of every metal and ore imaginable, magical artifacts–and when the surface was settled, Stonespeir’s workers collaborated with druids to channel a constant flow of lava into the forges that would build an entire nation, whose beating heart was named Uptown.

The Metal Barons rose to absolute power by the end of the Age of Invitation. The Metal Barons maintained close relationships with Hoffnung, and were instrumental in keeping Stonespeir as a vassal state for nearly seventeen hundred years.

When Nebelstadt appeared, many of its gloomy folk made Stonespeir their home. These engineers and architects eschewed Downtown and brought their skills and gothic architectural to Uptown.

The Age of Troubles– known to Stonespeir as the Age of Liberation– led to a massive influx of refugees of all races into The Spiral. The Metal Barons seized the opportunity to replace their existing workforce with a much cheaper, and much more disposable one.

Instead, the refugees were welcomed into the existing workforce, and formed an alliance that led to Stonespeir, Everember, Glittershade, and later the Prairie Gnomes of The Oldlands into declaring independence.

Thronstadt loyalists were ejected, and nearly all of The Metal Barons were killed. This sparked twenty five years of civil war that defined the Age.

At the end of the war, Stonespeir was forced to make a conditional surrender, but negotiated terms that allowed them to maintain their independence and economic connections with Glittershade, Everember, and The Odlands.

Everember’s relationship to The Spiral had a rocky start. The skysland was consumed by constant violent storms, frequently flooding Stonespeir below, stripping the land of vegetation.

The founder of Everember, a young man whose name has since been lost to time, discovered a volcano and its temple deep within the storms. This volcano was home to an ancient spirit, who was enraged by the sudden uplift of her home.

The founder established a circle of druids, who eventually established a more peaceful relationship with the spirit.

The druids were soon joined by a flock of farmers, whose efforts turned the volcanic skysland into an agricultural paradise. Dedicated basalt tubes were grown to channel the skysland’s lava into a constant supply of energy for Stonespeir’s extensive smithing.

Dwarves are one of the most common races here, and they were the ones to build the massive chains that now link Everember and Stonespeir.

While Hoffnung technically belongs to Thronstadt, these three Skyslands are so interwoven that their only meaningful separation is the sky.

This is where the founders of The Spiral first landed. They quickly developed a means of transport to The Lands Below and other Skyslands. Their first colony was Stonehold, and Hoffnung remains bitter to this day about the loss of their favourite neighborhood. They are quite displeased by the misnomer Stonespeir, and stubbornly refuse to acknowledge it.

As the first, and oldest, city, Hoffnung’s agriculture has shifted away from crops to luxuries such as wine and saffron. In the modern era, all races can be found on Hoffnung.

It takes significant wealth and power to travel any higher, and less established communities are poorly represented in The Coronette or Thronstadt.

Holdfast is nearly completely covered in forests, and while this lumber was what has made it wealthy, it was not the initial draw.

This Skysland is dominated by a massive, glowing willow tree, whose catkin flowers are made of countless varieties of gleaming crystals known as the Drops of Mirolon. It stands nearly six hundred feet tall, and it casts a gentle, prismatic glow across the Skysland at night. Pilgrims were drawn to its splendor, where they learned its true name, Apatara.

Believers of countless faiths came to Holdfast, building temples, libraries, churches, monasteries, schools– after all, what better place to contemplate the divine than beneath the boughs of Apatara?

Although initially a place of strictly good-aligned deities, the less palatable deities have since secured more private plots of land for their own worshippers. Still, these churches rarely practise out in the open, and many are hidden in pocket planes, or use other means of concealing their presence. This fact is rarely spoken about in polite company.

Unlike other skyslands, Nebelstadt was not settled. It simply appeared. One day the misty lands were empty, and the next, it was covered by a sprawling city of towering cathedrals with dark spires and endless flying buttresses. The mist grew thicker and thicker, until it was heavy enough to blot out the sun almost entirely.

This caused a bit of a panic– and even more of one when it became evident that this city had come from the Shadow Plane. The panic nearly led to war before Mirolon intervened. Nebelstadt, as a whole, had come at his express invitation, seeking refuge from a plane torn asunder by infighting and cruelty.

Every manner of “monsterous” race can be found here, and the Skysland proudly welcomes freaks and outsiders.

As Nebelstadt arrived as a fully formed and functional city, it filled many of the larger needs of the community. Nebelstadt runs The Spiral’s banking infrastructure, and handles the civil courts. The former Metal Barons were known to launder money here through their art-deals, and the nobility of Nebelstadt is assumed to have taken over this vital function.

First things first- if you call it Keynote: The Choral Skysle, you will get bullied within an inch of your life. It’s just Keynote.

And Keynote is art. It is a lush land of gentle rolling hills that lead into beautiful settlements and cities full of the most lavish and spectacular architecture. The citizens of Keynote have clearly never heard the term “too much” in a negative tone before.

The biggest draw to the skysland is The Scales, a sprawling complex of affiliated schools that teach any form of art you can imagine– and several that you can’t imagine, too.
The latest addition to the campus is The School of the Swole, whose students are determined to achieve perfect physical beauty.

Many noble families will patron artists or entire schools as a show of wealth and status– and to coincidentally buy their children’s way into the most prestigious apprenticeships. That said, Keynote’s leadership takes great pains to find talent wherever it is born in The Spiral, and they aggressively lobby and fundraise the coin to offer lucrative scholarships.

The Coronette is, quite literally, The Upper Crust, and this is where the politicians (3 senators from each skysland) and the most powerful noble families live. The skysland is only a few miles wide, and it encircles Thronstadt at an incredible distance. During the day there is near constant air traffic between the two as folks commute to and from work.

Nearly the entirety of Thronstadt is dominated by a massive, dome shaped cathedral-esque building. The Thronstadt Council meets here every quarter for a month of legislation and rulemaking. Criminal cases beyond the authority of any individual skysland are also tried here, and are treated as entertainment by much of The Coronette and Hoffnung.

The Council chambers are dominated by an enormous, marble-and-gold throne, with a carved likeness of Mirolon the Magnificent and The Bathtub, his faithful cat. The throne itself is often occupied by any random Magicat, as it’s considered a terrible bit of bad luck to move a cat from the literal seat of power.