The Aerial Isle

Beyond the shores of Csyr and across the Green Sea, a pillar of white cliffs rise to unnatural heights against the crashing waves. At their summit, frozen highlands and mountains slope down from the north, giving way to dense evergreen forests, wide river basins, and marshlands. Heat rises from springs and caves all across the landscape, providing odd pockets of warm environments in the otherwise frigid climate.   Most outsiders call this land the Aerial Isle, but its inhabitants call it Therosol.   The Aerial Isle rises 4km above the sea at its tallest edge, and maintains an elevation of 2-3km around its Western and Eastern cliff-sides. Its mountains are much taller. Due to this great height, clouds often engulf the Isle, shrouding it in seasonal mists and creating an abundance of water in the process. Storms are just as likely to pass over Therosol as they are to slam directly into it during the cloudy season, providing all manner of dangerous weather conditions, particularly at the land's edges.   The southern coast sits significantly closer to sea level, with small beach offering the only shoreline access to the heart of the Isle from the outside world. Much of the Aerial Isle's coastline is sheer, with the occasional rocky beaches set into the hollows of the white cliffs.   Therosol's cliffs are pockmarked with caves and tunnels, many of which lead to a complex web of caverns that extend throughout the Isle's height, and even down below the sea. These Shorecaves are dangerous places, with all manner of strange beasts lurking within their dark recesses. A few of these cave systems stretch from the shoreline of the Aerial Isle all the way up to its surface, though most who journey into the Shorecaves never leave them again.

Much of Therosol is wet, owing to its frequent mists, rainfall, and snows. All of the water slowly makes its way down into lakes, marshes, and swamps in the lowlands, but not before passing through mountains, forests, and floodplains. Much of the creatures of the Isle follow the waters southward as the land cools, then migrate back north as it warms.   The Highlands in the northernmost part of the isle are one of the coldest and most sparsely populated regions. Mammoth, bison, and wooly rhinos roam these frigid grasslands during the Sunspell, when the weather is at its warmest, to breed and feast on the wide grasses. Sabercats and wolves compete with each other over the herds, and great eagles will come from their mountain roosts to pick at the bones of kills left unattended. Rodents and arthropods battle for the best dens amid the rocks, eating each other in their seasonal war before the cold ends their campaigning season.    Starting in the Waterspell, when the rains and mists harken an end to the warmest part of the year, the great beasts move southward. They ford the Mosiva River in great numbers and enter the Mosiva Pass, most migrating southward into the great river basin at the foot of the mountains. The intensity of the rivalry between wolves and sabercats escalate as they fight over the newborns and injured of the herds within the close quarters of the valleys. The bears of the mountains are too busy catching fish to notice. Most smaller animals retreat in anticipation of the herds, their associated predators, and the frigidness of the coming Starspell.    The rains and mists from Waterspell swell from the mountains, pouring into the Mosiva river basin, and flooding the low grasslands and forests. Schools of fish feed on the waterlogged vegetation, while flocks of waterfowl crowd the new ponds and lakes for a chance to catch them. Foxes and large mustelids hunt both fowl and fish alike at the grassy shorelines, while deer and bori feast on the mist-fed mosses that cling to the trees. Many birds have already flown south, but some make busy to nest, boring deep holes into the trees in which to wait out Starspell. All the while, the waters continue to flow southward.     An abundance of life clings to the waters' edge. Fish and insects teem below the surface of rivers and lakes while rodents and arch-horned torva weave their way through the dense foliage, safe from most predators which lurk in the wider parts of the forest and mountains. Hawks and eagles watch from the trees where the water is clearer, hunting fish and any small animals who risk a drink from the shore. In those warmer waters which are fed by hot springs from below, dark eels and pale crustaceans emerge to prey on everything around them. These creatures are seasonal though, and rarely survive the coldest part of the year.   Even further south, the mountains give way to wide plains, diverse forests, and broad, winding waterways. Horses and bori are common sights on the plains, while moose and deer haunt the mist-strewn woods. Purple-skinned pril fight each other for dominant places on hilltops to launch their wing-bound hunts from, as well as to raise their young. Starspell rarely sends the inhabitants of these plains scattering southward.    At the southernmost parts of Therosol, the waters still in wetlands which never freeze. Salamanders prowl the muck and stones. Waterfowl roost in the weeping trees, or on isolated islands. Inky flatworms lurk in the dark soil, waiting for something small enough for them to envelop and devour.

There are many myths about the origins of the Aerial Isle. That it was once connected to the rest of Isyra before an angry god flung it far out to sea. That it was a stairway that rose all the way to another world in the clouds. That it was a prison to hold back some great evil. But these are just the stories that outsiders tell. The Felmorans believe that Therosol was risen out of the waves by their great dragon god to be closer to his domain. The Vulshik claim that the Isle was thrust into the sky and abandoned by the gods after they had lost a great war with humanity.    Regardless of the myths, known history of Therosol stretches back only a thousand years in the records of the Cyrahan druids of the far south. It tells the story of the Kingdom of Therosol, which was destroyed after a great cataclysm. After many years of darkness, its people had reemerged. In those dark years, the shattered kingdom became four tribes; the Vulshik, the Felmorans, the Cyrahan, and the Bori.