I'm still undecided on the system to use.
Probably something narrative and/or light like PDQ, Fate or Heroquest 2.
The World
The vast majority of the floating islands are immobile but some drift along a specific circular route while others are "wild", meaning they drift in an erratic, random pattern.
Quan-Tang Empire: The main power in the setting is The Kastarian Empire. It is comprised of over hundred islands captured by Imperial forces and brought togheter into one huge flying landmass. Primarily Quan-Tang , but with significant subject populations of the other races.
Human Realms: The Humans once had a nation built on a single island the size of a small continent called Atlantea. They shared this nation with the Moguri and together they both developed and advanced technology and science. However, over mining caused the island to begin to collapse and fall away. Those that could fled, those that couldn't died. The Moguri decided they liked a nomadic existence on the winds but the Humans settled down on many islands. They no longer mine the islands they settle on.
The vast majority of the floating islands are immobile but some drift along a specific circular route while others are "wild", meaning they drift in an erratic, random pattern.
Quan-Tang Empire: The main power in the setting is The Kastarian Empire. It is comprised of over hundred islands captured by Imperial forces and brought togheter into one huge flying landmass. Primarily Quan-Tang , but with significant subject populations of the other races.
Human Realms: The Humans once had a nation built on a single island the size of a small continent called Atlantea. They shared this nation with the Moguri and together they both developed and advanced technology and science. However, over mining caused the island to begin to collapse and fall away. Those that could fled, those that couldn't died. The Moguri decided they liked a nomadic existence on the winds but the Humans settled down on many islands. They no longer mine the islands they settle on.
Beastlands: Beastman roam freely in vast jungle reefs of small, usually no more than a km or two, islands. Using Gliders to visit and trade with their neighbours, they live a peaceful life periodically interrupted by months of sorrow when their young are drafted in imperial armies or an orc raiding party sets fire to their homes.
Races
Many races inhabit Aerannn, each one has its own way of travelling through the sky.
Quan-Tang- Masters of magic, Lizard man airships are kept aloft by Aerolite and propelled forward by captured air-elementals. These provide the Quan Tang with a powerful source of propulsion making their airships the fastest in the known world. Because of their speed, most of them are sleek and aerodynamically designed. They are lightly armoured, relying instead on protective magics and offensive spells for weapons.
Humans- Human technology is the most advanced out of any of the races. Being Aerolite poor people, they rely on brute force methods for flight. Their Hawk-Hammers are massive, heavily armoured affairs often constructed out of alchemical metals. Slow, and unwieldy, they mount a few treasured Aerolite stones but most of the lift comes from hypersteam turbines which belch steam exhaust out of thruster ports on the base of the ships. Usually four or more ports can be found giving the appearance that the ships are supported on massive columns of steam exhaust. They are armed with massive cannons on rotating mounts, Flame Projectors, Automatic Ballistas with explosive bolts and troopers with Flame Lances.
Moguri- The Moguri use a strange mixture of science and sorcery. Their ships run from dirigibles, ornithopters and clockwork/Crystal skybases. The Moguri are a completely nomadic race of merchants that live on floating mobile towns that never touch down on the islands. Not all Moguri belong to the Mogu-rasith
Beastmen- Gliders are the only way any Beastman lacking natural wings will choose to move through the air. Masters of finding and using thermals, their small gliders are almost impossible to detect and have a habit of slipping into the nearest cloudbank and disappearing. Some of them are equipped with extradimensional spaces for cargo. Beastmen magic would closely resemble nature magic with an emphasis on wind control.
Godless- Orcs and Goblins prefer to ride living creatures when flying. In their case it's Wyverns, or more rarely, enslaved and brainwashed young dragons. Sometimes they turn pirate and use captured ships of other races if they can figure out how to keep them running. However they prefer to use their reptilian mounts.
Many races inhabit Aerannn, each one has its own way of travelling through the sky.
Quan-Tang- Masters of magic, Lizard man airships are kept aloft by Aerolite and propelled forward by captured air-elementals. These provide the Quan Tang with a powerful source of propulsion making their airships the fastest in the known world. Because of their speed, most of them are sleek and aerodynamically designed. They are lightly armoured, relying instead on protective magics and offensive spells for weapons.
Humans- Human technology is the most advanced out of any of the races. Being Aerolite poor people, they rely on brute force methods for flight. Their Hawk-Hammers are massive, heavily armoured affairs often constructed out of alchemical metals. Slow, and unwieldy, they mount a few treasured Aerolite stones but most of the lift comes from hypersteam turbines which belch steam exhaust out of thruster ports on the base of the ships. Usually four or more ports can be found giving the appearance that the ships are supported on massive columns of steam exhaust. They are armed with massive cannons on rotating mounts, Flame Projectors, Automatic Ballistas with explosive bolts and troopers with Flame Lances.
Moguri- The Moguri use a strange mixture of science and sorcery. Their ships run from dirigibles, ornithopters and clockwork/Crystal skybases. The Moguri are a completely nomadic race of merchants that live on floating mobile towns that never touch down on the islands. Not all Moguri belong to the Mogu-rasith
Beastmen- Gliders are the only way any Beastman lacking natural wings will choose to move through the air. Masters of finding and using thermals, their small gliders are almost impossible to detect and have a habit of slipping into the nearest cloudbank and disappearing. Some of them are equipped with extradimensional spaces for cargo. Beastmen magic would closely resemble nature magic with an emphasis on wind control.
Godless- Orcs and Goblins prefer to ride living creatures when flying. In their case it's Wyverns, or more rarely, enslaved and brainwashed young dragons. Sometimes they turn pirate and use captured ships of other races if they can figure out how to keep them running. However they prefer to use their reptilian mounts.
Magilite Stones
There are two kinds of rock in Aerannn. One kind is the familiar rock that comes in many varieties and tends to fall down when dropped. A second kind is called Magilite and is subdivided in four types of magically charged stones.
One type falls up rather than down. If you were to let it go, it would vanish off up into the sky as quickly as a normal stone would if dropped off a cliff. This type of rock is called "Aerolite". A heavy Aerolite might be as hard to "lift" (keep from flying off) as a similarly sized common rock. Find an Aerolite that weighs the same as you do and you have a crude levitation device, should you tie yourself to it.
In ancient times Humans and Moguri found ways of affecting Aerolite, diminishing it's upward pull or negating it completly. The process requires a steady amount of magical energy and is at the base of all Airship technology in Aerannn.
Recently, the Moguri began experiments aimed at increasing Aerolite's "lifting" power through complex chemical and sorcerous methods that reduce impurities in the stone. Unfortunately, Aerolites obtained with the new processes are instable and prone to explode in dangerous flares of magical energy. Most financial support for these experiments comes from humans, since empowering the Aerolites already in their possession could greatly benifit their Airship fleet.
The rarest type of Magilite is called Materia or Binding stone. An exceptional stone capable of trapping powerful elementals in it's crimson depths. Many sorcerers own such a stone. The most powerful are owned by the Kastarian Emperor. Highly sophisticated Airships may be the most visible asset of the Quan-Tang but many believe, perhaps correctly, that Materia is the true source of imperial power.
The third type of Magilite is called Hydrolite. The second most common stone after Negalite, it's vital to the survival of all life on Aerannn. Every few seconds Hydrolite conjures a volume of water proportional to their size. All lakes and rivers have one or more Hydrolites as their source and nine titanic Hydrolites are set on the floor of the Kastarian internal sea. Excess water forms Waterfalls that fall over the rim of the islands, constantly vaporized, producing clouds and rain in a delicate balance. Destroying a Hydrolite, however small is considered a heinous crime bordering on insanity, in most countries punisment for such an act is a swift death.
Aerolite, Materia and Hydrolite are much rarer than common rock , but together they comprise only 10% of the rock in Aerannn. The rest of the rock is "Negalite", a rock that does not fall at all. It is gravitationally neutral, just as common rock is gravitationally positive and Aerolite is negative. A Negalite that is dropped will simply stay where it is.
Another property that Negalite possesses is that it drags on the fabric of space… a small stone of Negalite, if thrown, will come to a sharp halt a few dozen feet away. A large boulder will be very difficult to move at all, despite the fact that it weighs "nothing". And a Negalite mountain is an immovable object.
Negalite rock tends to occur in large sheets, anywhere from a mile or two, to hundreds of miles across and tens of miles thick. These sheets are called islands. Islands tend to accumulate a sediment of common rock, Hydrolite and earth on their upper surface, and a proportionally very small sediment of Aerolite with rare veins of Materia on their lower surface. Sometimes fields of Negalite rock boulders can be found in vast walls and chains. These are referred to as reefs.
Stormjumping: Originally developed as a scouting platform by the Moguri, the skyboard has become one of the most popular sports in the world. Enthusiasts leap from an island into a storm cloud below. They then essentially "surf" the winds in the most stylish and suicidal way possible. When done, they activate the boards Mogurish levitation crystals and fly back up to the island to do it all over again. On the extreme circuits they leap into thunderstorms or hurricanes
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