The Island in the Sky

Written by Katelyn

For many years, the island was inhabited only by a few small animals and various plants. In the year 1020, three years after the beginning of the Pale War, a Shapeshifting Guardian named Obli Tratitan (OH-blee trat-tee-THAN) sought to save the humans with whom he had made friends by removing them from their ground level home in Berganstaat to a small island floating above it. Obli sought to keep the removal a secret and was largely successful. With the help of Obli, the humans built themselves a city, which they named Du Bye, and this became the capital of the island. In time, the humans built another city, this one further up the lone mountain on the south side of the island. This city was much smaller, and life was harder, and its name was Nu Buton.
Obli helped the humans also create their own set of laws, which he then had carved in a pillar in the center square. These laws were also copied in Nu Buton. After he was sure the humans were set to prosper and continue should they remain undiscovered, Obli left to fight in the Pale War, and afterward roamed the world, where he began collecting things that he thought to improve Du Bye with.
Over time, a problem was revealed in Du Bye. The inhabitants had discovered a rare plant in the plains by the lake that was found to have calming properties. The pant had a delicate purple flower, which steeped in a sort of tea, it could relieve its drinker of pain and calm all sorts of flutterings, from nervous butterflies to flutterings of the heart, and was a popular remedy for labor pains. They named it filia. The humans began planting and cultivating filia and using it as floral decorations in the home. At first, no side effect was noticed.
After a couple of years, however, when the plant had begun to truly flourish and take root in the city of Du Bye, people began to forget things. The plant had begun to relax their brains and memory too much. At first it was normal things like forgetting their children's ages and birthdays, or small tasks or items they needed, and it was mainly by the mothers and wives who tended the plants. But within a few more years, the people began forgetting more important things, some of the more extreme things being the very existence of some or all of their children or their own names. When people first began noticing the problem, they did connect it to the filia, but within a few hours, they had forgotten all about it. Eventually, it got so bad that the people couldn't even remember that they were forgetting anything. Some of the people were smart enough to get rid of their plants when they discovered the cause, and these retained more of their memory, but the majority remained in their almost comical state. For they did find this comical. Once they had forgotten that they had forgotten, the city became one of laughter. Because everyone forgot things, no one bore grudges, so no one fought. Or if they did, they soon forgot their quarrel. The only thing that was universally remembered was the set of laws written by the founders and Obli which were still carved in the pillar, and as a result, the city did not fall into a state of anarchy.
After many years of this, people could barely remember their first names, let alone a last name. The name of the city had also been carved at the top of the pillar, so all the inhabitants of Du Bye took the name of their city as their last name. They also could not remember their island's name given by Obli, so it became known as The Island in the Sky.
The inhabitants of Nu Buton found that the plant would not take to the dry and rough soil, and so were unaffected by the filia. They retained their memories and history. The people there, in comparison with the inhabitants of the city of Du Bye, were a very serious people, bent on survival. But because Du Bye was the capital city, it made the governing decisions of the land. The Du Bye government officials were not unkind or thoughtless people; they simply forgot the complaints and issues brought before them by the Nu Butons.
After about 50 years of this, the Nu Butons rebelled against the city of Du Bye, and a great battle was fought where many Du Byans died. The Nu Butons won mainly because the Du Byans would forget that they were being attacked and welcome the Nu Butons into their homes. After the brief battle, the Nu Butons declared themselves supreme and set up their own government.
Obli heard about the tension between the two cities from a group of three Nu Butons who came in search of him when the problem first arose. Obli hurried back and found the Du Byans practically slaves. He then made the Nu Butons give the Du Byans their city and freedom back. To appease the Nu Butons, he gave them their own city state and government, as well as some of the land on the northern side of their borders that was more fertile. This brought an end to the hostilities between the cities, and both were content to remain at peace for many more years.
Obli warned the Du Byans to get rid of the filia, which many did. However, they were not willing to eradicate it. As a result, their memories improved slightly, so that they could remember the really important things, but they never regained all their memory. And so, they continue to use the name of the city as their last name.