Yha Asari

City of the Clouds, Capital of the Skyfolk of Wulvaral, Yha Asari is a majestic city spoken of in awe and myth elsewhere in the world; many a poet who has lilted longingly about its sky-kissed spires and heavenly spans has woven such sights entirely from fancy, for few 'landwalkers' ever lay eyes upon its wonders.
This is not because the inhabitants of Yha Asari are necessarily unfriendly to outsiders; it is largely because this city, high in the crests of the Cuiverayan Mountains known as the Crown of the World, is simply inaccessible in many ways to those without the gift of flight.
Much of Yha Asari was built during the Age of Wonders, when even the landwalkers were able to access it due to the prevalence of magical means of transportation. Though earthquake, avalanche, and onslaughts of elemental creatures from the Planes of Air and Ice wreaked their share of destruction during the Age of Terror, forcing many of the inhabitants to barricade themselves in their mountain temples and wait for the storm to end, Yha Asari was too treasured to be abandoned. The survivors rebuilt, and were assailed, and rebuilt again, time and time again, until the dark Age passed, and what stands today is a testament to the stubbornness of the Skyfolk and their loyalty to their ancient home.
Much of modern Yha Asari is a loving, multi-generational simulacrum of what once was, yet its grandeur is still breathtaking; towering collonades, sweeping spires, and graceful balconies weave into and out of the peaks and ridges of the mountainscape, seamlessly integrated with clever building techniques that harness and direct the natural flow of the winds rather than attempting to hinder or shelter from them.
Yha Asari is designed with the aerodynamics of its people in mind;Avariel, Aarakocra, and even rarer winged beings such as Sylphs make Yha Asari their home, flitting and swooping through arch, tower and funnel drop, soaring on thermals and following the flow of jetstreams carefully shaped to the aerial traffic by the city around them.
With such unusual and ancient construction, land-walking visitors find themselves constrained to certain parts of the city where there are such legbound inconveniences such as 'stairs' and 'doors' and 'bridges'. Natives of the city are said to look upon the rare walking visitor with a mix of astonishment and pity, which can come across as aloof, insensitive or even rude to those unused to being considered handicapped by their lack of flight.
Yha Asari's industries lean toward arts and textiles, whilst its agriculture is unusual, to say the least. Whilst there are terrace farms hanging like green skirts around the waists of the surrounding mountains for more mundane ground-vegetables, newcomers to Yha Asari will also notice, suspended from many an arch or span, strange nets of silvery rope hung with bulbous yellow, blue or purple fruits whose roots drift and sway in the breeze. These are plantations of yoryook crops, a cultivated 'sky fruit' with multitudinous variants whose roots need no soil, only moisture and sunlight to grow.
Similarly, Skyfolk youngsters are often sent out to hunt what are colloquially referred to as 'Sporefish' or 'Firefloats', semi-animal fungus spores periodically spat out on thermal currents from vents in the local volcanoes to fly harmlessly across the mountainscapes until, eventually, completing a strange breeding, mating and reproductive cycle entirely in the air, they die, break down, and rain into the fertile valleys of coastal Wulvaral to enrich the soils. When fully-swollen their nutty, mushroom-like flesh is quite delicious, and as they float balloon-like on the air currents they are relatively easy to catch for those learning mastery of flight. Such unseen things are the bread and butter of a place like Yha Asari.
As remote as it is, for all its size, Yha Asari can seem somewhat insular; trade and cultural links are primarily with other Skyfolk settlements, and contact with outsiders, even the Deepfolk who share the great western island with them, occurs mainly second-hand through those channels. Visitors to Yha Asari often find themselves regarded with just as much curiosity as they bring to this city of aerial wonders...