The Surging Bellows

While most regions of any world hide from hurricanes or tornadoes, the seraphiron rely on the everpresent storm that hangs above their homeland.
Seraphina is always moving. It is located on a superheated planet that is covered almost primarily in magma. As the storm crawls across the planet it distributes water and solidified metallic compounds. The island follows behind and the storm creates new land and resources. On the opposite side of the island, the land crumbles back into the sea.
Living in a crumbling region presents its own difficulties. The soil itself is a haphazard combination of metals and stone. The seraphiron have found ways to stabilize the ground beneath them through the clever working of combined metals and shaping of new stone. While this system helps, it isn’t foolproof. Their source of life is the storm. All storms are unpredictable. The winds that create the storm will occasionally surge. This causes the storm wall to rapidly expand. Winds moving at hundreds of kilometers per hour combined with a rare lightning scour the northern coast of Seraphina. The wind tears at buildings and corrodes the very surface of the residents themselves. The seraphiron are blasted with small particles of stone and sand. The top layer of their metallic forms is sanded down in minutes.
The lightning is powerful enough to completely fry a seraphiron’s inner mechanisms, causing an instant death. As a result of these powerful disasters, seraphiron buildings tend to be close together. Nobody will be denied entrance to a home or business during a surge. The seraphiron have no need for food, and instead stockpile items like oil, mineral components, tools, and a sealing finish to be applied to anyone caught outside.
Those who travel, usually only do so immediately after a surge; when safety is guaranteed for at least a few days. The surges are sporadic, they can happen at any time. There is no known scientific reason for the dramatic change in weather. The more superstitious of the seraphiron claim that the surging is caused by the great billows of Astoria as she works her divine forge.
Harder and harder metals are being discovered rapidly, and metallurgists are hard at work finding a metal that can withstand the storm. This could finally allow travel and exploration, something that has been impossible due to the deadly destruction a surge can cause. The actual sanding away of your body is not something many seraphiron want to risk.

Note:

While the storm doesn’t strictly head northward on the planet, the inhabitants of Seraphina refer to the growing half of the island as north. Conversely the crumbling side of the island is considered south. The path of the storm seems to be consistent. In general it moves in a northeastern direction. The rotation of the winds suggest that the island itself actually slowly turns in a clockwise direction. This indicates that the ‘northern’ section of the island very rarely points true north.

Type

Island, Floating