"This is your first time at the edge? Well, have you ever seen the Floor? No, no not a floor, the Floor. Look around you. Endless light in every direction. Now look down, be careful not to fall. Dark roiling clouds in every direction, punctuated by bright streaks of lightning. There's one now. That isn't any storm, it is the storm, the first storm, the only storm. Every time that we get a storm here, it is just some of the Floor being pushed up by the winds."
The First Storm
There are many stories about how the Floor came to be. In some the light and the dark lived in harmony until they began to fight - a battle that has never ended - and it manifested as the unending storm between them. In others, it has always existed and always been a force capable of taking but also giving life.
The true origins on the Floor are unknown and may never be discovered but people do remember the
Time of Darkness. During that
period the Floor had risen and the more intense storms that normally never touch inhabited islands began lashing at them from every direction. This had huge negative ramifications on the societies of
Breharan and the impacts of it can still be seen in the present - almost 400 years after the end of the
Time of Darkness.
To explorers it is a dangerous place. It is difficult to fly through with winds buffeting
vessels from every direction, no visibility from the clouds and the darkness except when lightning flashes light up the area but those brings their own risks. Even if a
ship manages to get through the storm they will only find themselves in the
Void likely damaged and unable to traverse the Floor again.
Where the Rules No Longer Apply
"Once your inside that storm all bets are off. The rains can buffet you from port and starboard at the same time and the fish are made of lightning and can stun a man who touches them. Stay away from that place. It isn't worth losing your life and it certainly isn't worth losing your ship."
It is a well-known rule of flight that
skyships cannot fly over even small islands or other
skyships. The Floor possesses a special property - one it shares with the
Void - that enables
vessels to fly over skyislands and each other. This property extends to storms that have reached out from the Floor but not yet detached from it. The
Stormfleet Pirates use this to their advantage by attacking trade ships during storms.
The reason for this is unknown but scholars debate the cause, never coming to a conclusion. Speculation includes ideas from the effects of light to the presence of weight-altering matter in the storm.
Stub Article
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Old Article
This article was written in the past and does not meet my current standards for any number of article quality, layout, or content.
In-Progress Article
This article is being worked on, perhaps not at this very moment, but it is being worked on.
Beware the storm for it is dangerous on its own,
lightning strikes and soaking decks.
Beware the storm for it is the Stormqueen's home,
cannonfire and pirate's blade.
Beware the storm for it is wild,
wind and wind and wind again.
Beware the storm for the void below,
from which you never return.— Skysailor Saying
The Source of Clouds
There are many clouds in the sky - rare is a day of such clarity you can see forever in every direction - and all of them come from the Floor. The old tales say that the different types of clouds are made by the different winds that pass through or near the storm.
A strong wind that passes through the storm will produce big billowing storm clouds which - when severed from the Floor - become beautiful puffy white clouds.
A quick wind along the surface of the Floor creates the long thin wispy clouds that rise up and up and become thinner and thinner until they disappear.
Battling winds create many clouds and push them together and pull them apart and send them in every which way. This is the type that looks like an archipelago of cloud islands.
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