Entering the Shattered
Year 568, era of the Movement
Vibrantly fractured lands crossing ink-black space
Welcome to the Shattered, a broken world filled with floating islands and giant animals, a world where chaos occurs every few years, cared for by the Creator, a sun-like object that gives light as it gives darkness and rain. With no memories of a past, there is only a future where learning is their only way towards improvement or disaster.
One had no memories and knew nothing.
The known world is a Shattered and chaotic place. A place with no history before 2000 years ago, and a lot of different living beings going forwards. It all surrounds a star-like object, named Creator, that can give darkness and rain as much as light.
Its landmasses are floating islands in space, some so small a house can barely fit on it, while others are big enough to house countries. Then there are the giant space animals, creatures so big that other living things can use them as either home, or land.
Physical rules are bizarre or simply nonexistent, things here do not necessarily make sense and thus, the craziest things are attempted to.
Away from the islands, only death lies, corpses of unknown creatures are scattered across space in a forever state of decay. No one dares to leave the furthest islands, too scared to find what left them dead and frozen in time.
The islands
Shattered is made out of thousands of floating islands, from ball-sized to country-sized. From all these islands, there are seven that stand out and although they are not necessary the biggest, its here where most living creatures reside. These islands surround and orbit around the Creator.
Lulan is the third smaller floating islands of the seven important floating islands. Its surface is desertic, with barely anything on it other than rocks, and its fairly flat, with some dunes breaking the flatness of the place. Most living things that inhabit this island live in underground dens, caves, or even lakes.
Oriz is the smallest of the seven important floating islands, there are many islands bigger than Oriz. The island is a praire, and not much bigger than a town. It is filled with many different flora and many different insects or small animals.
Faodore is the second largest island from the important ones. It is fairly flat and its surface is filled with wetlands. Most of the living creatures from this island are semiaquatic, being able to live comfortable in both water and land.
Meeraz is the third largest island of the important ones. It is filled with a city that spreads from end to end of the island. It is the island with a major number of people and they have found ways to connect their island with smaller ones that are very close by to have extra territories for farms or ranchs.
Gysol is the fourth biggest island of the important ones. Its surface is mountainous and the underground is filled with complex labyrinthine cave systems. Most of those that live here reside underground or are nocturnal.
Tethea is the second smallest island of the importants. It is a frozen land, with barely any flora outside caves or on surface. There is a small place in between the valleys of its mountains with natural hot springs.
Erak is the biggest of the important islands. It is filled with a giant forest where trees range between 20 and 50 metres tall. The center of the island has a tall mountain, taller than the forest, with a bare peak.
The Giants
As the name says, the giants are creatures of gargantuan proportions. They float in space, not straying too far from the Creator. They do not seem to need to rest nor to eat, they do not display any behaviour an animal does to live, for that and the fact that they have never been seen hurt enough to bleed, the intelligent species do not consider them living creatures and simply call them Giants.
Every few months, the Giants approach the Creator and spend a few cycles surrounding them, almost like if they hugged them. The reason for this is unknown although its believed that they do so to gather energy.
Usually refered to as masculine, he likes to slither in between the islands not caring if he touches some or moves them. He tends to spend the time in the middle of the cloud of islands, specially where there are more warm islands. He is sometimes used as a bridge between islands.
Usually refered to as femenine, she does not like to spend too much time surrounded by islands and thus lives most of the time in the outer islands or furthest away. She is the Giant that needs less time with the Creator and thus is barely seen by the Living of the closest islands. Her Living creatures do not like visitors.
Usually refered to as neutral, they do not seem to have preferences for where to spend more or less time. They do seem to spend most of the time between the inner and outer islands, sometimes playing with the islands by moving them with their head, careful to not overturn them. During night, they slow down, unlike their sibilings, and hide inside their shell.
Usually refered to as masculine, he floats around the outer islands. He tends to be with his spikes close to his body, and when it rains or is dark, he has the spines outwards.
Usually refered to as femenine, she likes to float under or over the islands, sometimes diving or rising next to islands. During rainy times, she softly sings and nearby islands can hear the deep hum produced by her, which fills living creature with happiness and calmness.
Usually refered to as femenine, she, like her sister Whale, likes to float over or under the islands, but, unlike her sister, very rarely crosses paths with the islands, only doing so to approach the Creator.
Usually refered to as masculine, he spends most of his time far from the Creator, where less quantity of islands can be found. When he does approach the islands, to meet the Creator, the islands seem to move away from him, leaving him a clear and empty path straight to the Creator.
The creator
The Creator is a spheric object of immense size located in the center of the Shattered. It is what gives light to this place and what takes it away.
The Creator has three states which they go through in a cycle: light, dark, and rain. The cycle tends to alternate between light and dark states, with rain as a state that occurs every few changes. Very rarely, the cycle might have a state lasting longer than it should, which happens when a cycle simply repeats the previous state.
The Creator gives warmth, more or less depending on the state they are in, and also seem to power some species and the Giants.
The living
Living in the middle of the Shattered there are hundreds of thousands of species of all kind. The oldest of them appeared 2003 years ago, and many more appeared on the Events. With no memories of what was before the Shattered, most of the species adapt quite well to where they appear, almost as if they were carefully placed in an environment that is perfect for them.
The floating islands of Shattered have no atmosphere, therefore no air, and so everything that lives on the islands have no need for it either. They are able to live anywhere within Shattered, whether on any of the islands or even the Giants.
Flora
CategoryShattered is rich in flora
Fauna
CategoryShattered is rich in fauna
People
CategoryThere is a lot of diversity
The stars
The Stars have not always been in the sky, they arrived in the Starry Night era, during an Event year 1388 years ago. The first 615 years of the Shattered had a deep black void in the sky, and their only light source was The Creator.
When the Stars arrived, people thought they were simply spots of light in the sky, but with time, some Stars approached and visited the Shattered. That is when the Living realized that the Stars where animal like creatures, just like their Giants, but made of light and darkness, incorporeal beings.
But they also learned that they could die, and that killing them would only anger the Creator, as demonstrated in the Darkness era.
The events
Every five years, an Event happens. The Event can be a lot of things, from crashing of islands to new species appearing and even long states in the Creator cycle. During in those Events are also when a new era might start.
There have been six past eras in the Shattered and it is now entering its seventh era: the Movement. Portals are a new technology or magic (depends on who you ask), some portals appeared out of nowhere and these are being studied to be able to create bridges between islands.
The corpses
Beyond the floating islands and the Giants, way too far for anyone to reach, there are corpses of creatures. These corpses are of many different sizes, shapes, and colours, dead in many different ways. Their bodies forever in decay, not showing any signs of being more or less rotten with the passing of time, it is unknown if they simply decay at a very slow pace or are frozen in time.
No one dares to go towards them, so little is known about these creatures other than what can be seen from afar. No one likes to talk about them and thus, islands closer to The Creator are less aware of them.
There have been times where a Giant would push an island towards the center of the Shattered if it was going too far away, towards the corpses.
The only thing that is further away than the corpses are the stars.
I adore how the article looks! Incredibly neat, pretty and easy to read. The css tinkering was all worth it!
Thank you! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed it :D
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!