The Lands Atop the World

Ages ago, a calamity had struck the world. Natural disasters rocked the land, war broke out between all nations, and demons erupted from the ground. Within days, most of the world's population had perished, the survivors mostly concentrated in a hermit kingdom who's name is long forgotten by now. However, what is known is that what is left of the known world is the remnants of that very kingdom. Predicting this day would come, they began to assemble the land's most powerful casters to perform a ritual. As the world began to collapse around them, the ritual was started and the kingdom was lifted into the clouds.   The ritual had succeeded, the lands were brought above the clouds where the calamities could seemingly not touch them. In fact, the ground was raised so high you couldn't see the world below. Thus, for a very long time, there was peace and prosperity. However, as the population expanded, supplies dwindled. Riots began to break out all over the kingdom and it eventually fell. Poverty and constant power struggles engulfed the lands, causing the population to dwindle again. From here to the present, history is mostly lost, only a few notable bandit lords are remembered. However, the people had persevered and a new realm arose from the ashes.   A Lands Atop the World, known colloquially as "The LAW", is a military junta that's been in control of the floating island for almost 200 years now. They've almost fully secured the southern part of the main island, but the north has proved hard to tame. The LAW exerts heavy control over the daily lives of it's citizens, setting strict curfews and strongly influencing career paths. They've also manufactured a culture very akin to a caste system. While there are no "undesirables" outside of full on dissident revolutionaries, The LAW makes it very hard to split from what your family's trade has been, causing it to be difficult to move around in society. Those at the bottom of the rung are called "Freelancers", those who have "abandoned" their societal and familial duties to pursue what they enjoy, or even sometimes out of necessity. They often are met with mild aversion, slightly inflated prices, and slightly deflated pay. The rest mostly treat each other equally and recognize they all have important roles to fill.   Now that the basics are covered, go do some more reading on some other articles, nerds. If you have any questions that aren't answered here, just ask me.