World of Zephyr

Introduction

500 years ago the world of Gaia was torn apart in a war between the gods of the sky, the earth, and the sea. Gaia split into islands thrown up into the sky with a dark cloudy abyss in the middle. Gaia had been transformed into a world of sky islands and big blue oceans were nothing but a myth to this new world; the world of Zephyr.
Enter a world of ships sailing the skies and shamans praying to great sky spirits for safe winds and water. A dry world powered by solar sails, nature spirits and gunpowder. Explore the floating islands and its peoples consisting of the aquari, draconians and sepharim living besides beasts such as the griffins and wyrms. But most of all remember to be respectful to the skies and be careful not to fall.

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Solar Sails

Solar sails are special made fabric woven with spirit gold threads. These sails can then harness both the energy of the wind but also sun hitting the sails. This allows for ships that can sail much more consistently through Zephyr. Solar sails also power villages and cities as windmills or rooftops are clad with sails. The sails can however be pretty high mantienes as the gold threads tear over time. Becoming drenched or hit by too high an amount of power like a lightning strike can make the sails inoperable.

Ships

Sips themselves cannot fly just with solar sails. They also have a blessed earth spirit that gives the wood the ability to stay afloat. The earth spirit is usually a small tree at the heart of the ship that requires only a little bit of water and energy to function. It takes a little while for the tree to become attuned to a new ship but given time it will connect with the wooden structures. Emergency seeds can be used to temporarily give a piece of wood floating abilities. The basic structure of a ship is then a heart tree, solar sails, a rudder of some kind to give steering commands to the heart tree, and a crew of course.

Islands

Oceans are nonexistent and land is limited overall. Islands can only hold so much water at the time so the rain of the heavenly beasts is the only thing keeping the islands from becoming dry rocks. Which is bad not only for life on that island but it also means that the island is at risk of falling. Plants have little magical spirits that keep ships elevated with a heart tree, islands are kept floating by all their greenery. A collapsed island may crash into land under it or plummet into the abyss to be forever lost.

Summoners

People who can call upon the powers of the divine beasts through gaining their blessings. They usually start their careers as Canaries; members of the choir who perform hymns and rituals and are in charge of appeasing the Aeons. When a summoner receive their first blessing they must sacrifice water, this water will then turn into their summoning staff that is unique to each summoner and essential to use their powers. A summoner who has collected seven blessings gains an ascended staff. A hook that can fish new land out of the abyss. The staff will become one with the new island and for as long as the summoner lives they can pilot and shape the island as they wish within the limits of the material on the island. When the summoner dies the hook will return to a puddle of water and the island will stay in place until it withers and falls.

Magic

Magical feats come from a few sources in Zephyr. There are the heavenly beasts, the aeons, that can give summoners blessings that call upon their powers for a magical spell. Canaries and priests do the same thing of performing rituals and hymns to gain powers from the aeons.

Nature Spirits

Next there are plant spirits and water. Water is just an all around catalyst for any magical process. Most rituals require something to be done with water, or in a pinch, blood. Plants harbour nature spirits. Some of these spirits are just bits of energy stored from the sun, others have unique magical properties and powers like the Heart Tree which is essential for ships. There’s also flowers which shine at night, clock seeds, tree rifles and the one plant that has had wars started over the trade and usage of it; Mandragora tea leaves, also known as Azure. Drinking tea prepared by it rejuvenates the body, enhances the senses, makes you able to feel life energies. It is often consumed by rich pregnant women so that their child grows stronger and can give the children these benefits permanently.
Botanists and druids each in their own way study and use the powers of certain plants either as someone who cultivates them or calls upon the spirits in the plants more directly such as communing with them.

Mysticism

Mystics and magicians are names for people who can perform magical feats outside of spirits. They use magical cards, alchemy and the environment in different ways to gain clairvoyance, perform divinations and an array of minor magical tricks. These arts are not greatly understood and some would even claim that they are performers and frauds while they themselves often claim this power is from the cosmics, following the sun, moon and stars.

Races

Lastly there are those who are born with exceptional abilities. This comes from the three aspects that divide the human races; draconians, sepharim and the aspect lacking aquari. Most people only gain minor changes to their bodies through these aspects such as little feathers, horns or more claws like nails, while more pure aspect individuals gain powers like breathing fire or even flight. It is however very rare to see such strong traits and is usually the result of very selective breeding and rituals. Important to note that the lines between the races are arbitrary and mixed aspects can occur, that’s not to say that cultures do not treat the aspects very differently.

Draconian

Children of the earth element according to legend. They have aspects of horns, hardened skin, and bone plates on the sides of their faces and over their spines. They often have to shave down their horns and more pronounced almost claw like finger nails. Some draconians have a matching lizard-like tail. Individuals with very strong draconian aspects have powers to breath fire and eat rocks.

Sepharim

Children of the sky. Sepharim stand out with their head wings and pointy ears. Light feathers over their forearms, back and ankles are common traits. Sepharim with stronger aspects sport wings on their backs, sometimes even multiple sets of wings. The feathers can be any colour from the common white, to brown, silver, gold or patterned like birds.

Aquari

Aquari are supposedly the children of the ocean but lost their special aspects in the holy war that shattered Gaia. It is unsure what their aspects were and very much look like draconians or sepharim without their special bone structures or feathers. Aquari are the most common of the three “races”. It is more common to find half breeds or people with very minor aspects of each other, often these aspects are so minor that they look completely as what is expected of a human.

Link to Zephyr pinterest board: pinterest.se/mastercet/zephyr/

Year
510 ZC (Zephyr Creation)
Technology Level
Medieval to mid 1800 age of sails europe
Aeons
Divine Beasts Controlling the Weather and Seasons
Magic Users
Canaries, Summoners, Botanists, Druids, Tamers
Important Jobs
Hunters, Farmers, Traders, Helmsman, Officers
Human Races/Aspects
Draconian, Sepharim, Aquari

Fiction Inspirations
Granblue Fantasy
Mixed Final Fantasy
Dune
Silver Diamond
Treasure Planet

IRL Insporations
Languages: Latin, Arabic, Ancient Egyptian
Middleastern/Mediterrianinan Climates and Cuisines
Chinese Court with Tests
Napoleon Era Technologies and Sailing Terms