A Study in Cosmology - Lazahr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99mhb4ZNLa4

Lazahr

I think I stayed in Ravden too long. I keep catching myself sighing. But while I was there I happened to meet up with an old witch, and she offered to teach me some stuff about herbal craft if I helped her with the autumn “baby rush.” Don’t ask me about it, all I know is that apparently the winters get very boring and cold, and then nine months later there’s a sudden great need for midwives.

She was a spunky old lady though, and I learned a lot, most of which honestly didn’t even require magic.

The air was starting to weight on me though. Are magi more sensitive to sin? Regardless, I started to feel a lot better as soon as I got out of there. Not quite ready to head back to Discord though, that place is… a lot. So I decided to just wander a bit, see what I could find. This is my first time just stumbling into a reality on my own and… wow. I sure know how to pick em’ huh?

It’s super refreshing, if I’m honest, a lot of fresh air. Although it is a bit bright at times with all that sky. I gotta say though, the whole floating islands thing is pretty cool. And uh, pirates. I was not expecting those, I gotta say. Mike would flip his lid. Well, would’ve before, obviously.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to find the name of this place for your guidance, since some of them are only external. But I’ve heard a bunch of people referring to this place as “Lazahr” so I’m kind of just crossing my fingers.

An interesting choice, perhaps a little out of depth for the inexperienced traveler. With your—broom, was it—however, you’ll probably be fine.

Oh thank god.

Don’t be ridiculous, Cynthia. God has nothing to do with it. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is selling something.

I didn’t come here for a lecture, old man.

Lazahr is a most curious place, as it is a reality that seems to simply defy the laws of physics as we from more advanced realities know them. Simply put, landmasses, however small they may be, don’t usually float. However, that is what Lazahr is: an uncountable number of islands floating in an endless sky.

I made it a point, upon my first visit, to ask if anyone even knew what the ground was. Of course, they looked at me like I was insane. Yes, I know that’s what we’re standing on, don’t be ridiculous. Once I explained myself, the rather uncouth individual described a legendary continent that may have once existed where now the islands do, but he nor anyone else had any idea whether it actually existed.

If I’m honest, it may just have been an idea accidentally spread by travelers such as myself. An interesting thought.

One would think that living on an island immediately next to a straight fall to one’s death might be a little isolating. Luckily, the people of Lazahr have among them a number of highly skilled inventors, and their proficiency with a particular metal called “Fluxite” has enabled the many disparate islands scattered across the sky to become quite connected to each other.

Airships float through the skies and they range in size from small schooners to entire galleons sailing through the air. Most even still have conventional sails. It appears to a layman such as myself that the ships are made to rise and sink via conducting electrified currents through fluxite mechanisms. However, the engineers of these ships are secretive of their techniques, so I regret that I cannot go into more detail.

You know, that’s really alright. I didn’t necessarily need to know the engineering principles behind floating pirate—

The propulsion systems are also quite fascinating. The fluxite capacitors are still utilized, but their horizontal momentum is significantly more limited. Many ships contain rudimentary propellers, and some older models even possess oar-like protrusions on their sides. In cases of catching the wind, the sails also assist.

But perhaps you would like to know about the sorts of people on the ships more.

Please.

Well, simply all sorts. There are passenger ships from one island to another, and some limited military vessels. No one island is truly large enough to become a more nationalized entity, but small skirmishes between city-states do sometimes occur. They also have another principle use: as escorts.

Needless to say, the most common sort of vessels are those holding merchandise. Trade is vital between these communities, with so little space of their own. And any time there is so much cargo kept in one place, it becomes an inevitability that there are those who wish to abscond with it.

Please say pirates, I really want to hear you say the word “pirate.”

…

Piracy is a large problem in Lazahr’s airspace.

Yes!!!

Where there is trade there is also crime. There will always be those who prefer to profit on someone else’s livelihood. However, given the somewhat scarce quantities of most goods, many merchants see this as a golden opportunity to hike prices. At worst, they may even create scarcities falser than they should be, and so the many pirate vessels are often seen as folk heroes of sorts.

Many legends have arisen about many of the infamous ones. Some even say a distant island is home to a whole city ruled by a mysterious “pirate queen.”

But merchants are not the only vessels they may attack. Though fluxite can be found in the earth, there isn’t a lot of that to go around, so it’s often harvested instead from a different source. Great serpents and other such beasts roam the sky, and deep within the marrow of their bones lie not insignificant deposits of the mineral.

Whaling ships make their coin by hunting these creatures, and bringing home both their meat and their valuable bones back to civilization.

That’s almost… a little sad.

You would not be alone in thinking that. While the common man accepts it as a necessity, there are many communities who worship these creatures.

Believe it or not, Lazahr is a surprisingly spiritual place. I suppose it comes from its somewhat isolating nature. Many islands are homes to temples and monasteries. Some of these communities are isolationist on purpose, some have many worshipers that come for pilgrimages. They’re not all one religion but rather a series of small, unconnected ones with all sorts of different beliefs.

One thing that many of them share in common is their worship of the sky beasts. Sometimes they are seen as vengeful gods, other times sacrificing protectors. Several of them have scripture indicating that the reason the islands float is that they are really these giant sky beasts sleeping, and the fluxite in their cores is really their bones.

If I’m honest, it seems more likely to me that isolated people saw great creatures floating through the sky and decided they must be gods.

You know, occasionally I’ve been told that I’m no fun, but even I think you’re a real square sometimes.

I’m an academic. I’m here to tell you facts, not “have fun.”

Yeah, whatever nerd. I’m going to go fly around with some pirates now.

Do be careful, young lady. They may be folk heroes, but they are still outside the law.

Well, if you’re so worried about me, come and stop me, then.

I will not be falling for that easy trick.

Damn, And here I was hoping I might have a shot.