Most skilled labor is handled under the purview of guilds, especially skilled crafts and magic. The usual system of managing guild membership and advancement begins with accepting and training apprentices. Once they reach a certain level of ability, these apprentices are then sent out to travel between multiple different guild masters during a journeyman period of training in order to learn new skills and new ways to apply them. Following this period of study, they then prove their abilities before a group of guild masters to become approved as a full member of the guild themselves.
The guilds are typically held responsible for handling guild business and disputes internally and are a powerful lobbying force, but are forbidden from forming any sort of militia. Many guilds operate between multiple different nations and need to manage their operations to accommodate the various laws of different countries.
Shipping is a lifeblood industry as it is responsible for connecting people across the Skylands and the ground. As a consequence merchant guilds and similar organizations responsible for transit and ships usually command a great deal of power.
Many merchant guilds collaborate with other organizations to facilitate their operations. Communications organizations like post offices and couriers may collaborate with merchant guilds, using their trade routes as their delivery routes. Adventurer guilds will use merchant guilds both to collect and share rumors and jobs and to shuttle adventurers closer to their final destinations.
Most nations are relatively small in scale. This is usually because of practical concerns rather than a lack of ambition from world leaders. It is difficult to move people between Skylands because of the necessity for sailing ships, and monsters and raiders make it difficult to reliably move people across the ground.
These consequently restrain a ruler’s ability to maintain the rule of law within their borders, forcing those borders to remain small to allow those rulers to reliably enforce their rule and defend their people. There are very few large nations, and many are surrounded by either wild territory or numerous smaller nations and city-states.
Airships are often used for surveillance over the ground, and small scout ships can occasionally be seen flying low over the ground looking for people in distress or for signs of monster activity. This practice has its own dangers though, as monsters may attack these ships, flying above them and striking, or launching grappling hooks or other missiles. Some creatures like giants will hurl boulders at these ships, hoping to loot them for supplies or simply defend their territory.
Organized monsters, like the raiding parties or the legions, usually have heavy ballista or cannons intended to shoot down low-flying ships to prevent them from reporting on their activity to any organized militaries.
Rooftops on the ground and sky are designed to be color coded and usually have symbols painted onto the roofs to indicate to anyone flying above what is available and where it can be found.