General Trends

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 guns and cannon 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.

Sex and Sexuality

The influence and philosophies of gods like Celeste, Sildrin, and Wobbum have encouraged a somewhat permissive attitude towards sexuality. Some holiday celebrations are even expected to conclude with an orgy, though this typically follows a great deal of alcohol and is conducted in private spaces. Openness about sex is not considered shameful or discouraged, but the open practice is seen as being in bad taste at the very least and some discretion is expected in polite society.

All societies do still hold the importance of consent along with this permissiveness, and any abuse of that is considered a serious crime. Hand in hand with this criminality is a negative association with coercive magic, such as charming spells.

Thanks to the philosophies endorsed by Celeste, gender identity is allowed a great degree of personal expression. Some people seek out magical means of reassignment if they feel they need it. While there are some to whom such things may be considered jarring, they are not persecuted or demonized.

Further, gender isn’t really viewed as any sort of concrete limitation on the ability or quality of a person. Though there is some consideration of the distinct differences between genders, no one would consider a woman being a warrior or a man being a homemaker to be at all unusual.

Romance & Relationships

Young people are passionate about love and lust, and the old don’t exactly dislike it. Romance is, for the large part, encouraged and enjoyed in the cultures of Orizon. There is, however, a difference between relationships of passion and relationships like marriage. Marriage is considered a contract and love is not a necessary part of that contract.

Marriage, especially among the nobility, is arranged. The concern is more for arranging alliances or business relations than the happiness of those involved. Although compatibility between the future couple is taken into consideration, they rarely have any real say in the matter outside of indicating their preference.

The sexuality of the couple is usually taken into consideration when arranging a marriage, but if an arrangement would be especially profitable even that may be ignored.

Since formal relationships are so strictly controlled, affairs are not looked upon with much disdain, so long as they are handled with courtesy for the situation and discretion for society. There have even been cases of a partner and spouse becoming close friends and acting almost like an extended family.

Technology

The closest parallel (in earth’s history) to the technology available to the people of Orizon would be the 16th to 18th centuries. The mechanical and industrial innovations of the industrial revolution haven’t even been conceived of. Additionally, a lack of infrastructure and communications tools makes spreading and advancing these technologies difficult at best.

Gunpowder is a common tool for weapons technology and is often used in either simple firearms or simple explosive devices like grenades or powder kegs. However, gunpowder is an inherently dangerous substance, so it is only produced and stored by specific groups and organizations. In addition, firearms have small and intricate mechanisms, and so are only produced by well-trained individuals and they are expensive both to own and maintain.

Medical technology keeps about the same level of advancement, but since it’s supplemented with the healing abilities of magic great feats can still be accomplished. The greatest difference from the period is an understanding that cleanliness is connected to health.

The ruins of the ancient world have numerous caches of the technology used by the people of that era, the technology that outpaces what those of modern Orizon could accomplish by centuries. Unfortunately, much of it has been irreparably damaged or extremely well protected. In addition, the method for their creation or their maintenance depended on a techno-magical infrastructure that the breaking devastated.

Sometimes people survive expeditions to the ruins and bring back some of this ancient technology, but because of the gaps, attempts to recreate the things recovered have almost all failed, sometimes disastrously.

Communications

Getting messages through the world is an ordeal in itself, in addition to the distance between people and the comparative rarity of means of travel, there is also a tremendous amount of danger to travelers. Most communications are handled by either the merchants guild using their ships and trade routes for delivery of postage and packaging or by specific courier companies that have their own ships and flying mounts they use for faster, more reliable, delivery.

Some employ magical means for communications. Sending stones, scrying, even teleportation is used to communicate over vast distances. However, these tools are expensive and require training and resources to develop. Because of this, there are extremely few developed and expansive communications networks that employ magic. There are numerous smaller systems to communicate between individuals though.

Print tools are relatively simple affairs, basic printing presses and movable type are available to those who want to use them. Many use these tools to develop newsletters and newspapers that are distributed through merchant guild’s trade routes.

Language

There are many different languages on Orizon, most of them are racially based and descended from the pre-breaking cultures. One of the more subtle influences of the gods has been preserving a common language between the various people of Orizon, though there are numerous regional dialects and accents of that common language. International travelers may have to spend some time figuring out each other’s meaning despite their shared language. Common is directly rooted in the ancient language, but there has been drift over time.

Most people of Orizon are literate in at least common. Though the further they are from the major cities in the Skylands, the less likely they are to be more than barely literate. And most people on Orizon are at least conversationally passing in another language in addition to common, typically this is their racial language, taught to them by their families.

Learning the racial language of another species is difficult to completely master, as they often involve sounds or inflections that are easier for one race’s voice than another’s. Other languages, like those of the Tsukiusagi or the merfolk, may involve motions of unique body parts to add context or inflection.

Adventurers

Adventurers take up an important role on Orizon, acting as mercenaries and irregulars, filling the many different needs of the various groups that employ them. These employer groups can range from peasant farmers that have pooled their resources, to organized guilds, to militaries, and even to kings and queens.

Adventurers are typically called upon to handle dangerous situations, devious monsters, the consequences of a wild magic eruption. Their adventures spend them up and down the world at the whims of their employers or their own recognizance.

Adventurers are often employed instead of using a standing army, because of their independence and mobility. An army is expensive and needs to be manned and equipped, adventurers are expected to equip themselves. Adventurers can also move more quickly than typical military forces, traveling to distant islands without having to mobilize or organize. They are often employed as irregular mercenaries, sent to either resolve a problem quickly or simply to assess the danger.

Adventurers are also able to travel and act independently of national borders, with the dangers of monster raiding parties and beasts like dragons that can act outside of a nation’s borders an adventuring party can be sent outside of borders to address issues that governments can’t without the worrying potential of starting a war.

Adventuring Guilds

Typical adventurers act with the coordination and support of adventuring guilds. These guilds operate a guildhall and maintain a membership roster, they also coordinate with various organizations and governments to bring in jobs for the guild members to perform. Some guilds post the easiest jobs publicly at the entrance to their guildhall, offering these listings to entice people to the reward and adventure available to those who participate in the guild’s adventures.

Guild membership offers many benefits to those who stick with it, senior members have access to the most difficult and rewarding jobs, granting them access to more rewards outside of the guild for services rendered. Guild members also may enjoy discounts on goods and services from other guilds and some governments. Though it is an incredibly difficult and dangerous position, many find the rewards to be well worth the risk.

Adventurers guilds also act as a sort of social club, they provide people with a place to meet people with shared interests and skills. Many burgeoning adventuring groups meet through the guild before going on to storied careers.

Adventuring Parties

The mixed peoples of Orizon may join together and pool their talents and resources to form adventuring parties, these can range from small groups of a bare handful of individuals to full mercenary organizations. Some of the most popular legends and tales feature the exploits of these adventuring parties and their accomplishments.