Selot's Origin
Selot was a small town on the south-western side of the Vonak continent, although then it was named Teonestra. Starting out as a fishing village, canoes became a vital part of life as well as the clay deposits in the ground which also served as material for a lot of the cultural knowledge and development.
Selot, over time, became a peninsula, then connected by a tombolo, and at last, the western part of the island split from the mainland completely. A large part of the town was located on this part, and the inhabitants of both sides worked together to create a bridge that would reconnect the land masses. The two masses were now known as Selot Vual and Selot Jie, meaning Eastern Selot and Western Selot. The current Teonestran government was young and did not have monopoly on governing nor responsibility of every village, especially not the smaller ones on the outskirts of the continent. They instead saw opportunity in letting the village work on the bridge as this would be both stable work for citizen and slave alike and keep the government from having to deal with the issue of a run-away landmass.
The Siamese Twin City
The bridge began as a small clay bridge with timber and an occasional boulder stabilizing the structure, but as time went on, and Selot Jie kept moving further and further away, the bridge was made wider, studier, and became an intricate part of the two towns. Buildings and streets were constructed on the bridge, children were born and elderly died on it, as it grew longer and wider as time grew on. Wars were fought and political lands changed, but the Bridge was a cornerstone for this constantly growing city, and despite the change in governmental rule, it kept growing as it always had, with slave labour and generations of hard working people, forgotten by the higher chain of command and thus free to keep conditions as the Siamese Twin City saw fit.
The Severance
Selot Vual, on the other hand, saw no reason to spend resources on trying to reconnect with the run-away Island now that their magic had suddenly diminished overnight and civil unrest hit the world like an explosion.
Selot Vual as well as the entire Teonestran continent and many other places hit a great civil war - the Red Decades - while Selot Jie was forgotten but still at work.
The following Centuries
Selot Vual was becoming yet another city in Teonestra, where the other Twin was forgotten in the wars and after no word from them for a long time, they were considered lost in the Storm of Unmagic, and Vual focused on its own survival. After over 35 years of civil war and failed attempts at rebuilding the Weave or a government, a small group known as the Masters of the Mountain wielded shining metal weapons and took the nation through force. Their goal was simple - to unite the nation by way of this new craft, to organize the people and stopping the war. All of this without the use of magic. The nation soon moved at a steady pace and was dubbed "Teöstra" to honour both the people and the God making this possible in the first place with his way of both Protection, Order, and Craftmanship.
Selot Jie was not part of any of this. On the Bridge, there was no Red Decades, there was no Masters of the Mountain, and there were no metals to refine. There was only a bridge which kept going. Now, the first decades were rough - the Lilypad Corporation was an upcoming business which started as a family with two naturally-born sorcerers who had not been rounded up for their magic. The family instead bought a big area and planted trees. These trees, dubbed lily trees, were infused with magic from the twin sorcerers, and after a breakthrough which sadly cost the children their lives, the lily trees were perfected: they were extremely tough and just and buoyant. This meant that the bridge could continue despite not reaching the bottom of the ocean, and the city, which was over-worked in the fishing department and lacked work everywhere else, had something to work on again.
Business was booming, and two castes were made: the Planters, also known as the Flower Crown by the common folk due to their perceived pretty but useless roles in society; the Builders, housing everything from bridge constructors to lumberjacks to fishermen and even law enforcement. Law enforcement was the highest tier but still belonged in the lower caste due to their role of enforcer compared to decision makers.
Over the years, almost the entire island was turned into a plantation for these trees to keep up with the demand.
Most insect, fungal, and plant life was constricted to this area and kept under heavy surveillance to keep up the biodiversity, and insect eating birds were immediately exterminated for the safety of the Lily trees.
But even as the centuries passed, the bridge didn't seem to reconnect with the other side, and the green moon shone brightly as the city became self-sufficient and lost track of why it was building this never-ending bridge.
The bridge never got another name than The Bridge, and while it was an infamous part of the culture, as centuries passed, opinions were formed.
The Blaze
About 400 years after the Severance, which was now a distant folk tale, a major fire broke out when a rebellion set the wooden bridge alight. The fire raged for 3 months, and 40 miles of bridge had to be rebuilt. This took two generations, cost over a thousand lives, as the far end of the bridge starved to death, and the tragedy had a profound impact upon the cultural importance of the bridge and the work ethics of the lowest caste, now freed slaves. Thus the light houses were added.
The light houses were a way to keep civil unrest at a minimum - they were both used as traditional lighthouses across the waves as well as watchtowers to light up and overlook the bridge at night and day and worked as an alarm system in case of an accidental fire. It also made the bridge safer for the night shift workers, allegedly.
This new caste of freed slaves was named the Deliverers, but soon was renamed the Spines due to the heavy labour which caused hunched backs and curved upper spines on most adults, and was not much better than their previous life as slaves. The pay was horrific and the children born into the same caste. Now, only people who snitched on rebellions could move up in caste, while being moved from Builder to Spine was far easier, and any clash with the law could end in such a fate.
Along the years, small scale implosions or magical destruction happened on the basis of sorcerer powers awakening and bringing destruction and risking the safety of the many, so the Lily corp. issued an order to round up all sorcerers and bring them in to stabilize them. Most never returned, but some reappeared alive, although they never really seemed like themselves afterwards.
Today's Selot Jie
The city of Selot Jie kept its name for a long period of time, but after a few centuries, this only refers to the island with the plantation on it, while the Bridge itself has a lot of different sections on it - the Rebuilt Blaze District among others.
The Bridge is also completely without greenery, which means that the only edible food is different birds, seafood, and seagrasses. This restricted diet has led to some interesting developments for these people, such as scurvy wiping out a good portion of the city until a mixture of lucky gene mutations and magical transfusions led to the town now being able to to synthesize their own vitamin deficiencies.
The only animals found on the Bridge is birds and fish, although the fish are mostly dead as they are a primary source of food and oil. The beasts of burden are modified birds with strong legs, bad eyesight and very small wings - Orsa birds. Seagulls, penguins, ducks, and osprey are among the common birds seen either on or below the bridge, and any unknown wild bird that shows up by the Bridge is hunted and kept in captivity until a possible mate shows up to add to the biodiversity. This is seen as a sign of good fortune from the Gods, and the people give back by building nests for these birds to use.
These nests sometimes drift out to sea, and very rarely, one makes it back to Selot Vual where the curious wood, now usually plundered and broken, is seen as a divine phenomenon and a good omen.
Most food items are thus either fish, birds, eggs, or seagrass, and these are fashioned into bait for other creatures too, which means whales, sea turtles and other rarities fetch a good price when they are caught.
After the Blaze, slavery was abolished, and the Spines were established. This 3-level caste system has about 5 percent Flowercrowns, 30 percent Builders (of which 20 percent of these are Law Enforcement, called Lanterners), and the last 65 percent are Spines. And while most Spines and Builders work on furthering or maintaining the Bridge, many help with fishing, as lumberjacks, delivery, and other common work as well.
Sorcerers are continuously rounded up, their glister extracted, and their powers rendered non-dangerous, for the safety of the Bridgers and for magical development in society.
One of the most highly valued items on the Bridge is greenery, especially flowers. Pressed or encapsulated flowers fetch a price as high as enchanted items or diamonds would in other places, and fresh flowers are a sign of extreme wealth and status.
The only way to get fresh flowers is by training a bird to fly through the mist and return with one from the other side(and any unknown flower is ripped of seeds to be replanted), or by taking one of the few flowers in the plantation, but picking one of these without permission is sentenced with immediate execution - the explanation being that the flowers are needed for the trees to continue growing healthily. Whether this is true is debatable as magical means are being used to keep the trees healthy.
What the public doesn't know is that the magic used to keep the trees alive is extracted from the magical mist which surrounds the area every Misty Season, and this is regarded as the highest degree of secrecy due to the divine superstition associated with the mist. Whether it is known or not, this has, however, been taking a lot of the magic of the portal, and it is not open for as long as it used to be some few hundred years ago.
Misty Season is also the only time in which scrap, debris, and driftwood appear in the water, and it is the time in which most unknown birds appear, although still rarely.
Misty Season is the season with the most holidays and practices of worship - it lasts approximately 53 days, and is associated with the Gods' blessing of the Bridge and its people.
Along with generally celebrating Misty Season with a Mist Festival on the second day of the Mist, the last day of the Mist also means the return of the strong green glow of Forlenn which has been dimmed by the mist shrouding the city. Thus, both the presence of the Gods on the second day, and the return of the moon's strong glow is cause for celebration, with one being very religiously tied to thanking the Gods and asking favours of them, the natural progression also sees its' gratitude and is usually celebrated at night outside to bask in the moon glow. Many people save a bone from dinner to throw into the water for good luck, and the day after, the fish seem more plentiful for when the fishermen return to work.
On the 16th day of the Mist, it reaches its peak and becomes very hard to see through - on this day, all who work on the Bridge or as Fishermen take the day off and only very few continue working on this day as it is impossible to see much more than a foot in front of you. This day is usually celebrated at home with friends or family, and a big meal is shared along with ghost stories and creepy games to keep the children inside.
Misty Season has also convinced the scholars of the Bridge that the old texts and stories had it wrong - it was not Selot Jie which moved, but rather everything else expanding away from it, as Selot Jie and the Bridge have been in the middle of the Mist for hundreds of years, and thus the world around it must be expanding.
Most armours and hard case materials is usually mollusks, clams, and pearl insets making the Lanterners easy to spot and beautifully decorated. Hardshell Clams are the main resource for strong tools used in a variety of places, as the shell and pearl is ground down and mixed with a Clam extracted goop which glues together and hardens the mixture into whatever shape and tool is needed. From axes to swords to armour plates, this mixture shines in the sun and can withstand most elements it is used against.
Life for the Spines is lived in two halves of a day. One half is work, the other is self-sustaining. Thus, there are two shifts working 'round the clock - the Night shift and the Day shift, named after when the shift starts. Night shift starts in the middle of the night and runs till the middle of the day, where the Day shift takes over. This allows for both shifts to get sunshine and do night or day activities.
Anyone who gets demoted to Spine later in life will have an issue adjusting to this lifestyle for the rest of their life, but when you're born into this caste, you learn to live with it.
Planters and Builders do not have such a rigid way of life - many Builders have a 3-shift day, which allows for more personal versatility and the possibility of School and other such enriching activities, and allows the Lanterners to stay rested and stressless to be able to do their job well.
The Planters, however, have no need for Shifts at all. The top of the food chain and the ones making decisions, their time has no need for such rigid structure. This also makes it tougher to get ahold of them or assassinate them, as their schedules hardly are set in any way, and they seem to appear almost randomly unless a bigger commotion bring them out of their hiding to deal with it as a ruling class should.