I was thinking of Schismatrix (I love that book so much I think about it often) and the ship called Red Consensus. It's just a miner spaceship with maybe 6 or 8 crew members and Sterling made it quite comic by calling them a nation-state (the Fortuna Miners' Democracy) and the captain would double as prime minister and the life on board was all about government protocol. Really funny stuff. Made me think it could be fun to have a skyland the size of a football field but with the power structure/military organization of a significant sized one. I'm not sure I'm making much sense.

Is there a weight limit? I mean, the more people, buildings and goods you pile on, does the island get lower?

That could be fun indeed, boulet! A very small skyland with a small population.

-clash

Yes, but it would be a pretty high limit. Dirt, trees, and people all weigh down the floating stone.

-clash

When I was designing Pigboats, I kept narrowing the focus, until it was just American Officers in the Pacific War. Then it felt right.

Avian Knights is going in the opposite direction, rapidly. Enough so that the AK of the title are just a fraction of what I am working with. The ships right now are much farther along, thanks to Levi Kornelsen, who has had some purely awesome ideas. There is also some new concepts, like claiming and guarding a chunk of mountain range in case it rips loose and floats away. There's going to be a whole alchemy based magic, because while people cannot make magic of themselves, the world has magic they can use. Which means getting raw materials from the ground is vital. Which means that there has to be a whole other avian group focused on getting stuff from the ground. Hell, even dirt for terracing is useful, and ships can't go down that far! What I'm thinking is that only a certain few become Knights. Those birds and people who cannot be knights can still perform important and exciting, game-able services.

So - floating castles carved from living floatstone, chained to the mountain range and supplied from half the world away, waiting for mountains to rip themselves out of the earth and fly away. Great shipstone keeled carriers, letting loose squadrons of knights mounted on giant birds, spreading their enormous sails and arcing away. Foragers in the world beneath, searching for precious garberries and waxwort, and finding instead ancient ruins draped in verdant green vines in the misty jungle light, as the pools shiver with the tread of great monsters.

So - I'm looking for a better title.

-clash

Mountain Ballet


Ok I'll think a little more

Scenario instant idea:

So we've got this tiny skyland right? The one that's no bigger than a couple of football fields. Well they've welcomed a significant influx of refugees last week. Given that most of them lost everything and are poor they settled in the shanty town, at the south end* of the skyland. But now they reached a critical mass and the skyland threatens to capsize. Surely the authorities have to take measures before people and furniture start falling. How will the PCs solve this problem? Will they convince the rich to welcome a few refugees on their end? Will they start a campaign to get rid of the immigrants?


* mmmmh I guess I should find better than South since skylands can spin

Ha! Very cool and unorthodox scenario, Boulet! This would be fun to run!

-clash

Hmmm. Word Association Brainstorming - let's see where this goes:
Floating stone. Floating mountains. Stone Air Balloons. Mountains --> Balloons = Montgolfier. Les Iles Montgolfier? (probably too literal in French).

Floating mountains. Clouds. Stone clouds. Cumulolithos. The Knights of Cumulolithos. The Towers of Cumulolithos.

Sky. Danger. Stratosfear (that's an album by Tangerine Dream).
Stone. Sky. Lithosfear. Lithosphere (that's not bad - Stone + Atmosphere). Settlers of the Lithos. Knights of the Lithos?

Some random thoughts:
Seems to me the buildings made of stone would have to be carved, or else would come apart. Most buildings would have to be made of wood, sod, or otherwise.

What stops the mountains from continuing to rise higher into space? Are they anti-gravity, or simply made of rocks that are lighter than air? If the latter, there may be layers of heavy air (that the mountains float upon) and light air (that they can't rise above).

If you can have keelstones in ships, you should be able to have personal keelstones, too. Say a floating backpack. So why ride birds? Faster and more manoevrable probably, but some people would undoubtedly self-propel.

Oooh! I like Lithosphere! I know it is currently in use for the shell of rock around the mantle - the crust and upper mantle - but physics are different in this new world. Currently I'm toying with "Into the Lithosphere"...



Yes - if you cut floatstone away from its matrix, it will float away. Not all stone is floatstone - I'm thinking I should limit it to metamorphic rock, which is changed under pressure. Ores as well will not float, as they are too heavy.



I have been going with lighter than air, so they will get to a point where they cannot rise any further, an equilibrium, depending on the pressure and the mass supported. If they are supporting little or no extra mass, they may float right out of the atmosphere.



You can certainly make small boats out of bits of shipstone/keelstone. They are absolutely necessary, in fact. They do have limitations, though. They tend to seek their equilibrium point, which varies according to the mass carried. You can drive them up and down using sails, but only within a fairly narrow band around their equilibrium point. Ejecting mass raises their equilibrium point, and in small boats, small changes make proportionately big differences, so no pissing off the side, mate! They are clumsy compared to the birds. Shipstone/keelstone is rare and expensive, unlike floatstone. Floating at the mercy of the winds is cheap, but being able to steer is expensive.

-clash