The Shard Isles

Seven generations ago the moon broke. For forty nights its pieces fell. People still call those nights the Long Fall. Where a shard struck, the land tore loose and rose into the sky. These floating islands are the Shard Isles.

Below them lies the Drop, a sea of cloud. Above them the broken moon still hangs in the sky, in nine large pieces and countless small ones. Small shards still fall now and then. That is a skyfall, and its colour tells what kind of shard it is: red for Ember, green for Root, violet for Mist, silver-blue for Iron.

People travel between the islands in skiffs, flying boats with sails that ride the currents of shardlight. They pay in silver coins. On the poorest islands at the edge of the map, water is combed out of the fog with nets.

The islands are grouped by kind. The Cinder Chain is volcanic, the Green Reach is a land of hanging forests, the Veil Isles lie in the fog of the outer rim, and the Anvil Heights are mountain islands full of the ruins of old cities.