Three centuries ago, the world ended.
In a single catastrophic moment now known as the Shattering, the word broke and continents cracked.
What was left was little more then a field of debris: an archipelago of floating islands called Shards, Drifting through an endless, storm-filled expanse of Mist.
The survivors, renaming themselves Driftborn, rebuilt their lives on these remnants of their dead world, learning to navigate the endless sky and the unpredictable Mists that swirl between them.
Life on the Shards is harsh but determined. Communities cling to mountain ridges and cliffside towns, held aloft by resilience and the steady hum of Magitech engines powered by volatile Noxis.
Harvested from the Mists, this shimmering energy fuels airships, factories, automobiles, lanterns, and entire cities.
Yet the Driftborn can never forget that the same arcane force once tore their world apart.
The Mists themselves are alive with danger.
When Noxis gathers, it twists into Sliverstorms: ever-present, violent magical tempests that can rise at any time, ranging from minor disturbances to catastrophic forces capable of sweeping a Shard clean in moments.
Entire generations have lived in fear of them, always prepared: watching the clouds, listening for the shift in the wind, and praying the warning bells ring in time.
Magic, once common, is now a shadowed thing. Those born with natural arcane talent are blamed of causing the Shattering, persecuted, the evil Witchkin are feared and hunted.
Ruins of the Ancients are shunned, their arcane artifacts destroyed. Their knowledge forbidden. In its stead, a renaissance of new steam technology and precision clockwork automatons drive society’s progress.Â
The recent invention of Magitech promises even more advances: finally Noxis can be controlled and safely.
The Shattering forced the first survivors into absolute dependence on one another, and that desperation shaped everything that followed. Communities survived only through strict rules, shared labor, and unwavering cooperation.
Three centurties later those habits became cultural bedrock:Â Driftborn society prizes order over freedom, stability over risk, and collective survival over individual desire.
Progress is forged through discipline, labor, and sacrifice. People grow up knowing that comfort is earned, not given.
Society is held together by those willing to work, endure long hours, and follow the rules that keep their communities functioning.
Routine is sacred, order is expected, and those who fall out of line are seen as potential dangers to the fragile balance of Shard life.
To maintain order across the skies and shards, the Union of Caldera oversees trade, diplomacy, and law in the Archipelago.Â
Their authority reaches far, enforced through their investigators and Compliance agents.
But with distance wanes power, and remote Shards often only feel the Union’s grip when it tightens.
Driftborn is a world under pressure.Â
Pressure from the sky, from the government, from history, from society, from the past.
It is a world of difficult choices, fragile trust, clouded morality and communities clinging to survival against forces they barely understand.
A world waiting for someone brave enough to face the storm.
