Becka's Notes

Afeli is a world of bright skies, sparkling seas and verdant islands. While a few of these islands are large enough to classify as continents none of them are especially large – the largest being a little larger than Australia. Afeli however is also a world of magic which probably explains why some of the islands have been torn from their ocean homes and now float in the sky.

Archipelagos of these Sky Islands are found around the world and all except the smallest of them are inhabited. Some of the people are descended from those who lived there when the magical cataclysm that threw them into the sky happened. Others have found their way there from the surface or are descended from people who did.

Of all the people of Afeli the Sky Islanders are the most technologically sophisticated but lag behind the surface dwellers in magical skill because so much of the ambient magic of their home is tied up in keeping them in the sky leaving less free magic for them to work with.

In spite of this the Sky Islanders have learnt to combine magic with technology to create many wonders. The most extraordinary of which may be their Skyships – ethereal airships which carry passengers and cargo between the Sky Islands or, more rarely, between surface and sky.

Returning to the surface world technological solutions are rarer, not because the peoples of the ground are any less intelligent than the Sky Islanders but because of the abundance of free magic. A niche that magical alternatives won't fill more cleanly and easily than technology is rare. Indeed the surface is so rich in magic that children learn the basic housekeeping cantrips to light a fire, crack an egg, purify water or heal a graze just by watching their parents. More complex magics have to be taught but most people learn a magical trade rather than a mundane one.

One such magical trade is unique to the large island of Isildra which sits in isolation in the Southern Tropical Oceans of Afeli. The nearest significant landfall is over five hundred miles away. Here the flows of magic have interacted with a natural seam of diamonds to create a new gemstone with some unusual properties. Raw Isildran diamonds look just like normal diamonds except for a faint violet glow. They also have a tendancy to catch stray thoughts and images. In the hands of a skilled jeweller, however, one of these magical oddities can become a remarkable artifact.

A memory gem is a piece of jewellery that perfectly records everything its bonded owner – the person it was created for – sees or hears. Almost every Isildran owns one. After all who knows when you might be the victim of a crime or need to prove you did not commit one.

However, remarkable as they are the memory gems have two very big drawbacks that limit their utility.

The first is that an individual can only bond to one gem ever, and secondly in order to extract the memories the stone must be shattered by a jeweller.

For this reason stones are usually only shattered after the Owner's death. Sometimes as part of an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death, and sometimes as part of a funeral ritual so the mourners can share the deceased's memories (more than one family has learnt things they didn't want to as a result of this tradition).

The other common reason for a gem to be shattered is if he owner is accused of a capital crime. The gem will be shattered and the memories observed by the Justices. The owner will be condemned or aquitted by his own memories.

If a ship sails south from Isildra it will, after sailing beneath the shadow of Tarika (the largest of the Sky Islands – a little larger than Britain), eventually reach the Southernmost Islands.

This archipelago straddles the border between the Temperate and Antarctic zones, and at its heart lies Hiral, the third largest island on Afeli. (About the size of India and Madagascar combined).

Hiral's people are magical even by the standards of surface dwelling Afeli, and some have learnt the secret of shifting their shape by bonding with a willing animal (most commonly a wolf but others are not uncommon) which also gains the power to shift.

There are limits however, magic demands balance and harmony. So when one partner is an animal the other must be human and vice versa. Cautionary tales of wily animals trapping their partners in animal form for years while they masqueraded as human abound in Hiral's Folklore. In human settlements strangers are eyed with suspicion lest they not be truly human.

However there is something that concerns the Hirali even more. Something they fear, condemn and try to root out. You see Shifters have a half form that both partners can take at the same time. Sometimes animals and humans 'fraternize' in this form, even though it is a capital crime should it be discovered, and sometimes these unions are fertile. The children share the hybrid form their parents mated in and can breed true with others of their kind. In the forests, mountains and seas of Hiral communities of these beast people thrive inspite of the best efforts of the human Hirali to wipe them out.

Other strange creatures haunt the forests of Hiral and perhaps the strangest of these is the Ekal.

An adult Ekal resembles a large geko in both looks and behaviour, the primary notable difference being the fine layer of fuzz covering its hide making it feel like suede to the touch. Indeed Ekal hide makes a fine leather. However, while Adult Ekal are mostly harmless the species does have a dark and dangerous side. It is only when Ekal mate that the truth is revealed.

The female Ekal digs a hole in the best soil she can find and deposits an egg into it, which the male then fertilizes and buries. The parents then go their seperate ways leaving the egg to develop on its own.

Soon afterwards a green shoot appears from the nest and a plant that resembles a pitcher plant grows, and like the pitcher plant it traps prey to nourish itself though it feeds on magic rather than flesh. The infant Ekal remains a plant for months or even years, and sometimes grows large enough to entrap a human or beastperson. Then, once it has absorbed enough magic from its prey, the pitcher withers away leaving only a corm which is actually a chrysalis from which the adult Ekal emerges.