The world of Una is one of a limitless sky. Countless skylands fly above the Torrent, a sea of clouds, wind, ice, and rain. These skylands grow below the clouds around gemstones containing powerful and unknown magical energy. The gemstones descended from the sky above where during the night billions more of them glimmer in a spectrum of colors. Those glimmering stones in the distance fall for eons toward the surface of the plane of Una. In their descent, they fall onto the skylands, or into the clouds below.
Under the glows where the skylands grow, the gems smash together to form massive magical clusters. The skylands grow around these massive gems. After a near eternity of existence, these gems form dirt, stone, and sand. When they collect enough, they rise to float above the clouds, supported by their magic. Plants find their own ways to seed these skylands. Water pours from their blue gems, and life matures on their surface.
When the gem's energy is fully consumed, they lose the last of their life-giving energy. The skyland can no longer be kept aloft by the energy contained within them, and they drop from the sky into the flesh-ripping winds below like the stones that they are. There they will fall into what is believed to be a bottomless chasm of clouds, storms, tempest, and mayhem. The material that once made that skyland flourish with abundant life is then torn apart, to be returned to the cosmic broil. Once again, in a future time long to pass, that material will find a new gemstone to grow around. This is the cycle of all things in Una. Destined to fall... always chasing the sky.
The life-giving energy of these gemstones have brought into existence a vast array of light. Among the countless skylands of the infinite archipelago, it seems all of them teem with creatures. A few can climb, and some can swim. Many can walk, but most can fly. Some of them work, but few can dream.
The dreamers of Una, the intelligent ones are two-legged and strong. They modify the world around them, making: tools, shelters, fire, and war. Differences in the ways they dream cause differences in the ways they act. In this world of Una, they use the power of the stones they mine from the mountains of the skylands. They manipulate the power within the stones to change their world.
These stones contain enough power to make the skylands stay afloat above the torrent. This power is used to make their vehicles float as well. They convert the buoyant force of the stones into energy used to pump water, which turns gears, to compress plants, that extract fuel, to power their machines. The quality of the lives of the Dreamers are improved by every gem they consume. However, the power of the stones can be used for more than good. When access to power is cheap, some show up to exploit it. The nations of the world of Una control and restrict access to the gemstones that can be found in an hour of layman's work.
Gemin is the name the Dreamers have given the gemstones. The economy of this world is dictated by a flow of gemin mined from the mountains of the largest skylands. Many of the skylands are not large enough to place a single house. However, some are large enough to host civilizations of millions, and occasionally entire nations.
The civilizations that have built their greatest wonders have a vested interest in keeping their skylands aloft. They minimize their impact upon their floating home, by outsourcing the mining of gemin to uninhabited smaller landforms. A skyland will plummet from the sky if its seed gemin, the Skyland Core, is damaged or depleted behind its ability to keep the land it carried afloat. These cores are often massive, with a lifespan relative to their size. The largest of the skylands tend to last the longest.
When a skyland is healthy, the life on its surface is diverse and thriving. The sky is then dense with birds, the ground with liters of new natural predators, and the rivers full of fish with wings. As a skyland dies, its surface becomes barren and dry. The bony, lifeless husk of paradise that once was. With all evidence of its existence erased by wind.
For millennia, people have taken advantage of the wind, differences in altitude, and favorable weather to glide from skyland to skyland with man-made wings. It wasn't long before they learned to care for Longfeathers to travel great distances. Then came sails and aeroships. The dreamers would glide between skylands with wingsuits, around all of their villages, towns, and cities. Nets would hang below the edges to catch them when they fell.
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They began to ride and fly around the infinite archipelago, as far and as wide as their dreams. Only in the last thousand years have the people learned to harness the full power of the gemin. As they researched the powers that the gemin provided, they invented new devices. Gemin Engines converted the Red Gemin's radiant heat into reliable propulsion. Useful without limitation, this technology is now ubiquitous to all of Una. It allows millions to safely travel the world toward centers of trade and commerce. They can see their distant families, take from others, and wage war. As the demand for gemin has increased, so has their value.
There is a myth that the gemin stones, which descend from the sky are children of the Source. At night they twinkle in the sky above in a multitude of colors. Their positions aren't fixed making them unreliable for navigation after a single night. The sky of Una is otherwise empty. No sun, stars, moons, planets, asteroids, or galaxies. There is only one celestial object. There is only the Source.
The Source is an orb that provides illumination in the sky much like a star would. It is a perfect sphere of latent magical energy, said to be radiating a life-giving field. It is large and imposing. It covers a minor, yet unignorable, portion of Una's sky. A hand at arm's length cannot hope to cover it. Daylight from the Source shines as long as a tough day's work. Before night, sirens sound throughout the cities to warn people of the impending darkness. Shortly after, with no natural warning, the Source becomes dark. After an equally long night, the day arrives in a similar way. In instantaneous brightness, like the igniting of a candle, emitting clean and pure daylight.
Daylight is a relief to the captains and navigators traveling between skylands via aeroship. They rely on spotting skylands, and it can be difficult to see through a distant gap in the atmosphere. They rely on measurements, the nearby land, intuition, and luck to make it to their destination. Without daylight this becomes troublesome.
Some pilots chase the falling gemin to fateful destinations. Most of the time they will dart past the skylands into the void of storms below. Rarely, they will strike the ground leaving a small pit where they will rest until they are picked up, or become part of the skyland's geology.
Gemin arrive naturally in a spectrum of colors. Each color has an elemental magical property, an Aspect, related to their color. Red of fire, orange of force, yellow of air, green of growth, cyan of energy, blue of water, magenta of decay, purple of spirit, white of life, and the most dangerous of all; black, the colors of death and the mind.
Gemites, studiers of the stones and users of the powers contained within them, wield the gemin to unleash powerful elemental abilities. Darts of ice and bolts of fire. Arc of electricity and repulsion of projectiles. Instantaneous healing of mortal wounds and a snap of cancerous biology. All of these powers are available to them should they hold a stone of the correct aspect containing enough energy. They consume it, as if a battery, until it is depleted of its magical radiation. After it is depleted, it becomes clear and dead like any other silicate crystal.
Many see this practice as barbaric and cruel. This is because gemin have another use. With the right motivation, a person of keen mind and sound judgment can push the stone into a material of their, or the gemin's, choosing. Once this is done, with the gemin set within its desired material, that material animates. Bringing into the world new life, a kind of golem created by the energy within the gemin stone. This creature, a keygemin, has a will and mind of its own. It often has a willful dedication to its life-bringer, and may serve and protect them until its stone becomes dim, cold, and clear. A valuable companion and a comforting friend.
Keygemin are often grateful for being created. All gemin stones are in a way sentient, and most are destined to a near eternity of thought trapped in the faces of the rock of the skylands. A gemin needs spiritual energy to achieve its true potential. Dreamers, and other creatures of intelligence, have this spirit. Once made into keygemin, they are free to walk or fly across Una. However, keygemin aren't always friendly. Some aspects are predisposed to violent behavior. The more intelligent keygemin are able to better manipulate their environment. Some can communicate, deceive, and disobey.
Keygemites allow gemin to take some of their spiritual energy to manifest as Keygemin. While doing so, they occupy part of their summoner's spirit. Each additional Keygemin manifestation puts stress on the spirit of their possessor. There is a general rule that only three gemin can be possessed by a single person at any given time. This is the "Rule of Triad", and ignoring it will quickly remove the lifeforce of their wielder.
