Draginia

> "It has been said that, far away, there is a floating island in the sky. It is a safe haven for those who find it. It is ruled by just leaders. It is the pinnacle of protection."
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Draginia is a floating piece of land, enchanted long ago by the mermaids, that holds a great sea and has come to be known as a safe haven for all sorts of creatures.

## Brief History

Draginia was not always airborne, but made to become so by an ancient magic set in place by the mermaids and the other creatures of the sea. They cast a powerful spell that would break the land away from the rest of the earth, carrying the sea with it, if a calamity that would destroy the ocean ever struck. Such a calamity occurred in 403 when the sand and soil around the ocean became imbued with a deadly poison that was created by an evil mermaid whose powers became too great for her to control.

Cut off from the rest of the world, the ocean's inhabitants were safe, but isolated. In 512, a dragon named Midnight spotted the floating paradise. Although she had come alone, she soon left and returned with others, dragons and dinosaurs seeking safety from the dangers of their former homes. For a time, dragons, dinosaurs and sea-dwellers lived together peacefully, with only the occasional skirmish over some mermaid's magic or some patch of ocean. The dragons did not call the floating island anything in particular, because the ocean creatures had never named it, and it was theirs. The sea-dwellers had never even named the sea there (if that sea had once had a name, it has long been forgotten, because once the island lifted, that sea was the sea-dwellers' whole world—there were no other seas, no other oceans—and thus no need to name that one), and they only called it "the sea," and so the dragons did, too. However all of the island's inhabitants began to refer to the rest of the earth as "the Underworld," or "the Land Beneath." The first name was introduced by the dragons, exaggerating the fact that the rest of the world held death and danger—much more than their new home did, anyway.

Now the dragons were bringing other creatures whom they knew, and soon many creatures from far away began to come, drawn by the utopia that the island offered them. By then, there were more dragons, and the birds that either visited "the Underworld" from the island, or the ones who visited the island and then returned to the Land Beneath, now began to refer to the floating isle as "Draginia" instead of what they had previously called it—"Sky Sea," or "Mermaid Island" (since the birds, not being aquatic, now saw the dragons more than they saw the sea-dwellers). Land creatures heard stories of the magical safe haven from the birds, and some even got close enough under this mysterious place to see it. If you saw the sanctuary from beneath, you wouldn't see the ocean animals—only dragons occasionally flying out around the island's edge. And so, the name Draginia eventually stuck.

## Topography

Draginia's two most prominent features are the Queen's Plateau and the Sky Sea. Queen's Plateau is a gigantic plateau that is the preferred dwelling place of most of the island's inhabitants, and therefore is Draginia's most crowded area. Next to the plateau is the Sky Sea, the ocean that the sea-dwellers of long ago originally meant to protect when they enchanted Draginia. It is extremely large and houses an innumerable number of ocean creatures.

Towards the southern end of the island, the land is rockier. Here lie the Southern Ridges, which include the Southern Plateau.

On the northeast portion of the island the land has changed drastically with the times. Some centuries it is barren, and called the Desert, while others, when there is more rain, it is full of brush and mosses and is called the Outskirts. In its more hospitable spells, many creatures chose to make their homes here if they don't favor Queen's Plateau.

Over the years, bits of the island around the edge, where the spells were less consistently cast, have broken off and created small islets around and a few feet above the main portion of Draginia. These are referred to as the Railings because, flying towards the island, they look like railings running around it. A few creatures live on the Railings, but very few. These inhabitants range from outcasts banished from Draginian clans, to members of the royal family wishing to claim an islet as their very own luxurious home.