Laputa

## Timeline

PRE-GREAT FLOOD - Inhabitants of the island of Balnibarbi (near India) discover the secret to magnetic levetation, and turn one of their major cities - Laputa - into a floating island. It travels around the Indian Ocean, for the most part.
POST-GREAT FLOOD - Laputa, being a floating island, survives the flood. Indra (the Hindu deity) becomes the king of Laputa, and acts as a protector of the region, slaying the wicked. (Mentioned in Castle in the Sky; "the Ramayana referred to it [the superweapon] as 'Indra's Arrow.'")

~2070 B.C.- Indra leaves Laputa to its people, who discover how to use the superweapon and test it on Sodom and Gomorrah. (Superweapon is also called the "fire from heaven that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament.")

At this point, without any mystical power that Indra had, now turn to science over magic. Over the centuries they discover advanced astronomical, mathematical, and musical principles, but cease their righteous crusades across India and the Middle East. Also, they build robots, like in Castle in the Sky. So, now Laputa is in control of Balnibarbi and various other islands nearby.

1707 A.D. - Lemuel Gulliver arrives on the island, giving the Laputians their first contact with the outside world in centuries. Consumed entirely by their passion for numbers, while forsaking common sense, he takes a disliking to them. After the death of their tyrant king, the Laputians attempt to find the country Gulliver came from, piloting Laputa across Europe to Britain - they've become inspired by his naturalistic lifestyle, and want to immitate it.

Mid-1700s A.D. - The Laputians return to the Earth for the first time in thousands of years, abandoning their castle above the British Isles. They settle in the Highlands of Scotland, founding Gondoa. (Sheeta, descended from Laputians, is from "Gondoa, deep in the northern mountains.") Laputa is left to float aimlessly, becoming a legend.
Late 1800s A.D. - A robot, bearing the Laputian symbol Gulliver copied into his memoirs, falls onto a farm in England. Confiscated by the military.

1918 A.D. - End of WWI. England, seeing the power of aerial warfare, rushes to build an airforce.

1920s A.D. - Many experimental blimps, planes, and propeller-based vehicles are built. Colonel Muska, a British agent, is assigned to the Laputa Mission and attempts to hunt down the flying city after reports pop up of pilots seeing a flying castle.

1932 A.D. (Just to give it a date.) - Gondoa is raided by the British military; a girl, Sheeta (really Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa, heir to the Laputian throne), is taken captive, and her necklace is used to find the castle. She escapes, and lands in a Welsh mining town. With the help of the locals (particularly a boy named Pazu) she escapes air pirates hunting her, but falls back into the military's hands. After the robot (found before) goes berserk and destroys the base where she's being held, she loses her necklace, and General Muoro leads an expedition to Laputa with Air Destroyer Goliath, a war-zeppelin and the pride of the airforce. Air pirates, along with Sheeta and Pazu, follow them. Once there, Colonel Muska (really Romska Palo Ul Laputa, also of the Laputian royal family) destroys Goliath and slaughters all of the soldiers there by using the technology (again, the robots) present on the island. However, by using an ancient Laputian spell, Sheeta and Pazu destroy the island, kill Muska. One of the greatest military disasters in British history. (*Castle in the Sky*.)

1950s A.D. - A Blimp crashes into a clocktower and explodes. (*Kiki's Delivery Service*) This, along with the previous "Laputa Incident," convinces Britain to abandon its non-traditional air fleets.