During the Age of Archons, the greatest of the Firstborn, those who became the archons, ripped huge slabs of rock from the earth and set them by strange magic into the air to serve as floating bases. The first of these floating islands was Kawe, now one of the smaller floating lands but still fabled for its antiquity. Soon other Firstborn acquired the secret to rip islands into the sky and within one hundred years most of the great islands of the present age were formed.

These islands range from the tiny: a quarter mile or less to the immense, over 800 miles across. Islands float above the earth in spheres or shells separated by about ten miles. Within a shell all islands move at the same rate of rotation about the same axis but shells move at progressively slower speeds the higher they are so from shell to shell, islands do not remain in fixed positions. Archons generally moved their islands near each other within a single shell so that they remained in proximity and could support each other. These island constellations remain to this day.

Moving Islands

During the Age of Archons, the Archons moved the islands through magic now lost to those still on Ophir. With this magic, they heaved the earth into the heavens and could move the islands between the shells and within the shells. Moving anything larger than a fraction of a mile across took months or even years but small fragments could move as fast   as a mile an hour and were sometimes used as missiles in the early part of the Age of Archons although the archons soon developed countermagics that ceased that practise.

Little is known about how the archons moved their islands except that the magic required a quicksilver and a special control rod of great power. These were usually protected within a fortress that served as the residence of the archon when on that island.

To common knowledge, no island has moved under control since the Ascension.

Movement Between Islands

Winged creatures can sometimes glide from an island in an upper shell to a lower one if the alignment is right although since the price for misjudging this maneuver is death, it is not often undertaken. During the age of archons, the small islands were set in motion by the archons in loops or arcs that allowed them to be used as ferries. The island would continue these circuits without intervention of the archons. Of course, the archons would also use the small fortress islands as battle transports under their active command as well. None of the " circuit islands" are still active in the current age all islands move in concert within their shell.

Additionally, the archons created portals within their domains to link their islands. These portals were always heavily guarded by fortifications or within mines. Larger islands had several portals and the largest many portals. Connectivity within an archon's domains was generally good. Between allied archon domains, there would be one or no portals and to hostile or neutral domains none at all. Many  of these portals are still active although one or more typically fail for unknown reasons every year. Those who spend their time understanding and transiting the portal network are known as travellers, an informal group of thrillseekers. Those who search for lost portals are a separate breed called pathfinders. Many pathfinders are unorganized but there are several pathfinder guilds, among them the Radiant Pathfinder's Guild and the Knowers of the Ways.

Today, in addition to the portals, there is the service of the Bargehounds. The Bargehound's floating wooden platforms provide the only practical connection beyond the remaining portal networks.

The World Surface

The Archons heaved much of the surface of the world into the heavens to make their islands. The larger islands left huge scars of boiling lava lakes. Many lakes are still entirely or partially molten although others scabbed over or completely solid now. These huge lava lakes boiled the waters of the world so that now the world and the lower shells of islands are cloaked in eternal clouds.

The parts of the world not rendered molten are now seathing jungles dimly lit by the sun. Even archons not eager to wound the earth found it necessary to move their people into the heavens in order to free them from these clouds.

The Islands

Ripped from the earth, the islands have the same features they had when on the ground except for the craters caused by collisions with other islands in the earlier years of the Age of Archons. Island edges end abruptly forming immense cliffs hundreds feet (on the smallest islands) to several miles high (on the large islands). The biggest islands have great rivers that pour off their surface to form long trains of mist (no waterfall can fall the miles to the next lower shell intact). When on of these mist trains from a great river traces over a lower island, it receives a rainfall heavier than any natural downpour and capable of flattening buildings not properly constructed. Predicting these deluges is a minor branch of knowledge all to itself.

The lower two shells are entirely within the cloud layer. The third lowest shell is frequently clouded. The upper layers move in and out  of cloud banks which provide ran or snow.

Climate is determined by latitude (proximity to the north or south poles).

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