The Mist Sea
A boundary layer of thick mist drifting perpetually at the midpoint between The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm.
A Space Called the Boundary Curtain
Located exactly midway between The Canopy Isles and The Root Realm, a space where thick mist drifts in perpetuity. Aether Crystal buoyancy and the mycelium network interfere with each other here, subtly warping physical laws.
Inside the mist, direction becomes indeterminate and Aether Communication Sphere resonance is disrupted. Ancient texts refer to it as "the Boundary Curtain," and the prevailing theory holds that it did not exist before The Great Fall. Root Realm elders say: when the world that was once one was torn apart, mist was born as the scar of that tearing.
Smuggling Routes and a Lawless Zone
The Mist Trading Company exploits this mist as cover for smuggling routes — effectively a lawless zone beyond the reach of both the Canopy Council and the Root Realm Federation. The ruins of pre-Great Fall Canopy cities are said to drift in the mist's depths, but very few have successfully explored them.
Shimobe instinctively fear this mist. Simply approaching the edge causes them to scatter from their group and exhibit strange circling behavior. What they are sensing remains unexplained.
Clearings and the First Visual Contact Between Civilizations
The Mist Sea's physical thickness varies by location and season. In the thinnest spots, visibility opens dozens of meters, and "clearings" occur where the silhouettes of both The Canopy Isles' islands and The Root Realm's surface can be seen simultaneously. It is said that through such a clearing came the first moment when the two civilizations visually confirmed each other's existence.
The Death Zone Called Floating Water
There is a phenomenon inside the mist called "floating water." Mist particles grow larger than ordinary water droplets, absorb Aether particles, and drift suspended against gravity. Anyone who contacts this floating water is known to completely lose their sense of direction — virtually everyone who has been stranded in The Mist Sea has strayed into a floating water zone. Mist Crosser guides call floating water zones "the drowning sky" and instinctively memorize paths that avoid them.
At The Mist Sea's base — near The Root Realm's surface — the mist thins and special strata containing Obsidian Aether Ore are exposed. Mining this stratum is one of the Mist Trading Company's primary revenue sources.
The Mist Sea changes character by season. In warm seasons the mist thins and visibility opens, and Shimobe activity becomes lively. In cold seasons the mist condenses, and large Mistfish gather near the Floating Ruins. This seasonality is the single greatest factor determining the Mist Trading Company's smuggling schedule.
Related elements
- Nenoka, Holy City of the Root— A subterranean holy city in the deepest reaches of The Root Realm, where the mycelium network's core is concentrated.
- Rakuen, Sky Trade City— A commercial hub flourishing as the trade center of The Canopy Isles. Official trade with the Root Realm Federation also passes through here.
- The Canopy Isles— A cluster of floating cities kept aloft by Aether Crystals. Composed of 12 major islands and countless smaller ones. The largest island, Chuten Island, houses the parliament hall and the great library.
- The Floating Ruins (Fwarei Archives)— A collection of ruins — fragments of ancient Canopy cities destroyed by The Great Fall — drifting in the upper layers of The Mist Sea.
- The Root Realm— A subterranean civilization spreading across sunless lands. Information and life force are shared through the vast mycelium network "Memory of the Earth."