Shimobe

The Third Species Living in the Middle Sky

Shimobe are a third species belonging to neither The Canopy Isles nor The Root Realm. They have thin membrane wings on their backs and fly freely through the Middle Sky — the space between the lower edge of The Canopy Isles and the surface of The Root Realm.

Both civilizations call them "the bat-people." Having no formal trade routes, many earn their living through smuggling, information brokering, and mercenary work. Yet Shimobe elders assert: "We are guardians of the Middle Sky, watchers of the balance between sky and earth."

The Most Sensitive to Great Fall Omens

Shimobe are the most sensitive to the omens of The Great Fall, possessing the ability to "read with their bodies" changes in Middle Sky air currents. In recent years, Shimobe leaders have been urging both civilizations to prepare for The Great Fall, but they are dismissed by both sides as "using it as a business excuse."

Origins and Adaptive Evolution

Various theories exist about how Shimobe came to settle in the Middle Sky. The most widely told holds that people displaced into the "middle sky" — neither ground nor canopy — during The Great Fall adapted and evolved. Wings are said to be the product of rapid evolution over three generations, but such rapid morphological change is biologically difficult to explain; the Great Fall Research Institute is examining the hypothesis that biological fusion with Aether Crystals promoted wing development.

The Social Structure Called "Air-Current Clans"

Shimobe society is divided into small groups called "air-current clans," each holding a particular air current zone as territory. Conflicts between groups are often over control of air currents; attachment to an air-current zone is stronger than blood ties. Clans with zones bordering The Mist Sea have deep ties to the Mist Trading Company, and their activities are sometimes exploited in conflicts between the two civilizations.

Shimobe instinctively fear The Mist Sea, but the nature of that fear is difficult to understand from outside. Some Shimobe elders describe it as: "There are voices in the mist. Something that is not air current is moving." Multiple cases have been recorded of Shimobe who lingered near The Mist Sea returning with their sanity impaired — testimony suggesting that some form of intelligence may exist inside The Mist Sea, which the Great Fall Research Institute continues to investigate.

Shimobe language has its own vocal system distinct from both Canopy and Root Realm tongues — many phonemes mimic the sounds of air currents, making it difficult for Canopy or Root Realm people to learn. Yet Shimobe themselves acquire both civilizations' languages from childhood. To live as intermediaries, thinking in the other's language is indispensable.