Nick James's Blog - Posts Tagged "skyship-academy"

Pearls: A celestial energy source, appearing on Earth as glowing green orbs. One Pearl can power a mid-sized Skyship for approximately ten weeks, a Chosen City for eight. Energy is extracted and stabilized via specialized reactors. Origin unknown.

The Unified Party: A union of the country’s three major political parties, forced to work together after the destruction of the Scarlet Bombings. Freed from the usual checks and balances, their motives are suspect.

Skyships: Initially created to ease overpopulation, these vessels now hover in America’s stratosphere and form the Skyship Community. Running on Pearl Power, they can be as small as a multi-level complex (the Academy), or as large as a city (Polaris, Atlas).

The Surface: Split between the Unified Party-controlled Chosen Cities and the harsh landscape of the Fringes, few Skyshippers make the dangerous journey down to the Earth’s surface.

Chosen Cities: After the destruction of the Scarlet Bombings, fifty cities were chosen to be outfitted with protection against the dangerous conditions on the Surface. Densely packed with exiles from all over the country, residents of these cities must pay the expensive Environmental Tax.

The Fringes: Any portion of the country outside of the government’s Chosen Cities. Essentially a desert, the temperature never falls below triple-digit and will often climb into the 120’s (Fahrenheit). It is a lawless wasteland populated by those too poor or dangerous to gain access to the Chosens.

Pearlhounds: Government operatives sent from the Unified Party to collect Pearls that land on the Surface. They are often at odds with Skyship agents. Students are trained from adolescence for this important--and dangerous--job.

Bio-nets: Man-made ozone layers that protect the Chosen Cities from the blazing heat of the Fringes. A series of magnetic connectors forms what looks like an upside-down butterfly net that regulates the temperature and weather patterns of the Chosens, providing comfort and stability for those within.

Atlas: One of the larger Skyships, and the community’s “capital city.” It is home to the Tribunal, who oversees Skyship government. The ship itself hovers symbolically over the ruins of Washington D.C.

Scarlet Bombings: Named for the red clouds resulting from the strikes that decimated America’s six largest metropolitan areas in the year 2073. The resulting chemicals wreaked havoc on the country’s climate and created the wasteland known as the Fringes. No faction claimed responsibility for the bombings, though a counterstrike on all known terrorist-harboring countries was ordered by the government.