Isly Syn
Home? Home isn't something you find. Home isn't a place, it isn't a building, it isn't the hearth on a cold winter's night. It isn't a some city, some nation. Home is where you feel it needs to be, a place where you feel wanted, welcomed. It isn't ever where you expect it to be, its were you see your dreams grow. It is where you have made your mark, lesser or greater. But not the marks you think that matter, its always in the hearts of the ones around you. Home is home. ~Excerpts from the Faith of the Fae.
Geography
A gently rolling continent that reminds you of a place you've seen thousands of times, yet never truly looked at. Filled with numerous valleys with streams gushing from the hillsides. A picturesque place to raise a village, in its pleasantly warm climate. A facsimile of an ancient world, from before a time that knew hardship. Isly Syn is a not quite metropolitan place, one that was meant to comfort and house the masses.
Much of the floating continent bears this moniker; all streams eventually lead to the Ever Stream. The Ever Stream acts ostensibly as a ring around the landmass that recollects the waters to redistribute them back into the continent's interior. As such, Isly Syn resembles a large hill in its own right, as all watersheds eventually lead back to the continent's edge.
Isly Syn is in fact a point-by-point recreation of the capital city on Soltuaire, Grande Sol. This large eroded mountain had been stripped down to its bones over eons of the Children of Syn living there. As such, it has been much reduced from its former glory, where once a grand city lay claim to every inch of the earth, now stand villages and gardens. A former Ecumenopolis, now turned into a thousand small stands where the majority of the Faeries call home.
Ecosystem
As like all of Isly, or for that matter the Elsewhere in general, the climate is artificial. Though the control of the Operations still dictate the ecological cycles as they are needed, Isly Syn is unique for its place in the Elsewhere. As the Faeries wanted a place to be reminded of the home they lost, they are given a much greater freedom for the weather. Most days are sunny and warm, with Mediterranean coastal humidity owing to the innumerable streams that flow across the land.
Many of these hills are filled with the colors of fire, owing thanks to the Faeries' propensity for beauty in all things. Marigolds, Fire Orchids, Sun Flowers, and poppies stretching in all directions. This continent isn't meant for food production or balancing the natural laws of The Pocket, it has and always will be a home for the Children to live. Though that hasn't stopped the Children from enjoying the sheer amount of honey harvested from the private apiaries nearly every home maintains. Though more conventional crops are grown here for the variety, or in many more cases, rare and unique species are allowed to live in the Faeries' gardens.
The air is predominantly calm across the entire continent, though thermals do appear daily from the dark stone hillsides that harken back to the days of old when the Faeries would ride the thermals on Soltuaire. A simple joy that they enjoy to this day, as they can be found flying at all altitudes of their sunny homeland. Landing from cobblestone footpaths, to rooftops built from the same dark stone of the hillsides.
History
Many would call this an idyllic place, though that was not without much planning and sacrifice on the part of Anlyth, First Son of Syn. When the continent was first being formed by Alnya, she noticed that sorrow in Anlyth's mind as he struggled to create the sun for them. She formed the continent in the image of his home world, in hopes that he might find some peace in the familiar. She could at least do this for him, for all the Faeries who had lost their Goddess.
To be given the home they were forced to flee from, once more. Though, Alnya struggled to give them the climate that they would recognize as such. After the Operations were completed, many of the Children wished to find rest, and were more than delighted to find that their home worlds were recreated by the Goddess. She attempted to maintain the climates of those worlds, though a precedent was set by the Fledgling Gods. They themselves would maintain that aspect of their gifts, as such, Anlyth himself expends portions of his Divine Spark to maintain that familiar feeling.
A fact that she found bittersweet, increasingly she began to feel less and less needed as the continents were coming together. As her Son and her Nephews took more and more responsibility from her. Though this was spoken about to her many times, she still felt the failure in all this. That this gilded cage she had made for them was still just that, a cage. For their safety, yes, but these gifts were still nothing in comparison to the genuine articles. Inadvertently, there is a melancholic, nostalgic air about the Sunflower fields.
The continent named after their fallen Goddess, Syn. Where Isly in the language of the Elder Fae roughly translating to sanctuary, though more specifically land that is sanctified.
Tourism
To journey here would be a delight for any who would find their way to the floating Isle! The Faeries, wishing this to be their home, made every move to make it such. Lilting music played from every open doorway, to the vibrant colors painted on every wall. To tiled mosaics of their streets, to the grand stonework of their Cathedrals. The scent of their food wafts throughout every village square, spicy and savory, as citrus and clove are staples in their cuisine. Fond of foods that fill the heart as much as the stomach, pastas, breads, and the unfortunately rare cuts of cured meats can be found on nearly every table.
Though the one thing that stands as the champion of the Faeries culture is their fire mead! A spicy and sweet honey wine that changes from household to household. Each family having their own recipe, and not a single one similar to the next! A bottle of the house special to be found in every wine rack, decorating every table worth sitting at to admire the flower fields. To sip and savor as they watch the sun set over their hills, to ponder as the stars wink into existence for the day's rest.
Alternative Name(s)
The fields of sunflowers
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