Kiston Isle Meteoroid

Floating through space, this water covered meteoroid contains 6 islands that surround the central motherboard that connects them through thick wires full of data. It's a post-apocalyptical setting roaming with cyborgs, remnants (cybernetic creatures), and augmented humanoids.

About

Shaped like a giant pool on top of an upside down pyramid, K.I.M. (the Kiston Isle Meteoroid) contains 6 islands in it's pool with a manmade mechanical island Motherboard built at the center, a hub for the network for that connects each of the islands through thick wires that anyone can connect to in order to send messages, retrieve data, and send information into the system. Despite each of the islands having their own leadership and development, they are all connected and in agreement and partake in the protection and upkeep of Motherboard, at least until the attack of the Sonrise Coalition, which crippled her during the events of the Sonrise.

The six islands are Caskin, Cof, Oakist, Ossuary, Pillbo and Sheil.

On the water between the islands are floating cities and skimmers, both of which are large mechanical vehicles that move over the water nomadically and are capable of traveling from each of the islands and connecting to the network for trade and commerce. The largest of these "cities" is the Library, a knowledge center, and the Resupply, a criminal center for getting jobs, information, and scrap.

At the time of the Sonrise, these islands have entered a state of disrepair. With only what was available on the meteoroid as of the time of the destruction of Quelmar, the whole of K.I.M. relies on scrapping what buildings, vehicles, and the remnants that roam there. Humanoids have evolved into augmented creatures, taking the technology around them and building it into their bodies to advance them.

History

What was once a group of islands that were surrounding the famed Island of Kiston, which sunk, they were left to deal with a giant whirlpool at it center that was gradually pulling the isles closer together. Then, the war to end all wars occurred and as the pieces of Quelmar itself were scattered across the universe, the pressure from the whirlpool held those islands together and K.I.M. was born.

While there were some drastic changes to what was formally the orbiting isles, they were thankful to have lost the whirlpool at their center and now instead were six islands sitting in a pool with a space at their center.

Scientists and developers from the advanced island of Cof felt that the best way to connect their islands in the stillness of their new pool was to put a hub owned by no one by itself there, that let them all communicate and interact without having to put anything into the space above them, finding that atmosphere surrounding their meteoroid wouldn't support the satellites that formally provided the Network. They built the Motherboard with what scrap they could find, emptying what was left of the ceiling of the underdark was left on the bottom of the meteoroid first.

Once Motherboard was built and the network built into her, they spread her wires out to each island on large spires, as well datawells for people to bring their information to share freely and for others to use to access the data.

Top Down View of the Kiston Isles Meteoroid

De-Salination of K.I.M.

K.I.M.'s oceans initially provided an abundant source of the salt that served as the substrate for its large-scale, holographic, information storage systems. These encoded their data -- written by coherent laser pulses and read via low-energy optical interrogation -- into the phase and polarization of photons trapped within nanoscale salt lattices.

This setup provided built-in redundancy, and salt offered several advantages over the older quartz-based systems including:

• abundance,
• high data density by volume,
• radiation resistance, and -- crucially,
• continual repair of nanoscale defects through salt's self-healing recrystallization properties.

Although the oceans still maintained significant salinity once K.I.M. became capable of manufacturing salt at the molecular level, the relative expense of such processes meant they would not take over as the primary source of new storage production until desalination was no longer viable.

The Islands

Caskin

Leader: Luxor, a fungril in the North / Vatican, an Infernis in the South

Dominant Ancestry: Fungril and Infernis

Rebuilt Guardian: Arach-Empyrean (decommissioned)

Northern Caskin is a lush and vibrant rainforest where the trees are so densely packed that the lack of sunlight and moisture from the overtly damp soil is the perfect breeding ground for fungus and fungril alike. Many prominent Fungril tribes have taken up there, including the Gravekeeper Tribe, notable family of Blue. Most of these peoples are nomadic and have a healthy trade relationship with the fishers to the North shore. Their main tension lies with the city to the South and how frequently they attempt to stretch their border into the wild jungle.

Central Caskin contains more of a deciduous forest, maintained and manicured by those in the South with oversight from those in the North. It is a bit of a No Man's Land and serves as home to many refugees from the South, as well as thieves' guild and smugglers.

Southern Caskin evokes a beautiful stone city, built to give an appearance of opulence and wealth, but overgrown at the demand of the KIM government, to produce as much vegetation as possible within their city. At the center of their city is a great colosseum who's fights and entertainment sit outside the government's oversight. Years of training and selective breeding alike provides Tenochtitlan, the keeper of the gladiatorial forge himself, with fighters generation after generation. This was the upbringing of Kranik, the first of the Gargantris (Giant-Infernis) bred for the sport. There are four kinds of people who live in the city of Southern Caskin: the high society gamblers and champions, the middle class fighters and their families, the lower tier workers who keep the city running, and the farmers who grow protein-rich crops to the Southwest in Caskin's rich soil. A revolution against the breeding programs and treatment of the lower class was attempted, but quickly squashed by the upper class and their government connections.

Cof

Leader: Persepolis, an augmented elf

Dominant Ancestry: Drakona and Galapa

Rebuilt Guardian: (Not yet discovered)

Formally well known for being the original home of the network and eventually the home of the creators of Motherboard, it is now overthrown by the terrorist group known as the Sonrise Coalition and they have restarted the ancient forge for creating clanks and hosts The Son, the second entity to host the network, which is giving sentience to the Clanks who were just empty shells with no personality, only following directives. When their former leader, Cairo, was killed, his protege, a technological wizard called Persepolis, stepped into his place.

Oakist

Leader: Susa, a muskin

Dominant Ancestry: Muskin (mouse folk) and Gnomes

Rebuilt Guardian: (Not yet discovered)

More information to come

Ossuary

Leader: Aleppo, a half-remnant who resembles a griffin, but has an elf top half, like a centuar.

Dominant Ancestry: Humans and Half-Remnants (Humanoids who have augmented remnants onto themselves as a rite of passage)

Rebuilt Guardian: (Not yet discovered)

More information to come

Pillbo

Leader: Plovdiv, a tiger katari

Dominant Ancestry: Katari

Rebuilt Guardian: (Not yet discovered)

More information to come

Sheil

Leader: Byblos, a firbolg

Dominant Ancestry: Elf and Firbolg

Rebuilt Guardian: (Not yet discovered)

More information to come