The Poisoned Planet and the Sky Village of Orinoco

·       -The planet is completely covered in a cloud of poisonous miasma that streams from beneath its crust through fissures- the miasma burns flesh and is poisonous to breathe

o   The planet has not always been covered in poisonous miasma 

§  For as long as the planet’s inhabitance can remember the fissures on the planet have released poison clouds into the air, but only two or three at a time and only once every few years

·      - They developed masks and protective clothing to protect them for the brief time while the air was harmful until the winds could clear it away

§  There was a leader of one of the many villages on the planet who was paranoid that one day more than a few fissures could erupt so he and the only two other leaders who believed him began to prepare for that day; all of the other leaders thought they were stupid and wasting their time

·       -dug around their villages and fit the land with “balloons” that could be filled and used to lift the villages above the toxic clouds

·      - stockpiled all supplies they could need to be sustained for however long it took for the air to clear

o   As it happened, the three leaders were right to plan ahead because one day their fears were realized and the fissured began to erupt the poisonous miasma, covering the whole planet

§  The three leaders and their villages rose above the poison and survived, believing that everyone else was killed

§  Those left behind and unprepared donned their masks and protective clothing

·       -Many died and those who survived were disfigured and damaged

o   Generations passed and their offspring became impervious to the poisonous miasma, changed from the original inhabitance of the planet

o   A deep hatred for those who escaped above the toxic clouds was passed down through the generations of this New Race

o   Formed small tribes  

·      - Three Sky Villages (inhabited by the Old Race) are perpetually suspended above the toxic clouds by “balloons” filled with a buoyant gas that can be continuously replaced thanks to a species of plant native to the planet that changes the breathable air into a weightless gas

o   The three villages in order from largest to smallest are Parrolet, Orinoco, and Kyte

§  Communicate via carrier birds

§  Travel between the villages by glider

§  Do not know of the existence of the poisoned tribes (the New Race) below the toxic clouds