Floes

The Floes are what the peoples of the Drift call the countless floating continents and islands and rocks, that orbit the Core. Few understand the exact mechanics that keep these land masses on afloat, and fewer yet are willing to share this information.

The Floes are generally categorised by their distance to the Core -> the Shells, as well as their size and the stability of their orbits.

Physics
TBD

Habitable Floes
Of all the floes of the drift, only a fraction is permanently habitable. This has two primary reasons:

Stability of the Drift
For any floe to be habitable, it has to follow a stable and predictable orbit. Collisions between floes are rare, but they do occur, and any floe that has even a slight risk of collision will eventually doom its inhabitants. Additionally, it is vitally important that an inhabited floe has at least somewhat regular contact to other floes to scavenge for resources or to trade. An entirely lonely floe will not survive long.

Sufficient Exposure to Light and Water
The Light is not only required for the growth of food crops, its cleansing radiance is crucial for the health of a floe's people. It protects them from the ever-encroaching corruption of the Void. Floes with insufficient exposure will slowly be corrupted and its people will either die or be transformed into monstrous beasts.

Water, coming exclusively in the form of rain from the shells above, is required for all life to flourish.

City States
Due to the unreliability of transport and the constantly changing distances to other floes, the majority of inhabited floes have formed their own systems of governance and are entirely independent of one another. There have been a few attempts to conquer and control an empire, but for the most part, these attempts have lasted only a few rotations or the conquerers simply decided to settle in their new home.

Great Arks
TBD

ships, but really just small floes with ancient propulsion technology. link to proper thing

Uninhabitable Floes
TBD