Cqa

Cqa/ཟྸ [ŋ͡ǂɑ],also known as the "Sincy-Pancake Zone", is an ocean region of Sunshore which sees a constant flow of sky islands from a Formation Zone towards the continent of Cādereu. Basically this is a 1000km long strip densely populated with sky islands mostly over pelagic ocean and the occasional unlucky island in the shadows. It is primarily inhabited by the maicqa diaspora.

Cqa is managed by Sincy and Pancake.

Culture
Main article: Maicqa

Geography & Climate


Cqa geography is constantly changing, being mostly composed of sky islands that move around and fall down and all that. They're usually found in clusters where islands stabilize each other in a tightly knit group because something something drag. Some notable clusters are inhabited by groups of people.

In principle, Cqa is a tropical region. However, because of its elevation, Cqa climate primarily depends on altitude, cloud formations, and turbulence, with no clear seasonal variations. As a rule of thumb, temperature drops 0.7K per 100 metres above the surface, which on average lies around 22°C/292K. Sky islands near the formation zone tend to lie at an altitude of 2800–3200m, above most low-level clouds, particularly since being an ocean region means Cqa clouds have their tops around 1000m lower than their land equivalents. The most prominent Sky islands are often abandoned when they drop too low and become subjects of too much harsh weather; depending on the residents, this means abandoning an average island anywhere between ~1800m (avg. habitable span ~300 years) and ~500m (avg. habitable span ~650 years).

Generally speaking, weather in Cqa is dominated either by a clear sky and scorching sun, yielding average air temperatures around 1°C (3000m) through ~11°C (1500m) and ~15°C (800m), but with potential for up to airtemp+40°C surface temperatures on islands during periods of clear skies and otherwise favourable circumstances. This effectively means air temperatures in islands' immediate areas can heat to around 40°C at most. Likewise, bad weather may cool areas of Cqa to around 0°C, but almost never below zero. Effectively, Cqa's non-altitude-adjusted typical temperature range is 4°C-35°C. The main sources of weather variation in Cqa are fog and rain - the latter most commonly due to nimbostratus clouds. The lack of surface heat sources in the oceans means thunderstorms are exceedingly rare in Cqa - we're not sure why they don't suffer more because of hurricanes but those are also not a common problem.

Biota
A key characteristic of Cqa biota is the relative abundance of flying mollusks, as well as the absence of many terrestrial species.

Cqa fauna is predominantly composed of smaller island-bound creatures and larger airborne creatures. Vertebrate species in Cqa are limited to birds, humans, and whatever fish the aforementioned bring up from the ocean. Most fauna is some form of invertebrate, although specifics vary greatly as many non-avian species only do not spread from island to island at a steady rate, relying on avian species to move them around.

Cqa flora is, much like smaller Cqa fauna, reliant on abiotic propagation or fauna to spread them across islands. Larger flora is rare, the beefiest of trees seldom reaching more than ~3m height, and even then only doing so in forests on large islands. A vast majority of Cqa fauna is related to saltwater algae that hang around the sky island formation zone, with only a few terrestrial species becoming regionally prominent.

Fungi are diverse in Cqa, with some prominent species often completely dominating the islands they populate. Others, not so much. The aggressive nature of large Cqa fungi means they're generally regarded as dangerous to move around, leading to a cultural tendency of "if you want to eat mushroom, you go to the mushroom". There is also a general distinction between large, aggressive fungi and other species. Large fungi are generally not welcome on populated islands.

History
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