How/Why are the islands floating in Heavensward + The Aery?

I'm surprised I haven't seen a thread about this. Or I might have just missed it. This was honestly the first question that came to my mind when entering the new heavensward zones like Churning Mists and Sea of Clouds. I have kept my eyes open for any possible hints to it ingame but I either missed it or there hasn't been any information about it.

And before going with "It's magic/fantasy world." I'd like to point out that the floating islands seem to hint that they either were one large entity.

Churning Mists

Structures and Islands are showing roads that lead to another higher/lower/distant island. Add to that, that floating parts of the building structures are sometimes seen spread around. And then there's the occasional vision of the past that show things very much intact. (examples: The cutscene with the knights of Ishgard after Nidhogg's defeat. Or Nidhogg + Hraesvelgr their conversation.)

Sea of Clouds

Less of the above, but there's a moogle head-shaped island to the north. Which the sightseeing log, hints that moogle might have been the cause for raising this thing in the sky.

Things that both have in common

Crystal like structures below the islands and in the case of Churning Mists, it visibly sticks out in some places above ground.

The Aery

I don't know if anyone noticed the pieces of Allagan debris near the last part of the instance. It really makes one wonder about the entire conflict between Dragons and Allagans. Perhaps they are also linked to the cause of all the floating islands and Azys Lla.

This is mostly me asking the lore community if there are other pieces of information or hints that I might have missed.

I had assumed that it was due to wind aspected aether. Just as the pools in Voor Sian Siran are generated by water aspected crystals. If you look at the bottom of a lot of the "islands", there are green crystals.

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Originally Posted by ShoeVsYou

I had assumed that it was due to wind aspected aether. Just as the pools in Voor Sian Siran are generated by water aspected crystals. If you look at the bottom of a lot of the "islands", there are green crystals.

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Mostly this. Sea of Clouds is wind aspected and Churning Mists is lightning aspected. Thats also why they have unique umbral weather, overaspected aether.

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Originally Posted by ShoeVsYou

I had assumed that it was due to wind aspected aether. Just as the pools in Voor Sian Siran are generated by water aspected crystals. If you look at the bottom of a lot of the "islands", there are green crystals.

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Originally Posted by MercuryD

Mostly this. Sea of Clouds is wind aspected and Churning Mists is lightning aspected. Thats also why they have unique umbral weather, overaspected aether.

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Hmm, still those explanations give little actual information and feels like it's just the "It's magic/fantasy world". While I have the firm impression that those lands either belonged on the ground once. Or were one giant floating continent. But that still leaves the question as to why and how such a continent ends up flying in the sky. And why the allagans felt like artificially recreating them in Azys Lla. Which seems to hint that the Allagans lifted (random?) pieces of land.

I know that we can all agree that those aether/crystals are what are keeping the islands afloat. But those islands must have come from the ground at some time. One does not simply create land out of thin air, stick some crystals below them and have the aether suspend them in air.

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Originally Posted by Vydos

I know that we can all agree that those aether/crystals are what are keeping the islands afloat. But those islands must have come from the ground at some time. One does not simply create land out of thin air, stick some crystals below them and have the aether suspend them in air.

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Well, that's all we really have at present. It's still unknown as to when it happened, but at some point the crystals beneath those pieces of land went "wild", raising the masses to where they float now. The Allagans replicated this themselves with their somethingsomethingpropulsionsystems in order to create a safe environment in which to conduct their research, I imagine.

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Originally Posted by Vydos

While I have the firm impression that those lands either belonged on the ground once. Or were one giant floating continent.

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Of course they were part of the ground once. That's how geology works. Before we understood how mountains were formed on Earth, I'm sure we looked at them as magic or hand-made by God. We aren't told exactly how they started floating, but I am certain it has to do with the elemental crystals literally lifting the land out of the ground. In regards to them being one landmass, I remember a side quest or one of the sightseeing entries in the Churning Mists said that the land was devastated during the beginning of the Dragonsong War. This may imply that the islands were connected, and split during the conflict.

Also, I don't think anyone could argue that Azys Lla is natural. I assume the Allagans learned how to emulate the aether currents from places like the Sea of Clouds, and likely powered them by the flagship and the warring triad.

Churning mists: combination of non-elemental and lightning aspected aether I think. The blue hue you see from forelands I'll say is probably unaspected aether crystal.


Sea of clouds: see the greenish crystal? That's wind aether.

The moogles' legend implied that many of the landmasses were a singular continent until they were sundered by fire from the heavens at some vague point in history.

I've come to understand that everything in Eorzea can be ultimately blamed on either the Allag or the Asians (or both). In this case I'm leaning toward the Allagans used wind crystals to make them float.

Since no one buys this stuff without a quote...

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Originally Posted by Lorecast 6: E3 2015 Interview with Fernehalwes

Michael-Christopher Koji Fox: Most of it is not Allagan technology; it’s all just wind crystals gone wild. Over-aspected crystals wreak havoc on the land, even on that mountain in Dravania. We’ll talk about it a bit in the story, but that’s not to say some places haven’t been raised with Allag technology… you might see that, too…

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I think your forgetting that cataclysmic events always play a part in stuff like this.

For example it is believed our moon on earth came into being because a comet or the like hit earth there by spreading the debris into orbit where they formed the moon we see today. This is only a theory since just like the floating islands we will never know because no one was there.

Short answer every umbral era causes some disaster that changes the world.

Based on the moogle's quest, I believe that there once was a time were there was a natural occurring floating continent in the world; not artificial like Azys Lla and also the same size a any continent in Hydaelyn.

Something happened (meteor? Hydaelyn or Midgardsomnr or the Triad arriving to the world?) that crashed into the floating continent this in turn destroyed most of it save for the few scattered bits we see now.

But yes, most likely its wind-aspected aether within these island/ Continent that's keep them afloat

Its worth noting that in the botany story quest they mention that the sky islands have high concentrations of Aetheric wind particularly compared to Aetheric earth which makes growing crops there difficult.

The Third Umbral Era (Which directly preceded the Allagan's Third Astral Era) was the Calamity of Fire. So when the Moogles speak of "Fire Falling from the sky and tearing the land asunder" it's likely they are speaking of the Calamity of Fire in the Third Umbral Era.

Now for the over aspected Lightning Crystals in The Churning Mists.
The Moogles would have naturally been living in the Churning Mists since the Second Astral Era which followed the Calamity of Lightning in the 2nd Umbral Era which could have raised the Churning Mists above even the other raised lands in the Sea of Clouds.

And finally, The Fall of the Divine Era was The First Umbral Era, the Calamity of Wind, which then started the age of man. For the Calamity of Wind to be so great even the Gods them selves flead the Planet Hydaelyn because of it, I guarantee this unholy Wind Cataclysm would have been more than enough to rip and entire wind crystal rich continent from the surface of the Planet and into the Clouds.

How ever, this is all just wild speculation as even records of Allag in the 3rd Astral Era are greatly scarce and questionable in authenticity at best. So there's really no actual information of even the Third Umbral Era other than the tale passed down by the moogles possibly referencing it.

I thought the Allagans caused the Earth Calamity?

the allag made a earthquake where some parts of land sank. (side note: oh, funny, SUNKEN temple of qarn eh?)

Anyway, Allag made an earthquake wich would make sense to be the earth calamity, in the , i think 4th umbral.

The ice age, where miqote came from meracydia, would it be the Ice one , 5th umbral the age of endless frost.

The 6th umbral era brought floodings and such, was called the water era.

The third one makes sense to be what was said above about the moogles since, the 3rd umbral era was the fire one. Allagan empire started in 3rd astral.

one thing very interesting is that allagans were wiped out in 4th umbral, Azys Lla was created 5000 years ago by the allagans, and ceased its actions 2500 years ago, roughly, being the 7th umbrall era (bahamuth) 1500 years apart from the last one, (the fllooding, cant be sure but think its related to the war of magi)

so, either Azys Lla was still working , for quite a while, after their calamity. or 4th-5th and 6th were only 1000 years across.

Also, once again i can't remember exact numbers but i think that the elezen/dravania society lasted 300 years before thordan, so making them (as the dragonsong war is 1000) making that the elezen arrived in those lands around 200 years after the floodings.

The Floating City of Nym. Sightseeing Log entry.

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Suspended high above the foothills of Mt. O'Ghomoro, is the floating City of Nym—central hub of a lost civilization which prospered on Vylbrand during the Fifth Astral Era. The accepted theory as to how the city was torn from the realm involves the over-aspecting of corrupted wind crystals—a phenomenon witnessed late in the Sixth Astral Era.

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That, but on a gigantic scale. Where these locations originally were when they were on the ground, when this happened, or how/why this happened... is a currently unknown thing.

Ok, fine I admit. I was cleaning up late in one of the research labs and my broom accidentally fell over hitting a couple buttons. A few moments later, the ground started shaking and the islands started to rise up. I am sorry, ok. :(

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

The moogles' legend implied that many of the landmasses were a singular continent until they were sundered by fire from the heavens at some vague point in history.

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..and it was also around that time they sent a backup colony down that settled in twelves wood. Vundo legend says Bishmark sent the island or landmass into the sky. Acording to Matoya, she and Louisoix often talked about the Allagans sending Azys' La into the sky.


Looking at the topography the Churning mists looks like the top section of the mountain with its peak is in one piece from the forelands. However you can see smaller chunks around it. That suggests the top may be messed up but you never notice it from any location. From the mists the place looks like its barely held together by Spiderman's web shooters. With no real sign that the mountain or its floating section is below it. Coudtop is basically a bunch of separate chunks floating around the hidden research facility. Either they were both one large piece once that drifted apart over time, or the Churning Mists was a separate floating mass from Azys'La. The Vanu Vanu however don't seem to have any tales that follow the Moogles account for the Dragon war breaking up the place. Both locations are considered floating islands within the same area/region and in flying distance.. Cloud top does look like its either deteriorated over time or was steadily being eaten up by Bishmark whenever it appeared. Although one tribe wants it to go away, the other tribe seem to want to feed you to it. Like tossing people into a volcano hoping that'll keep it from erupting and killing everyone. (got to appease the god)

Over all we have is a reason why the mists is messed up from the moogles but not how it got up there or if it was built floating up there after Shiva. An origin to cloudtop from the Vanu Vanu's primitive perspective. The fact it was the Allagans for some reason sent everything up there with the research facility after the nation began collapsing (before or after CT's failure?). The only thing in common is that all the floating land masses have a very large amount of crystals, if not are mostly crystals much like the Floating City of Nym. That might explain the Churning Mists accent into the sky as I'm sure Shiva's story and King Thordan dragon hunt was well-long after Azys'La had gone up into the sky.
Given all the new floating zones I'm just surprised Nym wasn't one. Just look at the area around Iddylsire.

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Originally Posted by Kotemon

Given all the new floating zones I'm just surprised Nym wasn't one. Just look at the area around Iddylsire.

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Exploring the Nymian sections of Vylbrand would be amazing. That part of La Noscea looks so good and if developed and flight-enabled there'd be lots to see I'm sure.

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Originally Posted by seekified

Exploring the Nymian sections of Vylbrand would be amazing. That part of La Noscea looks so good and if developed and flight-enabled there'd be lots to see I'm sure.

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As a Scholar, I really want this to happen.