Abscura consists entirely of floating islands, held above the Belowless only by the wanderlite in their cores. Even the largest of them are only a few hundred square miles, and most are far smaller, with some only being tiny fragments of stone and earth. Many of the creatures living on them have become strange, almost alien reflections of their ancestors. Some have shrunk, becoming no larger than wolves, while others have grown to gargantuan proportions, and  yet more can float, fly, or glide. Even its people, from humans to aarakocra, have been forced to adapt.

Steam and smoke billow up from the gleaming city of Highspire, a towering monolith of civilization perched upon one of the largest islands. People of all species inhabit its crowded streets, their homes towering up into the clouds as they struggle to make the most of what little space they have left. They value education above all else, to the extent that the entire city is ruled by the headmaster of its academy. Most are expected to become engineers, architects, and craftsmen, while those that can’t are relegated to farms, forges, or hard labor. Airships drift between it and its neighboring isles, Viridian and Malleator, to feed the city the coal and grain it needs to keep the steam engines churning.