Day to Day Life

Day to day life for a person in the broken worlds revolves around there position in the clan.

Many fragments can only support a few clans, so much of the clan’s time is spent getting the resources needed to survive in some modicum of comfort. Gathering firewood, hunting for food, working the fields and collecting water are all very important for the clan to survive. Often on the larger fragments each clan will have a local monopoly on one of the resources (wood, iron ore, lakes of lava, etc), and so trading between the clans is pretty commonplace. One of the things you will need to do for your family if you want their help is to help them get the resources they need.

Most clans develop some kind of trade, so that when they come into contact with other clans on other fragments they have something unique to barter with. From superior weapons to magical talents, most clans have something more than the basic means for survival. Many mid level clan members are involved in this, and the skill is passed from parent to child. The secrets of a clan’s trade are normally jealously guarded, but occasionally skills and rituals can be traded. People involved spend their time improving their talents, either by researching new rituals, or polishing their fighting skills. Alongside this, they will put their skills to good use for the family, making swords or expensive jewellery, making crops grow better, or making the fragment dodge that lump of rock heading for a collision.

Whether it's an old granny or a big tough guy most clans have someone shouting the orders. Day to day they talk to those closest to them, to check the family business isn’t going to pot. They make the decision on how to deal with incoming threats. They also play an important role in negotiations with other clans, in marriage trade and alliances.

But it’s not all work on the broken world. In fact, there are a number of entertainments the inhabitants have developed, some of which are detailed below.

For the thrill seekers there’s the crazy sport of fragment diving. Some fragments have rather springy vines, which people use to anchor themselves to the rock before leaping off! Then they wait for their friends to pull them back up. The lucky fragment divers live for the mind-altering high of diving down close to the Mists, but the unlucky ones are most often driven horribly insane. Still, what’s an extreme sport without a little risk?

For the more faint hearted there’s always Tonka, a sport that has taken many fragments by storm. Two teams line up on a pitch, and rapidly throw three small wooden balls between them with hooked sticks with the goal of knocking over the opposing team’s targets. Tonka tournaments are common whenever fragments meet, but due to the transitory nature of social contact in this world there are often fierce arguments about the actual rules of the game before the game gets underway (and indeed during and afterwards too). It is still not decided whether it is against the rules to jolt the home fragment through Geomancy to stop a goal, but most people agree that it is definitely unsporting.

There are many mood-altering substances in the broken world. Note, however, that knowing when you’ve consumed enough is of much greater importance when you’re on a floating rock with no railings and a thousand-foot drop into nothingness beneath.

These are red-capped with white spots. They give people strength beyond belief but destroy their minds. These mushrooms are not taken for pleasure, but are used when people know that they are going to die in battle and wish to take out as many of their opponents as possible.

These are painkillers. They are found naturally occurring as herbs growing on the fragments. They are normally taken as a form of pain relief, however they can be taken recreationally by people to remove them from the pain of their lives. They are much more abundant on fragments closer to the mists.

Alcohol is a colourless, volatile liquid with a mild odour which can be obtained by many means. Fermentation is the obvious one, but rumours speak of people getting lucky and striking a seam of crystallized alcohol while mining. Alcohol is most widely used as a depressant and has the effect of making you charming, acrobatic, and attractive to people of the opposite sex out of touch with reality.

Pocari are small hairless hamsters which secrete a mild hallucinogenic sweat. These are usually kept by rich people as a constant source of hallucinogenic drugs, although they require expensive feed and are very easily scared. Finding a nest of Pocari can bring great fortune to a labourer, but more often than not the discover licks one to test if the stories are true, and then spends the next few hours dreaming of gigantic feathery spiders eating marshmallows while the family of Pocari escape.

Currently the inhabitants of the Broken World live either as roaming tribes which rely primarily on hunting and gathering food, or as more settled communities which practise basic farming. Coastal families rely heavily on fishing, especially for saltfish and flying fish. Fishing normally involves hanging a net off the side of your fragment and waiting for unsuspected flocks of fish to fly into its sticky fibres and get caught. After a while the net is reeled in, the fishes’ wings clipped, and the catch taken back to the settlement. Hunting is more dangerous near the edges of fragments, particularly if the fragment is prone to mirages, but can be more rewarding as animals can be snared from other fragments. The edges of fragments are prone to eroding and although it can be worthwhile to farm crops, particularly if your fragment has rich soil, you stand to lose a lot if your cornfields erode.