Jaibu

A jaibu is a flying flotilla of skycraft used as a skyfaring dwelling-place and a platform for sky tribes to hunt and fish. Jaibus are particularly vulnerable to the elements and great care is taken to observe the weather and the elements continually. When storms are sighted, the leader directs the jaibu to be flown to safety, usually to land on the surface of the earth where refuge can be found with allies in fixed structures or under the earth in caves. This is can be a momentous decision as some of the craft are not as readily made skyborne as conventional skycraft. The leader of a jaibu thus must measure the safety of the inhabitants of the jaibu against the future effort to become skyborne again and a potentially inhospitable host on the surface. Most jaibus practice a form of seasonal habitation in the sky during clement spells of weather and habitation on the earth when torrential winds and storms make land-born refuge essential.

During the sky migrations of the late Yophenthean Empire, jaibus were a common means for the excess populations of the skyfaring tribes of the Jaggudorns to find place for habitation. Ancient jaibus would fish in the seas where the land-dwelling rulers had not enforced any territorial pretensions and hunt in the wilds of the forests where few rulers held sway. Jaibus would drift around one ddwmir (ca 700m or 2200ft) above the surface of the earth or the sea. Jaibus were eager to adapt Xsyte skybarge technology to make sturdy dwellings for their inhabitants and the Xsytes in turn found the jaibus to be welcome skyfaring skyports on their merchant voyages.

A long tradition of tales and lore surrounds the jaibus and their inhabitants whom the other sky tribes saw as the poorest of their lot. Jaibus were anciently prone to sky piracy, both as the recipients and perpetrators. The jaibu was regarded as a menace by the ancient rulers of the Yophenthean Empire who saw the free-ranging, skyfaring, subsistence-level inhabitants of the jaibu as lawless, ill-bred, and foreign to Yophenthean Civilization. The inhabitants of the jaibus, in turn, saw the Yophentheans as tyrannical and contrary to the laws of nature which permitted one to hunt and fish freely on the range. As the Kalikán and other Thracians pressed their influence over the Pallathantic, up to and including the First Kalikán Empire, many inhabitants of the jaibus found the opportunity to migrate to a land-born life where the lack of uncertainty of the sky made life more bearable.

Today Jaibus persist and are home to some rather daring folk as they were in ancient times. States have consistently enforced their laws to jaibus that enter their sky-space and the presence of skycraft and titancraft vessels means that the ancient freedom of the jaibus is a thing of the past. However, free-roving jaibus exist over the seas of the Pallathantic and Memnosian Seas where the relatively mild climate ensures short but continuous spells of calm weather. Most jaibus have reciprocal agreements of refuge with the skyforces and sky merchant marine worked out with the states neighboring their range whereby they will be accepted as refugees during inclement weather and must in turn provide refuge for the skyforces and sky merchants when needed.

List of Modern Jaibus

• Calimphindel, range: Bastards Sea
• I’upadzhaa, range: Dragonwood Flats
• Kaphia, range: mouth of Bay of Shelekhumbia and Memnosian Sea
• Khuluha, range: Jukk Sea
• Menkharis, range: Asgion's Sea
• Sahlimura, range: Strait of Halawjat
• Shahubuhin, range: Sea of Narshad
• Sorakha, range: mid to western Memnosian Sea
• Tapsil, range: Bay of Ferruvicar
• Tse Pan Hur, range: Sea of Aguru
• Üzhir Dzahi, range: Ukurgiy (Jykki Inhabitants)
• Veluve, range: Sea of Forgetfulness
• Wü Pan Shek, range: Bay of Shalibin
• Yaushakh, range: eastern Titans Sea
• Yogona, range: Strait of Embol
• Zaniska, range: North Amshoori Sea

See Also

• Skycraft