History Main / FloatingContinent

* Floating islands are rarely randomly generated in ''{{Minecraft}}'', but can be made without too much problem.

* ''VideoGame/Minecraft'' subverts this; Floating islands are common enough that they're considered rather mundane, and can be built at a whim relatively easily.

Waterfalls are often expected to fall from the continent. Even if there's an explanation for how the place stays in the air in the first place, how they can possibly not run out of water is pretty much never explored.

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* Harder settlement levels in ''Videogame/{{Clonk}} often take place on floating islands to make life harder for the player. The backstory for one scenario off-handedly mentions an entire continent rising out of the ocean for no given reason.

* While rolling up [[spoiler: a new universe]] in [[VideoGame/KatamariDamacy ''We Love Katamari'']], several floating islands appear somewhere above the ocean. Of course, they are just there to make it harder to run from the 1,000 Meter+ Octopus until you get big enough to roll the islands (Or the octopus) up.

** Link's home in ''SkywardSword'' is Skyloft, a group of islands floating in the sky above Hyrule. (Semi-justified:[[AWizardDidIt a goddess did it]] to ensure humanity would survive a war on the surface.) Something of an inversion for Skyloft's residents, because they all consider hovering islands mundane; to them, the ''ground'' is an impossible mythical entity. [[spoiler:Nonetheless, Skyloft does have TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, and said dungeon [[ColonyDrop falls to earth after you complete it]].]]
** Also, there's the palace in the sky from the Minish Cap, which is a (very large) mansion floating in midair.
* While rolling up [[spoiler: a new universe]] in [[KatamariDamacy ''We Love Katamari'']], several floating islands appear somewhere above the ocean. Of course, they are just there to make it harder to run from the 1,000 Meter+ Octopus until you get big enough to roll the islands (Or the octopus) up.
* Nearly every level in the first three ''SpyroTheDragon'' games was a floating continent.
* The ''{{Lufia}}'' series has [[DoomyDoomsofDoom Doom Island]], the floating island/castle where the Sinistrals resided.
* In ''ToeJamAndEarl'', each level is a floating chunk of land. Falling off one lands you in the previous one, implying that they're arranged in a vertical stack.

* Most of the ''DotHack'' series of animes and games have floating rocks, islands and the like. Makes sense, seeing most of the animes and all of the games are set in a fictional MMORPG called "The World".

This is an ''extremely'' common trope in fantasy and video games. Nothing says "exotic" like a city floating in the sky. Outside of scifi settings, there's also no real way to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] or HandWave it, so you basically have to say AWizardDidIt and hope that the RuleOfCool will carry the day. Or never mention it at all.

* Eponymous ''Laputa: Castle in the Sky'', released as ''CastleInTheSky'' in some markets (Especially because in Spanish, "la puta" means "the whore". In Spain, e.g., "Laputa" was changed to "Lapuntu", in the US and Mexico "Laputa" was simply omitted).

One thing's for sure, though: If you've got a FloatingContinent, it's [[LawOfConservationOfDetail significant]]. There's no chance that it's just some random village. Even if it's not TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, something portentous is definitely going to happen there. These places tend to have a higher-than-normal failure rate as a result of this, often becoming more of a [[ColonyDrop Falling Continent]].

Strangely enough, many such places go unnoticed by the common man, even though they should be perfectly obvious floating there in the sky. Sometimes they're cloaked by clouds, mist, or AppliedPhlebotinum, but other times... well, you have to wonder how people can be so sure that the FloatingContinent is mythical if they've heard of it at all.

The UrExample is the original {{Cloudcuckooland}}, from Creator/{{Aristophanes}}' ''Theatre/TheBirds'', but the TropeCodifier is the City of Laputa, from Jonathan Swift's Literature/GulliversTravels. Swift also originated the ColonyDrop: Laputa maintained control of its groundbound colonies by ''landing'' on any rebellious population centers, ''crushing them beneath its armored underbelly''. The trope was popularized in modern popular culture by Creator/HayaoMiyazaki's ''CastleInTheSky''.

* In ''CowboyBebop'', there are [[FloatingContinent floating islands]] ... [[CaptainObvious floating]] in the atmosphere of the [[{{Terraform}} terraformed Venus]].

* The original Laputa (accept no substitute!) appears in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', and is a magnetically floating island populated by [=Strawman=] scientists and philosophers with no common sense.

** In the Known World (or ''{{Mystara}}'') setting, one of the sub-kingdoms of the magical Alphatian Empire consists entirely of floating islands. There's also a large number of floating landmasses in the worlds' [[LostWorld hollow interior]]. Amusingly enough, during the {{metaplot}} the mainland of Alphatia is one of these, recreated after [[{{Atlantis}} it sinks]] by the setting's gods as a literal FloatingContinent.

** Mt. Bur-Omisace, the Kiltias' sacred mountain, is surrounded by countless floating islands. Some are large enough to support man-made structures and shrines. They say that these islands are remnants of a FloatingContinent which fell and broke apart long, long ago.

** In VideoGame/PaperMario we get the flying castle and [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] version; Bowser kidnaps Peach by using his castle to lift hers into space. This was done using a very specific form of AWizardDidIt: Bowser stole the all-powerful Star Rod from Star Haven, which is itself a FloatingContinent. In other words, [[SuperMario64 Peach's Castle and Bowser's Castle]] [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]]].

** Preceded in ''VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny'' -- they actually had two of these. Radisrol, a floating city with a MagicalComputer excavated by the good guys and used to reach Dycroft. The latter combines FloatingContinent with {{human popsicle}}s, WeaponOfMassDestruction and TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon

** This goes back to ''MightAndMagic IV'' with the [[TitleDrop Clouds of Xeen]], which are stationary cloud banks connected to the world by the towers. They're not solid enough to support people, but levitation magic can support you over the clouds. In the game's [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo counterpart]], ''Darkside of Xeen'', the area above the towers is primarily connected by skyroads, but there's also the city of Olympus, which is situated on a true FloatingContinent.

* The original Laputa (accept no substitute!) appears in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', and is a magnetically floating island populated by StrawMan scientists and philosophers with no common sense.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* The Mana Fortress in ''[[ManaSeries Secret of Mana]]''. Destroyed in the backstory. Floated again late in the game. And in the end, it was destroyed ''again''.

* The sadly short-lived CrossGen comic ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_%28comics%29 Meridian]]'' features floating islands over a poisoned and barely-livable surface. They are held aloft by a substance called "floatstone" woven into the rock (and floating ships to travel between them, made with special floating wood). There was even a completely artificial island. Cities had to be careful about adding too much mass, though, or collect a type of floating coal to stay up. One such city ends up dropping.

* In ''SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie'', seemingly all of society lives on floating islands (as opposed to the games, where there's just one). Heavy cloud cover makes the otherwise perfectly habitable regular ground more or less abandoned (and earns it the name "The Land of Darkness" to boot). The only ones who dwell there are Robotnik, who implictly doesn't care that it's so gloomy so long as he has the place to himself, and his robots, who obviously don't care that it's so dark.

** In the same universe, there are the inhabitants of the Airspheres. The smallest independantly sentient species found in the airspheres are floating creatures the size of large buildings, and the largest (referred to as Gigalithine Lenticular Entities) are effectively sentient floating countries.

* Mt Metagalapa in ''{{Exalted}}'', which began floating around at the same time as the foundation of the Realm. Savants theorise that the combination of Wyld Essence from a FairFolk invasion and the aftereffects of firing the Realm Defence Grid screw it they have no sodding idea why it floats. [[spoiler:This is because they don't realise the heart of the mountain is a Titan-class citadel from the First Age. Basically, we're talking an OminousFloatingCastle fitted with a city-destroying mile-wide WaveMotionGun, forgotten for thousands of years, and encased in stone.]]

* In ''BreathOfFire II'', the small town that you encourage to life is coincidentally constructed over a buried LostTechnology machine. An optional subplot allows you to activate the machine and the entire town goes airborne, becoming your new GlobalAirship. [[spoiler: The [[MultipleEndings "best" ending]] involves using it as for a miniature ColonyDrop]]

* The moon-sized Cocoon in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is unique in that, rather than being a flat strip of land with a definite surface and bottom, it is actually a miniature Dyson sphere, complete with its own "sun", the [[{{Magitek}} fal'Cie]] (robot god) Phoenix.

* The third installment to the ''Franchise/{{BioShock}}'' franchise, ''VideoGame/{{BioShock Infinite}}'' has a floating city as the new setting, named Columbia. Created by the American government sometime in the late 1890's, Columbia was "designed to demonstrate to the world by example the founding democratic principles of the United States, the product of American ideals, endeavor and industry." Basically, it would fly all over the world and export American ideas to other parts of the world. Over time, it became armed to the teeth and, after a shocking international incident, Columbia retreated to the clouds, never to be seen again. Until the player character is sent there and finds everything has gone to hell.
** Well, not quite. Whn the protagonist first gets there, everything seems...well, like heaven. It doesn't take long before it becomes obvious that the beautiful, amazing city in the clouds is just that if you're a white christian who worhsips the prophet who runs the city. Blacks, the irish and pretty much anyone else is a second class citizen at best. When this underclass finally revolts, it gets ugly very quickly.

* In ''[[TheCulture The Player of Games]]'' by IainMBanks, one character, whose job is to build Orbitals (artificial ring-shaped worlds), talks about making Floating Continents because she thinks that orbitals are too ''mundane'', having fairly standard planetary ecosystems and landforms. She was also a big fan of volcanoes.

* The [[http://www.breakpointcity.com/archives/2000/12/19/up-in-the-sky/ titular city]] of ''Webcomic/BreakpointCity'' floats above Summit COunty, Ohio.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3'' has Skytown, a hemisphere-spanning system of flying buildings in the skies over Elyssia. As Elyssia is a gas giant, it [[JustifiedTrope makes perfect sense]].

The UrExample is the original {{Cloudcuckooland}}, from Creator/{{Aristophanes}}' ''Theatre/TheBirds'', but the TropeCodifier is the City of Laputa, from Jonathan Swift's Literature/GulliversTravels. Swift also originated the ColonyDrop: Laputa maintained control of its groundbound colonies by ''landing'' on any rebellious population centers, ''crushing them beneath its armored underbelly''. The trope was popularized in modern popular culture by HayaoMiyazaki's ''CastleInTheSky''.

* The human inhabitants of Turquoise, an [[SingleBiomePlanet ocean world]] in one of the stories in AlastairReynolds' ''Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days'' (part of the RevelationSpace universe) live in "snowflake cities", giant vacuum-buoyed city sized airships. Boats are not an option, as the alien Juggler biomass that fills the oceans breaks down nonliving materials at rates far too quick to repair.

* The Kingdom of Zeal in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', which readily becomes a [[spoiler:falling continent]] after the player has finished their business there.

* ''PuttPuttTravelsThroughTime'' has this in the future.

* ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' has several islands in the sky, one witch the player visits after travelling to the top of the Sunspire.
* Numerous floating islands are also found in Ellenier chapter in ''SeriousSam 2''.