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Fantasy/Sci-fi Worldbuilding- Solstice & Equinox

I have started work on worldbuilding for a Fantasy/Sci-fi story, but I could do with a little feedback to help me to improve what I have. I'm planning to post sections of the worldbuilding in this journal, which I will update as new sections are expanded on.
Basically, I need to know if it makes any sense, or if it's confusing, what else you need to know about it for it to make sense (although obviously, it should make more sense as I add new sections), and if you have any ideas/characters/plotlines that come to mind that could help me.

Updates
2/7/06: Journal Started- Introduction and Races added.
10/7/06: Landscape/Layout and page anchors added.
25/7/06: Individual cities section started- Main Lower mortal cities.

Here are the sections that I plan to expand on so far:
= Section is below (click text to go straight to section)
= Section is starting to develop on my computer
= Section has not been properly started

Races
Landscape/layout
Individual cities (Under construction)
Calender
Wildlife & Plantlife
Languages
Religion
Groups, Organisations and Families
Historical Timeline
Plot/Characters

Introduction
The world which I am working on is currently being called "Elsewhere"- I know this is a bit of a goofy name, but I can't think of a good name at the moment, so I'll have to go in and replace the word Elsewhere with whatever the real name is eventually.
Elsewhere is another world to Earth- it is an island ravaged by a past filled with wars and terrorists, and we meet it in the story in the third age of its existance- the first age beginning with creation and ending in a terrible world wide war, the second age being a long period of isolation and paranoia, in which each city became a fortress, almost completely cut off from the outside world. The third age is the modern age, and the age in which the cities began to open their gates again, and people were able to move freely again. However, tension is once again beginning to rise.

Elsewhere is not a world like ours. The laws of physics are able to be twisted, and races higher up the hierarchy are able to bend them as they please. One end of the island lies in perpetual summer, and the other in perpetual winter.
The sun, the moon, and stars are physical structures hung on long chains from an axis, and contain mighty cities in which some of the higher races dwell and look over the lower races, who live on the ground.
One man is said to control the whole of Elsewhere- but he is never seen or heard by anyone but his personal Stewards. He lives atop the great axis holding the heavens in place, where lower races are forbidden to aproach.
But some of the lower races are beginning to tire of being controlled by a faceless, voiceless ruler. The story takes place between the two worlds of Earth and Elsewhere.

1) Races (Back to top)
There is a hierarchy of races in Elsewhere, where more power (and also more knowledge) lies with each step towards the top of the pyramid (Shown to the right). Here is a little more information about each group.



The Taylor
The original creator and controller of elsewhere. Little is known about him by mortals, and only the stewards are known to have seen him in person. He lives atop the great axis that holds the heavens of elsewhere in place, and is a great mystery to the majority of residents of Elsewhere.

Stewards
The three stewards are the only beings in Elsewhere known to have had direct contact with the Taylor. They pass on commands and messages from the Taylor, and ensure that his will is carried out. They are the supervisors of the immortals, and coordinate their work. These three lead the three great cities of the immortals. Cyra is in charge of her immortals in the city of the Sun (a great glowing, golden structure hanging from the axis filled with a labyrinth of streets), Enki is in charge of his immortals in the city of the moon (a silvery structure, slightly smaller than the Sun, at the opposite end of the axis), and Aureli is in charge of her immortals in the stars (a great lattice beaded with silvery stars- tiny in comparison, with small, individual dwellings hung at the peripherals of the lattice. The lattice is a kind of web filling the remaining space between the first two cities). The Stewards hold a great deal of power, but are not always known to get along with one another, or use their power wisely.

Immortals
These are the citizens of the three great cities. Unlike Tolkein’s Elves, these creatures truly are Immortal. They were created at the dawn of Elsewhere, and will live on to maintain it as long as it exists. They can not be killed by force, and they need not eat, drink, or sleep, unless they wish to. Unlike mortals, who are restrained by the laws of physics (or the laws of Earth, as they are known), the immortals are allowed by the Taylor and Stewards to choose if and when they obey any of the laws, thus giving them seemingly unnatural abilities. Should an immortal be chopped into a thousand pieces, he or she could simply squeeze back together again, and live on. They need not obey gravity, nor friction, nor be blocked by physical objects, nor have to take time to travel to get to where they want to. They can also manipulate objects or organisms around them, but in order to do this they must follow a strict code dictated by the Taylor. They are the workers that ensure that everything is going as it should, and (on the whole) take great pride in their jobs. Immortals are set different aspects of Elsewhere to monitor (eg. Wealther systems, A certain forest or ecological system to look after). They also take messages back to the Stewards, and have been known to occasionally communicate with important individuals on the ground.
One important note about immortals is that their offspring are always mortals (usually higher mortals), who then have to be sent down onto the ground to live their lives with other mortals. If they gave birth to immortals, the immortal population would become completely out of control, because no one would die.
Although the immortals occupy enormous cities, they are greatly outnumbered by the mortals in a ratio of about 5:1.

Higher mortals
These are sometimes referred to as Semi-mortals- however this is a nonsensical name: a creature either dies, or does not die, there is no halfway, or semi state as the name suggests. The lifespan of the higher mortals tends to be between 200-400 years depending on the race or individual. There are two main races of higher mortals (one race of winged sky people, and another of gilled sea people), and a spattering of smaller more temporary colonies of higher mortals spread out across elsewhere. It is thought that higher mortals are the descendants of the immortals, with the two main races the result of large communities of higher mortals interbreeding during the isolation period of elsewhere until they share similar gifts and appearances. The others dispersed through the mortal world often end up breeding with lower mortals and producing lower mortal children- thus ending the chain of higher mortals. Only if two higher mortals breed is there a higher mortal offspring. Higher mortals have limited gifts or physical properties with which they can twist the laws of physics. For example, a mortal may be able to breathe underwater, and another may be able to shape shift- however very rarely to higher mortals have more than one main ability, and sometimes this ability can be too insignificant to notice or matter. Higher mortals often have very strange appearances, due to the fact that their Immortal ancestors are not confined to one particular form (although most choose to adopt the uniform appearance of citizens in their city).

Lower Mortals
The closest equivalent of Earth humans, these creatures make up the main bulk of the population of elsewhere. As with the other tiers in the hierarchy, lower mortals differ dramatically from city to city in looks, culture and personality. These mortals must abide by the laws of Earth the same way Earth dwellers do. Was have been waged between the cities periodically, and these have been vicious and bloody. Each different city has its own governing body, there is no central government apart from the Taylor’s system. The Immortals, Stewards and Taylor seem to care very little about what the Mortals do to one another- they are merely advised to be kind to one another- punishment is dealt out by the individual governing bodies as is seen fit. However, there are three strict rules set by the higher tiers that both Higher and Lower mortals must abide by.

The Taylor’s Laws
The Taylor’s laws are in riddle form, however, here are the rough translations of the rules (I have an actual riddle, but it's pretty bad and cheesey):
1)No Mortal shall travel over 30000 feet above sea level
2)No Mortal shall seek to attain Immortality of the body.
3)No Mortal shall seek to break the natural laws- the "Laws of Earth" (other than by a method granted to them by birth)
If Mortals do not obey these rules, they can be punished and killed by the higher races.

2) Landscape/Layout of Elsewhere (Back to top)
The layout of Elsewhere is a little complicated, so it requires a number of different diagrams to explain properly how it works. To make it clear- none of these diagrams are to scale, I haven’t yet worked out what the actual measurements should be for everything to work properly yet. Please tell me if this makes any sense at all.

Here is a rough map of Elsewhere from above- obviously there are lots of gaps left, and it’s a bit messy, but hopefully it gives a rough idea of the layout. I will fill in the gaps as I get more ideas.



Key
1)Ethéy- The summer capital, which lies at the summer solstice.
2)Hiver- The winter capital, which lies at the winter solstice.
3)Crash site- an area in which a mortal ship crash landed after being shot down by the Taylor.
4)An Underground City (As yet unnamed), running through the mountain rock.
5)A flighted-higher-mortal city, which hovers over the mooring island.
6)A colony of environmental protestors, who have made their homes in the canopy of the woods.
7)A gilled-higher-mortal city, which lies on the seabed.
8)A large industrial estate that controls the harvesting and processing of the bead forest.
There will be more cities/sites of interest than this, and as more ideas come, I will add them to the map.

However, the most interesting aspect of Elsewhere’s layout is the axis. The axis is a large, roughly cross-shaped object that hangs over Elsewhere and holds the heavens in place. The diagram below gives a rough idea of what the island looks like from the side, although the distance between the Axis and the island would be a much greater. The question mark represents where the Taylor’s house is believed to be, it can not be described in more detail as the people of Elsewhere are forbidden to fly as high as the axis by the Taylor’s first law. The chains on which the Sun and moon hang can be shortened and lengthened to move the cities up and down, and they can also be moved forwards and backwards along their tracks in the axis.



The diagrams below show the design of the axis from above, and the position it hangs over the island. The thinner black lines show the tracks that the sun and moon can be moved along- the Sun moves along the one that passes over the Summer solstice (Ethéy), and the Moon moves along the one passing over the Winter Solstice (Hiver). The other two tracks just provide additional places for the filaments of the star lattice to attach to. The tracks extend out far beyond the island to the edge of the Grey Sea (see below for more on the Grey Sea). The sun and moon can then move in arc shapes that allow them to always stay the same distance from their corresponding solstice down on the island below- think of their paths as semi-circles, with the solstice at the centre. The Equinox is the line that runs along the points that are equidistant from the sun and moon paths. It is along this point that the seasons change most dramatically, as the distance and therefore primary influence from the sun and moon at any time changes most dramatically.