The Sky
Above the highest peak of the old world waits the Sky — a shattered celestial archipelago of 48 named islands across six altitude Reaches, level 3,000 to 6,000. The Worldspine Throne held it up; in Ascendancy it breaks open.
The Ascent Gate
Reach level 3,000 and complete The Breaking of the Sky — Skywarden Kaeloth waits beside the Ascent Gate on the Worldspine Approach (slay 5 Skyborne Heralds). Then step to the Gate and Ascend. You land at Windward Landing in the Skymoor; Descend from any Sky Anchor to return.
The Six Reaches
| Reach | Levels | Hub island |
|---|---|---|
| I — The Skymoor | 3,000–3,500 | Windward Landing |
| II — The Gale Reaches | 3,500–4,000 | Stormhold |
| III — The Cloud Sea | 4,000–4,500 | Nimbus Wharf |
| IV — The Aether Wastes | 4,500–5,000 | The Last Mooring |
| V — The Shattered Firmament | 5,000–5,500 | Vault of Glass |
| VI — The Empyrean | 5,500–6,000 | Apex |
Hubs & services
Every Reach hub moors a Sky Market, a contract board, a Skyrest (rest & cleanse for gold — no safehouse needed aloft) and a Skyforge with every crafting bench. Each Reach also holds a story chapter, island sidequests, a dungeon and a capstone raid.
Sky gathering
The islands bear their own harvests, gathered automatically as you walk their nodes: Wind Moss and Cloud Silk in the low Reaches, Sky Kelp in the Cloud Sea, Aether Crystal in the Wastes, Star Shard in the Firmament and Sun-Metal in the Empyrean — the very materials the new crafting tiers consume — and past the Voidfront, Voidglass carries the benches to level 20,000.
Mind the Aether as you climb — and what waits above the Empyrean.
Aether Saturation
The Sky is not hospitable. Every step on the open islands saturates your Aether meter — the mirror of the Underworld’s corruption. Where the deep drags you down, the Sky pushes you past your limit.
How it works
| State | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0–79% — Stable / Rising / Saturating | No harm — the meter climbs with each step, faster in higher Reaches. |
| 80%+ — Aether-burn | The raw aether drains a share of your max HP every step — down to the brink, but never past 1 HP. It strands you critical in dangerous sky; it does not kill outright. |
Mooring & mitigation
Mooring clears saturation to zero: stand on a Sky Anchor, rest at a Skyrest, or descend to the world below. A strong Spirit resists the climb — Aetheric Attunement mitigates the per-step rise by up to 40%.
The Star Map
The Star Map is an account-wide constellation board — open it from Endgame ▾ Star Map. Every foe felled in the Sky adds to one running tally, and at each threshold another of the twelve constellations lights.
The first constellations light within a session of sky hunting; the last — The Ascendant — asks for thousands of kills. The Star Map is the long arc of the expansion: every fight aloft counts toward it, on every character.