your sksw sky islands world building hand them over
obsessed with the way this ask is worded like I'm being robbed, I find it very silly funny
ok but yes let's go gamers!!!!! I'm going to ramble though, it's ass in the morning for me and I'm up because of The Horrors (tummy hurts)
There Are More Islands. Obviously the ones we see in-game have the additional complication of "rendering a bunch of NPCs and buildings in a livable settlement is difficult actually", so I usually imagine that there's more in terms of habitable islands with people and resources. The bulk of those islands would be clustered near Skyloft, but there would be small scattered places farther off over Lanayru and Eldin.
But They Used Most Of Their Damn Trees. Groose makes a big deal out of there being trees on Grooseland The Surface, which of course makes sense because he's never seen like, uninterrupted forest. And while they do have a few trees in Skyloft, they have a lot more wooden structures and books. I like to think that over the years, they ended up over-harvesting, so this generation has the fewest trees on the main islands. You probably have to fly to more distant islands to get wood nowadays, and bamboo is proving more useful (s/o to Polaris for this last one)
The Graveyard Is Small For A Reason. Deaths from old age or disease are uncommon, whereas the most common cause of death is falling from the islands. In which case, the body has been unrecoverable up until the cloud barrier opened up.
The Sky Knights Aren't Fighters. Going off of the above, the biggest threat to life is falling, so it makes sense that becoming a knight is primarily focused on being an adept bird-rider. The use of a sword is secondary - sure it's for handling the small monsters that appear at night, but nothing intense. Really, it seems more culturally vestigial. "We do this because our ancestors did and it's part of our identity." Knights are seen more as helpful and honorable guardians.
The Small Town Gossip Is Off The Charts. Self-explanatory. Everybody is religious and in everybody else's business. They ain't got much else news, so they're talking about damn Birdathan from down the road who got into it with Chirphanie over her hedges creeping into his garden.
Newcomers Are Rare But They Happen. That would be folks from distant islands flying on Loftwings or straight up using flying machines (ex: Beedle). Practically unheard of is people coming from the Surface, because well, there shouldn't be anything down there.
That's all I can remember for now - my fic doesn't spend too much time in Skyloft because Link immediately fucks off to find out that there's way more civilization beyond the borders, but I have definitely Thought About Skyloft A Lot!!!