In a glittering sea lies the land of Balnibarbi. It is a land unhappily cultivated, with houses ill-contrived and ruinous, and its people’s countenances expressing misery and want due to a set of social and econmic reforms forced upon the islanders by inhabitants of the flaoting island-city of Laputa. Even the King of Balnibarbi has been subject to the whims of the “Academy of Projectors” on Laputa, being forced to tear down farms and vineyards for want of doing it the modern way”.