Lore

Airships: Conquer the Skies takes place on Adanati, a world orbited by the three moons: Ea, Tessagon, and Mith.

The community lore is here: Link to the community lore page

Lore Pages:

• Adanati
  • Nation of Gug

Airships Lore Blog Posts

• The Moons
• The HMS Sojourner
• Why no ground troops?
• On Suspendium

Bestiary Entries:

• Bestiary: Giant Bees
• Bestiary: Clockwork Wasps
• Bestiary: Dragons
• Bestiary: Giant Spiders
• Bestiary: Pirates
• Bestiary: Fleshcrackers
• Bestiary: Addenda

Miscellaneous Lore

• Stickied Lore Forum Post
• Suspendium Inhalation
• Suspendium

Adanati's Creation Myth

"First was the unknowable foam. Then Zagbu Ide was the first who knew himself. He looked about, and by seeing, he knew, and by knowing, he shaped the world. He formed the sun and the earth and the first moon and the people, and they lived on the earth. But the people grew callous and fought, so he took matter from the first moon and shaped the second and third moons, and bade the people to respect each other and the world.

Guided by the moons, the people lived happily but stopped sacrificing to Zagbu Ide. He grew jealous and angry and sought to humble the people. But the physical world had solidified like clay under the heat of the sun, and he could no longer change it. So he created devils out of pure thought and malice, perfectly obedient to him, and told them to spread doubt and disease, and pull a veil over the moons. The moons, pursued by the devils, took flight. The devils would catch up, and then fall behind again, exhausted, veiling and unveiling the moons.

Seeing this, the people rejected Zagbu Ide's jealousy and overthrew his idols and buried them in the sea."

"Floathoney is a rare and dangerous delicacy."

"The name of the airships world, the setting, is Adanati."

Aerial Scholar Archive

An archive of all of the Aerial Scholar's words of wisdom.

• Those cute potted land anemones you see on windowsills are the same species as the giant man-eating ones, just stunted.
• Suspendium chemistry is notoriously obstreperous. It does not behave right. It seems inert, until it suddenly really isn't.
• The members of the League of Astoundingly Remarkable Gentlemen get on fantastically well. Just don't ask any of the twenty-seven former members.
• A refreshing glass of spider milk every morning, that's what kept my grandmother going in her old age.
• A great achievement of our modern age is the eradication of the giant mosquito. Sluggish nuisances.
• A lord's comparative nobility and wealth can usually be determined by the altitude of their residence.
• Discuss: did the edict of Konrad II granting each imperial city its own elector presage the collapse of the empire?
• The recent fashion for ever more ornate hats peaked when Mrs Malthorpe's hat supposedly declared itself an independent nation.
• Silverberg's bakery is advertising the heptascuit as a fully maggot-proof ration with infinite shelf life. No one has managed to eat one yet.
• I must remind you that opera is still technically banned throughout the lands of the former empire.
• The secret society of the Shining Trident disbanded when an obscure novel described their innermost secrets purely by chance.
• Many nations forbid any buildings higher than 80 metres, as there is yet no fully reliable way to keep low-floating islands out of the cities during storms.
• Popular myth claims that Vulta I bought the empire for three goats. An exaggeration, surely.
• Ah, the Great Game. Play it well, or die.
• Dogs are domesticated. Wurm lizards are waiting for an opportunity to bite you.
• The great caves of Xul Umak are best explored by airship, as the ground is too jagged for any other means of transport.
• Due to a long-running dispute, murder is legal in Ix if the deed is done entirely between four metres and four point three metres off the ground.
• The famous naturalist Thaddeus Wolpertinger has become the laughing stock of the Imperial Naturalists' Society for suggesting that gargoyles are related to wurms.
• The ancient sky map from the Whitland ruins? Yes, it only shows one moon. We're pretty certain it's a hoax. We hope.
• Downed or abandoned ships are often repaired and commandeered by pirates, which is why standard navy practice now is to burn them.
• Impossibly huge bones can be found in the corners of the world. But are they even bones?
• The greatest achievement a common air sailor can ever attain is retiring.
• Of course sky whales aren't real! How would they breathe?
• Radicals in the Ringfast Landstag are demanding that suffrage be extended to land-owners with as few as a hundred serfs.
• Few have dared venture to the crab pole. None have returned.
• When in doubt, blame cultists.
• The only cure for bone carver mites is swift amputation and immolation.
• Was the last emperor a tragic figure or a menace? Discuss.
• What were the powers of the emperor? There were many, in theory. In the end, there were none.
• Due to a calendrical shift, the Third Goat War technically ended half an hour before it began.
• To be an air marine corporal is a highly lethal honour: first to climb out, first to jump, and, quite likely, first to be shot.
• You can always find more sailors. You can rarely find more money.
• Most patent medicines are just purgatives and opium. Beware the ones that attempt real healing.
• Discuss: did the edict of Konrad II granting each imperial city its own elector presage the collapse of the empire?
• On the shores of the shining sea, fishmonger is a high-risk profession.
• The majority of the pilots of heavier-than-air machines are veteran air hussars. Those that managed to learn without crashing.
• Having to repaint the hull while underway is a traditional punishment for underperforming crew.
• I recently read a paper on a newly found species of parasitical goat. Then I burned it and thanked the moons that my fieldwork days are over.
• Are powdered memories real? Are they mere hallucinations? Why are they so consistent?
• Peacock stew is a favoured repast of starving southerners who can find no other food.
• Hunting with trained aerial eels is a noble sport, much maligned in the present day.
• Trick question: where was the capital of the old empire?
• Gardiner's book on dining etiquette does in fact have a chapter on cannibalism. Having to eat your crewmates to survive an airship crash is no excuse for using the wrong fork.
• Father Uldrich's Great Grammar of Glossolalia is the largest and least readable tome ever inflicted on mankind.
• When did the first human fly? Who carved the first Suspendium Throne and brought it out in a thunderstorm?
• Because of their kind nature, people sometimes hitch rides on turtledoves. They don't always come back.
• Turtledove nesting sites now only exist on remote mountain peaks. Visitors are pecked to death.
• How many air hussars does it take to screw in a lightbulb? No one knows, they leave domestic matters to their lovers' husbands.
• The great caves of Xul Umak are best explored by airship, as the ground is too jagged for any other means of transport.
• The heptakini is this summer's bold fashion statement on the Gug riviera, so my daughter tells me.
• In Kulinrovod it's seventeen pennies to the denarius and nine half-denarii to the guilder, except on Tuesdays.
• Far west, a gauzy writhing shadow sometimes passes over the sun. What is up there?
• Air marines used to play dice during travel, but one day a die fell off the ship and one of them jumped for it. Nowadays they play cards.
• Diplomats sometimes have unfortunate accidents, like tripping and falling down the stairs into an unfortunately placed pit full of rabid geckos.
• A honourably discharged marine or grenadier can usually find employment as a footman for a country noble.
• Free-floating Suspendium islands are considered a nuisance by some and a home by others.
• Most plants die from too much Suspendium in the soil. Glortweed thrives. The locals brew it into an inadvisable tea.
• I personally think that Gug Cursive is an unpleasant script, but it is easy to write.
• The secret bakery at Cogburgh makes 77 kinds of pie, most of them illegal.
• According to Professora Kurzburg, craters on the moons were caused by large Suspendium crystals being struck by lightning and shooting up into the sky.
• In the old days, a ruler could make mistakes and still be respected. Now, pamphleteers will tear them apart the next day.
• Due to a legal transcription error, witchcraft was briefly made mandatory during the reign of Esmerelda II.
• Formally, the emperor was also the high priest of the three moons. No one cared.
• The giant bee is a prime example of the influence that Suspendium can have on nature.
• The intake form of the naval academy allows you to choose from cremation, burial at sea, and aerial burial.
• Radicals in the Ringfast Landstag are demanding that suffrage be extended to land-owners with as few as a hundred serfs.
• In the ancient city of Ru Arak, kings were a secret even from themselves.
• The spores of the Gossamer Jungle induce vivid hallucinations, which is why each expedition reported different impossibilities.
• There are no dwarves in the Goatskull mountains. It's simple malnutrition, I'm afraid.
• Air marine veterans have never missed a jump.
• Who would want to be a sorcerer? Don't you like having hands?
• A lord's comparative nobility and wealth can usually be determined by the altitude of their residence.
• In the waning days of the empire, if an elector desired a new villa, the emperor would meet with an accident so a new round of bribes could begin.
• Any number of old imperial institutions persist, some through inertia, some because they are still useful.
• There is great agreement that there should be a new empire, and very little on who should lead it.
• If you fly far enough east, Suspendium stops working. They say that if you sail even further, you reach the ghost ocean, sailing on the underside of the sea.
• Down south, the geckos swarm to mate every thirteen years. A beautiful spectacle. Hard to navigate.
• The hives of the giant bees that produce floathoney rest high in the sky and are as formidable as any man-made fortress.
• When I was a kid, I would catch giant mosquitos in nets. We got tuppence for a bag. Kept us out of trouble.
• Pirates have their own crude tradition of arms, featuring much tedious red and black and skeletons and hour-glasses.
• Aerial jellies were once thought to be the ghosts of downed ships. We now know they are natural animals, but peasants will still pray and burn herbs when they see one.
• Major cultist organizations include the Cult of the Worm's Eye, Molten Church, Blind Cult, and the Anti-Tractionists, though that information is only current as of this Monday.
• In the old days of the empire, you could walk from town to town without being accosted by cultists, beaten by brigands, or overwhelmed by giant owls.
• Instead of making them walk the plank, some air pirates tie old Suspendium crystals to their victims and watch, cackling, as they float away.
• When a giant hive crashes, foolhardy apiarist-adventurers invade, scraping any honey they can find into jars, fending off any surviving bees, giant mites, and other scavengers.
• Does red Suspendium exist? What kind of question is that?
• Each clockwork wasp is an intricate machine held aloft by suspendium, powered by a spring that takes up most of its central body.
• The old imperial coinage is still preferred in most places. The coins are steadily shrinking, though.
• In peacetime, grenadiers spend most of their time trying to steal the regimental flag of their hussar counterparts.
• The empire kept the peace for a hundred years, but why appeal to the emperor for justice when it's cheaper to come to an informal agreement?
• The recent fashion for ornate Suspendium necklaces took a sharp downturn when several wealthy heiresses were found strangled after a thunderstorm.
• According to Semmelschwarz' Ghost History Theory, the Empire never existed. It's not a popular theory on account of how many people can remember it existing.
• Trilunarism only became the official religion of the empire during the reign of Konrad III. Not that it made any difference.
• The Suspendium codpiece of King Prolix IV is truly a sight to behold. Historians and structural engineers disagree about whether he ever wore it.
• After an incident last year, personal religious symbols that are aggressive and venomous must be relinquished at the gate.
• Keel-hauling is still a popular form of punishment. At altitude, if the captain's feeling merciful.
• Ten years ago, men in power acted as if the empire still existed. Now, they have woken up and are sharpening their knives.
• At high altitudes, coal stores dwindle rapidly. In part because the crew steal the coal to burn it for warmth.
• There are many domestic uses for Suspendium, such as floating chandeliers to light up grand ballrooms and beautiful if impractical dishware.
• In most navies, one can still buy a commission. Some use measurements of the skull to select officers instead.
• Levitite is a common ore of Suspendium. It is ground and magnetically separated to mass-produce dust.
• Patience, young sir or madam. Ask again later.