The Core Story: The Heretic and the Echo
The world is secretly ruled by the Verdant Order, a technocratic syndicate that behaves with the fanatical devotion of a church. Their power is built upon a single, revolutionary discovery: the planet is bathed in a silent, complex resonant frequency known as the World-Song, a permanent energy chord imprinted on Niralta’s magnetosphere by an ancient meteor impact. The Order learned that Spectrocite, a crystalline mineral, is the only substance that can resonate with this Song. By cutting and tuning Spectrocite into precise instruments within a resonance chamber, they can isolate a pure “note” from the Song and use it to manipulate the planet’s magnetic field, achieving flight. This technology is their sacred doctrine, and they are the “Church of Flight,” holding an absolute monopoly on it. Their power is enforced by enslaving the Niraxi people to mine the Spectrocite, while their black-ops are handled by their ultimate tool: Dusan. He is a junkie, mutated and addicted to the power from a corrupted Spectrocite crystal—one tainted by the dissonant frequency of the “wet witch” Izel. This corruption turns the pure Song into a chaotic, painful, and destructive weapon, making Dusan a monstrous but effective enforcer for their empire of greed.
Sarka is the Heretic. An escaped Niraxi, she possesses an innate, natural ability to feel and conduct the World-Song’s resonant harmony, allowing her to pilot with an intuitive grace that defies the Order’s rigid science. Mar’i is the Echo. From a land scarred by the World-Song’s seismic echo, she has a lifelong immersion that makes her an unparalleled navigator, able to sense its subtle currents and dissonances across vast distances. They are the heart of the found family crew of the Angel’s Breath, which also includes Mei-Ling, the brilliant engineer and mechanic who is the only one who can maintain the ship’s jury-rigged engine; Lena, a wild-card squirrel-hybrid who serves as the gunner and cook; and Kieran, the ship’s disabled medic who keeps them all alive, both physically and emotionally.
The Order is an arrogant, monolithic entity of GREED. They don’t even know this specific crew exists; they are just insignificant specks beneath their notice. The story begins when this family, bound by LOVE, decides to do the impossible: they will use Sarka’s heretical piloting and Mar’i’s unique navigation to strike back and free the Niraxi people. Their initial, successful rebellion is a stone thrown at a giant. It is an act of defiance that puts them on the Order’s radar. The Order, in its fury, simply turns its existing weapon on them, unleashing Dusan to hunt the family that dared to challenge their power. The core story is the clash between these two philosophies: A seemingly insignificant family’s LOVE versus the Verdant Order’s world-spanning, institutional GREED.
BIG PICTURE: The World-Song Replacement Framework
1. THE CORE ENERGY SOURCE REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: The “Biomass” was a physical, alien substance that infected and changed people. It was the source of both horror and power.
- NEW: The “World-Song” is a silent, planetary resonant frequency imprinted on Niralta’s magnetosphere by the meteor impact. It is a force of pure energy, not a physical creature.
2. THE RESOURCE REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: Spectrocite was a magic crystal that powered things.
- NEW: Spectrocite is the physical resonator crystal that interacts with the World-Song. Its value and danger come entirely from how it is used to manipulate this energy.
3. THE CORRUPTION MECHANISM REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: The “Biomass” was an inherent property of some crystals or a separate entity.
- NEW: “Dissonance” is the corruption. It is not a substance but a corrupted frequency. It is created when Izel’s bodily fluids (specifically urine) introduce her unique, dissonant bio-frequency into a Spectrocite crystal, perverting its natural resonance.
4. THE SUPER-POWER REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: Dusan had superhuman strength/speed from a biomass infection.
- NEW: Dusan’s power comes from being an addict. He interfaces with an intact, corrupted crystal, channeling its pure, chaotic dissonance. This grants him violent power but is a constant, painful, self-destructive overdose that mutates his physical form.
5. THE “DRUG” REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: A vague, magical high.
- NEW: A clear, two-tiered drug system.
- Ingesting uncorrupted Spectrocite: The “cocaine.” A high-end, temporary, damaging recreational drug.
- Ingesting corrupted Spectrocite: The “crack/meth.” A horrifying, mutagenic substance that permanently rewrites a user’s physical being.
6. THE VILLAIN FACTION REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: The Order was a generic evil organization that wanted to use biomass for super-soldiers.
- NEW: The Order is the “Church of Flight.” They are a technocratic, ideological force that discovered how to use tuned Spectrocite to sing against gravity and make airships fly. They believe they are imposing Order on the World-Song’s chaos, and they control the world through their monopoly on this technology.
7. THE HERO’S UNIQUE ABILITY REPLACEMENT:
- OLD: Sarka was just a good pilot. Mar’i had a vague psychic infection.
- NEW: Sarka is a “Heretic” pilot with an innate, natural ability to feel and conduct the World-Song, making her an ideological threat to the Church’s monopoly. Mar’i was struck by a pulse of raw energy, giving her a permanent, overwhelming, and profound “Attunement” to the World-Song itself.
High-Level Story Overview
Airship Angels is a character-driven steampunk fantasy centered on survival, trauma, and found family in a dangerous world shaped by airship travel, cult corruption, and a hidden existential threat.
The story follows Sarka, a Niraxi survivor of enslavement who becomes a highly skilled but reckless airship pilot. Driven first by survival and freedom—and later by the weight of loss and revenge—she assembles a crew not through grand intention, but necessity. Each member carries their own wounds, prejudices, and reasons for flying.
Overarching the world is the Church of Flight, a secretive cult that seeks to control the world-song, a planetary resonance created by a catastrophic meteor impact. The world-song is not widely known, and its existence is hidden behind the Order’s influence, experiments, and atrocities. Its power manifests indirectly through fanaticism, enhanced abilities, and moral decay.
The crew of the Angel’s Breath gradually becomes a chosen family—one forged not by destiny, but by shared survival through repeated crashes, loss, and hard-earned trust. They seek to understand and harness the world-song not to dominate, but to live in harmony with its natural flow.
The tone leans toward hopeful found family (70%), grounded in intimate character drama (30%), with creeping horror kept deliberately restrained and symbolic.
Core Themes
Found Family vs Isolation – Healing through connection rather than self-reliance alone
Survival Before Purpose – Characters begin by surviving; meaning comes later
Trauma & Adaptation – Physical and psychological scars shape capability and fear
Corruption of Power – The Church of Flight’s obsession with control mirrors humanity’s hubris
Hope in a Broken World – Even in horror, compassion and choice matter
Identity & Becoming – Gender, hybridity, and self-definition in a hostile society
The Church of Flight & the World-Song (High-Level)
The world-song is a planetary resonance created by a catastrophic meteor impact.
It enhances organic and inorganic matter, causing mutation, hybridization, and mental clarity.
The existence of the world-song is publicly unknown; knowledge of it is limited to the Church of Flight and those they’ve influenced.
The Church of Flight worships the world-song as a divine gift, believing it enables evolution, transcendence, and immortality.
Their experiments are secretive, unethical, and catastrophic—creating victims rather than miracles.
The Church serves as the true overarching antagonist of the story.
Key Characters
Sarka
Role: Captain / Pilot of the Angel’s Breath
Archetype: Hero
Background: Niraxi survivor of enslavement in spectro-era mines
Core Drive: Survival and freedom (dominant), evolving into responsibility and empathy
Strengths: Technical mastery, resilience, uncanny survival instincts
Flaw: Extreme self-reliance; difficulty trusting others
Arc: Learns that vengeance and survival alone are not enough—she must lead, trust, and protect
Notable Element: As the Heretic, she senses the pulse of the world-song, guiding her intuition.
Mar’i (Niahmahar’i)
Role: Navigator / Communications / Rogue
Archetype: Rogue
Background: Island-born sailor from Kir’i Isle
Personality: Charismatic, colorful, pansexual, emotionally intuitive
Core Desire: Freedom, adventure, escape from tradition
Strength: Social intelligence and spatial awareness
Arc: Learns commitment without losing herself
Quirks: Ever-changing hair color, fish plush mascot, prayers to sea goddess Taumalie
Archetype: Echo – As the Echo, she feels the song at the center of her being, guiding her with the will of the song through her body.
Lena
Role: Gunner / Cook / Emotional Wildcard
Archetype: Wildcard
Background: Squirrel-human hybrid created through church’s experiments with spectrocite crystals
Social Status: Feared and stigmatized by society
Core Conflict: Fear of her origins vs desire to belong
Strength: Empathy, adaptability, physical resilience
Arc: Accepts her hybrid nature as strength, not shame
Connection: First person Sarka meets; pivotal emotional anchor
Kieran
Role: Medic
Archetype: Heart
Background: Veteran of multiple airship crashes
Injury: Loss of lower left leg
Personality: Practical, disciplined, emotionally guarded
Core Conflict: Self-reliance vs vulnerability
Arc: Learns to accept care and emotional risk
Key Relationship: Complicated emotional bond with Dusan
Mei-Ling
Role: Engineer / Designer of the Angel’s Breath
Archetype: Brain
Identity: Transgender woman
Supernatural Element: Bonded with a Wind Sylph
Bond Nature: Initially antagonistic → forced merge → gradual trust
Conflict: Reconciling self-identity with an internal elemental presence
Arc: Learning coexistence rather than control
Dusan (The Nightmare Captain)
Role: Antagonist / Tragic Weapon
Archetype: Shadow
Background: Survivor of early spectro-era airship catastrophe
Status: Weaponized by the Church of Flight
Injury: Severe physical loss, replaced with a weaponized prosthetic arm
Nature: Already lost—but not empty
Humanity: Surfaces only in moments, especially with Kieran
Function: Dark mirror to Sarka—what she could become without connection
The Angel’s Breath
A compact, hybrid airship capable of air and water traversal
Shark-like design blending WindRunner and TidalMarauder concepts
Powered primarily by advanced engineering tuned to Spectrocite rather than mystical reliance
Designed by Mei-Ling; symbolizes adaptation, resilience, and chosen family.
10 Citations
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