History Lesson

Nothing to quote here.

The Steam Revolution began with Thorstein Adamsen’s invention of the steam-powered engine. At first, this only applied to ships, and the sea was the place to explore. Countries built navies, and pirates became the scourge of the sea. Four decades later, Yngvar Haugen invented the first airship. Within the next two decades, airships became as regular as sea ships. Countries developed air navies, and air pirates became the scourge of the sky.

But with the arrival of the airships came the discovery of the Avian people. They looked much like any other person, but their eyes - always yellow - had slitted pupils and they had full-sized wings on their backs. They were discovered by the adventurer Sindre Omdahl, who was known for challenging the limits of airships. He tinkered on his airship to reach higher and higher altitudes, until one day he broke the barrier of the clouds and discovered the Floating Islands of the Avian people. There were dozens of islands, their sizes ranging from that of a house, to enough space to land a score of military-grade airships.

From a distance, Omdahl could make out buildings as high as any on Earth, and airships as advanced as any down below. But when he tried to land on an island, he was stopped by an invisible force. Before he could give up and leave, an Avian woman by the name of Ludmilla Utkin approached him. She explained that he would not be allowed to bring his airship into their home, but when he requested that they bring out a small ship for him to ride in by, they obliged.

He was given a tour of their land, and their history was explained. According to Utkin, Avians and Humans used to live together, but the Avian people created the floating islands to separate the two species when a war broke out. Man, however, had no recollection of this in their history books.

Omdahl requested to continue to visit the Avian people, but Utkin told him that he could only stay so long as he never returned to his homeland. Omdahl was allowed to go home one more time to explain his findings and to say his goodbyes before spending the rest of his life on the Floating Islands to study the Avian people.

In the following decades, man tried constantly to get into the Floating Islands, but to no avail. Finally, the diplomat Otto Storstrand proposed that some of the Avian come to Earth to prove that man was safe to mingle with, and that they meant no harm. This plan backfired when 100 Avians came down to Gear City, one of the largest cities on the planet. Within months, bounty hunters were hired to capture these 100 Avians as slaves for the rich and the powerful.

As slaves, the Avian were used for their magic, for sex, and in some cases, their wings were removed to be placed decoratively as trophies. Utkin refused to accept the ‘soiled’ Avians back into her Islands, but she was willing to work with Storstrand to give the remaining Avians wearable protection that monitored if anyone tried to capture them. Any such attempt was punishable by death.

Several months later, an Avian woman in Gear City by the name of Motya Mihaylov gave birth to an Avian boy, a product of her sexual slavery. She died upon giving birth to him, and the baby was taken in by a woman named Line Ottosen, who had been secretly caring for the Avian (because laws and magic aside, hunters were still out there). She named the boy Angel.

Author's Note

I used the Behind the Name Generator. Humans have Norwegian names and Avians have Russian ones. For no particular reason. I like the sound of them. The rule excludes Angel, obviously. I guess Line sucks at naming kids.

Egrimony. Apparently it's the herb argimony. Which is a family of flowers. The mroe you know.

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