So this story began as a criticism of my first story, Knights, Witches, and Fighter Jets. One reader correctly pointed out that there were no actual fighter jet dogfights in the story. I had wanted to write a second story in a different universe, one that featured fighter jet dogfights in almost every chapter. I spent a long time watching the Growling Sidewinder YouTube channel. I learned a lot about 1-Circle and 2-Circle dogfights, basic maneuvers, and missile types (Fox-2 vs Fox-3).
One night I was browsing TV Tropes (as one does), and came across the Magitek wiki page. This page featured an image of the Elemental Airship from Eberron, an official Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The caption on TV Tropes at the time read: "Like an airliner, but with fire elementals instead of engines." I instantly knew what my story was going to be. Fighter jets powered by fire elementals!
The idea of the ten elemental planes is taken from the board game Dwellings of Eldervale, which I have played this year at my buddy's house in Seattle. In that game, you need to build little houses on little elemental tiles. That board game featured eight different elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Order, and Chaos.
The feature where opposing Elemental Queens in the story are "sister-self" to each other is influenced by the ancient Sumerian legend of Inanna's Descent. In that story, Inanna must confront her sister-self Ereshkigal in the underworld. I learned about this ancient story indirectly, through what is by far the largest influence on the story. That influence is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Anyone who has played the game will instantly recognize the character Ashe, and the phrases that she uses such as "bone cages," "bags of organs," and "meat puppets." In that video game, the goddess of chaos Yune must confront her sister-self Ashera at the top of a golden tower in the middle of an empire.
Finally, the massive influence of the anime Last Exile cannot be avoided. It inspired many features of the story, including the airships that act as aircraft carriers for the fighter jets. Last Exile is the best example of an aviation-focused steampunk story. I highly recommend watching the anime if you have not done so already.
Chapter 1
The opening sequence of the story is lifted shamelessly from the opening scenes of Hayao Miayaki's film Howl's Moving Castle. In that film, the wizard Howl teaches the main character Sophie how to fly, while her hometown has been consumed by a military jubilee.
The Elemental Plane of Wind
The association between wind and sand dunes is not a new one. There was a dungeon in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm that featured a palace in the sky over the desert of Uldum. The last boss of that raid dungeon was a god-like Wind Elemental. Naruto also associated wind and sand by locating the wind-themed shinobi village in a desert.
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The Elemental Plane of Life
The brambles in the sky are inspired by the level Bramble Blast in Donkey Kong Country 2. That level is famous for its music, Stickerbrush Symphony. The jungle floor, with its floating insects, is inspired by Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, another Miyazaki film. The large giraffe-like beast that Ingrid encounters in the jungle is inspired by the long-necked creatures found in the 6th layer of the Abyss, in season 2 of Made in Abyss.
The Elemental Plane of Water
The endless ocean of huge rolling waves and tiny islands was inspired by The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The giant flag poles were inspired by the "Sickle Moon Flag" item in the same game. The maze-like sand under the clear water was my own invention, but it is worth noting that the book Hyperion features "Labyrinthine Worlds," entire planets filled with mazes.
The Elemental Plane of Metal
The inverted pyramid structures are inspired by The Guild in Last Exile, the anime about airships mentioned above. The reddish mountains are inspired by the Zhangye Danxia, a national park in China that features colorful mountains that appear to be streaked with paint.
The Elemental Plane of Darkness
The spores/fungi here are inspired by White Cave, a level from Sonic Riders.
The Elemental Plane of Lightning
The lightning striking the moon is something that is inspired by (I think) Voices of a Distant Star, which features a scene where the female fighter pilot visits the moons of one of the gas giants. It has been a very long time since I have seen this film, so feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong.
The Elemental Plane of Fire
This is mostly inspired by the Halls of Lightning dungeon from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. That dungeon taught me that fire elementals work well against a backdrop of mountains and snow. The flaming dragons are inspired by Dinraal, a flaming dragon from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The Elemental Plane of Heaven
This is directly lifted from the video game Slipways. In that video game, the player must connect planets of various types to create trade routes. These connections between small planets appear in my story as conduits of atmosphere that the airships must fly through.
The Elemental Plane of Stone
This realm, with its giant Sakura trees, was inspired by Pikmin 4. In the Pikmin series, the characters and the Pikmin are extremely small, and everyday objects such as buckets or street signs are massive. There is a giant Sakura tree in the background of one of the early levels in Pikmin 4. The massive stacks of rocks are inspired by Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, by Brandon Sanderson. In that book, Yumi must create tall stacks of rocks to summon spirits.
The Elemental Plane of Light
As mentioned above, the golden tower in the Plane of Light is inspired by the Goddess Tower in Bengion, from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The city of glass is inspired by Rhuidean, a city in the Aiel Waste that is encountered in The Shadow Rising, book 4 of the Wheel of Time series.