I am going to be perfectly honest, this story was a bit of a nightmare to finish.
It started as a single file on my Google drive, named "Island." It was an idea for a Fire Emblem-style tactical role playing game, or SRPG. It was inspired by Fire Emblem: Fates, a game with three different campaigns. In one campaign, the water dragon Corrin sides with her blood relatives in a conflict. In the second campaign, Corrin sides with the family that raised her, against her blood relatives. There is a third campaign as well.
The "Island" story idea had a similar structure. There was an island divided in half. The Red Dragon lived in the north, the Blue Dragon lived in the south, and the player started as the spawn of the Blue Dragon in the north. If the player sides with the north, they help the northerners defend against an attack by the Blue Dragon. If the player sides with the south, then they help invade the north, where they discover that the industrialists have murdered the Red Dragon.
There would also be a secret third route where the player meets a Purple Dragon.
The problems really started to creep in after Chapter 42. I must have written and discarded seven attempts at writing Interlude 5. It was only after I switched POV characters to Lady Maeve that I was able to get the narrative to work. There are only seven more chapters after that, but those seven chapters took three full months to complete. Between the time skips, the POV changes, and the dense philosophical implications of the events in those chapters, I am afraid that the reader may get lost. I apologize if the story was not what you expected, but I hope that you enjoyed the vibe and perhaps the unique setting.
Chapter 1
I made a thread on the Royal Road forums called Dragons are Aerodynamically Unstable, which ended up with over three thousand views and almost two hundred replies. I wrote a prototype chapter that demonstrated how aerodynamically stable dragons might work. I enjoyed writing it so much that I published it. My initial goal was to fully write my "Island" story idea. Felix is inspired by Karsa Orlong from House of Chains, book 4 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Chapter 2
The character of Princess Astrid is inspired by Lady Envy from Memories of Ice, book 3 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Lady Envy is an ancient and powerful sorceress that is in complete control of three sword masters, who she uses as servants.
Chapter 3
Shane is heavily inspired by the character Soren from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. The storm sorcery that he uses, including the ability to fly, is directly inspired by the storm sorcery specialization of the sorcerer class in Baldur's Gate 3.
Chapter 4
The Heritage Militia is meant to be somewhat inspired by the crime families in The Godfather. This particular crime family exclusively exploits the migrant workers from the south, because those workers are too vulnerable to stop them, and because nobody else seems to care.
Chapter 6
The image of Black River is directly inspired by the city of Olivia in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Specifically, the Folio Society edition of Invisible Cities features an illustration of Olivia on page 58. This image features layered tenements and a huge Ferris Wheel. The idea that airplanes could be controlled entirely with the rudder, like a sailing vessel, was a real belief in the 1800s, before the invention of the airplane by the Wright Brothers.
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Chapter 7
This was about the time that I decided that the entire story would take place in the Elemental Plane of Dreams and the Elemental Plane of Spirits. It would take place in the same universe as Fire Elementals and Fighter Jets, and characters like Ingrid, Vaska, and Ashe would make appearances in the story. There is one subtle influence in this chapter. It mentions that there are some foreigners with "gold hair and onyx skin." When I wrote this, I was thinking of the Angyar, a race of aliens from Semley's Necklace, a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Chapter 8
The five characters that constitute the Elder Books Aviation Club, are inspired by the classical "Five Man Band" trope. Felix was meant to be the leader, Shane the lancer, King Cyneric the big guy, Deorwine the smart guy, and Alice the heart.
Chapter 16
I think this is the first chapter in the story where any character explicitly uses the Wish spell (correct me if I'm wrong). The Wish spell is inspired by a spell of the same name in Dungeons and Dragons. It is a level 18 Bard spell.
Chapter 17
The Shadow Hunters, where one wolf is white and the other wolf is black, is inspired by the Divine Dogs from the hit anime series Jujutsu Kaisen.
Chapter 20
The Wise Women in Riln, who seem to be able to communicate with each other in their dreams, are directly inspired by the Wise Ones from the Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan.
Interlude 2 + Chapter 26/27
The idea that the "world is ending" in the Elemental Plane of Darkness is taken from the game Against the Storm. That game is a rogue-like city builder. The rogue-like aspect of the game comes at the end of the blight storm cycle, where the entire map resets and all the residents in all the settlements retreat into the golden city at the center of the darkness.
Chapter 28
If I remember correctly, the phrase "Arise and be," comes from a Flyleaf song, from the album Memento Mori. "Free from inner contradictions" is a phrase that frequently appears in Cristopher Alexander's book The Timeless Way of Building.
Chapter 31
The two zombified women that appear at the end of this chapter, to prepare Count Owen for his damnation in the Elemental Plane of Darkness, have a giant pair of scissors and some needle and thread. This is inspired by Gwen, a character from League of Legends.
Chapter 35
The giant crystal tree is inspired by the Erdtree, from Elden Ring. The Erdtree itself is inspired by the World Tree in Berserk.
Chapter 37
The sawed off propeller tips in this chapter are real artifacts from World War I. This type of "trench art" can be found on display at many aviation museums. I personally saw a collection of propeller tips at my local Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.
Chapter 38
The ancient structures in this chapter resemble nearly identical structures from the levels Delta Halo and Regret, from Halo 2. The interior of the central bank is inspired by the underwater sections in these levels.
Prelude 658
The Interstitial Abyss in the center of Skygarden is inspired by Made in Abyss.
Chapter 39
The scene with the small glider, attached to a cable and trailing behind the Flameraker, is directly inspired by a scene from Castle in the Sky. In that scene, the two protagonists fly in a glider into a dangerous storm.
Chapter 40
The Secret Realm in this chapter is inspired by the Houses of the Azath in The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Powerful creatures become trapped in the Azath, where they are essentially sent forward in time.
Chapter 42
This airshow was inspired by a real air show that took place in Washington State in 2023, where the US Army and US Air Force demonstrated joint operations.
Chapter 45
The scene with the Spirit of the Nation of Riln, a girl-child who rides on Shane's back, is inspired by the character Schierke from Berserk. She leaves her body and rides on Guts' back, providing support as he fights. This idea also appears in the final boss of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, which was heavily inspired by Berserk.
Chapter 46
The Phoenix here resembles Al'ar from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.