Skyworld pirates
by ~petrino brown


introduction

Skyworld is a gas giant with a ring, millions of years ago, a comet struck the planet, the comet spread spores across the surface of the planet, in time the spores were caught in-between the pressure zones and began to feed of the hydrogen, in time they would grow into giant gas breathing blobs that were so big, they "ignited" the hydrogen by pressure, beginning a form of cold fusion in their biological cores. Converting the hydrogen into helium. And so they rose from the depths of the planet core, settling where their giant weight kept them from rising further, and their helium content kept them from sinking.
(A small world is roughly the size of 100,000 kilometers. And the largest ones are about 15 million kilometers)
After these continent sized blobs formed, the blobs started developing their own ecosystems, and eventually intelligent life. The blobs have now become known as WORLDS, SKYWORLDS

Several species have evolved and developed sentience and societies on their worlds.

Avian: strongly matriarchal, their named SHIN is a jungle world, they have a keen sense for architecture, music and art. Although little interest in science, they are great philosophers.

Ursine: nomadic and tribal, with a family ruling each tribe. Honor and strength guides these wise people. Ancestor worship is common along with traditional heritage. They are the greatest known warriors.

Primates: the youngest of the sapient races of skyworld, yet the most advanced due to their recent total war. Where former feudal kingdoms where abolished in favour of a technocratic republic. They have recently entered a period of Industrialization.

Dragons: the oldest and most advanced civilization of skyworld, these reptiles seems magical, but were great scientists and teachers, their people along with their cities vanished mysteriously after a great war.

Insectoid: another ancient extinct civilization, its thought they once ruled all of skyworld, with their ruins still observable on many worlds, little is known of their hive-mind society.


Known history:
The Draconic War
Thousands of years ago, the insects ruled a large portion of the worlds of skyworld, when they discovered the dragons. The majestic lizards wanted peace with this discovered civilization, but the insects wanted total dominion, a war began. The war lasted for centuries until the dragons finally defeated the insects. Soon after they vanished, leaving little evidence of their existence apart from what others have written of the few encounters. Its theorized they realized they had to leave the younger races alone to protect them. Since the dragons vanished, the war has become a myth. Few today believe there was ever such a thing as dragons.



The Technocracy.
3000 years after the draconic wars, the humans banded and formed various feudal kingdoms and small nations… time and time again there would be one leader holding the power of his or her people, leading them towards more power, eventually there was total war between all the kingdoms and nations, the war devastated the entire world, millions were lost. From the ashes of these kingdoms rose a single faction, the Technocracy, the technocrats proposed those who taught should rule, people who spent their entire lives studying to teach a field of knowledge would rule a guild of study. These guild leaders would appoint captains of a joint fleet to serve the faction.

Captain is not a rank, but rather a title given certain persons of importance or brilliance, one might have a captaincy of science, literature or any vocation; Captains are appointed by the guilds.  

Pirates
With the Technocratic revolution several laws banning religion, worship of deities and spirituality was enacted, putting the Technocracy hope in science, logic and reason. However the guild leaders did not foresee the consequences of the people losing hope, but not faith, several former feudal kings' left human society to form their own nations on other smaller worlds. These "colonies" are today known as pirate nations.
The old kings believe that the dragons are deities who protect all living beings, based on ancient writings of encounters with them. According to these, discovering the vanished city of the dragons, will bring about a second total war and cleanse the world of unbelievers.

The grizzly war
when the humans discovered the ursine world, which was three times as large as the humans, the Technocracy wanted to buy land from the ursine families, they however refused as most the plains was sacred land, so the canines refused. Years later, the industrialization of the Technocracy and current population boom, forced their hand. The guild leaders gave an order to take the entire airship fleet and attack the canine nation, thus began the grizzly war.
After the war the riverworld were devastated, and the entire rim line of their world was occupied by the humans, the families finally surrendered… a treaty was signed dealing the entire rim line, an area twice the size of the human world to the humans. And a large number of prisoners were returned home, the guilds had during the war put prisoners of war to work in industry, and found them good if not better workers than humans, in the treaty they specified that 2000 pups must come to work at the human world every year. The families protested but had no choice but to concede. And finally after decades of war, there was eventually peace the price: Paid slavery and occupation of the ursine world.