Art Sample: Pirate Slash (Patreon)

Piracy is possibly the oldest human profession, at the very least, it's the oldest profession since shattering of the world and the creation of the void. In the shattered remains of civilization and the world, Pirates were the ones who learned to tame the magical sky-life like whales, and sharks, and barracuda, Pirates were the first to map the skies and some even say they were the first to learn how to properly harvest monsters, or at least, the first humans to encounter them. Before the foundation of the Central Kingdom, every sky island had it's band of pirates, who could either be honorable rogues, or bloodthirsty buccaneers. The only unity in tactics and purpose that united them was their absolute refusal to allow their bits of life and family flicker out in those terrible early decades of life when the world first shattered.

Now, the Union of Guilds, and the Central Kingdom fill many of the same roles pirates once did. They defend the islands from attacks by other humans and the occasional monster migration, they gather resources, they even, on the few occasions that there is a power capable of standing against the Central Kingdom, wage wars. Pirates of the honorable sort have largely vanished except from the most isolated islands, the poorest, the ones of least interest to the Union and the Kingdom. Most Pirates these days are deserters, bandits, and criminals of the blackest sort, turning their backs on the rest of humanity, and killing, stealing, and pillaging their way to a comfy life in the edges of civilization.

Once, it was thought that Pirates would eventually die off, as more and more islands turned towards the stability of the Kingdom and Union, but that has not been the case. In the last century piracy has seen a resurgence, and if anything they seem to be stronger than any period of history except directly after the shattering, the various pirate clans having united into several grand fleets over the past decade or so. Worse still, they appear to have technology, tactics, and supplies that may exceed even the combined might of the Union and Kingdom. Where they have gained access to these advancements, leadership with the will and ruthlessness to unite them, all the while seeming to show no interest in direct conquest, is a question that plagues the minds of those in power throughout the Known Skies.