Floating Steampunk Archipelago (feedback welcome)

Lore

I was watching YouTube videos when I saw a video about "if humans had wings" and it made me think "That's a really interesting idea, I should steal use that" and now I am. Most of this is me coming up with ideas on the fly and seeing how it works.

The Setting: I'm thinking a steampunk archipelago of hundreds upon hundreds of floating islands connected by bridges. For the islands that are further sway they use airships (think sail ships but instead of sails they have blimps) I also like the idea of having a train system between various islands connected by rails kept up by similar but smaller blimps.

The Islands: They range in size from a small islands just big enough to build a small house on to massive continent-sized islands though the ladder is much rarer. The vast majority ranged from these sizes.

The inhabitants: Various tribes of Human/bird people called Avians who have features of both, most notably wings on their backs. They have clawed feet and hands but human torsos and heads. I haven't decided if they lay eggs or give live birth yet though. I'm thinking that different races of Avians based on types of birds (for example you get Owl Avians, Crow Avians, Pigeon Avians, Eagle Avians etc).

Society: Their society is made up of hundreds of different tribes, most of which are united in a union where they work together. Each Tribe has their own culture, government, traditions and politics. Tribes either inhabit their own island or multiple tribes can inhabit the same island but not all islands have tribes on them.

Government: The United Tribes are like the US federal government (I took a lot of inspiration). While each Tribe acts semi-autonomously they are, in the end, at the whim of the Government. They are a democracy who elect their leaders but there's often a lot of corruption and rigging involved.

Outlaws: Pirates, raiders and rogue tribes all exist and are a consistent problem for the United Tribes. They usually live on Islands further away from the inhabited islands or in the undiscovered territory.

Realism: I know realistically a creature can't have both wings and arms, I also know that islands can't float and that wings for a human would have to be the size of a bus but here the average wing size is the same as a person's arms. I'm bringing this up because I know there would be at least one person brining it up.

Conclusion: Keep in mind this is an early alpha version of this idea. I came up with this earlier today and it's not even noon where I live so it's not gonna be great rn. If you want I would really appreciate feedback on what I've made so far. Thank you so much for reading.

Tl;Dr: I made a race of steampunk bird people who live on floating islands.

Posted May 10, 2026, 9:31 AM UTC

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