Airships were flying vehicles designed by humans and intended to transport passengers or cargo. They were reportedly developed around the late 3700's. Butterfly princess Mariposa witnessed the launch of the first human-built airship, a testament to their innovative capability. It was the invention of the airship that led to the first human discovery of the butterfly people.
Only a small number of airships were believed to exist during the New Age, but reports about this were often in conflict with one another. Airships were sometimes capable of doubling as seafaring ships and sometimes not; airships similar in size to a seafaring vessel typically required a crew of comparable numbers.
Torlynn Castle required that any airship flying through their airspace would register with the castle and their information be recorded in their airship manifest.
Two such known airships were the Mermaid's Bliss, which had been constructed from a pirate ship; and the Butterfly's Flight, also known as Xanthippe, which had been designed and built specifically to fly.
Trivia[]
Mariposa mentions in The Curse of the Fate Shifter that airships did not exist a thousand years ago, making it a relatively new innovation. Embarrassment of Riches further narrows down the timeline, in which she states that they were developed less than one hundred years ago.
Behind the Scenes[]
Airships were a necessary part of the fictional Butterfly Princess universe to enable characters to travel from one location to another quickly. The technology is likely in the experimental stages, explaining why there are so few of them in existence. The airships were partly inspired by the flying vehicles in the Nintendo game Final Fantasy IV.