Ziggy's kinda-sorta ancestor/alternate universe persona. This version of Zig came about during an attempt at giving him an actual backstory and developed world he lives in to try and flex my writing muscle a little. He wound up going in such a new direction that I tend to consider him his own person by now.

Sigmund hails from a world where technology still runs on steam, airships fill the sky, and the power over nature itself courses through your veins. A world where magic and technology co-exist in a shaky alliance. Every being on this planet is born with their souls tuned into the elements of earth, fire, wind, or water. This affinity grants them the ability to learn to control their element... or have the element control them.

Sigmund "Ziggy" Donno is a young mechanic from the slums of the capital city of the kingdom of Carminia. He was one of twin sons from a feline witch and a lapine drifter, both parents having a rather distant effect on his life. He grew up poor and alone, hybrids being a bit of a mark of shame in all but the lowest poorest sections of this otherwise ritzy city. His greatest joys in life came from reading whatever books he could manage to get his hands on and the fantastic stories of the places his parents had gone during the occasional times they'd blow into town. Like many children at the time, Sigmund spent several years working in the factories of one of the biggest aviation companies in the kingdom. The hours were long, the work was dangerous, and Ziggy had to quickly learn the ins and outs of the factories machines, and the airships whose parts they produced. Being constantly used as the repair-boy whenever something went wrong, Sigmund discovered a knack for mechanics, a skill he began to develop on his own time. When he wasn't working his life away as a slave to his job, he was burying his nose in schematics and manuals, building little nick-nacks and inventions around his home from the scrap he'd steal from the junk piles around his factory.

By his adolescence, he had developed himself a bit of a reputation with his skill with a wrench, and he was able to quit his job and begin a repair shop of his own to support himself. By day, he'd dig through the tubes, gears and clockwork of whatever rusted, broken down junk was brought to him that day, by night he'd remain glued to his workbench, racking his brain for that one invention that would make him famous.

Though he could never quite scratch the itch of his one true fascination: Flight. During his time working on the development of zeppelins and other such marvels in aviation, Sigmund developed a slight obsession with them. He'd watch the blimps drift in and out of the city from the docks, envious of the crew that got to work on one of mankind's (animalkind... furkind... whatever) greatest creations. He dreamed to one day work on an airship of his own, be one with the sky, escape from this suffocating city, adventure around the world like his parents did.

Fittingly enough, it was around this time that before mentioned elemental affinity began to kick in. Sigmund, like his father, was a child of the wind and, though the industrial Carminia had little use of imprecise and old-fashioned magic in favor of cold-hard science, this moment was often the mark of maturity. Unfortunately, like many hybrids who tended to develop small... mutations from their screwed up genes, this came less with the ability to control said wind, as much as it meant the winds began to take to living inside him. In other words, the little cabbit who fascinated himself with blimps...began to inflate like one.

He found that taking it as a sign made it less humiliating.

To this day, he still works in that repair shop, the little freakish half-breed balloon who still struggles to get himself out of the slums so his inventive mind can finally get the recognition it deserves. It's not all hopeless, though. In this era of enlightenment, a brilliant mind and adventurous spirit like his has some use yet. Carminia, and the other kingdoms of the world have begun to expand outwards, reaching places previously thought impossible to explore. Sigmund may very well find his chance to take to the sky like he always dreamed to one day.

Hopefully, it's IN the ship, and not AS it.