Sky Pirates

Scandalously strategic sailors of the sky.

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It's a merchant's worst nightmare to have a shadow fall over her own airship. You know your vessel is about to be pilfered and plundered by sky pirates.

— A seasoned trader

In the moment that airships became advanced enough for transporting cargo, the whispers turned into rumours and then the rumours turned into truths: pirates converting their previously sea-faring ships into cloud chasers using massive floating albar rocks at their core.
Sky pirates have become a problem and they started raiding vulnerable islanders both for easy supplies and questionable crew members. Outlawed folks gleefully agree to join them in turn for their freedom from isolation.

Organised crime

Large organised groups flying under the single banner of a sky captain will coordinate raids on almost anything that's accessible above ground.
Albar mines and warehouses are one of the most desirable targets so that operations can continue, but the sky pirates will also engage in aerial warfare to capture new vessels and claim floating islands for their mostly-inaccessible hideouts.

Not entirely ship-shape

The early pirates modified their existing sea-faring ships by filling their hulls with tightly tethered albar and used hot coals and cooking fires to make the ship rise.
The first attempts at this resulted in fires and even caused some pirates to capsize their own vessels due to imbalanced lift, but once airborne they used the crew's experience with wind magic to glide effortlessly above the waves.
The crewmates needed to learn cold magic to effectively manoeuvre their ships in all directions, but once the first gangs rose to the challenge they were smooth sailing.
Modern pirates are adapting captured merchant airships for their operations and sometimes they barely change them so they can sneak through the sky without causing an alarm.

Stormraiders

The Stormraiders are a notorious group of sky pirates that are famous for their converted, patched up ships. Whilst other pirates flattened their hulls or opted for two bilge keels so that they could dock their boats anywhere on land, the Stormraiders decided to take over their territory and continue their mastery of the waves.

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