It is a world of gutsy pilots and high adventure. The Great Depression has struck, destroying the progress of all ground transportation, leaving the skies to serve as the ultimate roadway of the future. Here, survival means gripping the flight stick of a tricked-out muscle plane and letting your guns do the talking. Fly or die with the guys and dolls of Crimson Skies.

One of Crimson Skies' biggest assets is the universe that it is set in. The world of Crimson Skies is intricately detailed and well chronicled. Everything about the game, from the characters to the movies to the sound, simply screams romantic era 1930's America.

Nathan Zachary, is the heroic Robin Hood of the skies. With your band of merry men and women known as the Fortune Hunters, you'll fly missions to defend justice, honor, and a fat wallet. 

The story behind Crimson Skies takes place in an alternate reality where the United States did not survive the stock-market crash of 1929 and the resulting depression, thanks in no small part to a liberal ideal known as Regionalism. In this neo-history, Texas seceded from the Union and many of the other states soon followed suit, until the entire Union was shattered into more than twenty splinter-nations, such as Pacifica, The Republic of Texas, and the Nation of Hollywood. Since most inter-state roads were destroyed in the resulting skirmishes, aircraft became the primary means of transport and travel between the new countries. Militias sprung up from each state-nation to protect the commerce and general travel, but alongside these militias arose groups of air-pirates and privateers, seeking to loot many of the treasure-laden zeppelins owned by the rich. Each one of the small nations depends on its own militia to protect their sovereignty and secure trade with neighboring countries. Sometimes the regular militia is not enough, and these mini-governments must resort to hiring some of the pirate crews to attack their enemies which is done by means of a Letter of Marque, that can net the smart pirates some quick cash and increase your favor with a certain nation. Since the Hindenberg incident apparently never took place, airship development in this reality continued until the modern blimps became the equals of fifteenth century caravels, cruising the vast oceans of the sky armed with powerful cannons. In essence this world is not unlike that of the Spanish Caribbean, where imperialist powers fights amongst themselves with pirates looting and taking advantage of everyone.

Zachary was brought up flying in a Gypsy family from a very young age, surviving both the Great War and the Bolshevik revolution, where he eventually amassed a small fortune that he lost in the American stock market crash. After this turn of events, Nathan turned to piracy as a sort of 'Robin Hood' for the 20th century and was determined not to be held down by any one of the oppressive state regimes which occupied the former U.S. After staging the capture of a military zeppelin that he and his crew re-christened the 'Pandora,' Nathan and his crew of close friends began their careers of pillaging and profiteering. You take up Zachary's mantle of command while anchored over the Kingdom of Hawaii, watching and waiting for the next great adventure to come your way; and unlike many of the more evil pirates, you are primarily seeking booty instead of blood.