DracatsAge of Steel and Sparks

Trailer

What it’s about

Five hundred years ago the Great Mage gave away his soul to awaken the last six eggs of an ancient race of guardians. That is how the Dracats came to be — giant cat-dragons, the keepers of the elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, True Magic and Antimatter.

Now the world belongs to the Inquisition. Its white cities of marble and gold run on the Aether — the living magic of the planet, pumped out of the ground. The Dracats have scattered, lost faith in one another and almost forgotten that they were once a family.

Everything changes when Ogne, the fire tiger, meets the Juggernaut of the Abyss on the floor of an Aether plant — a white Golem that drinks magic like water. The hunt begins. The eldest brother, Charo, calls everyone to the Hidden Temple: they can only survive together. But each of them has their own pride, their own fear and their own score to settle with humans.

Age of Steel and Sparks is a story about a family learning to be a family again, about the price of progress, and about how power means nothing without trust. It is Book One of the series: 19 illustrated chapters with music and sound effects.

The six Dracats

fire tiger-dragon · Element: Fire

Ogneslav (Ogne)

The main hero of most chapters. A colossal tiger with red fur over obsidian scales. Hot-tempered, sarcastic and the loudest of the pack — he hides his fear behind rage.

emerald leopard-dragon · Element: True Magic

Charoslav (Charo)

The eldest brother and the sage. He sees the world as a formula — Magomatics — and only joins a fight once he has calculated the victory. He speaks to his kin telepathically.

snow leopard-dragon · Element: Ice

Ledoslava (Ledo)

She has lived alone on an icy peak for two hundred years. Cold and proud, with icy irony as her weapon — and a fear of losing her family again hidden under the armour.

cheetah-dragon · Element: Lightning

Molna

The youngest. She chatters, plays pranks, runs faster than sound and magnetises every piece of metal around her — hiding her fear of being alone behind speed.

stone lion-dragon · Element: Earth and gravity

Skala

A twenty-tonne living mountain and a pacifist. He speaks little and plainly, fears his own strength more than anything, and always shields others with his body.

black panther-dragon · Element: Antimatter

Echomir

The sixth, “middle” brother, whom the Great Mage’s light never reached. A velvet-voiced philosopher who swallows other creatures’ magic. He vanished at the Great Rift twenty years ago.

The Inquisition and people

General Weyland

Commander-in-chief of the Inquisition’s forces. He lost his left arm fighting a Dracat twenty years ago — now he has a steel prosthesis and a personal war against the Firstborn.

Doctor Isabella Crow

The Inquisition’s brilliant scientist, almost entirely a cyborg. She calls magic “the cancer of reality” and wants to solve the equation of the world without it.

The Silencers

The Inquisition’s elite special forces in black-and-gold armour. Their violet grenades create dead zones where all magic goes out.

The Juggernaut of the Abyss

A ten-metre white-and-gold Golem that devours the Dracats’ magic. What is hidden in its chest is one of the book’s central mysteries.

Kael Veyner

A young Inquisition engineer who believes in progress and order — until he learns what they really cost.

The world

Aetheria

The living planet where the story takes place. Its blood is energy — the Aether.

The Aether

The invisible web of magic, the Aether Web. The Inquisition pumps it out and turns it into electricity and plasma. That is aetherpunk: a world where magic has become fuel.

The Inquisition and the Empire

The techno-totalitarian power of humans: marble cities with golden spires, flying dreadnoughts, and an official language stripped of words for feelings.

Magomatics

Charo’s magic: to him the world is a multidimensional formula and a spell is the solution to an equation. The root code of the Aether sounds like “Dva dra e dra dra dra”.

The Hidden Temple

The ancient Temple of the Creator in the jungle of the Dead Zone, under a protective dome — the pack’s last refuge.

The Great Rift

A sacred crack in the body of the world, where the earth is thinnest. Twenty years ago the pack lost a brother here.

Chapters

1. PrologueThe Sixth

   Five hundred years ago the Great Mage gives his life to awaken six eggs of an ancient guardian race — but his light runs out before it reaches the sixth kitten. Centuries later, the pack loses a brother at the Great Rift.

2. Chapter 1Coal, Sparks and Wounded Pride

   Disguised as a beast of burden, Ogne sneaks into an Aether plant in Spiral City — and meets an enemy that drinks his fire. The people he saves greet him with stones.

3. Chapter 2Ice at the Top of the World

   Ledoslava has lived alone on an icy peak for two hundred years. An Inquisition flagship spots her on radar, and young engineer Kael begins to doubt his orders.

4. Chapter 3Races, Magnets and Wastelands

   Molna outruns the Silencers across the salt flats at supersonic speed and knocks out their gliders with a magnetic pulse — but carries off a dangerous “souvenir”.

5. Chapter 4A Stone Burden and an Accidental Sneeze

   Skala, a living mountain and a pacifist, hides in an imperial mine. One unlucky sneeze, and he has to hold up a collapsing vault on his back to save the miners.

6. Chapter 5The Perfect Equation

   Kael enters Doctor Isabella Crow’s white laboratory and learns what really powers the Juggernaut of the Abyss.

7. Chapter 6Call of Blood, Gathering of Hunters

   For the first time in a century the pack gathers at the Hidden Temple. Charo explains that the hunt has begun — and that they can only survive as a family.

8. Chapter 7Your God Has No Place Here

   The Silencers break through the Temple’s protective dome. Robbed of their magic, the Dracats fight like beasts for the first time — and as one pack.

9. Chapter 8Truth in the Grey Zone

   Kael hacks a sealed Inquisition archive, uncovers the truth about “Object Null” and a weakness in the Golem — and decides to run.

10. Chapter 9Sparks by a Burnt-Out Fire

    A night in a grotto under the drones. Broken, Ogne admits he can no longer protect his family — and learns that he is needed even without his fire.

11. Chapter 10Empty Divinity and the Fall of the Titan

    The Dracats race to the Creator’s Altar hoping to awaken an ancient power — and find a truth that changes how they see themselves.

12. Chapter 11Three Seconds of Hope

    A decisive fight with the Juggernaut and an unexpected ally. The secret hidden in the heart of the machine forces the pack into a terrible choice.

13. Chapter 12Shards of a Family

    The argument over a brother’s fate splits the pack apart. Each goes their own way, and Ogne makes a desperate deal with the enemy.

14. Chapter 13A Sweet Lie in a Glass Cage

    Aboard the flagship, Ogne finally meets the one he risked everything for — but the conversation is nothing like he expected.

15. Chapter 14The Call of the Doomed

    Charo hears Ogne’s call and gathers the scattered pack — some with persuasion, some with cunning.

16. Chapter 15The Family's Judgement

    At the Great Rift the pack waits for their brother and finds the Inquisition’s army instead. Ledoslava must decide whether Ogne is a traitor.

17. Chapter 16Annihilation and a Brother's Lie

    The elements against the Armada and the Juggernaut. When the machine is finally broken open, it turns out whose lie cost the most.

18. Chapter 17A Step into the Dark

    A power that cannot be stopped, and a choice each of them has to make alone. The climax of Book One.

19. EpilogueThe Fruits of Hatred

    What remains after the battle — and what Dracats and humans must now learn to live with. The end of Book One.

Who it’s for

Teens and adults from about 10 to 30 — anyone who loves dark fantasy, dragons, epic battles and stories about family and choices. If you enjoyed Warriors, How to Train Your Dragon or Arcane, you will probably like the Dracats.

The book contains battle scenes, injuries, character deaths and cruel experiments on a living creature. Before the heavy chapters the app shows a gentle warning and offers a pause. No strong language. Recommended age: 12+.

How to listen

1. Open dracats.ru in any browser — on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install, no account needed.
2. Pick a mode: “Listen” (illustrations and voice), “Read” (text only) or “Together” (the text is highlighted as it is read aloud).
3. Install it as an app: use “Add to Home Screen” / “Install app” in your browser menu.
4. Download chapters for offline listening — on the road, on a plane or on the subway.
5. Inside: sleep timer, playback speed, bookmarks, hero cards, a glossary of the world and a collection of more than 50 illustrations.

Credits

Author and developer

Aleksey Stepikin (Алексей Степикин) — stepikin.com

Voices

English, Chinese, Hindi — Microsoft neural voices; Russian — Yandex SpeechKit

Music and sound effects

Freesound, CC0 licence

Contact

aleksey.stepikin@gmail.com · Telegram @uxuialex