Airships and How they work

[Fishbucket]

Written by Arbo Dun'adaihm, Dwarven Scholar.

Airships are perhaps one of the most prevalent and integral parts of our world, yet it is often the case that few if any know how it is they work. I aim to fix that with this here book. For the sake of you readers, we'll keep it short, simple, and to the point.

The Melding of Magic and Machine

Airships first came about when a dwarven engineer met with an elven priest in an attempt to make something to impress the father of his would be wife. He wanted to create a ship that would fly, a means of allowing his adventurous would be father in law, a dwarf well renowned in his clan as an explorer, something to travel farther and further than any other dwarf before him.

The engineer had worked on the task a hundred different ways but to no avail, he simply couldn't build something of significant structure that would also be light enough to fly. His idea was then taken to the elf priest, seeking to do with magic what he could not do with metal. Elves, as is known, ain't always a very cooperative lot, oft preferring to keep to themselves. I figure the priest saw what the engineer was trying to do, and figured that if it worked it would be a wondrous tool that the elves could then further improve upon. Whatever the reason, the priest struck a deal with the engineer: He would help get the flying contraption working, in exchange for being allowed the plans necessary to recreate the work for his own people.

With that deal signed, the elf worked with the dwarf to integrate magic into the engineers latest design, a tri hulled creation with a pair of inflated baloons in the outer hulls, upon which the main ship would sit upon via reinforced struts and walkways. Some of you reading this have already guessed, but were talking about the original Airship line known as the Trident Clippers.

The elf and dwarf worked together for many moons, but eventually both had to agree that, even with the magic integrated into most every part of the ship, there wasn't any spell strong enough to simply lift the ship into the air. The Elf suggested an alchemist be brought in, to see if some specialized compound could be used to further lighten the ship. They brought in a halfling who was quite adept at such things, and the three of them together worked on the project for a great deal of time.

The Halfling developed a compound we now come to call Hydrium. This magically reactive gas can be precisely controlled to increase or decrease the lift it provides. The baloons filled with this gas were able to lift the ship a great height into the air, but even though the problem of lift was solved, the thrust and directional control were minimal. You could get off the ground, but you couldn't go anywhere faster than you could on a horse.

Knowing they were close, the halfling suggested bringing in an odd member to the group, an Orc who had developed a means of crossing the wastelands their people live in at great speed. The orc was retrieved, and the project explained to him. Soon after, the Orc suggested the use of a converted orcish windmill to provide the thrust needed for speed. These "Air screws" eventually were perfected and added to the wings of the ship and it's main body, providing a great deal of thrust as well as directional control.

The last problem to be solved was the means of controlling all the different hardware and mechanisms aboard the ship. The dwarfs original control panel was so clustered with dials and switches, it was difficult and inconvenient to keep things in line, a constant effort that exhausted the mind and the body. A particularly skilled human crafter was brought in on the project then, to once again fix with magic what couldn't be done with metal.

Before the Human assisted, he suggested to the group that, since all their different races had had a hand in creating the airship, they should all be granted the same deal as the dwarf and elf. The agreement was unanimous, and shortly after all the new contract was signed, the human got to work.

He developed what we still use today to control our airships. A control panel of oak affixed to the helm, with a gold plate inscribed with numerous magical sigils and constructs. Braided leather likewise enchanted to carry magical commands from the console to the various components and mechanisms of the airship. With all this set in order, the airship was completed.

The group went their separate ways, each with with plans of propagating this finest invention. The dwarf won his bride, the father got a grand gift. The Elf submitted the idea to his masters, they began work on further streamlining the process. The Halfling set about working to integrate this new device into his tribes means of travel. The Orc used the design to build high speed vessels for racing. The Human took the design to the king of the time, who so loved the idea of being master of the sky he ordered the creation of a fleet of airships.

Each of the different races had a different goal, but despite that, they all worked together to bring this creation into being. I think that should stand as proof to us all that, though we may each be different from each other, when we put aside those differences and work with each other, rather than against one another, we can manage wondrous things.

[Fishbucket]

As you've already seen in the prior chapter, Airships are comprised of multiple different parts, and utilize different forms of magic to control those parts.

The breakdown of what makes an airship is straightforward enough.

The Hull: This is the primary part of the ship, it's the body, the armor, the frame on which everything else is placed.

The Baloon: This is the lift giver here, what gets you up in the air. It utilizes Hydrium to provide lift respondant to the magic applied via the control panel

The Airscrews: These are the driving force behind the ship. Like the name suggests, these are long screw like things that spin about to push the air through them. There are two types of airscrews, open and sealed. Open screws are free spinning in the air, usually made of cloth and made a bit wider to give them more push. Sealed screws have a casing around them, and focus the air through that to create a channel that pushes the air harder.

The Control Panel: This is the most important part of the ship, without this your not going anywhere. It's the brains of the whole operation, using magic sigils inscribed on the surface to let you move the ship where you want and how you want.

Long as you have these four parts, the ship your on should be capable of getting ya from point a to point B. But some of the latest advances in technology have given us quite a few new forms of the ships. Below are a handful of various parts and pieces that have been added to existing designs.

Sails: The idea is to catch the wind and let it do the larger part of the work for you. A novel idea, and certainly effective, but reliant on nature to get the job done. This is generally something you see on elven or halfling ships more than on the more practical dwarven or human designs.

Shears: This is an Orcish thing here, basically blades made for increasing a ships mobility in the air. The orcs put em on airscrews, or just about the ship for the air to pass through. The concept is rather offputting, but no less effective. The shears cut the wind, and when they do the wind pushes back on em, forcing the ship into new angles and directions. This sort of thing lets them turn faser, and change direction more often and smoothly to boot.

Bolts: this is a halfling thing, it's basically a drill bit attached either to a rope or a pillar of wood. It gets dropped out of the ship and when it hits the ground it anchors the ship, preventing it from going anywhere. It's also sometimes used by pirates to board enemy ships, they launch em out of cannons to hit and lock into a ship.

Magic Arches: This is perhaps the most recent tech to come out into the market. These are essentially large metal arches inscribed with sigils and enchanted with magic. When activated they start pulling on the ambient magic that suffuses the world, tapping into the currents and rivers of energy that flow all around, and use that to propel the ship they're attached to. Ships with these are crazy fast and agile, but also near impossible to control. Only an incredibly skilled crafter is able to use these sorts of things, or an ascendant. Furthermore their prohibitively expensive and heavy, your not gonna get much outta putting one on a larger ship, but a smaller one will find them quite useful. Before the kings death, gods save him, Asylia was seeking to build a courier fleet that would all have these aboard, that would let them carry letters and messages at high speed.