Layout

The current layout and design of airships requires a specific number of technologies to be integrated in order for the airships to function as expected.

Typically airships require the existence of a hull, eldric sails, an ether drive system, a ballast, and a steering house. Vaedric cannons, while not necessary from a flight standpoint, are usually onboard most airship vessels.

Hull

A typical airship resembles it’s sefaring breathen quite closely, with the same general design and layout of the ship itself, with a few minor changes.

The deck, sail structure, and sloping sides are typical of most sailing ships and remain almost entirely unaltered for airships. The bottom of the hull itself, is typically flat, with one of the sections, usually towards the front, containing a glass section of flooring to allow the crew to peer below the ship. Attached to the bottom of the ship is a long ballast, usually containing a bulb of water or other fluid to keep the ship righted correctly in the air, offsetting the weight of the sail structure above. This ballast, in turn, prevents the ships from completely landing on the ground itself, requiring a docking tower to depart the vessel. Typically, the front of the ship itself is constructed with windows and portholes, and possesses the forward wheelhouse, communications area, and the captain’s quarters.

Ether Drive System

In the center of the ship is an area that makes airships incapable of waterborne travel.

A large glowing blue hole that goes right through the ship houses the internals of the Ether Drive System. The EDS for short, partially positions itself on the Ether, allowing the ship to remain aloft in the air and adding a means of upward mobility. In turn, the EDS quickly identifies a ship as an airship from the moment of viewing it. The EDS supplies eldric energy to the rest of the ship, allowing eldric devices onboard to be useable, allowing the sails to catch the Ether winds, and supplies the vaedric cannons with a method of controlled firing. The EDS in turn is supplied energy through elarian fluid, a byproduct of eldria refinement, and is kept on board in specific canisters. Without the Ether Drive System there would be no airships and the introduction of the EDS has vastly increased the populace of Vathis’s capability.

Eldric Sails

Eldric Sails are similar in structure and design with similar sailing ship canvas.

The major difference is the introduction of eldric threads into the sails themselves. The thread is stitched into the canvas in the distinct hexagonal pattern of sails that are linked to an Ether Drive System. The eldric sails themselves catch the winds of the Ether and seem to be entirely unaffected by the mundane winds of the world, providing a constant and consistent speed when unfurled to the ship they are attached to.

Vaedric Cannons

Attached to the ship in rows below decks, vaedric cannons operate in the same manner of vaedricarms of a smaller caliber.

An unstable vaedric fluid, when provided with enough kinetic force, expands rapidly and explosively, propelling balls of lead or steel through a bored structure, firing upon enemy combatants. The combat of airships is eerily similar to their sister waterborne ships. Airship placement, movement, mobility, diving and rising, cutting around motes, cannons firing and decks coming close, are all parts of standard airship battles.

Communication, Spotting, and Navigation

As many airships captains are aware, the sky is a very large place.

Coupled with the plethora of floating motes throughout the skies of Vathis, banks of clouds, and overall visibility limitations, navigating throughout this vastness is a harrowing affair. For the most part, airships navigate by a similar method to celestial navigation and all close-range movement is based heavily on sight. Communication between airships, as well as land based to sky based, utilize a series of flashing colored signal lamps to communicate optically over vast distances. This method of communication is both secure and able to be used in conditions of bright sunlight. When it comes to spotting other airships and detecting the presence of those that are hidden from immediate line of sight, two teams operate on vessels in an attempt to detect other vessels. The sight crew typically remains on deck and on spotting masts throughout the ship, constantly scanning the horizon in search of other ships. Another method of vessel discovery is possible, acoustic location. The Echo crew typically sits within deck, utilizing sounding tubes throughout the ship to scan the area around the ship for the low hum of Ether Drive Systems and sounds of interior ships that give away the position of other vessels. The Echo crew ends up being heavily relied on and it has become the main method of detecting other ships in the skies, with some airships recently attempting to enter what is known as silent running to prevent their detection.