The truth of the Blaðsigl Drive´s origin is lost to history. According to the official story of the founding of the Radiant Legion, the first Celestial Warden, a man named Falthas Mothran, brought the knowledge of the Blaðsigl Drive to humanity when he emerged from the
Galactic Center. With this Drive, humanity was finally able to cross the enormous void between planets as they had not done since before the fall of the
Thesithoth Corollate, allowing Mothran to unite the remnants of humanity under his banner, founding the Radiant Legion.
Coloquially called a "void sail", the Blaðsigl Drive allows nearly instant traversal of the space between worlds by shifting the attached vehicle from the Warp and Weft of the
The Obsidian Veil.
The Blaðsigl Drive
The Blaðsigl Drive functions by shifting the attached vehicle into or out of the Weft. By itself, this is only moderately useful. Within the Weft, directions and distance are different. Within the Weft, the void of space between planets is replaced by a literal sea with stars visible both under the surface and in the sky above. For this reason, the Weft is often called the "Astral Sea".
The stars in the Astral Sea are not giant balls of plasma, but planets as seen from "underneath" the Veil. By sailing from one "star" to another, interplanetary travel becomes possible. And because of the stretchiness of time and space in the Astral Sea, an efficient path through the sea can turn numerous years of travel into mere moments.
Operation
Operating the Blaðsigl Drive, or "Veil Sail" as it is colloquially known, is not a simple matter. The Veil Sail requires a skilled user of psionic magic to operate it. And the more matter that is being transferred, the more powerful the mind that must operate the Sail. Using the Sail is taxing on the psion's mind, and overuse can cause mental trauma, brain damage, madness, or death.
What is more, if the psion operating the sail is distracted or incompetent, the vessel can end up off course, or worse. If the transition is not completed in its entirety, some or all of the vessel, and its occupants, can become tangled in, or even impaled by, the threads of power that make up the Veil. The effects can range from horrible mutations, to strange plagues, to destroying the minds of all aboard, to enormous explosions, to instantaneous deletion from the universe. Most scholars agree that there are probably a number of ships that have been completely erased from history due to a bad transition through the Veil, though there is no way to verify this theory.
The actual method of transmission through the Veil is akin to pushing a pin through a cloth. Using this analogy, the Sail sends a needle of psionic energy into the Veil and into one of the gaps between its threads. With a bit of effort, the psionic "needle" pushes the threads of the Veil apart to form a hole through which a vessel can travel. This hole remains for a time after the Sail is used, creating the potential for pursuit by other vessels. Such pursuit is dangerous though. As the threads re-tighten themselves, they can easily slice thorugh any matter that is in their way, causing the same side effects as with a failed use of the Sail.
