Airships

Airship technology is a rare type of knowledge on Aelladore, requiring a great deal of time, energy, and resources to complete the building of such a vessel. Not only must you have a naval architect knowledgeable in the normal ways to build a ship, but you must also employ Veil-Touched laborers to enchant nearly every board and nail, an artificer to construct and install it's Spirit Engine, and a captain bonded to a Spirit capable of piloting the thing.

Needless to say, this process takes far longer than a normal seafaring vessel does to build, meaning that airships on Aelladore usually belong to wealthy merchants, powerful factions, high-ranking nobles, and rulers of nations.

You would be hard pressed to find an airship captain who doesn't have at least some obligation to a power outside themselves, whether it be because they haven't paid (or paid entirely) for possession of their ship, because they've made some other deal, or even because they've stolen what they have.

Airships need a sentient energy source to properly function - usually, a Spirit of elemental fire or wind - which works in synchronous with the captain they are bonded to, maneuvering whatever propulsion system allows the ship to rotate in 3D space and provide extra thrust, among other benefits. It takes airship captains several years of special training and bonding with their partnered Spirit to become competent, and even then, their Spirit may only be powerful enough to operate standard airship models or lesser.

The helm of an airship can be different from ship to ship: some are puzzle-like orbs that can be shifted and realigned to calculate and act upon the physics of a maneuver, some can be chains or other "reigns" which guide the ship as if it were a mounted animal, and yet others can be enclosed pods with levers and gizmos. Fulcrum model airships (explained below) usually have a runic circle on the floor and nothing more, upon which the captain stands and performs special body movements to manipulate the energy of the fulcrum ring.

While each airship is usually unique and storied in it's own special ways, there are "models" of airships that define general traits:

• Gemini - The standard model, fitted with two turret-like pods on either side of the ship; these pods rotate to about 180 degrees and focus the power of the Spirit into usable force
• Phalanx - A series of many smaller pods line the sides of the ship, resembling the oars of a longship; this model is usually larger than the Gemini, and allows for more fine control and handling
• Dreadnaught - This is the largest model of airship, and thus requires the most efforts to keep it aloft, including integrated thrusters throughout the hull in addition to omnidirectional thrusters and a "windcutter": a wind enchantment over the bow that helps the ship "slice" through the air; Dreadnaughts are the closest one can get to a premium airship without paying exorbitantly for the Fulcrum Model (seen below), and are also commonly used as warships
• Fulcrum - This is a very unique model of airship, and exorbitantly expensive; a huge metal ring hovers quantum-locked around the center of the ship, and the captain manipulates raw energy from this ring into smooth, elegant ship movements. This is considered the platinum standard of airships; it is only produced by a single company which keeps the secret of it's design well-kept, and it requires a special type of Spirit other than fire or wind to operate

The models above are not the only ones that exist; there may be others that are less common or less widely known.

There are also miniature versions of airships in the form of skiffs, dingies, longships, and the like; rather than possessing a Spirit Engine, they are enchanted with lightness and rudimentary thrusters. These little wind sailers can be operated by anyone with training in sea vehicles, if necessary.

While airships embody the spirit of freedom and opportunity - allowing for anyone to go virtually anywhere they please in a relatively short amount of time - there are risks and limitations to flight by airship:

• Airships cannot carry much. The more cargo and personnel you take with you, the lower a ship will fly, making it more likely to be targeted by monsters and other threats from the surface of Aelladore
• Airships aren't durable. Cannon fire, flaming arrows, a strong enough mage, or any number of flight-capable monsters can spell doom for such a vessel, making travel through unfamiliar (or unwelcome) routes a calculated risk
• Airships are rare and valuable. Even if the ship was built decades ago by your Veil-Touched grandfather all by himself and has lots of age and scars from the old days, it is still an asset that some would kill for; most airships aren't new, and every effort is taken to repair or otherwise maintain one, rather than accept the cost of making another one from scratch
• Airships don't last forever. Gradually, the magic that enchants an airship will depreciate over time, before finally becoming too weak to fly again. Airships are docked as soon as they possibly can be, usually in hangars found in major trade hubs, large cities, and nation capitals. They can also be docked in regular sea harbors where dockmasters will charge extra for an unscheduled docking taking up an unexpected space, or - in truly desperate situations - in the nearest available nook or crevasse that will fit the ship

Sky pirates have existed across history, but are uncommon; in fact, they would usually act more like privateers than pirates, being hired like mercenaries to disrupt enemy supply lines, fight in times of war, and do things like smuggling or highly dangerous trips where it was very likely they'd be attacked or crash.
There may exist or may have existed a major sky pirate force, and these people would be located in a secret hideout with a number of pit-stop camps similarly hidden throughout the region; they would favor hit-and-run tactics on merchant ships that go through smaller trade routes and whose cargo is exposed, or they would attack regular seafaring ships or ground caravans.

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Sizes of Airships:

• The standard size for a Gemini Model airship is that of a barn; spacious and relatively large, but very manageable for a single person as long as they're skilled enough.
• A Phalanx Model is generally as big as your standard seafaring vessel. This isn't a personal ship anymore, it needs a crew - albeit a small one - in order to function well.
• A Dreadnaught is even larger, as large as the largest seafaring vessels were back in the olden days. Not an aircraft carrier; far from it. I would compare it to the dormitory of a boarding school: large enough to get lost in, but small enough to memorize the layout in a few days or a few weeks. These require large crews as opposed to the small crews of a Phalanx, but that doesn't mean they're very large; they're just large, nothing more, nothing less.
• The Fulcrum Model can vary quite a bit. In fact, it can be virtually any size, given the power of the special rings they use: they can be similar to a Gemini, a Phalanx, a Dreadnaught, and possibly even bigger.

For the mechanics of proficiency with airships in Fate, see Stunt: Sky Sailor. For the mechanics of them in D&D 5e, see Changes to Skills (D&D 5e).