INS Thunderchild

Imperial Navy Flagship Thunderchild

The draconic visage that decorates the INS Thunderchild’s prow rightly marks it as the most fearsome vessel to prowl the Aetherial Expanse. The apotheosis of Karelagne experimental magi-technology, the Thunderchild is a four-masted, iron-hulled behemoth that belches smoke from wide chimneys as it roars across the aether. Instead of a traditional figurehead, this vessel’s prow was wrought into the shape of a snarling dragon, one which crackles with lightning as storms roll across the sea. The Thunderchild is commanded by the most trusted servant of the Imperial Navy, Admiral Abrexta Kathinel. Rumors swirl around the Isle of Drakes that the Thunderchild’s true wicked power is the lightning breath of a blue dragon bound to its figurehead, and that this crackling power can lay low ships as if the Thunderchild itself were the herald of the god of storms. Atop its masts, above the royal sails, are strange, forking branches of iron that hum and vibrate. This huge scrying array is an aetherium-infused arcane focus that permits diviners aboard the Thunderchild to extend their powers of clairvoyance. The Thunderchild’s arms and armor have made it the terror of the Aetherial Expanse. Its iron hull is all but impenetrable and its broadside Wrath Cannons report not with cannonballs and the flash of gunpowder and flame, but with bright blue eruptions of aetherium and blasts of arcing blue energy that slice through hulls like a honed blade through flesh. Perhaps more terrifying than an unstoppable broadside from the Thunderchild’s experimental aetherium-powered Wrath Cannons is the crackling lightning it was named for: the lightning breath which blasts from its draconic figurehead in a line a half mile long. The Thunderchild prowls the Aetherial Expanse as the empire runs tests on its efficiency, maximum payload, and other vital details. Pirates who lair upon the Isle of Drakes fear the day the Thunderchild will set its baleful sights upon their haven, for it will surely be the harbinger of their doom.