The Indus and Orimiri

The Indus and Orimiri are the two interstellar ships by which humans travelled from Earth to the Ariad, now berthed permanently on the southern coast of Muizgard's largest island. They have undergone extensive alterations over humanity's time on the Ariad, and now primarily serve as archives both of Earth and the Ariad. They remain the largest artifical structures on the planet. Their powerful communications systems have been used in an attempt to locate the Earth's first and largest interstellar ship, the Amazon, but have as yet been unsuccessful.
At any time approximately four hundred people, mostly scientists and archivists, may be living on either ship.

Purpose / Function

The Indus and Orimiri were originally designed to sustain human life for up to eighteen generations (approximately 550 years) while travelling through interstellar space. The ships also contained extensive archives of human knowledge and artifacts, much of which has been preserved. While the ships' life support systems were maintained for several generations after humanity's arrival on the Ariad, they have since been disassembled with minimal sections of the living quarters preserved for posterity. There are still some areas of both ships which remain uncontaminated by matter from the Ariad, mostly archives containing extremely delicate artifacts brought from Earth.

Alterations

Though most of the ships' original architecture still remain, large sections were disassembled early on in humanity's settlement of the Ariad, primarily to facilitate construction projects.
While the Indus' external shell remains largely intact, part of the Orimiri was opened up into a large facade resembling the side of a building. A range of shrines have been installed in this facade over the centuries. Both ships are considered sacred pilgrimage sites to the descendents of their inhabitants, although only a fraction ever see the ships.

Architecture

The Indus and Orimiri were built primarily from steel and designed to withstand both cosmic radiation and reentry into a planetary atmosphere. Due to the fusion crust formed on entry to the Ariad's atmosphere they both have a burned, pockmarked appearance, although they have both experienced extensive weathering over time. The internal architecture is typical of early modern human design. The nuclear power stations powering the ships are still intact, though running at a fraction of their capacity in order to minimise the production of nuclear waste.

Type

Megastructure, Orbital scale