Treasures

Airships by T.A. Saunders - ©2009, revision v1.7, 6.23.05

There are few relics of Imarel's grand past that have affected the stage of warfare as heavily as the Shar'Vairian Airship. The creation and perfection of this vessel of seas and skies is single-handedly responsible for the total genocide of two civilizations and nearly destroying two more. The airship has made the Shar'Vaire Empire, in its heyday, the single most dominant force to reckon with in the entire world.

Typically, the Shar'Vaire would move a convoy of these vessels over the skies of an enemy city, blocking out the sun. This shadow they cast remained for a single day, before an envoy would present the terms of surrender. So effective this tactic was, the Shar'Vaire Empire swept aside city after city without so much as firing a shot many times.

In the cases of the Zissah and the Van`Su however (the two now nearly extinct races of Imarel), the intimidation only served to rally these once strong and proud peoples to their doom. If they resisted, the Shar'Vaire proved to be unrelenting and took no prisoners. The airships made the totality of such destruction wholesale. While there are but a handful of Van`Su and a very small population of Zissah left, the devastation these sea and sky vessels brought to their people cannot be disputed.

In modern Imarel, the airship is still the predominant force. They have become stronger, faster and able to leap Planes of Existence. While most airships of the modern era are actually military vessels such as the ones in the Anthalaen armada, their smaller and wooden civilian style vessels can be outfitted with weapons to promote a small military, or in some cases piracy.

Initially, these vessels started out as nothing more than sorcerously reinforced galleons that could skim above ground and water. Largely used for trade and troop movement at that time, little is known how the Shar'Vaire jumped from these simple craft to the sky-dominating leviathans of the beginning part of the Imperial Era. Many believe magic learned from the Dragons is responsible for this technomagical advancement. The Dragons were very wise about how the elements effected the world and how to harness that power to one's own ends. This knowledge is believed to been the basis of the Windfire engine that resides at the heart of every airship.

The irony of this theory is that the airships, along with the discovery of the Radiance, were largely responsible for the near destruction of Dragons on the face of Imarel. To this day, dragons despise airships (even the ones allied with the Quar'Vess are treated with apprehension). Rogue dragons and those of the Draconic Empire will go out of their way to engage and possibly destroy one.