Next Treasure - Asyndi Weapons & Armor
The Asyndi being creatures of high magic, primarily found little use in the manufacture of weapons of metal, save for the ritualistic sacrifice of the unfortunate being that crossed their path...
Treasures
Airships by T.A. Saunders - ©2009, revision v1.7, 6.23.05
The process of the Chaos Engine establishes the basic power source of almost all airships. A core of pure chaos is summoned within a specialized boromandite cage that has a containment ring, marked with several powerful runes. The energy created by pure chaos is drawn into the containment ring where Chaos is turned to Mana. That Mana then travels through connection points on the cage and powers the entire vessel. While this source of magical power is vast, it is highly unstable. It cannot be used to fuel a single person's magic, or even several people; every attempt to do so has resulted in a very violent death for the individuals who have attempted it. The only way this much raw Mana can be harvested safely is through the containment ring.
The cages for the Chaos Engine are highly durable and able to withstand airship crashes most of the time. However, if the cage is damaged during a fight or a collision of some sort, it is entirely possible for the Chaos Sphere to slip out of the containment ring and detonate. Such explosions are always memorable and have let their mark.
Simple civilian vessels will have Ether-Drive engines, which while smaller and less powerful than Chaos Engines, they are also safer. The statement of these engines being less powerful is something of a misnomer; because they usually push smaller craft than the massive warships the Asyndi and other nations favor, the power to weight ratio is high, making Ether-Driven vessels, providing they aren't burdened down, to be extremely swift.
The helm of an airship consists of a wheel and rudder levers that handle pitch and yaw. Airships are not supremely agile however…like their seafaring ancestors they are limited in how fast they can come about, dive or rise depending on air conditions, mass of the vessel and so forth.
Most airships encountered will have sorcerously reinforced wood and some boromandite bracing in the frame to assist flight. Up until very recently, the Shar`Vaire and the Quar`Vess were the only ones to have airships with boromandite hulls. With the opening of the Sundown Shipyards in the early part of 1321 AC, this has changed. While Sundown has not yielded many of its own vessels yet, the Republic hopes to see more in the years to come.