Thermal Skippers

The Skippers of The Gleaming City are the primary means for travel for the Lords of Fire and their servants across the blasted expanses of Mortugurra and Ardi-Kokufa.
The Skippers are airbourne craft, and come in many sizes. They work by taking advantage of the strong prevailing winds from Shadowside, and the extreme thermal updrafts caused by the ever present sun upon the plains of the Shatterbright and other desolate areas of the sunside regions.
The thermal updrafts are strongest on the sun-facing sides of ridges and dunes across the expanse, and the Skippers take advantage of these to rapidly gain alutitude.
The main feature of ther Skippers is their single long curved wing used for gliding. Many also have lightweight sails and sky rudders which they use to power and guide their momentum and direction. Below the wing hangs the much smaller body of the craft, with skate like rails used for landings and takeoff.

Types and formations

Most Thermal Skippers are single-person, but many allow for an additional passenger. The largest of the Thermal Skippers is known as the Skyblaze. The Skyblaze is can carry a full Dek of ten Flaming Brand monks and their Lord, but a Skipper of this size requires much magical augmentation to stay aloft, and is used primarily for ceremonial shows of force than any real practicality.
More often, the smaller one-person crafts are deployed in formations allowing a full Dek of fire mages to become a formidable aerial force.
The best Skippers are constructed by the Flaming Brand and reserved for their use, but many others across the wastes have copied and hobbled together rudimentary versions of their own. These range in effectiveness and appearance quite wildely.

Storage and release of kinetic energy

At times, the power of the Sky Skippers will be augmented by Blood magic, to assist with carrying cargo, or to provide the pilots a ready source of energy to add to their own internal magic stores.
A common technique used is to gain altitude using the many natural thermals, and then dive at extreme speed, while converting the kinetic friction experienced into stores held within the very frame of the craft. This technique is often used in rapid succession to gather more and more magical energy as the craft travel across the plains of Mortuggura. The resultant flight pattern gives the impression that the craft is hopping or skipping in long parabolas across the landscape, and is how the Thermal Skippers get their name.
This stored magic can be used to augment cargo carrying capacity, increase speed, or unleash violent fireballs against enemies.

Owning Organization

The Flaming Brand

Current location

Shatterbright