Telmari Star Ship

"Let down the sails!" the captain cried out, her gaze turning back on me with a smirk. "We make for Telmaria!"
I heard a few scattered replies from the crew as the ship began to shudder and shake. I knew that the Telmari were known for their Star Ships, but I assumed that was a reference to the celestial-themed decor. As the ship began to gently rise out of the water and float into the air, I found out I was deeply incorrect.

— A famous Wrokan novel

Telmaria used to be a beautiful port city in the Curaith Sea, its shipbuilders some of Dreandril's best. Then came the discovery of the Heart of Telmar, a piece of inert green Luftan that, when subsequently activated, caused the entire island to break away from its undersea mooring and float up into the sky. People watched their ships be left behind or beached on the new island's shores as they lifted into the air with no way down. So they got to work solving the problem, and the result of their work was the Telmari Star Ship.

Sail the Skies Instead of the Sea

The breakthrough came when the Telmari discovered the properties of the Luftan could be counteracted by carefully focused usage of alchemically enhanced lead. If enough of the stones surface was covered by lead, the lifting cabailities of the stone could be reduced. Due to the sheer destruction that chipping at the Heart could do, the first Resonant Artery Stones to make use of this property were crafted from Luftan found on the island itself. A tiny piece about the size of a fingernail was enough to lift a ship, so the Telmari quickly outfitted their fleet with the material. Very careful shaping and encasing of the Luftan meant that many a ship was lost or damaged in the first few attempts, but eventually the ability to minutely open the casing was constructed in order to allow the ships to float but not shoot off into space. The Telmari spent years refining the first Star Ships and their Resonant Artery Stones until the modern design emerged.

Life in the Air

The careful opening and closing of the Luftan causes the ship to rise and fall, but that does not mean that the ship doesn't still require wind and navigation to arrive at its destination. Far from it! Many ships keep a mage on board in order to provide winds in travel lanes above the clouds, as well as to provide warmth to the otherwise-shivering crew. A navigator pores over maps and uses careful measurements of the positions of stars and planets to help guide the ship in the right direction. Other members of the crew help raise and lower the massive sails, repair damage to the hull of the boat or serve as guards for particularly expensive or dangerous cargo.

Air-faring (?) Culture

Nowadays, the Telmari are still most known for their maritime trade, except that the mode of travel between Telmaria and the other isles and nations of the expansive Curaith Sea has changed slightly. Many of the most celebrated of Telmari heroes are the nation's admirals and sailors, and one can always count on the Telmari to tell a harrowing story about fighting a dragon or some other flying monster during a voyage.

Nickname

Airships or starships

Price

At least 45000 Telmari pearls to purchase.

Rarity

Very rare everywhere except Telmaria.

Beam

5 to 7 metres wide.

Length

16 to 23 metres long.

Height

20 to 30 metres from the bottom of the keel to tip of the mast.

Weight

Weightless.

Complement / Crew

Anywhere from seven to twenty people.

Cargo & Passenger Capacity

Up to fifty people in the largest ones.

Interdimensional Travel

While their Luftan doesn't allow travel between planes (a common misconception among the rest of Dreandril), Telmari Star Ships have been known to travel between worlds and dimensions through very powerful magics. Most notably, a small fleet of them appeared in the Sunless City of Limbo when Veros Telmar, leader of the Pearls, invaded the city to bring Keeper Franco Colbartha to justice. In this case, it was the usage of large teleportation spells by mages working with the Pearls that permitted the ships to travel to the semi-dimension, not any particularity of the ships design as such.
A couple of Star Ships have also been found under dense piles of vegetation in Faerie, indicating that a handful of intrepid mariners have figured out how to transport their vessels beyond the walls of dimensions, although evidently have not lived to tell the tale.

A depiction of the Cometlands

The Cometlands

This region, much like Telmaria, is kept aloft by Luftan. However, the difference is that the islands, according to the Stellar Hermits who live there, were created by celestial spirits in the service of the stars themselves. However, many a Star Ship has been made from the Luftan plundered from uninhabited islands in the Cometlands, leaving the Hermits rather distrustful towards the Telmari, if not outright hostile. Despite this, rumours of Hermits finding survivors of battles involving Star Ships and nursing those survivors back to health persist.

All images in this article were created by me, EmperorCharlesII, unless otherwise credited.