High Elvish Arrowship Fensymil (Stormseeker) By Imperator-Zor Watch

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The High Elves have the longest known naval history. The oldest tales of High Elvish marrianers go back at least 17,600 years, the first mention of sailing is with the tales of Prince Rellisyl and his legendary quest for his stolen crown through what is now know as the interterran sea. After that there was some minor naval conflict through the rest of the Dawn Age through the Nightmare Wars and the Age of Discord. Mostly these were used as troop transports, but there was also some anti-piracy patrols (either with elvish or Dwarven corsairs) and scouting. One of the acts of the High Kingdom to help consolidate it's strength was the dispatching of fleets of ships to survey the world bearing gifts and word of the glory of the High Kingdom to all the people's of the world in an age of exploration that would last between 11,000 to 10,000 BIA. There were also a few attempts at colonization in this age, but these efforts were ultimately abandoned. Around 6,500 BIA when the surrounding human tribes had transitioned from small clans into small kingdoms and city states the High Elvish Kingdom (in competition with the Dwarves and the emergent Drow realms) sent forth scholars, mages and artisans to share some of their knowledge. Among them were carpenters, shipwrights and navigators who taught them how to take to the waves. Even so the high elves only gave them part of their knowledge in those fields as their ship were invariably made with spells worked into the timber to the point that they are (to various degrees) considered to be alive. These ancient arts have been put to use in the frequent wars between the High Kingdom and the Drow States.



High Elvish warship design has not changed drastically since the War of Four Centuries, so much that classifications in use then are still in use today. Among the most prolific ships of the Royal Ilvanan Navy is the Arrowship. Arrowships are long, narrow sailing vessels usually about 50-60 meters long with a crew of about two hundred sailors and a complement of forty Waveriders. Since the War of Four Centuries they've adopted the use of steering wheels, deleted ballistas, added an armament of cannons, reinforced the superstructure and the addition of a proper gundeck. The Fensymil (Stormseeker) is a typical example of this class of ship. She is 56 meters long and masses in at 550 tonnes and has a crew of 205 sailors and 40 waveriders. She was first built in 31 BIA and has remained in active service since then, barring a few years spent in port undergoing reconstruction. High Elvish ships are not made in classes, each one is one of a kind at it's maiden voyage and continues to develop over it's lifetime.



High Elvish ships are fast. A sleek parasite resistant hull and wind mages working from a circle of power allow the Fensymil can reach speeds of up to 34 kilometers per hour for up to three hours and maintain a cruising speed of 15km/h against the wind for a couple of days. This is acheived partly by it's crew, but also by the ship itself. High Elvish warships are made from living wood carefully harvested from the high background magic forests of Ilvanas and specially processed by mage-artisans to retain it's accumulated magic. The end result is a craft which can not only absorb ambient magic, but can generate some of it on it's own. Carpenters working on high elvish warships don't so much engage in repairs as they graft wood onto their ships and help it along in healing itself. Even though the fleets of the Drow States outnumber the Royal Ilvanan Navy more than four to one, the greater reserve of magic often givens High Elvish ships an edge over their drow counterparts.



The most direct applications of the Fensymil's magical power in combat is her Starlance. This is a length of living wood bound in enchanted copper and glass rings in the ships bow that functions effectively like an 6 meter long wizard's staff and can be used to cast a variety of offensive spells. These include (but are not limited to) firing off lightning bolts, rays of intense light, low range jets of wizard's fire, spells that batter down magical defenses, freeze beams and shards (powerful flat cutting bolts about 20 cm across which can slice through up to 2 meters of granite, but are fairly easily thwarted by magical defenses). The range of this weapon is about 4 to four minutes. Normally. Starlances need to be fixed in place and in the case of the Fensymil require the Jib sail to be struck. For defenses the Fensymil can establish a defensive barrier against some physical attacks (though a broadside can overwhelm it) and is particularly effective against magical attacks. Even so both of these eat up a lot of mana and can't been sustained for long. Between launching attacks, maneuvering, maintaining defenses and having some reserve to patch damage, High Elvish captains must carefully manage their ship's reserve of mana.



But beyond the Starlance the Fensymil has other means of striking it's foes. Her Waveriders and a decent number of her regular crew are skilled Mage Archers and can rain down enchanted arrows with surprising range. The more modern edition to her armament is a set of 27 cannons. The High Elves were among the last culture to adopt black powder weaponry, only doing so around 220-170 BIA in response to their increased use of naval artillery by the Drow. High Elvish guns are mostly produced by Dwarven Vassels of the High Kingdom (though in the last 60 years a couple of elvish foundries have begun making cannons to supplement this) and are usually of a higher standard even if the designs had changed little in the past 100 years. High elvish naval artillery is composed of Long Guns.



Until recently the Fensymil carried a set of twenty two 24 pounder cannons (on the broadside and rear chase), four 12 pounder guns (on the forcastle) and two 36 pounder forward cannons. The heaviest guns on the Fensymil were of their time of the highest quality, being made of steel and inscribed with fire runes and runes of strength to make them both stronger (and by extension lighter) and make them more efficiently burn their powder charge, thus allowing them to fire their projectiles with greater force. They have a maximum range of 3.5 kilometers. Such artillery was expensive (costing as much as four regular dwarvish guns of the same caliber) and the fact that the Fensymil had even two of them is a sign of the accomplishment of her crew. In 37 IA these have been supplemented with twelve 7.5cm Infrastructural rifled naval guns provided to the High Kingdom after the Battle of Daagsgrad. In the last decade Drow Artillery has improved considerably while High Elvish designs have stagnated, the addition of even a small number of Infrastructural Cannons does a lot to level the playing field.

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