Brigs are the smallest Drow warships. They have one mast, are usually about thirty meters long, weigh 200 to 300 tonnes and have crews of 80-120 personnel and carry between six and fourteen cannons. Most brigs are privately owned and are employed by the Drow Navy as patrol vessels and commerce raiders working in wolf packs of two to five ships (usually with support of a supply ship) and preying on enemy commerce. Brigs are capable of making transoceanic voyages, but can not stay at sea as long as long as other vessels. Drow admirals often thing of brigs as being disposable assets and are more than willing to send brigs head on against enemy formations in ramming attacks. In their eyes the loss of three brigs with all hands is more than worth the destruction of a High Elvish Maelstrom.

are the smallest Drow warships. They have one mast, are usually about thirty meters long, weigh 200 to 300 tonnes and have crews of 80-120 personnel and carry between six and fourteen cannons. Most brigs are privately owned and are employed by the Drow Navy as patrol vessels and commerce raiders working in wolf packs of two to five ships (usually with support of a supply ship) and preying on enemy commerce. Brigs are capable of making transoceanic voyages, but can not stay at sea as long as long as other vessels. Drow admirals often thing of brigs as being disposable assets and are more than willing to send brigs head on against enemy formations in ramming attacks. In their eyes the loss of three brigs with all hands is more than worth the destruction of a High Elvish Maelstrom. Sloops are larger than brigs, but are still classified as light assets. They are double masted, weigh 600 to 800 tonnes, average out at forty meters long, carry fifteen to twenty two guns and have complements of 150 to 200 personnel. Sloops serve a similar role to Brigs in many respects, but their larger size means they have a longer operational range and can stay at sea for up to three months at a time, making them ideal for scouting missions and harassing enemy formations. They usually have the crew to spare to take in prizes.

are larger than brigs, but are still classified as light assets. They are double masted, weigh 600 to 800 tonnes, average out at forty meters long, carry fifteen to twenty two guns and have complements of 150 to 200 personnel. Sloops serve a similar role to Brigs in many respects, but their larger size means they have a longer operational range and can stay at sea for up to three months at a time, making them ideal for scouting missions and harassing enemy formations. They usually have the crew to spare to take in prizes. Frigates are medium sized warships and are in many senses their offensive workhorses. They have two or three masts, weigh 1,000 to 1,600 tonnes, are between 50 and 65 meters long, have between 24 and 36 cannons and crews from 200 to 300 personnel. Frigates are very good at destroying enemy scouts, capturing enemy shipping and can engage most enemy warships head on. Private ownership of a frigate is considered a sign of considerable prestige for a house.

are medium sized warships and are in many senses their offensive workhorses. They have two or three masts, weigh 1,000 to 1,600 tonnes, are between 50 and 65 meters long, have between 24 and 36 cannons and crews from 200 to 300 personnel. Frigates are very good at destroying enemy scouts, capturing enemy shipping and can engage most enemy warships head on. Private ownership of a frigate is considered a sign of considerable prestige for a house. Ships of the Line (not depicted) are the heaviest Drow warships by far. They can get up to 95 meters long, have three to five masts, weigh up to 4,500 tonnes, can carry up to 120 guns and can have crews up to 1,050 personnel. Ships of the line have multiple gun decks. These ships exist specifically for fleet actions and as heavy artillery platforms.

The Dark Elvish naval tradition goes back more than six millennia, details are unclear and records from that era are spotty at best but soon after the previously nomadic Drow clans began to settle down and began to vassalize human tribes and building fortified settlements known as keeps to rule them from (in an era of Drow history known as the Keep Period roughly 6800-6600 BIA to 6000 BIA) they began to build ships to explore, trade and if need be wage war. These early vessels were to the effect of longships with sharply pointed bows and rounded sterns. The fact that the majority of keeps were established near the coast indicates the importance of maritime power in the spread of Drow society both in setting up colonies and spreading the idea of finding establishing permanent settlements among the other Drow clans. This would be refined through the era of the Student Men and was put to devastating use through the War of Four Centuries. While there was some variation early on in said war, the Drow would after a century of fighting would settle on the Galley as their favored ship of war using slave rowers. This design would serve them well for nearly four thousand years and against the Fire Siphon armed dragonships of the Student Men, the three hundred oar greatships of the First Empire, the vast fleets of the Third Empire armed with catapults, ballistic, fire siphons and (in a few cases) crude cannon and the fleets of the High Elves. It was only after the Dark Elves began arming their ships with cannon of their own that they begun to move away from galleys, and even so said transition happened over two centuries between 450 BIA and 250 BIA. Even so, the legacy of this tradition remains evident even in the third decade of the Infrastructural Age.Of the Nine Drow states, eight of them have a stretch of coastline in their territory and each of these has a total naval forces of about 300 to 400 warships, the lone landlocked state operates a smaller navy of 60 ships out of the ports of it's two closet neighbors. Of these naval assets ownership is split between a state run navy and ships owned by the various great houses. The Great Houses that run Drow society are required to raise forces for the defense of their state, some retain and train companies of warriors while others build warships. For the most part the house owned ships are smaller and faster, well suited to raiding and taking prizes.Historically among the greatest concerns for Drow shipbuilders has been that of timber, given the limited amount of land that was secured behind their defenses. To ensure that they have a constant supply of usable lumber for their naval needs all woodland in Drow territory is the product of carefully managed Arboriculture. Millennia of selective breeding has resulted in the creation of fast maturing breeds of oak, mast pines and Cendoliath Teak. This has been supplemented with material reclaimed from older vessels, foreign wood, either procured through trade, tribute or harvested from enemy territory during times of war. In the last century bamboo grown in the more southernly drow states has been a boon to drow shipbuilding in terms of scaffolding material, but the biggest boon has been colonization of the Northwestern Continent.In any case once harvested the lumber is usually treated both in a fairly conventional manner, as well as with a number of potions to improve performance. As an example Drow ships are more fire resistant than their non Drow counterparts, barnacles do not grow on the bottom of their hulls, minor damage will repair itself overtime, capsizing is less likely to happen, they can easily be stored in reserve and the ship will act as a sponge, absorbing background magic and providing the crew with more mana to work with. Every Drow warship has a station from which the weather can be manipulated, mostly for nagivational purposes but also to create screens of fog and, in groups, create thunderstorms. These spells are not as extensive as those used in High Elvish ships, but they often offer an edge over non drow warships. A high level of standardization is employed by Drow shipbuilders in many components, though a fair amount of customization is used afterwards. As a general rule, most of the heavy work in shipyards is done by slaves who are overseen by Drow artisans who do much of the more delicate jobs. Before their conquest by Infrastructure, Daagsgrad and Borogskov developed a shipbuilding industry making heavy use of slave labor who's income came not only from building ships but also in training slaves in shipbuilding to sell to Drow slavers.As a general rule, Drow warships are long, narrow and built for speed. Even when tacking natural wind they have above average speed, though they are not as maneuverable as other ships. Weather magic can give them a speed and manuvering advantage, but maintaining full speed with wind can not be done for more than 24 hours. Most of them have a prominent fore and aft-castle, though this feature has been going out of fashion among the larger ships of the line for the last few decades. While most of a Drow warship's firepower is in it's broadside Drow warships usually have their heaviest guns in forward mounts. In part this has to do with the fact that a near universal feature in Drow built warships is a long prow mounted runic blade, a devastating ramming weapon. There is some reluctance to use this weapon as it can set off powder magazines. Often mechanisms are in place to allow the prow to be retracted or a 'scabbard' is available as to not inflict damage on ships that need to be captured. Drow warships often have a significant marine complement assigned to them and are generally outfitted with a corvus to make boarding easy.Drow naval artillery is measured by the weight of the projectile fired and are measured in Vaul (a Vaul is aproximately 0.59 kilograms). Five Vaul cannons are the lightest naval guns used by drow warships, more commonly found on cargo ships they never the less find their way onto brigs. Ten Vaul is the most common caliber used by Drow naval forces. Twenty Vaul guns are considered heavy guns and are generally used by ships of the line and frigates. The heaviest drow naval cannons are 35 Vaul. Drow artillery has improved consideraby between 20 and 37 IA, moving from crude, heavy smoothbore cannons lit with slow matches to lighter, stronger rifled ones using gunlocks with more than double the effective range. That said, a large number of older cannons remain in service particularly among the more easterly states.Typically, discounting marines, a Drow Warship has a crew that is two thirds composed of slaves and one third Drow. There are few places in which Drow spend as much time in close proximity to their slaves as is the case while on land. Despite being in military service, naval slaves are generally not as extensively trained or indoctrinated as Janissaries, especially among the ships in house forces. For the most part naval slaves are not trusted with weapons. This often puts Drow boarding parties at a numerical disadvantage when taking ships, though Drow sailors usually wear armor. Drow navies prefer to crew this ships with slave sailors that have had seen several years at sea and especially those that have seen action under naval commanders. Outside of skilled jobs such as carpentry, cooking, magic and medicine not much consideration has been given to formal training to naval crews either way.These are the general list of ship types in a Drow Warfleet along with their common names.While some efforts were being made to upgrade Drow ships beforehand, the Escort War has made the Drow painfully aware of the need for modernization. Especially in Galthirith, Valnothron, Cendoliath, Hansoliath and Janilonas efforts to improve and modernize their fleets have been redoubled to improve naval artillery, introduce steam propulsion and develop their own ironclad warships.