Frigate
Only the vast Korashi shipyards north of the Iron Sun colony can produce true sandships, a fact that causes the admiralty no shortage of jealousy - dismissal at first; then rage, then despair. Finally jealousy, mixed with a good deal of pouting.
They where unable to seize the shipyards - the fortifications that surround them are best described as 'majestic', and it is said whatever strange and staggering technologies where once commonplace on the continent are kept still by the shipyard's mysterious masters.
Instead, the commanders of Iron Sun must instead reconcile themselves with the frigate - the next most powerful craft of the desert. Ponderous, implacable, and for practical purposes indestructible, Frigates are the dreadnoughts of the fleet, around which the lesser vessels are arranged, and strategy is based.
They where also the last vessels of the fleet to be equipped with sails. Before windcatching became accepted as near-necessity of extended desert travel, the admiralty was highly averse to outfitting these proud craft with canvas and rigging. Why must they diminish a vessel that is already perfect with the trappings of a century past?
It was once the successes of the newly sailed corvettes became apparent, and it was proven by more unorthodox engineers that larger sails, and more of them, could work the same wonders for frigate-sized craft, the agreement was eventually unanimous - the frigate would sail, and do so with pride. After all, there is something truly majestic about those vast arrays of cloth and cable, billowing with gusts of warm desert wind, bearing like fluttering banners the great insignia of Iron Sun for all to see.
"We are here", they seem to say. "And we are unafraid."
Image by Bagus Adi Iradwan
Iron Sun
They where unable to seize the shipyards - the fortifications that surround them are best described as 'majestic', and it is said whatever strange and staggering technologies where once commonplace on the continent are kept still by the shipyard's mysterious masters.
Instead, the commanders of Iron Sun must instead reconcile themselves with the frigate - the next most powerful craft of the desert. Ponderous, implacable, and for practical purposes indestructible, Frigates are the dreadnoughts of the fleet, around which the lesser vessels are arranged, and strategy is based.
They where also the last vessels of the fleet to be equipped with sails. Before windcatching became accepted as near-necessity of extended desert travel, the admiralty was highly averse to outfitting these proud craft with canvas and rigging. Why must they diminish a vessel that is already perfect with the trappings of a century past?
It was once the successes of the newly sailed corvettes became apparent, and it was proven by more unorthodox engineers that larger sails, and more of them, could work the same wonders for frigate-sized craft, the agreement was eventually unanimous - the frigate would sail, and do so with pride. After all, there is something truly majestic about those vast arrays of cloth and cable, billowing with gusts of warm desert wind, bearing like fluttering banners the great insignia of Iron Sun for all to see.
"We are here", they seem to say. "And we are unafraid."
Iron Sun
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