First a note from the author:  Am I overwhelming you guys? Boring you to tears? Do I need to make another mega-thread instead of a bunch of easier to digest single segment threads? No, I didn't plan on sky pirates, but now that I've seen Stardust I'd be a blinkered idiot for failing to put them into the world... especially since I have dragon mounted soldiers and floating castles already. What WAS I thinking!?!  Whatever; I now return you to your regularly scheduled travelogue..


Renbluve is the capitol city of the Southron Nornsan Kingdom, a port city with a vast and protected harbor, and built high upon an outcropping off white stone known as Versilimatu's Rest.  

In the past decade Renbluve has become known to many, particularly in the region, as the 'First City', speaking not of its age, but its relative importance. Renbluve, you see, has seen the invention and production of firecakes, alchemically bred 'Draggies', and other mavels, many of which are just now spreading to other civilized regions.  In Renbluve one with sufficent wealth might purchase a flying castle, and the means to travel to and from it. It is from Renbluve that the Nornsan King intends to spread his reborn empire accross the face of the world.  In an act of hubris, King Makula has declared Southron Nornsa to be the inheritors of Irem; wiser men pray that Renbluve does not suffer the same fate.

Renbluve occupies the land near fertile plains, rich with streams and smaller rivers. The harbor is protected by a long hook of land, further guarded by ancient fortifications, walls and gates. To attack Renbluve by sea is folly of the highest order.  The city is divided into two portions, the lower city with the primary docks and warehouses at the base of the mighty white stone pillar, and the upper city, where the wealthy, the noblity and the powerful reside. The uppercity is walled along the landward side, gated, the one road up twisted and turning upon itself, vulnerable to ancient defences. During the Warlord era, Renbluve was beseiged for five years, not even that mighty foe could break their will or their defenses.  

The first thing that will strike a visitor to the city, even the relatively poor lower city is how clean it is. There is a lack of garbage or filth in the streets, no throngs of beggars to harass passersby.  The second thing that will strike the visitor is that those passing shadows are not clouds, but massive blocks of stone floating high above the city. To be honest, most, if not all, of the blocks are actually not above the city proper, but float lazily over the largely empty fields and farms that surround the city. Many are so high up that they are barely visible at all.  Once one has looked up and seen the stones, then one might begin to notice the darting shapes of Dragoons and 'Skycarts' that fill the air.

The secret to the clean streets is one of Renbluves dirty, public, secrets. In the days of the Seige many captives were taken from the Warlord's horde, orcs and goblins mostly. They were put to work, enslaved, and their decendants remain slaves to this day, along with those abscent beggars and many petty theives and murderers. Each day the slaves are driven from their prisons, cleaning the streets as they work their way out to the farms and fields where they work until darkness falls, at which time they are marched back, once again clearing the streets of the day's accumulated filth.  

The secret to the floating castles is another matter. There are two major groups that vie for public recognition, fame and power in Renbluve. The Magi College and the Alchemist Academy.  King Makula has, in the past decade, harnessed both to one yoke, but their eternal rivalry has only been dampened, not destroyed. It is the Magi College that bred through arcane means the Draggies that prowl the skies, but it was the Alchemists who invented, and continue to hold the secret, of the Gunne used by the Dragoons who ride them.  The Flying castles are a second example of the two mighty schools working together.  While Magi have known for centuries the secret of flight, they have never been able to harness that power for more than a brief period, and never for such incredible masses. The Alchemists were able to concoct fluids that could hold arcane energies, devices that could channel mystic power, if not indefinitely, certainly long enough to make constant ritual unnecessary.  Each castle has, at it's core, a wonderously complex 'Arcane Engine', each hand crafted by savants of both schools, that provides the means of lift indefinitely. If only the secret had been held as tightly as the formulae for firecake or the breeding of Draggies.

The first 'Airship' was a crude device, a product of purely alchemical expirimentation. A standard Galleon from the fleet was fitted with massive bladders filled with 'lifting fluid' and floated freely, barely steerable. Were it not for the fact that it sank slowly from the sky the crew might have starved ere long.  Many years of expirementation provided much finer control over lift, smaller lift bags and eventually specially designed ships, though motive power and steering remained beyond the means of the Alchemists Academy, at least as a practical matter.  It was the Magi who developed the 'engine' which powers the ships through the sky, harnassing the winds and redircting the chained wind through special tubes out the rear of the vessels, steering by directing the wind through certain tubes.  More modern vessels, like the skycarts, may use 'lift engines' similar to the ones that keep the rocks afloat, though 'Lift Fluid' bags are cheaper and considerably more efficent.  The most expensive ships use alchemically treated woods to reduce weight and other refinements.  Such vessels are faster than seagoing ships, capable of crossing any terrain unimpeded, but none can carry heavy cargo.  While Renbluve is still the home of Skyships, the vessels are best known for being the preferred vessel of the Island nation of Parleon.

Parleon is actually several small rocky islands far off the coast. Originally uninhabited, they were settled long ago by those who fled before the armies of Versilimatu, becoming home to tiny fishing settlements and the occasional shepard.  Poor in natural resources, with only sparse copses of small trees, little game and a shortage of freshwater during dry seasons, it is amazing that anyone survived the centuries until trade reopened.  Parleon, however, did have on natural resource of some value in that certain areas were naturally powerfully magical, the very rocks and plants positively seething with untapped potential, making them valuable to thaumaturges and alchemists alike.  Many Parlonians joined the college or the academy with a bribe of native rock or twisted, tiny trees.  They took back with them the secret of Sky Ships, and their people soon took to the sky as pirates of the Air.  The Parlonians are considered the finest Sky Pilots, able to swoop down and pluck the bountry from sea going vessels or engage in daring arial duels with the solid and staid Nornsan Air Navy.  These Sky Pirates have even raided the Upper City from time to time, though they have not dared since the creation of the Dragoons.  Worst of all, the Parloni have dared to sell the secrets of Sky Ships to other nations, and even now Tenebrians and Northroners set forth in their own Sky Ships.

King Makula sent forth his navy, and his Air Navy to punish the Parlonians, only to find that the most dangerous and hostile of rocky islands had been converted to a massive fortress, with high stone walls, unassailable from the sea. The Sky Pirates scattered the Air Navy and severly damaged the armada from above. For now, Parleon remains a thorn in the Southron Kingdom.

Most Sky Ships are based on naval hulls, many capable of landing upon the waters. Larger ships invariably use massive 'blimp' bladders of a thick gassy substance, caustic and poisonous. The gas itself is 'heavy', with a natural tendancy to sink, but when enclosed in a container will actually rise due to a principle known to the most learned alchemists as 'excitation'.  Many use a smaller 'Lift engine', a whirling glowing contraption that resembles an orrery to augment the gas. A second magical device, known for historical reasons as a 'Bag of the Seven Winds' is also found within the hull. the actual device does not resemble a bag, but rather a brass 'jar' with a host of tubes springing from it. The pilot, for traditional reasons using a large wheel and standing on the deck, directs the force of the wind and the tubes it comes from to propel the ship, though the 'Bag of Wind' is exhaustable, requiring time to recharge its force if overused.  Many Sky Captains prefer to use the Lift Bags as sails, though this is difficult and dangerous for inexpirenced crews, and requires the bags be configured in particular ways to catch natural air currents.

Most sky ships have one or more trained thaumaturges on board, and quite a few have an alchemist as well.  This, however, is not universal by any means outside of Renbluves Air Navy. Often on or more crew members will learn a few tricks of the trade, particularly among the Sky Pirates.

Aside from courier duties and carrying light but valuable cargo (such as Pepper crops), Sky Ships can serve other unique functions.  Until their advent it was hard for Magi to obtain lightning or Cloud Candy for certain rituals. There are entire hosts of animals that live in the clouds than man has rarely encountered. Due to the dangers and difficulties in harvesting Cloud candy (clouds rarely drop low enough for Sky Ships to reach) or bottling Lightning (very dangerous, and even less common) such activities are considered poaching by the Air Navy, who maintains the right to perform such activities on behalf of the Southron Kingdoms, all profits going to the Crown of course.

The Royal Air Navy consists of some fifety 'Galleon' vessels, supported by dozens of smaller 'kites' and one rumored 'Dreadnaught', a massive vessel that can be likened to a flying city, though like the oft rumored 'Royal flagship' it has never been credibly seen.  The Sky Pirates have nearly as many Galleons and kites, though rarely in the same place, and a handful of independent Sky Captains (poachers, pirates and even legitimate merchants... most do all three) exist.  It is said that Tenebras has launched their first Sky Ships, three magnificent vessels of unusual design, larger than the galleons of Nornsa, and unable to land in the water, one of the Tenebrian Kingdoms has launched their own vessel, though patterned after a Spadan Trireme.  The Nortron Kingdom has purchased ten vessels from Renbluve's docks, and are rumored to have half a dozen more using stolen designs, but like all the nations other than the Southron Kingdom and Parleon, they have difficulty in creating the various arcane and alchemical devices necessary on any scale.  As the Royal Air Navy and the Dragoons have standing orders to destroy any vessel not chartered crafted in the Renbluve docks, only time will tell if Soutron Nornsa can maintain their dominance of the skies...