The Imperial Navy

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The Imperial Navy was created not with the name it has today, but rather as The Navy of (The Free City of) Isra. In the first year of her administration, then Lady Naoki gathered a group of the finest and most qualified individuals to fill important roles within it and created Isra’s Navy almost overnight. Their first meeting took place at The Midnight Sun, and it was there that each member of the group accepted Lady Naoki’s offer, and where the first steps of planning took place. That group included Admiral Valerian Kastimeer , Antonio Stark , Captain Gothmog Bloodsail , as well as The Lady Naoki, Emahra Untyrid, and Artemis .

Admiral Valerian Kastimeer ’s experience at the time of the meeting included, among other things, service in Gauldin’s Merchant Sea force. He had spent considerable time as an officer in its service, and gained experience in naval strategy and captaining vessels, including in combat. This made him all but ideal for the position he received, Admiral of The Isran Navy.

Antonio Stark was already highly accomplished in the field of naval architecture before meeting Lady Naoki, having designed the airships for Gauldin, pioneered the concept of frame first construction, and several sail configurations. He received a position within the newly formed Navy befitting of his skills and was given the exclusive right to design ships for Isra. Once in the service of Isra, Stark proceeded to design every class of ship used by Isra’s Navy, as well as The Depravity.

Captain Gothmog Bloodsail ’s qualifications came in the form of years of experience as an accomplished pirate captain and privateer. He earned many scars in his career up to that point and possessed a reputation as the captain of one of the most feared vessels in the sea. He was a friend of Valerian before the meeting, and it was upon Valerian’s suggestion that he came and offered his service to Isra. He was appointed as Captain of The Depravity, the Navy’s flagship, and at that post, he has served well; he remains as captain of the most feared vessel in the sea.

With their assistance, Isra developed Port Silverion into a bastion of a city and built the naval dockyards to construct and be home to The Isran Navy. The delta of the river was made into a sort of bay, protected on all sides by a combination of seawall and chain tower. The Navy then brought jobs and population to Port Silverion, making it into a thriving port city.

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The Imperial Navy employs the use of ship classes. Every vessel in the Navy save for The Depravity is one of several other ships of the same build. There are five types of ships, listed here in descending order of size.

Ship of the Line (Warship)

The largest class of ship, when one is referring to the power of The Imperial Navy, they're talking about these. Each one is just over 400 ft. long, roughly 2,000 tons, and requires a crew of 300. They are so named due to the arrangement of their armaments, lines of heavy ballista running down the port and starboard sides, all pointed outward. In the context of naval strategy, the idea is to line many Ships of the Line up, aft to stern, and sail past the enemy, leveraging the full power of each ship’s broadside against the target. They are also referred to simply as “Warships,” as the express purpose of this design is for war.

Frigate

While not quite as large as the Ships of the Line at 300 feet, Frigates are still a large threat in their own right. These ships comprise the majority of all vessels in the fleet and are used in routine tasks such as patrolling and escorting trade convoys. They are roughly 1300 tons, and their armaments are both numerous and are not overly limited by the orientation of the ship relative to the enemy. Each one sports a crew of about 100 men, and it is aboard one of these ships that most Isran sailors will be assigned.

Dawn Rider Carrier

The carriers are a very specialized sort of ship, built to take advantage of Isra’s unique strength in the form of The Dawn Riders. These ships are wide, clumsy, and fragile, with no weapons to speak of. Their sole purpose is to provide shelter and a base for Dawn Rider griffin-rider pairs to operate from at sea. They do their job well. Each vessel accommodates more than thirty griffins and their riders, if not quite comfortably, suitably. A moderately sized portion of the ship is dedicated to containing live cattle, fresh for the griffins. With the aid of these ships, the effective reach of The Dawn Riders is all but infinite, as all Dawn Rider griffins- rider and equipment included, has the endurance to fly many miles without landing. By utilizing these ships, Isra can exert power anywhere they see fit, to assist the fleet in ship to ship battles or fly above foreign shores.

Schooner

The lightest and fastest of all ship classes, schooners are often the eyes of The Imperial Navy, used as scouts. They are sent ahead of larger ships to perform reconnaissance and relay information back to the fleet. Less than 150 feet long and crewed by only about forty, the weapons of the schooner are paltry when compared to proper Warships, but still entirely capable of ruining someone’s day in the hands of a skilled captain.

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From ship to ship, the arrangement and specifics of their armament and sail configuration may vary. The most often used mounted weapon is the ballista, utilizing torsion springs and operated by a crew of between two and five sailors. These are capable of launching a missile several hundred yards with a good degree of accuracy. Often, the type of ammunition chosen is a large bolt- similar to that you might find in a crossbow, or just appropriately shaped rocks.

Some ships, especially smaller ones, are often fitted with smaller weapons, namely the Scorpio. These are operated by only one sailor and are arguably more closely related to handheld crossbows than to siege weapons, though they retain much of the same power. Scorpio strike easily and with precision within 100 yards, and when parabolic shooting is employed, can reach over 400 yards. They fire much more quickly than the larger ballista as well and are not used so much as to damage a ship as they are to kill its crew.

Other variations of the standard ballista are used by some ships, and the Navy has even outfitted some other sorts of adapted siege weapons, such as trebuchets, geared toward assaulting targets on land. It depends entirely on what said the ship was equipped for before leaving port, though it is safe to assume that a ballista of some variety is in use.