Telurran Airhips

Airships are cheaper to maintain than transportation circles. Transportation circles require constant upkeep and are a heavy investment in the first place, so common forms of long range transportation are airships and storm rails. Transportation circles are used in rare instances, such as evacuations.

Telurran airships are produced primarily in the Alyssian nations of Oslaria and Celantis. These two nations have distinct design philosophies that have led to competition between the two nations in the area of airship production. Oslarian airships use balloons filled with a lighter-than-air gas to lift them off the ground and propellers to give them locomotion. They’re cheaper to make, can take off faster than its Celantine counterpart, and are more maneuverable. The downside of the Oslarian pattern is that they’re fragile, not able to have much in the way of armor lest they become weighed down and unable to fly.

Celantine ships are built more like sea ships, in contrast to the Oslarian pattern. They’re made of wood and iron, using bound air elementals to provide lift and locomotion. The Celantine pattern is more durable than the Oslarian equivalent, constructed with sturdier materials and able to be more heavily armored without a penalty to upward lift and motion. The familiar ship layout makes it easier for crewmen to find their way around the vessel and work more efficiently. However, Celantine ships are expensive to construct and take more time and labor to construct, repair, and replace.

While airships have slowly become more and more commonplace, they’re still uncommon in the lives of normal citizens. The middle class and above are those who can afford the convenience of airship travel, with those below still mostly using conventional forms of travel, like wagons and seafaring ships.

Airships have positively impacted trade, transportation, communication, and cartography. Goods and people can now move faster over land and sea, uninhibited by natural barriers like deserts, rivers, and mountains. With the higher vantage, geographical features can be more easily discerned, thus creating more accurate maps. Cross-continental communications can get to their destinations faster with airship using couriers, though the advent of more efficient fast communication methods is slowly phasing out the airborne method.

Warfare has also been impacted by airships. Militaries across Alyissa and beyond have adopted the use of airborne warships armed with arcanist cannons and other heavy weaponry. Most powerful of these airborne navies is the Celantine Airborne Navy, renown for its efficacy in flight and devastating firepower.