[✗] [World Lore] [Smoggers Addition] Airships

[Slorbin 1774]

“Unto you, children of Horen, you shall receive the seven skies…”

 

One fateful day, an engineer peered up at the sky, pondering his purpose. He had just finished listening to a sermon covering the scroll of Horen, and those words lingered in his mind. He had been promised the seven skies…

But what about the current one?

AIRSHIPS

CASTLES OF THE SKY

Origins

 

Spoiler

The origins of the airship lie far back in the courts of Oren with the noble’s interest in hot air balloons- small sacks held aloft by a flaming basket, allowing one to peer on the peasants below while sipping on the finest Auverignon wine one get get their grubby hands on. But this engineer, whose face and name have been lost to time, did not want some toy, some floating box that could peer down on a carnival, that if ever detached from it’s ropes would surely crash and burn in the fields nearby- No, no, he wanted a sailing vessel- something that could explore the wilderness, something that could cross the great Sutican Sea, could view the Firelands from above- something that could conquer the sky, not merely be it’s guest.

 

The engineer was wise, he knew the folly of his predecessors- flapping wings was a useless endeavor, and soft balloons weren’t stable enough- so perhaps, using a little of his tinkering skills, he could devise a solution. A large balloon on top reinforced by lightweight wood, supporting a basket crafted out of a repurposed sloop. The skeleton of the first, the true airship.

 

 

 

 

Glow Oil

 

 

Spoiler

The greatest problem the engineer faced when seeking to enter the skies was the problem of lift. Originally, the idea seemed simple: Use the heat from combusted air, akin to the process of a hot air balloon, to simply make a much, much larger version. However- no matter how hard the engineer tried, how hot the pyre burned, the ship simply would not lift. It was a difficult dilemma. After all, the framework was, definitively, the largest of any hot air balloon to date- the balloon itself was dozens of meters long, ten meters in diameter, framed with a lattice of swamp Cypress to maintain a rigid shape. The ‘basket’ underneath more resembled a boat, a medium-sized sloop complete with cabin and storage room- but it still weighed thirty tons. No amount of hot air could lift this while remaining a respectable size.

 

The engineer pondered for a long time in his workshop, thinking over possible solutions. Perhaps… Smoggers might be able to help him. After all, the amount of gas released through an inefficient Gear Stomach surely would provide enough for at least moderate lift, right? But, in the end, it was a waste. Although gas was being produced at a significantly higher rate than the paltry fumes from a hot air balloon, and was slightly lighter than the air around it, the smog lacked the pure heat to keep the boat buoyant- especially with an entire Gear Stomach strapped to the underside of the envelope.

 

And so, all seemed lost. The engineer went back to their normal life of potioncraft, toiling day after day to amass mina- until by sheer chance, he found the solution to his problem. While crafting his first Auric Oil for the day, the man noticed the signs for liquid mana were remarkably similar to the ones used in redstone- with one key exception, the replacement of Earth with the addition of Air- the heavy symbol with a significantly lighter one- slightly harder to acquire, but it should still be consumed by the gear stomach... Was this the eureka moment he had been waiting for? The man tossed aside the reagents for the Auric Oil and pulled out his Red Oil-making supplies. Charcoal, Connection, Endurance, Strength, Order… But instead of adding the final touch of Redstone Dust, he poured in a vial of his own liquid mana. The concoction began to grow brighter and whiter, until it resembled a cloudy, glowing pale substance- softly illuminating the laboratory around him. The engineer quickly climbed up the hull of the airship, pouring the thin tincture into the Gear Stomach, and yanking the cord to turn it on. The Stomach let out a mighty roar, as the fuel was quickly processed. While the motor attached to the Stomach moved nary an inch, a cool, cloudy mist billowed from the opening at the top at an alarming rate, shooting into the air. The engineer feels the ground against his feet begin to wobble… as the ship began to rise.

— — — 

The essence which gives an airship its lift, Glow Oil is, like its crimson counterpart, constructed from careful alteration to Lifeblood’s core recipe. Glow Oil can only be used once, and is not cycled like Lifeblood- but unlike Red Oil, it produces little to no energy output when processed in a Gear Stomach. The true purpose of Glow Oil comes from the aftermath, the waste product emitted from a Gear Stomach’s flume when it has been evaporated and exhaled.

 

The resulting white gas, also known as ‘mist’, has special ultra-light properties which makes it extremely useful for generating horizontal lift. The mist miraculously is lighter than any known substance- the engineer estimated that it was potentially hundreds of times lighter than air itself. Unfortunately, mist has to be expunged to lower the dirigible and intaken to lift it, which requires the ‘Gear Lungs’ (as they are commonly called to differentiate them from Red-Oil consuming smoggers) to be frequently refilled with more Glow Oil during piloting.
 

Due to the absence of redstone in the recipe, Glow Oil is significantly less chemically hazardous than Red Oil- but it is still by no means safe. The Liquid Mana infused within the Glow Oil will cause symptoms akin to voidal sickness if consumed, rendering the victim feeling weak and frail for a few hours. If the Glow Oil mist is inhaled, held in the lungs for over 10 narrative seconds, and metabolized, the victim will suffer horrible hallucinations and intense coughing. Given how light the mist is, it will float away far before it can affect any plant life in the area.

 

The recipe for Glow Oil is very simple- add a measure of Liquid Mana to the ingredients required to make Lifeblood. The Redstone used in Red Oil makes it significantly thicker, and heavier, with far more earthen pollutants given the Earth symbol- however, the purity and properties of Liquid Mana's Air symbol made it much lighter and a viable alternative for an airship's lifting gas. Liquid Mana is also far less volatile than redstone, so establishing a connection near Glow Oil will simply do nothing. However, given the fragile nature of an airship, it isn’t quite recommended to cast spells on one either.

 

Glow Oil Recipe:

Spoiler

Glow Oil Recipe:

Lifeblood recipe + 1 measure of Liquid Mana.

Written out, the entire recipe looks like:

Powdered charcoal mixed with water

Connection x3

Life x3

Growth x2

Strength x1

Balance x2

Endurance x3

Grace x2

Order x3

Liquid Mana

Redlines:

* Glow Oil is an uncommon potion. It can be learned by anyone who knows the recipe to Red Oil through enough experimentation, but you must learn the ingredients to Red Oil first.

* Glow Oil must be ST-signed to ensure its legitimacy.

- All reagents must be represented through ST-signed herbs, with the exception of Liquid Mana, which must come from an MA-holding mage.

- A sufficient amount of Glow Oil is required to keep an airship afloat- However, the needed Glow Oil is only collected and tallied when moving an airship to another place on the map. (See: ‘Size’ Redlines). While an airship is idly sitting in the air or docked, it is allowed to stay there without more Glow Oil needed to be burnt.

- Glow Oil mist comes out of the Gear Lungs slightly colder than the surrounding air, but the temperature itself cannot harm anyone.

- When inhaled, Glow Oil mist will cause hallucinations and coughing after 10 seconds of  holding the vapor in.

- When ingested, Glow Oil will cause feelings of weakness, nausea and frailness for at least 3 narrative hours. Glow Oil has no effect on contact with skin.

 

 

Propulsion

Spoiler

The next big hurdle for the Engineer was figuring out exactly how to move the ship. It seemed simple, and fortunately, for the: Install sails on the side, and allow the winds to take you where you wish. Surprisingly, it worked. A system of many sails on the bow, port, and starboard allow pilots to meticulously rotate and fly their ship through the air- albeit, at a snail’s pace. At the very highest speeds, an airship could cross the entirety of Almaris in one year- far longer than any ship-of-the-line could.

 

An interesting conundrum in the aviation community has been whether or not to include a propeller in the back of the dirigible. Some argue that including a steam-powered propeller, akin to the paddlewheels on a dwarven steamboat, might aid the aircraft in propulsion against unfavorable winds. The truth of the matter is still, unfortunately, unknown…

 

Redlines:

- Airships are primarily steered through sails on the sides, and should be included in ones’ build.

- Any steam propeller built on an airship would appear slow and clunky. It would only be aesthetic in nature, akin to the steamships of the dwarves, and the resulting airship would not be any faster than a ship without a propeller. It is simply an option for stylistic flair.

 

 

Description

Spoiler

The airship is composed of many different parts that all combine to make one thing: A flying boat, kept aloft by a balloon and steered by a variety of rigging. Below are some of the essentials needed in an airship, as labeled on the engineer’s first prototype airship.

 

Envelope: The envelope is the name for the ‘balloon’ the airship is connected to. It is responsible for keeping the ship afloat.

The envelope commonly holds multiple ‘ballonets’ within it, dividing the gas into separate compartments. This way, if one of the ballonets are ruptured, the other one will allow a much softer descent than a simple crash-and-burn. Larger sizes of ships can hold more ballonets, and take more hits to the envelope before crashing and burning. Unfortunately, this prototype ship only had one ballonet…

 

Redlines:

- Any airship MUST have an envelope on top.

- On a build, the envelope MUST be either empty or divided into multiple hollow sections. No chests, storage, builds, or anything can be put inside of it, doing so will be considered powergaming.

- An envelope can have a maximum number of ballonets dependent on the size and class of ship it is. (See: ‘Size’ redlines).

- Envelopes can be made of cloth, tanned hide, or leather. Anything heavier will not float.

- The rigid lattice that reinforces the envelope can be made of any type of light wood. Note that it is not meant to protect the envelope like armor- it simply allows the blimp to keep its’ shape when deflated.

 

Gondola: The gondola is the ‘ship’ part attached to the balloon, used to keep cargo, crew, cabins, or even cannons.

 

Redlines:

- While you could theoretically have an airship without a gondola, it would just be a balloon, and immediately fly away.

- The gondola must be underneath the envelope.

- The size of the gondola on a build, from bow to stern not including bowspirit, determines the class of ship it is.

- The hull of a gondola must be made primarily of wood. A metal or stone hull would be far too heavy to keep afloat.

 

1. Primary Sail: The primary sail would be the main source of propulsion for any airship.

2. (Optional) Steam Propeller: A propeller is an alternative source of propulsion for any airship, commonly favored by dwarves. The one in this diagram was never activated, and a chimney was never installed- but a proper steamship should have a chimney.

 

Redlines:

- Either a Steam Propeller, a Primary Sail, or both are needed to propel an airship forward, unless another reasonable excuse for propulsion can be given.

 

3. Gear Lung: The Gear Lung is simply a Gear Stomach with no additional moving parts attached. Its sole purpose is to digest Glow Oil and turn it into mist- generating lift for the envelope and taking the airship into the sky.

 

Redlines:

- An airship MUST have a Gear Lung.

- The Gear Lung must be connected to the envelope in some way- whether it should be attached to it through a flue, or directly connected to the envelope and hanging underneath it, or by conjoining the gondola and envelope, it does not matter. As long as the expunged mist has a clear way to enter the envelope it is admissible.

- The size of the Gear Lung depends on the class of the airship. (See: ‘Size’ redlines)

- If Red Oil is inserted into a Gear Lung, the inside of the envelope will be covered in smog. It will need to be completely docked and cleaned before it can be used again. The process takes at least 1 OOC day.

- The Gear Lung follows all Gear Stomach redlines, otherwise, and is constructed in the same way.

 

4. Rudders: The rudders of an airship are used to pilot and turn the sailing vessel. Due to the complex nature of an airship, steering one is not always as simple as turning a wheel left or right- a trained crew is often required to maneuver the rigging into just the right spot.

 

Redlines: 

- The rudders on an airship can move the airship on pitch, yaw, and roll axes. However, the maximum pitch and roll angles are relatively low, around only 35 degrees at maximum, 

- Airships are incredibly slow to turn, even slower than a sailing vessel, and should be emoted as such.

 

5. Rigging: The rigging of an airship is the web of ropes and nets which keep the gondola, the envelope and the many sails all together. Sufficiently thick ropes and redundancy should be used when desired - you don’t want the airship’s ropes to snap and plummet!

 

Redlines:

- The rigging on an airship should connect all parts together. You must have the envelope connected to the gondola in some way.

- The rigging on an airship can be climbed to reach places for maintenance if the build allows you to mechanically do so.

 

 

Size

Spoiler

Given the miraculous properties of Glow Oil, airships can grow quite large in size, with many even as large as ships-of-the-line. As the rigging on an airship is wildly different on each example, their classification refers solely to their size and size alone, with nomenclature loaned from real sailing vessels.

 

Sloop: 20 blocks long or under from stern to bow, and a maximum of 1 floor below deck.

 

- A sloop can be created by a single person with a Smoggers FA.

- A sloop can have a maximum of 2 ballonets in an envelope.

- Sloops do not need to be submitted as a MArt, they only need to be ST-signed.

- The Gear Lung of a sloop must encompass at least 6 blocks.

- A sloop consumes 3 Glow Oil when moved by WT assistance.

- When moving in roleplay, a sloop consumes 3 Glow Oil every 2 OOC days. It takes nothing when parked.

- A sloop can have no cannons on it.

 

Brigantine: 21-40 blocks long from stern to bow.

 

- A brigantine can be created by two people working together, both with Smoggers FAs.

- A brigantine can have a maximum of 4 ballonets in an envelope.

- Brigantines need to be submitted as an MArt.

- The Gear Lung of a Brigantine must encompass at least 12 blocks.

- A brigantine consumes 6 Glow Oil when moved by WT assistance.

- When moving in roleplay, a brigantine consumes 6 Glow Oil every 2 OOC days. It takes nothing when parked.

- A brigantine can have one cannon on each side.

 

Carrack: 41-60 blocks long from stern to bow.

 

- A carrack can be created by four people working together, all with Smoggers FAs.

- A carrack can have a maximum of 6 ballonets in an envelope.

- Carracks need to be submitted as an MArt.

- The Gear Lung of a carrack must encompass at least 18 blocks.

- A carrack consumes 9 Glow Oil when moved by WT assistance.

- When moving in roleplay, a carrack consumes 9 Glow Oil every 2 OOC days. It takes nothing when parked.

- A carrack can have two cannons on each side.

 

Frigate: 60+ blocks long from stern to bow.

 

- A frigate can be created by six people working together, all with Smoggers FAs.

- A frigate can have a maximum of 8 ballonets in an envelope.

- Frigates need to be submitted as an MArt.

- The Gear Lung of a frigate must encompass at least 24 blocks, with each 10 blocks added to the length of the frigate adding an additional 1 block onto the required size of the Gear Lung.

- A frigate consumes at least 12 Glow Oil when moved by WT assistance, with an additional 1 Glow Oil consumed with each 20 blocks added to the length of the frigate.

- When moving in roleplay, a carrack consumes at least 12 Glow Oil every 2 OOC days, with an additional 3 Glow Oil consumed with each 20 blocks added to the length of the frigate. It takes nothing when parked.

- A frigate can have three cannons on each side.

 

 

General Redlines:

- Please have a large enough balloon on your build. Use common sense.

 

 

Glaring Weaknesses

 

 

Spoiler

Unfortunately, the engineer’s life was cut short when he explored places far too grand, far too difficult to ‘conquer’. Little is known of what happened, as he never survived to tell the tale… But given the scorched remains of his dirigible, nestled between the Drakaar’s volcano and the Dried Sea, a fair estimate could be interpolated. Astoundingly, while his body was never found, all of his notes and tomes on the process of airship creation, years and years of research, remained relatively untarnished in the Captain’s Quarters. What will become of this knowledge? Will the descendants use it for good? Bad? Peace, war? Only time may tell.

 

Whatever way the wind blows, the destruction of the HMS Sainte D'or revealed the main flaw with his design: Airships are fragile. Terribly fragile. A large number of things can go wrong. If the envelope is destroyed and all the ballonets punctured, the airship will immediately begin to plummet towards the ground at an alarming rate. If the envelope is set on fire and bursts into flames, the entire boat may light ablaze- with no lifeboat, no chance to jump overboard…

 

Redlines:

- Airships are quite fragile at heart, it doesn’t take much to destroy the envelope. A slash from a sword will definitely pierce through an envelope and the ballonet underneath it. A shot from a flaming arrow may burn a small hole in the envelope and deflate the ballonet underneath. A well-placed cannonball shot can take up to three ballonets out in a single blow!

- Note that a single, normal-sized arrow will puncture a ballonet, but it will form its own plug. If it is on fire, or if the crossbow is significantly more powerful and able to punch through, it will cause a hole.

- Generally, the number of ballonets an airship has left determines how fast it will begin sinking. If 50% of the ballonets are left, it will begin to float to the ground. At 25% remaining ballonets, the airship will begin to plummet at a faster rate. At 0%, the ship enters a state of freefall.

- Due to the ultra-lightweight properties of mist, all mist inside a ballonet will usually be expelled within 1 narrative minute of it being sufficiently punctured.

- Unless you have multiple different airships, there are no ‘lifeboats’ for airships. You simply have to brace for impact.

 

 

 

General Redlines:

- Airships larger than a sloop (a gondola longer than 20 blocks from stern to bow, not including bowspirit) or with more than one floor below deck (aft cabins are counted as above-deck) must be submitted as a Magical Artifact. All airships with a gondola 20 blocks long or smaller must be approved by a member of the Story Team through an ST-signed item or sign.

- Airships that have been destroyed that are classified as Magical Artifacts can be rebuilt with the same blueprints without having to re-apply for the Magical Artifact. Airships that have been destroyed that are not classified as Magical Artifacts must be rebuilt and re-ST signed, though.

- If nations so choose, Airships can be used as a replacement for the typical ferries used in the fast travel plugin. However, they must be approved by the Story Team as a MArt or signed. They provide no additional benefits over using a regular sailing vessel or caravan, and are purely an aesthetic change.

- Being a ship, Airships can be used to ‘travel’ to new lands upon a map change, if normal ships are also allowed.

- To move an airship by World Team assistance, the normal fee of transportation of 50 minae, along with Sufficient Glow Oil (See: ‘Size’ redlines) will be incurred.

- Airships are incredibly slow compared to a normal boat. They can only be moved through WT pasting, at the very fastest, once an OOC week.

- If the Airship is moved within a player-owned region, you must have PRO permission to paste it in said region. If you wish to, for some reason, crash the airship into the region, you must have PRO permission to do such as well- just like all acts of major vandalism.

 

OOC: I made this over the course of about 13 hours as a fun little project. I don’t really know if it’ll get accepted, but it was fun to write anyway. I know the server can be quite resistant to updating the techlock at times, but I legitimately believe this might be the way to do it. Take something that isn’t at all common in real life, something with a legitimate background in fantasy and try to push it as an alternative, more whimsical way of technological advancement than the banal ‘thing that exists irl but now you can use it in lotc’ (like guns or trains, those are too realistic bro! keep it fantasy).

As well, we're already pretty close to Airships in the lore- we have full steam vessels on the ground, hot air balloons in the air, and even floating, 'pilotable' castles such as Tsutenkaku. The only attempt (that I could find by scrounging the 'denied lore' section) by a player to implement it had so many problems it didn't even get to the techlock vote, so the ball hasn't even had the chance to get rolling on this. Hell, we even planned to implement them back with Availer, it was meant to be the gift to the humans instead some sort of psuedo-heaven. They're even already in the lore, in Garumdir's world. Perhaps that plan could be fully implemented now..?

Common Concerns I've Heard:

1. After hearing a few concerns from ST, I should clarify my thought processes: Liquid Mana isn't just in the recipe for 'magick's' sake- it's because Liquid Mana has Air symbols in it, which should make it 'lighter'. If another reagent had both Aether and Air, it would've taken its place, but this is the only one so far.

2. I personally believe this lore needs to be Smoggers and not a 'common invention' (except amongst Smoggers) for a number of reasons: First, lore-wise, Smoggers makes sense for this kind of thing- complex inventions have to be made with it. Second, OOC-wise, I think that making it locked behind Smoggers ensures people are willing to go through the actual roleplay of making such a thing instead of just popping airships out left and right- thinking of the mechanics in much finer detail to create well-written machines, not just a thing to be used in roleplay but a thing to create roleplay at every step of the way. Also- Smoggers is becoming more widespread in the world, I've seen, throughout several different groups of people, so it wouldn't be gatekept too hard.

3. I should probably also clarify this: This lore would require the Techlock Rules to be updated. I am fully aware of this. I'm aware it would probably need to come down to an admin vote if it were to be accepted or not. Please keep the idea that the Techlock would need to be updated when reviewing this piece. This is completely intended.

4. War Rules would stay the same as they are, as travelling by airship is in many cases slower than on foot, airships can only hold a limited number of passengers (as opposed to the supposed 'thousands' in warclaims), and an airship getting shot down would result in the death of a majority of the passengers.

5. I am willing to work with staff to change any and all aspects of this lore to the extent of my writing capabilities.

6. If this lore gets miraculously accepted, I will write a guide detailing the specific do's and don'ts of airship roleplay and the building guidelines an airship should follow to fit within the medieval-fantasy (with-light-steampunk-elements) aesthetic that LOTC currently fits into.

7. No non-fantasy airships. It's gotta fit within server build guidelines as well!

 

Credit: https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/185369-%E2%9C%93-playable-ca-invention-feat-automata-crafting-animati/

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/192603-the-techlock-transport/

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/188838-%E2%9C%93-world-lore-further-alchemy-animati-clarification-sintels-smoggers-tinkering/

 

the formatting for the redlines is fucked up due to google docs. nothing i can do to fix it. whoopsies. enjoy the lore. lol!

 

Changelog:

1/23/2022: Added the second paragraph to the OOC section.

1/24/2022: Clarified what rule changes would be needed if they weren't obvious enough.

1/31/2022: Added some details in the 'lore story' and lore proper part of Glow Oil (as well as an addendum in the OOC section) to clarify exactly why Liquid Mana works (not just because 'hurr durr magic'.)
Also added a clarification why it probably needs to be Smoggers.
Cleaned up the OOC section a bit.

[PrinceJose270 746]

With all the memes about flying plains and all that, this is actually a well balanced piece of lore. Wouldnt mind one day seeing or even building one of these things. As it can bring a new form of RPs. (Plus, canonically in arcas there was an eventline that had hot air ballons.) +1 in my book despite all the ST heavy involvement. (understandably required but you get it)

[Shmeepicus 3942]

This is actually pretty cool, props Slorbin.

[TryaxReck 377]

I am so proud of you Slorbin. Perhaps one day I will see you as a greentag, not taking any of my sreqs <3

[Valannor 6347]

I am incredibly pleased with this submission out of you, Slorbin. Very impressed.

[AstriaS 3731]

I was honestly expecting a meme, but this is surprisingly well-written and a pretty neat concept besides. Well done.

[Glade 521]

[Poggers Addition]

 

+1

[TheWhiteWolf 1056]

Well damn. +1

[Setsuko_ 308]

Personally, it doesn't really make sense/I personally don't see why it's a smoggers addition instead of its own thing, but I like the piece itself. Very good job

[christman 2320]

slorbin has been making really good takes of late i rate +1

[wowj 2870]

imagine airship battles

[warlord of filth 7723]

 

in full support of this in every capacity.

 

"iT dOeSnT hAvE a ThEmAtIc PlAcE iN lOtC"

 

screw that noise, i think this would be really neat and could allow for more fantastical elements added to the server. could you imagine with the new height limits in future versions of MC an airship based, sky-island zone? or perhaps a sky-pirate eventline?

 

or even just utilizing it as another means to make the world seem less mundane and have a proper identity? smoggers themselves act as the very basis for allowing something like this to exist. 

 

+1

 

 

 

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 11953]

industrial revolution second era incoming

[Slorbin 1774]

6 hours ago, Setsuko_ said:

Personally, it doesn't really make sense/I personally don't see why it's a smoggers addition instead of its own thing, but I like the piece itself. Very good job

Perhaps I aughta clear this up, and explain how I thought of this during my design phase.

 

Originally, I was going to base the design for this off of just a gear stomach that gets really hot, given how one is basically better at emitting smog than actually making movement. However, that’s not allowed in the redlines, so I moved to my current “glow oil” solution.

 

The second reason I put it as smoggers is because I want people who build airships to do the RP for it- and ensuring that the main part of the build, the gear lung, needs to be ST signed / MArt approved ensures that there will be proper roleplay when creating an airship and people won’t just pump them out like regular boats.

[Gustando 1462]

10 hours ago, Slorbin said:

The origins of the airship lie far back in the courts of Oren with the noble’s interest in hot air balloons

immediate -1 can't have wig lore