Terren explains the erosion each sea-borne vessel
Must endure with every trip,
As on crutches he leads Erin across the dock,
To show off his silver-hulled ship.
You don’t build ships out of stainless steel, way too expensive. Ships instead are built out of regular carbon steel and kept from rusting via cathodic protection. Cause putting an entire ship under 2 v of DC is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than investing in stainless steel, especially cause regular stainless steel offers no protections against the salty chlorinated environments of the ocean, you’d have to make a ship out of 316 steel which is just ridiculously expensive.
Honestly the prevalence of cathodic protection sorta baffled me in civil infrastructure but it sorta makes sense since as electricity has gotten cheaper and more reliable. Kinda incredible we’ve somehow got a solution irl that’s both magitek “flow energies through a bridge so that make it resistant to rot”, a bit technobabble “hey we reversed the polarity of the rust potential via a countercurrent energy flux”, and great setting for a post-apocalyptic setting “The past built these vast structures of metal and composite that seemingly didn’t decay until their time has passed, no we don’t get it either”.
Metal is a sub-element of Stone, so… Yes, kinda? Part of Stone’s flavor is that it has many subtypes that are highly distinct, unlike the other elements. It’s not inconceivable that Stone Mages can specialize to a degree foreign to the other elements.
They attend(ed) mage school, they’re probably a mage. I’m guessing air because I’m pretty sure Tarren is the ambitious magi-tech aerospace engineer Red mentioned that one time.
A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow, no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast
the silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the sun and light of moon.
Wait, Tesla and Twain were friends? Jeez, the 1800’s were a wild time – so much happened, you’d think there was some sort of revolution going on or something!
Yeah, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla were friends. Before Tesla came to America, he was sick and depressed. Then he claimed that reading Mark Twain’s work amused him so much it cured his depression. When he came over, Tesla met with Twain and Twain crashed at his lab. Twain backed up a lot of his research and usually claimed that Tesla was superior in instances such as his Laminar flow engine.
Academy mages nerding out; my new favourite Aurora thing. Their dynamic is ahmaaazing already ^_^
…and ships made of metal? Whatever will they think of next!
Likely they’re just holed up in a tavern or something, waiting for Erin to return with news. I’m assuming they’re trying to keep their heads low, as Erin apparently didn’t introduce himself as Elemental Magus to the harbormaster.
I think Falst’s gonna immediately be skeptical of Tarren, what with angsty lancer type and all that. Kendal will be Kendal, and I think Dainix might join him. I bet Tess will inquire for all the embarrasing things Erin’s done at the Academy. Alinua might be a bit skeptical at first, but generally polite.
Um they’re probably somewhere in the docks since Erin was telling them about the city earlier, and I think falst wouldn’t like tarren very much because he has trust issues and everyone else would kinda deal with them cuz if Erin trusts them, why shouldn’t we?
I’d wager the rest of the Floof Gang’s resting up in an inn–or at least, they’d planned to–and are trying to keep Falst from scrambling out the window as we speak. C:
recalling that one sketch Red shared with us a while ago (I think it was during the intermission) which seemed to show Alinua catching Dianix and a probably new person in the act of stopping Falst from climbing out a window, I 100% agree with you
Ah, missed the second part of your question! Tess might know Tarren, or at least know of them, and either she likes them just fine or she KNOWS they enable dangerous invention shenanigans and thinks they’re a bad influence on her brother. Kendal will probably get along peaceably, uh, Dainix and Alinua may be skeptical but polite, and Falst will probably be distrustful of Tarren and their little metal boat. Whether any of them will meet Tarren and be like, “I can relate to that,” I’m not sure. I don’t see how yet. But we’ve only seen Tarren for a few pages.
Fun answer: Tess is taking everyone sight seeing, and Falst is being angsty. Tess probably gets along great with Tarren, everyone except Falst is neutrally nice. Tess probably has some stuff to say about how well metal floats on water, being a metal lady herself.
Probably trying seafood since most of them likely haven’t had it before. As for how they’ll relate to Tarren, I’ll just wait and see how things play out.
Love them. REALLY want to see what it looks like when they cast, or if they’re all Artificer levels. (not that Artificers don’t also cast, just that it’s a different kind….)
Inclusiveness is better then exclusiveness, and who are you calling wallpaper? Everybody seems in the foreground of this page to me. (arch eyebrow quizzically)
“Red, you sly devil!” I said with a smile, seeing that Red’s introduction of Tarren Mill had everyone excited about Dani expy and genderfluid identity and a bit of the threat the Academy poses to Erin right now, and we all COMPLETELY MISSED the way they was standing in Friday’s last two panels. You can SEE the crutches (Not crutches? Sorry, I’m ignorant).
I have opened my mouth too many times and regretted it afterward to feel your kindness. I hope @Dragonfied was not crushed by teasing! Well call me black! My head is over here if you want to throw the book at me (metaphorically speaking)
Of course they had a special, fancy, newly developed, entirely untested ship ready for Erin and the plot to swiftly wreck. Any bet that thing doesn’t survive half of Arc 2.
In my table, in Exalted, there is a magic that allows you to morf stone. From dirt to diamond.
So, one of my players decided: I’m gonna be a stonemancer. A Stonemancer Sailor. And Im gonna build my ship from pucie and cuarz. And a bit of silice.
At first I was like: Nah.
But then… Steel is actually heavier than most rocks. And he can “weld” stone. And the outer lair of sand makes repears really cheep.
Actually, this might line up with the lore we know. The reason ancient people (in the real world) didn’t build metal-hulled ships was that they lacked the ability to bend the metal without compromising the structural integrity (or even cast pieces that big). But we’ve already seen stone mages in this world easily manipulate metal, so it’s not too hard to think they had an easier time forging the hull than us muggles.
I want to know whether this small-looking boat might be made of aluminum rather than steel… a lot of modern small workboats and skiffs are made of aluminum, the savings in weight can be taken advantage of in *many* different ways. You still have corrosion problems, just like ferrous metal, but sacrificial anodes and coatings still mitigate that problem.
Real world boats are routinely made of metal. The part that might need a fantasy solution is how real world boats use specialized paints on the exterior to protect the metal from corrosion, while the metal seems to be visible here.
There once was a ship made of metal
Because Tarren for wood will not settle.
Erin thinks it’s mad
And the crazy kind of bad–
You might as well sail in a kettle!
Oh I genuinely love this one! You always write these so well, but this one just captures the insulted confusion Erin expresses here spot on. Well done!
Book of the Atlantic? Were those corpses frozen? I thought they were just shipping them in caskets, but it makes sense that they’d be frozen, given how many of them were loaded into the cargo hold.
For mobile readers.
Alt text: lucky for me “its magitech” covers a multitude of engineering sins
Twitter text: inconceivable feats of mad science (boat)
(on this topic, what does “image source” actually mean?)
Ok my new favorite world building fact about aurora is that the invention of metal ships wasn’t driven by war, but instead by one college student’s (and probably Tahraim’s, let’s be honest) curiosity.
Copper does rust and is also not at all sturdy enough to build a ship out of. Bronze and brass don’t rust exactly, but they do corrode and there’s probably additional reasons we don’t use them for ships in our world. Steel is by far the best metal we have to build ships out of, if you can stop in from rusting. In our world, that’s done by inventing stainless steel and applying paint or some form of plastic coating. I’m going to bet Tarren has some other method in mind though.
Tarren: I call it, the Titanic!
Erin: … Hm, nice name.
Water magic has always seemed kinda weird to me, and it’s already strange in real life, let alone on Aurora. A three-fold truename, ability to mimic the other five elements (albeit imperfectly), slow but steady erosion being one of it’s unique traits; I do wonder if there’s more to it than it appears.
Well, they have a ship now, but getting a crew may be a little trickier. I doubt the gang know much about sailing; even Erin on his trips would have probably only used his magic following the instructions of the captain. They could hire a crew, but how many would be willing to go through iceberg infested water on an experimental metal boat?
Large scale metalworking, eh? I could see it happening given the existing magic system. Fire lacrimas to both heat up the furnace and prevent the heat harming the workers, stone mages to work the hot metal and maybe add impurities to make alloys, water for any delicate cooling required. You can believably work it into this world and it’s magic system.
This also confirms a comment I made a while back that steam engines could me made in Aurora to power locomotives and steamships. Then again, they might not be necessary since Lighting magic is a thing; its attraction/repulsion higher properties could make wheels and propellers turn, no boilers needed. Harvesting so much lighting energy may have some problems though.
According to a discord ask, Water’s nature was subdivided into three aspects, ice, vapor, and liquid, and had three mages working on each component of her truename for the corresponding aspect.
I guess it’s not so special as Lightning has two aspects for repulsion and attraction, thus two components to their truename. But water still seems weird for me for this reason, it’s phase changing and mirroring powers, and it’s great ability at destroying things if given enough time.
I think waters ability to mimic makes sense if you think about the 3 states of water. It can be a gas, mimicking air, it can be a solid, mimicking Stone. It can change between these forms, mimicking Fire’s higher property. And how it makes things sink and float can be a paralel to lightnings magnetism. The only one thats weird on that front would be Life, really.
Ah; I see Red has immediately produced a scenario where summoning plants, setting things on fire (soul or otherwise), and being nigh-indestructible are all of limited immediate value.
Nice chance to get to see our cast make some Skill Checks.
I’d been hoping Red would do this. It was obvious that the science could exist in the Aurora world. Anything that staves off a few bad Long John Silver impressions is a win, in my book.
I note that this vessel is a trimaran, too, although it looks kind of weird with the chunky way Red has been drawing ship hulls for a grand total of three pages… it will probably make more sense when we get a clear view of her. As other people have mentioned, IRL metal ships are protected from corrosion with coatings (“paint” to you landlubbers) and the dark art of electricity.
The hull is unpainted and very shiny, this suggests that she is indeed protected from corrosion solely by magic, and to have an edge against marine growth and water damage. Tarren seems very focused on survivability, so presumably they will have designed her to weather winter storms on the high seas.
I also note that, at least so far, there’s no bowsprit, just a little decorative stub of metal. Obviously, she’s not fully rigged yet, except for her mainmast, but perhaps wind magic has delayed the development of headsails in this world? Because you can nudge the wind around a bit, instead of needing to optimize your ability to sail into it by playing dirty tricks with aerodynamical forces.
Using wind magic to power a ship always seemed to me like bootstrapping… to create a continuous, reliable wind would almost certainly mean messing around with the entire local weather pattern, it sounds like the kind of thing that should take a LOT of energy, plus it feels like one would be “blowing into the sail.” The Harbormaster seems to imply that mariners don’t, in fact, sail that way. But being able to temporarily conjure up a breeze to get oneself out of a dead calm could be a lifesaving ability… There are so many ways, on the other hand, that magic could be used to improve materials and importance: turning fragile, heavy traditional sails into sturdy and light ones like modern synthetics, automating dangerous tasks like topwork, warding marine growth away from the hull, fiddling with inertia to improve stability and therefore performance… it’s endless and could add up to so much more than filling the sails with artificial wind!
Electricity and sacrificial anodes (zinc, aluminum, magnesium, etc, depending on the metal it’s intended to protect). I’m looking forward to seeing the worldbuilding here as well 🙂
Maybe fewer sailors would lose their lives if they invested in rigging! There’s no standing rigging in sight, much less running! A parcel of landsmen, all!
Wait, actually, I think there are shrouds on the ship in the drydock. Still, those won’t stop that mast from toppling over in any kind of a crossbreeze!
Love love looove the quick and subtle worldbuilding here of the fancy six-element mage’s surprise at the notion of a metal ship! Immediately conveys the whole world still uses wood ships, and great intro to the group’s foreseeable new home/vehicle!
didn’t notice Terren’s crutches on the first go around. Really cool to see the em’ just as persistent as anyone. Also the theme of inventors/creators who have handicaps (Heaphestus) going strong.
A fight against erosion he wages
Which induces discussion between the mages
Terren explains the erosion each sea-borne vessel
Must endure with every trip,
As on crutches he leads Erin across the dock,
To show off his silver-hulled ship.
Tarren uses they/them pronouns.
Yeah I noticed that I’d messed up. My apologies, and for the record I don’t find nonbinary erasure okay in the slightest!
Second attempt:
A battle against erosion they wage
Which prompts a remark from the Elemental Mage
I’m very sorry for messing that up as well.
Ta-da! The invention of Fantasy Stainless Steel!
Also, gonna try to steal the alt-text transcript: lucky for me “it’s magitech” covers a multitude of engineering sins
Image source: ship
I don’t mind the theft. I have no idea how I went from being awake at 11:50 PM to waking up right now.
Tumblr text: These wild and dangerous theories will get you in hot water someday
Twitter text: inconceivable feast of mad science (boat)
(posted this in a comment further down because I didn’t find it, whoops….)
You don’t build ships out of stainless steel, way too expensive. Ships instead are built out of regular carbon steel and kept from rusting via cathodic protection. Cause putting an entire ship under 2 v of DC is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than investing in stainless steel, especially cause regular stainless steel offers no protections against the salty chlorinated environments of the ocean, you’d have to make a ship out of 316 steel which is just ridiculously expensive.
Honestly the prevalence of cathodic protection sorta baffled me in civil infrastructure but it sorta makes sense since as electricity has gotten cheaper and more reliable. Kinda incredible we’ve somehow got a solution irl that’s both magitek “flow energies through a bridge so that make it resistant to rot”, a bit technobabble “hey we reversed the polarity of the rust potential via a countercurrent energy flux”, and great setting for a post-apocalyptic setting “The past built these vast structures of metal and composite that seemingly didn’t decay until their time has passed, no we don’t get it either”.
I guess it does sound better, or at least fresher, than “a wizard did it”.
Quick! Place your bets folks! What kind of mage are they (if they are one at all)?
I can’t recall, is Metal one of the six magical types? If so I might say that, otherwise maybe water?
eh kinda, metal is earth
Metal is a sub-element of Stone, so… Yes, kinda? Part of Stone’s flavor is that it has many subtypes that are highly distinct, unlike the other elements. It’s not inconceivable that Stone Mages can specialize to a degree foreign to the other elements.
I’m betting nothing and that their specialty will be with gadgets, gizmos, -inators and other contraptions.
Not a mage, they seem like they’re a non-mage who is just a crafty person.
Ooh, maybe Falst could learn a thing or two from them?
If Tarren tempered the metal themself that would require fire.
based off the eye colour, they look closer to water, but I don’t think it’s the right shade. I’m guessing they aren’t a mage.
no, they’re confirmed to be a mage. My original guess was they’re both a water AND wind mage.
They attend(ed) mage school, they’re probably a mage. I’m guessing air because I’m pretty sure Tarren is the ambitious magi-tech aerospace engineer Red mentioned that one time.
Red said on Tumblr that if we get SpaceA
Aurora it will be because of them.
Maybe lighting and stone, since stone could extend to ores and we have seen evidence of Lightning’s relation to metals (metalcasting people)
“do you ship it” but it’s just tarren asking you to use their boat
Wood is obsolete
Metal is superior
Want to test it out?
Ok fantasy has officially gone too far. I can suspend my disbelief for magic and elemental god titans, but metal ships? That’s a step too far.
Guess I was half right and other person that commented before was fully right.
A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow, no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast
the silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the sun and light of moon.
Thank you so much for this! That boat really does look like it’s made of mithril, just like Earendil’s.
Getting “Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain” friendship vibes from these two.
Wait, Tesla and Twain were friends? Jeez, the 1800’s were a wild time – so much happened, you’d think there was some sort of revolution going on or something!
Yeah, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla were friends. Before Tesla came to America, he was sick and depressed. Then he claimed that reading Mark Twain’s work amused him so much it cured his depression. When he came over, Tesla met with Twain and Twain crashed at his lab. Twain backed up a lot of his research and usually claimed that Tesla was superior in instances such as his Laminar flow engine.
YOOOO THEY’RE SO COOL AAAAAH!!!!
Uhh I’m not sure this is a good idea….
Academy mages nerding out; my new favourite Aurora thing. Their dynamic is ahmaaazing already ^_^
…and ships made of metal? Whatever will they think of next!
Anonymous Aurora Question #39: Where’s the rest of the floof squad at and how are they all going to relate to Tarren?
Likely they’re just holed up in a tavern or something, waiting for Erin to return with news. I’m assuming they’re trying to keep their heads low, as Erin apparently didn’t introduce himself as Elemental Magus to the harbormaster.
I think Falst’s gonna immediately be skeptical of Tarren, what with angsty lancer type and all that. Kendal will be Kendal, and I think Dainix might join him. I bet Tess will inquire for all the embarrasing things Erin’s done at the Academy. Alinua might be a bit skeptical at first, but generally polite.
It looks like the harbormaster already knew Erin and that’s why he didn’t say he was the elemental magus…
Falst will probably be EXTRA skeptical, because Tarren reminds him of Dr. Jolon.
Um they’re probably somewhere in the docks since Erin was telling them about the city earlier, and I think falst wouldn’t like tarren very much because he has trust issues and everyone else would kinda deal with them cuz if Erin trusts them, why shouldn’t we?
I’d wager the rest of the Floof Gang’s resting up in an inn–or at least, they’d planned to–and are trying to keep Falst from scrambling out the window as we speak. C:
recalling that one sketch Red shared with us a while ago (I think it was during the intermission) which seemed to show Alinua catching Dianix and a probably new person in the act of stopping Falst from climbing out a window, I 100% agree with you
😀 yes, I was thinking of that preview too! Though I thought the other person looked like Kendal instead of someone new.
Ah, missed the second part of your question! Tess might know Tarren, or at least know of them, and either she likes them just fine or she KNOWS they enable dangerous invention shenanigans and thinks they’re a bad influence on her brother. Kendal will probably get along peaceably, uh, Dainix and Alinua may be skeptical but polite, and Falst will probably be distrustful of Tarren and their little metal boat. Whether any of them will meet Tarren and be like, “I can relate to that,” I’m not sure. I don’t see how yet. But we’ve only seen Tarren for a few pages.
Fun answer: Tess is taking everyone sight seeing, and Falst is being angsty. Tess probably gets along great with Tarren, everyone except Falst is neutrally nice. Tess probably has some stuff to say about how well metal floats on water, being a metal lady herself.
Probably trying seafood since most of them likely haven’t had it before. As for how they’ll relate to Tarren, I’ll just wait and see how things play out.
Love them. REALLY want to see what it looks like when they cast, or if they’re all Artificer levels. (not that Artificers don’t also cast, just that it’s a different kind….)
so basicly modern ships….
awsome
I’m loving the casual disabled inclusivity. especially with background characters.
Inclusiveness is better then exclusiveness, and who are you calling wallpaper? Everybody seems in the foreground of this page to me. (arch eyebrow quizzically)
“Red, you sly devil!” I said with a smile, seeing that Red’s introduction of Tarren Mill had everyone excited about Dani expy and genderfluid identity and a bit of the threat the Academy poses to Erin right now, and we all COMPLETELY MISSED the way they was standing in Friday’s last two panels. You can SEE the crutches (Not crutches? Sorry, I’m ignorant).
OH NO what an absurd idea with the benefit of hindsight
I have opened my mouth too many times and regretted it afterward to feel your kindness. I hope @Dragonfied was not crushed by teasing! Well call me black! My head is over here if you want to throw the book at me (metaphorically speaking)
metal boats? impossible.
Oh hi Hephaestus! I expect the full set of transhumanism tricks from you!
Titanic arc?
Of course they had a special, fancy, newly developed, entirely untested ship ready for Erin and the plot to swiftly wreck. Any bet that thing doesn’t survive half of Arc 2.
I bet 12 lacrimas and half a turkey leg
Sucker’s bet. It’s probably going to be what kicks off the plot of this arc. (Or at the very least, a major subplot)
In my table, in Exalted, there is a magic that allows you to morf stone. From dirt to diamond.
So, one of my players decided: I’m gonna be a stonemancer. A Stonemancer Sailor. And Im gonna build my ship from pucie and cuarz. And a bit of silice.
At first I was like: Nah.
But then… Steel is actually heavier than most rocks. And he can “weld” stone. And the outer lair of sand makes repears really cheep.
That does NOT obey the laws of hydrodynamics!
Actually, this might line up with the lore we know. The reason ancient people (in the real world) didn’t build metal-hulled ships was that they lacked the ability to bend the metal without compromising the structural integrity (or even cast pieces that big). But we’ve already seen stone mages in this world easily manipulate metal, so it’s not too hard to think they had an easier time forging the hull than us muggles.
and yes i got this all from quora
sue me
I want to know whether this small-looking boat might be made of aluminum rather than steel… a lot of modern small workboats and skiffs are made of aluminum, the savings in weight can be taken advantage of in *many* different ways. You still have corrosion problems, just like ferrous metal, but sacrificial anodes and coatings still mitigate that problem.
Real world boats are routinely made of metal. The part that might need a fantasy solution is how real world boats use specialized paints on the exterior to protect the metal from corrosion, while the metal seems to be visible here.
There once was a ship made of metal
Because Tarren for wood will not settle.
Erin thinks it’s mad
And the crazy kind of bad–
You might as well sail in a kettle!
Oh I genuinely love this one! You always write these so well, but this one just captures the insulted confusion Erin expresses here spot on. Well done!
Why, next you’ll be telling me that metal can be in the SKY! Preposterous!
This made me laugh! Thank you!
This made me laugh! Thanks @Azmus!
Well as long as they don’t name it anything referencing its size or inability to sink they should be fine
(Or include any frozen mummies in the cargo–ok that reference might be a little too niche lmao)
Book of the Atlantic? Were those corpses frozen? I thought they were just shipping them in caskets, but it makes sense that they’d be frozen, given how many of them were loaded into the cargo hold.
i was rereading comments at the page and JUST noticed the what i can only presume is a 999 reference :O
For mobile readers.
Alt text: lucky for me “its magitech” covers a multitude of engineering sins
Twitter text: inconceivable feats of mad science (boat)
(on this topic, what does “image source” actually mean?)
If you right click it, and open image in another tab, the url will have a title sort of thing.
thank you!
Ok my new favorite world building fact about aurora is that the invention of metal ships wasn’t driven by war, but instead by one college student’s (and probably Tahraim’s, let’s be honest) curiosity.
Solution: Copper.
Copper does rust and is also not at all sturdy enough to build a ship out of. Bronze and brass don’t rust exactly, but they do corrode and there’s probably additional reasons we don’t use them for ships in our world. Steel is by far the best metal we have to build ships out of, if you can stop in from rusting. In our world, that’s done by inventing stainless steel and applying paint or some form of plastic coating. I’m going to bet Tarren has some other method in mind though.
We got magical ironclads? Hell yes.
Tarren: I call it, the Titanic!
Erin: … Hm, nice name.
Water magic has always seemed kinda weird to me, and it’s already strange in real life, let alone on Aurora. A three-fold truename, ability to mimic the other five elements (albeit imperfectly), slow but steady erosion being one of it’s unique traits; I do wonder if there’s more to it than it appears.
Well, they have a ship now, but getting a crew may be a little trickier. I doubt the gang know much about sailing; even Erin on his trips would have probably only used his magic following the instructions of the captain. They could hire a crew, but how many would be willing to go through iceberg infested water on an experimental metal boat?
Large scale metalworking, eh? I could see it happening given the existing magic system. Fire lacrimas to both heat up the furnace and prevent the heat harming the workers, stone mages to work the hot metal and maybe add impurities to make alloys, water for any delicate cooling required. You can believably work it into this world and it’s magic system.
This also confirms a comment I made a while back that steam engines could me made in Aurora to power locomotives and steamships. Then again, they might not be necessary since Lighting magic is a thing; its attraction/repulsion higher properties could make wheels and propellers turn, no boilers needed. Harvesting so much lighting energy may have some problems though.
Oh? What do you mean by a three-fold truename?
According to a discord ask, Water’s nature was subdivided into three aspects, ice, vapor, and liquid, and had three mages working on each component of her truename for the corresponding aspect.
I guess it’s not so special as Lightning has two aspects for repulsion and attraction, thus two components to their truename. But water still seems weird for me for this reason, it’s phase changing and mirroring powers, and it’s great ability at destroying things if given enough time.
I think waters ability to mimic makes sense if you think about the 3 states of water. It can be a gas, mimicking air, it can be a solid, mimicking Stone. It can change between these forms, mimicking Fire’s higher property. And how it makes things sink and float can be a paralel to lightnings magnetism. The only one thats weird on that front would be Life, really.
Amusing question: while Erin has clearly been to sea before, will this metal contraption somehow give him a whole new way to provide nausea data?
TL;DR: You can have a ship. An experimental ship, that may or may not work. No warranties.
But enough about Tarren and Erin, tell us about the boat!
I hope he has sacrificial anodes
Ah; I see Red has immediately produced a scenario where summoning plants, setting things on fire (soul or otherwise), and being nigh-indestructible are all of limited immediate value.
Nice chance to get to see our cast make some Skill Checks.
Magitech ship!
Magitech ship!
Magitech ship!
YAAAAAAAY!
I’d been hoping Red would do this. It was obvious that the science could exist in the Aurora world. Anything that staves off a few bad Long John Silver impressions is a win, in my book.
I note that this vessel is a trimaran, too, although it looks kind of weird with the chunky way Red has been drawing ship hulls for a grand total of three pages… it will probably make more sense when we get a clear view of her. As other people have mentioned, IRL metal ships are protected from corrosion with coatings (“paint” to you landlubbers) and the dark art of electricity.
The hull is unpainted and very shiny, this suggests that she is indeed protected from corrosion solely by magic, and to have an edge against marine growth and water damage. Tarren seems very focused on survivability, so presumably they will have designed her to weather winter storms on the high seas.
I also note that, at least so far, there’s no bowsprit, just a little decorative stub of metal. Obviously, she’s not fully rigged yet, except for her mainmast, but perhaps wind magic has delayed the development of headsails in this world? Because you can nudge the wind around a bit, instead of needing to optimize your ability to sail into it by playing dirty tricks with aerodynamical forces.
Using wind magic to power a ship always seemed to me like bootstrapping… to create a continuous, reliable wind would almost certainly mean messing around with the entire local weather pattern, it sounds like the kind of thing that should take a LOT of energy, plus it feels like one would be “blowing into the sail.” The Harbormaster seems to imply that mariners don’t, in fact, sail that way. But being able to temporarily conjure up a breeze to get oneself out of a dead calm could be a lifesaving ability… There are so many ways, on the other hand, that magic could be used to improve materials and importance: turning fragile, heavy traditional sails into sturdy and light ones like modern synthetics, automating dangerous tasks like topwork, warding marine growth away from the hull, fiddling with inertia to improve stability and therefore performance… it’s endless and could add up to so much more than filling the sails with artificial wind!
Electricity and sacrificial anodes (zinc, aluminum, magnesium, etc, depending on the metal it’s intended to protect). I’m looking forward to seeing the worldbuilding here as well 🙂
What’s next? Making a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.
Alright, I know a fantasy magitech ship when I see one. $5 says that thing can fly by the end of the comic.
Maybe fewer sailors would lose their lives if they invested in rigging! There’s no standing rigging in sight, much less running! A parcel of landsmen, all!
Wait, actually, I think there are shrouds on the ship in the drydock. Still, those won’t stop that mast from toppling over in any kind of a crossbreeze!
There’s hardly any rigging on that vessel! How is that mast standing?
Is this the ship made of mithril and elven glass? The one belonging to the most famed Mariner of song?
Love love looove the quick and subtle worldbuilding here of the fancy six-element mage’s surprise at the notion of a metal ship! Immediately conveys the whole world still uses wood ships, and great intro to the group’s foreseeable new home/vehicle!
Not only an inventor with a blue colorscheme, but an inventor with a blue colorscheme and a boat. Dani would approve.
Ahhhhh disabled character!!! Hell yeah
Oh it’s SO P R E T T Y
didn’t notice Terren’s crutches on the first go around. Really cool to see the em’ just as persistent as anyone. Also the theme of inventors/creators who have handicaps (Heaphestus) going strong.
Disabled nonbinary hottie?!
very cool character and i love them very much. the weird ship is also cool