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Are ships engineered manually or by Magic?

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Sep 14, 2011
25
One of the major questions on my mind is if ships are engineered to fly or are they controlled by magic?
Admiral
Jul 27, 2012
1196
That's a good question, Jenna, and very favorable to speculation. I think both mechanics and magic play roles. How ships fly could be explained through 'Spiral physics' - if we have that imagined rarified element aether that would provide buoyancy and lift in the air. Cannons operate mechanically, but horns, figureheads, and sails have magical spells built into them that give them their various powers. Now, if our pirates are from a comparatively non-magical frame of mind, so that witchdoctors are regarded with a measure of awe/suspicion/skepticism (like Ratbeard openly does), how does that explain our ready acceptance of our ship's magical properties? Here the answer could be that these powers are so completely accepted that no one stops and thinks how very magical they really are. After all, in real life we accept a lot of things that most people do not really understand... computers, iPods, octopuses changing their camouflage patterns to mimic their environment... you get the picture.

Virtuous Anne Radcliffe
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
Anne Radcliffe on Oct 31, 2013 wrote:
That's a good question, Jenna, and very favorable to speculation. I think both mechanics and magic play roles. How ships fly could be explained through 'Spiral physics' - if we have that imagined rarified element aether that would provide buoyancy and lift in the air. Cannons operate mechanically, but horns, figureheads, and sails have magical spells built into them that give them their various powers. Now, if our pirates are from a comparatively non-magical frame of mind, so that witchdoctors are regarded with a measure of awe/suspicion/skepticism (like Ratbeard openly does), how does that explain our ready acceptance of our ship's magical properties? Here the answer could be that these powers are so completely accepted that no one stops and thinks how very magical they really are. After all, in real life we accept a lot of things that most people do not really understand... computers, iPods, octopuses changing their camouflage patterns to mimic their environment... you get the picture.

Virtuous Anne Radcliffe
Good answer!

My thought is that the horns, figureheads, and all the things that have obvious powers are magical - they're things wizards or somebody else made long ago (or there's something in them that meets that description - hidden power jewels or whatever), and the non-magical people of the Spiral have taken them and made their own use of them. I definitely don't see them being mass produced. And as far as suspicion of magic goes, I think ultimately their usefulness outweighs any negative feelings.

This is all stuff that we need not go into now. If ever we need to, there are plenty of stories we could hang on these questions. But not yet...
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
Jenna SwiftGem on Oct 30, 2013 wrote:
One of the major questions on my mind is if ships are engineered to fly or are they controlled by magic?
More thoughts: the ships themselves are built with pretty standard engineering. As to why they fly, I'm thinking it's all tied to the keel, which floats they way the islands do. There's very likely some kind of special element at work here, our equivalent of Cavorite or something.

Again, not ciritcal yet, but something plots could spring off of in the future. In my mind, anybody can build ships, its the horns and figureheads that aren't easily reproducible - that's the magic.
Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Blind Mew on Oct 31, 2013 wrote:
More thoughts: the ships themselves are built with pretty standard engineering. As to why they fly, I'm thinking it's all tied to the keel, which floats they way the islands do. There's very likely some kind of special element at work here, our equivalent of Cavorite or something.

Again, not ciritcal yet, but something plots could spring off of in the future. In my mind, anybody can build ships, its the horns and figureheads that aren't easily reproducible - that's the magic.
Ohh Cavorite....What a great idea. Wow, you never cease to amaze me. Once again, well played.