The World Of Twilight

I was wondering if either the Fubarnii or the Delgons have a use for balloons or airships? I could imagine that they could cross mountainous areas or deserts of Anyaral with relative ease.
When they have the approach to building comparatively lightweight boats, could it be possible that some engineer might build a car for an airship?
Steering could be provided via an array of sails, propulsion perhaps with a man-powered crank or some kind of a steam engine like in the Delgon Strider.
What do you think?

Engineers of the empire have certainly played around with airships in their usual haphazard manner. I'm not sure how common they are and I've never considered them for the Delgon (but now you mention it I have images a shocktroopers with parachutes...).

my only problem with full blown airships in this setting would be that the devanu lose their edge. i like the idea of the odd engineer building one though.

Not if the air ships are unpredictable. The haphazard nature of the engineers should leave them fairly erratic. Maybe only the small airships float up high while the others float a little way above the ground and so easily reached by the Devanu.

HN

My thoughts went into the direction of small airships. Small airships could be attacked by Kosoks as well, but I don't know if they hunt in swarms. Fending them off from the underslung car is one thing, but preventing them from attacking the hull is a completely different affair. And once the hull is damaged and starts to sink, the Devanu just have to wait at the landing site...
BTW, here's a little rough sketch how I think that a Twilight airship might look:

(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t255/shufti/Airship-sketch.jpg)

I'd make them double-balloon rather than with those "blimp" balloons. The lack of the invention of a blimp balloon would explain nicely why they haven't caught on massively, as with two regular balloons they's be quite slow and unwieldy. I'm dubious of over-technologising (not a word but who cares) the Fubarnii, because the potential military applications would make life a little too easy and because some of the low-tech stuff would cease to fit (why have traders or an enuk-mounted postal service carrying letters through dangerous country when you can just fly over it, for example?)

This. I like the idea of Da vinci-esque flying machines but anything more and the devanu lose their potency

Have you seen any pictures of the engineers's balloon I made for the first demo games at salute? I'll try to find a picture at some point as that captured my thoughts on what a fubarnii balloon would look like. That was based on the idea of various individual balloons of different sizes all held together under a large tarpaulin with a little basket underneath. I'll admit that one had no real means of propulsion, so somewhat limited - more of a vertical ascent lookout balloon than a means of travel.
I would be surprised to see well structured balloons from the empire, although if the Delgon turned their minds to airships that is the sort of thing they would eventually have.
Kosok would be a nightmare for airships in many regions - it would be a huge challenge to defend against a few of them and a downed airship simply wouldn't carry enough crew to defend against the Devanu that would be waiting for them... Any design for an airship would need to give some good defence against kosoks.

That's an interesting point. I was just asking out of curiousity - so to say from a modeller's point of view...
I didn't intend to populate the skies of Anyaral with airships/balloons. They have to be a rare sight.
 

Model away! There have been fubarnii airships in my sketchbooks for a very long time! I haven't worked out a way to produce one yet, although resin could work...

I've been wondering this too for awhile, with the topic popping up I whipped out the sketch pad out and put this idea together :

(http://www.eastern-empire.com/forums/twilight/sky_floater.jpg)

The wicker basket is skinned in hide, crafted like a Kosok head to spook them away. Peddle powered air thwippers, to propel the floater somewhat. More power to one or the other to alter heading or so is the hope.

The bulb sock is shaped like the crest of a preepree owned by a noble friend and supporter; I got the idea while sampling some fermented berri juices stored in her cellar when visiting for dinner while venturing another idea entirely. Her Preepree is one of the more annoying in town, but I thought it would be an idea to flatter her through the pet for more support.

It houses several dozen puff bulbs, specially grown funghi bulbs for maximum floating gaseousness, within a mesh net that is then covered with textiles wrapping to modulate the heat. Too much and the rise is fast, too little and the bulbs cool and the floater drops. Loosening and tightening the cover sheet adjusts altitude. Depends on the wind chill and sun heat on the day though.

Overall completely random to fly, at the mercy of wind and kosok, but I think there are practical applications to be discovered!

- Taelan.

Fantastic!

now that is a twilight flying machine!
looks wicked.
plus the giant gnat made me laugh

 :o :o :o
Whow! Now that looks cool. I love it! May I nick the idea for a (future...) model?
That's what I like about the world of Twilight: It's so inspirational!  :)

Thanks guys :) I'm on my way to Thailand tonight be out of touch 3 weeks. Look forward to reading more ideas and discussion. Feel free to have play Trencher :D

Have a good festive season guys, time to catch my own air floater!

Best,
Taelan

I love the design. Very different to anything I would have come up with, but it still fits :)

Lovely. I can see a Fubarnii hurling Frugin over the side onto fleeing Devanu.

HN

I found them :)



(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7028/6555238387_efee804f37_b.jpg)

and

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7165/6555238449_8fb6d74b35_b.jpg)

 :o :o :o

This looks nice, but a little bit creepy, too. It looks organic in some ways, as if thousands of little hairy spiders would emerge from those floater bulbs in the next few minutes...
It appears to be held together by plaster bandages and papier-mâché. Interesting.
Thanks for sharing it!
The venerable building looks ace, too.

Thanks for finding those! I hadn't thought it creepy before, but I guess it is a tad organic...