by Terry Brooks
The Wing Hove thrived in its new home. Unlike the Land Elves, the Sky Elves felt no need to rediscover the old magic. They had magic enough in their bond with the Rocs and with their island home. Because they were a small community, with only about five thousand people, they needed only a small island to be comfortable.
They maintained contact with the Land Elves on Morrowindl for many years. One of their own even married into the royal family. But in time, the changes wreaked by the magic on Morrowindl made it more and more difficult to reach the Elves living there. When several experienced Riders who tried were lost, they Sky Elves stopped trying.
It was Wren Elessedil, then known as Wren Ohmsford, who rediscovered the Sky Elves. Though she did not know she was the daughter of a Wing Rider, she used knowledge given her by the Addershag, a seer in Grimpen Ward, to light the watch fire and summon the Wing Rider who patrolled the shoreline. A Wing Rider called Tiger Ty answered the call and transported Wren and her Rover companion to Morrowindl. He returned to carry her and the Loden that contained her people back to the Westland, where she reestablished Arborlon.
Tiger Ty and the Sky Elves joined Queen Wren’s battle against the Federation. During the war, they provided aerial reconnaissance, aerial bombardment, and even limited transport for a covert strike. It was the first time since the Great Wars that a force of arms in the air was used in battle.
After the victory against the Federation, the Sky Elves also returned to the original Wing Hove, though they maintained a small outpost on their island. Inspired by the young Elven Queen, they decided that they too should return to the lands and make a stand.
The joint victory against a common enemy laid the groundwork for Queen Wren’s alliance with the Sky Elves. The fact that she carried the blood of both within her veins and had won their respect was also a major factor in the alliance. The Sky Elves were still fiercely independent and still did not believe in monarchical government, but they respected Queen Wren and considered her almost one of their own.
The alliance has survived to this day, despite the fact that Wren’s descendants have often fallen short of her example. Wren never tried to force the Wing Riders to submit to her rule, and so long as that tradition continues, the Wing Riders will continue to assist the Land Elves.
Wing Hove has grown into a thriving community of ten thousand, including around a thousand Wing Riders, depending on the number of mature Rocs available. They have expanded their holdings to include outposts on islands as far to the west as Mesca Rho, allowing them to patrol the full extent of the Elven territorial waters and beyond.
Rovers
The Elven Wing Riders are no longer the only people in the sky. The Rovers, outcasts of all nations, have become the leaders in the conquest of the sky with their creation of the airship. But long before the airship was born, the Rovers roamed the whole of the Westland. From the Kershalt to the Irrybis, from the Valley of Rhenn to the Blue Divide, even into the Wilderun, the Rovers were at home everywhere.
No one—including the Rovers—knows the origins of the Rovers, other than that they are of the Race of Man. They have always lived free, tied to no single place or people other than their own wagons and families. In the years before the Federation War, they lived as traders and thieves, traveling in caravans of brightly colored wagons and dressing in brightly colored silks. The wagons were their homes and carried all their worldly goods. Some claimed their music and their clothes were purposely bright in defiance of all the darkness rising around them. Like the Elves, Rovers believed the land should be nurtured and protected, and that it belonged to everyone, especially to those who traveled it.
Rovers ravel the lands in brightly colored wagons.
A Rover’s Life
Rover wagons were once a symbol of freedom across the plains of the land. By day the Rovers worked at a variety of trades, for they would do anything that would gain them coin or goods. Trading and stealing were the most common occupations—usually together. It was not unusual for a Rover band to steal something of value and then insist on selling it back to the one who lost it. By night, the wagons were circled, and the Family gathered together for song, stories, and dancing. No one in the Four Lands could rival the Rovers for revelry, and no one but a Rover could hold Rover ale.
The only loyalty a Rover had was to the Family. Most people within the Four Lands distrusted them. Only the Elves allowed them free run of their territory, and only because they both honored the land. Elsewhere the Rovers were tolerated only for the goods and services they brought. It was said of them that any good deal made with a Rover was a better deal for the Rover. Their horses were highly prized, for they were the finest breeders and trainers in the lands. They were also the finest horse thieves.
Rovers traveled in Families, tribes of people brought together under one Leader who was the father figure for all. Though they behaved as if related, not all of the members of the Family were actually connected by blood. In the years before the Federation, the Rovers followed the Way, in which women were considered subservient to men and could be bought and sold. They believed it was the natural order of things for women to serve and obey the men who protected and provided for them. It was also common practice to sell or trade wives and children to other camps. Those entering their camp were expected, by tradition, to demonstrate that they understood and followed the Way. Ironically, one of the strongest Rover women of all time, Eretria Ohmsford, overcame the dictates of the Way to become one of the heroes of the quest for the Bloodfire. Without her aid, it is unlikely Wil and Amberle could have succeeded in their quest. Eretria married Wil and was mother to the famous siblings Brin and Jair Ohmsford.
In later years the emphasis on the Way diminished, until by the time of the rise of Federation, women within the Rovers were at least equal to men. The growth of the Federation pushed the Rovers into the Westland, for the Southland became an inhospitable place to anyone who was an outsider, even when they only wanted to trade. Once the Elves left, the Rovers had the Westland to themselves. No one knew the art of survival better than the Rovers, an art they taught to their children at an early age. They remained free spirits, primarily hunters and Trackers, since there were now few beyond their own people with whom they were able to trade.
It was the Rovers’ survival skills that prompted Alleyene Elessedil to give her daughter to be trained by the people everyone else despised. She knew Wren would need to be stronger and have better survival skills than any Elf before her. She chose Garth of the Rovers to give that gift to her daughter. A deaf and dumb Rover, he was the best there was at staying alive. It was his training that enabled Queen Wren to survive her ordeal on Morrowindl and return the Elves to the Westland.
The Federation tolerated some Rover traders, but only just. And if anything was amiss, the Rovers were the first blamed for it, as well as the first to be punished. The
Federation believed that any people who lacked a homeland, central government, and army lacked power—though it must be said that the lack of a homeland also kept the Rovers from being important enough to attract the attention of the Federation army.
Eretria, the bold Rover girl who married an Ohmsford.
In the years of the Federation expansion, more Rovers began to take to the sea. Rovers had always been sailors, but now more of them turned to the sailing life. It was a natural expansion of their nomadic lifestyle, and many discovered that they were happier on the water than on land. They alone of all the people were not tied to the land, for their homeland was wherever they happened to be. Whether they found themselves on the swells of the sea or on the open plains made no difference. The fact that the ocean was free of Federation control was a compelling incentive. Rovers became pirates as well as sea traders, eventually taking control of the trade along the western seacoast. They improved upon the existing ship designs and discovered that they had a flair for shipbuilding. Before the Rovers took to the sea, speed and efficiency were not considered important. Boats were primarily
used for fishing. Rovers introduced frigates, capable of running at higher speeds than the slower brigs previously in use. The Rovers were the first to use seagoing vessels for trade, and the first to build ships fast enough to compete with land-based trade routes. The ports of Bracken Clell and March Brume became second homes to these seafaring Rovers—the first being the decks of their ships—and the bright colors the Rovers wore became synonymous with the sea trade.
March Brume
The advent of ocean-borne trade caused a massive increase in demand for high-quality ships of all types and sizes. The port of March Brume turned its attention from fishing to producing vessels of all types, and within a decade the tiny village had tripled in size and become the shipbuilding capital of the West. Predominantly a Southland community, it was home port to many of the Rovers who sailed or built the tall ships. March Brume became the nearest thing the Rovers had to a homeland. Rover shipwrights and craftsmen established homes near the shipyards and created a community—though, being Rovers, they came and went as their mood dictated.
Shipwrights from all over the Four Lands plied their trade within March Brume. Elves, Men, and Dwarves, Free Born and Federation—all conducted business within the city. Everyone who was not involved in buying ships was involved in building ships or feeding and housing those who built the ships.
Among all the shipwrights, there was none better than the Rovers, for only the Rovers truly loved and understood the sea and the manner of craft that could best sail her surface. They also understood the importance of keeping a bargain or protecting a confidence. And there was none better to sail the ships than the Rovers. It was well known that only a Rover captain had a chance against a pirate, for the pirates who sought to lighten the loads of the trading vessels were also Rovers—a fact that did little to redeem the Rovers’ reputation with the other Races. Ironically, it was one of these pirates, a man named Ezael Sterret, who revolutionized travel and changed the nature of shipbuilding forever.
Airships
Ezael Sterret had a notorious reputation as a brigand, but he was also an inventor. He wanted to find a way to improve his odds by building a faster ship that would not be subject to the whims of the wind and tides—one that could easily outrun all others. Even the fastest schooner was limited to the power of the wind, which was changeable at best. He began to experiment with the idea of a sail powered by light. Working with different materials, he developed a material that could absorb and transfer light, even ambient light. That same year diapson crystals were discovered. The crystals, if shaped correctly, were capable of transforming light into a new type of energy that provided lift. Ezael combined the two in a radical new type of ship that used light energy to fly.
Airships
The modern airship resembles a sailing vessel, but one that sails on air rather than water, and is powered by light. Airships are usually twin hulled with two or three masts set into cross-braced decking between the hulls. Since they may have to settle on water if their crystals fail, all airships have a seaworthy hull. Warships, the largest of the ships, average 100 feet in length and 30 in width. They can manage speeds of over twenty knots while flying comfortably at altitudes over a thousand feet. Airships vary widely depending on their intended function.
Collector sails called light sheaths absorb the light that powers airships. The sheaths are sensitive enough to gather any light, either direct or ambient, from any source, day or night, for conversion to energy. Direct light is best, but is not always available, so the ships are designed to survive on ambient light. A tiny amount of starlight is enough to lift the ship into the air. Once a ship is functional, it must be tethered to an anchor pin when not underway to prevent it from floating off. The sheaths are broad and straight at their lower end where they fasten to the booms, but curved where the spars draw them high above to a triangle’s point. They are designed to make use of the wind for additional thrust, as well as to limit drag.
Light gathered by the sheaths is relayed by radian draws, lines that take the heat down through the decking to the diapson crystals within the parse tubes. The crystals receive the light and convert it to energy to propel and steer the ship. The parse tubes direct the energy they create. The crystals are protected by metal hoods which control the amount of light energy they draw through the radian draws from the light sheaths. Hooding and unhooding the crystals determines the amount of thrust and the direction of travel. The rudders control the direction of the thrust by controlling the direction of the energy released through the parse tubes.
Diapson crystals, the heart of the engines, are made from a crystallized mineral that is common within the Four Lands. These crystals can only convert light energy to thrust after they have been precisely shaped by a master craftsman. A crystal that is flawed or poorly shaped will either fail to adequately convert the light, or shatter under the strain of the conversion. Even well made crystals will explode if allowed to draw too much power without venting it through the parse tubes. Most warships have at least two sets of crystals.
The pilot box in front of the bridge contains the controls for the parse tubes, hoods, rudders, and main draws. The radian draws are raised and lowered by the crew, but most ships are designed to allow the pilot to control everything, including the draws, if needed. It takes years to become a skilled pilot able to fully understand the nuances of hooding and unhooding the crystals and setting the draws. A momentary mistake can send the ship plummeting to the earth.
The warships are fitted with metal-sheathed horns on the ends of their pontoons, which serve as battering rams. Their decks and pontoons are covered with metal armor, and they have metal-shielded fighting ports along the rail to protect fighters in an engagement. Most have catapults attached permanently to their fore and aft deck which are used to launch buckets of metal shards or burning balls of pitch at the enemy.
Each warship can carry a compliment of at least two dozen soldiers in addition to the crew. The soldiers travel below decks, but position themselves on the deck to fight, using safety lines to avoid a fall. Bows arrows, slings, and javelins are used during long-range engagements while spears and blades are used in close combat. Long jagged-edged pikes, ropes, and grappling hooks are used to draw an enemy ship close so that the soldiers can tear apart her sails or sever her radian draws. The crew of an airship is not expected to fight unless their ship is being boarded.
His first ship was awkward and unreliable. Its maiden voyage lasted only a few minutes, flying only a hundred yards before crashing to the ground. But it flew. Soon others began to experiment with the new technology, refining the design, working with different ways of controlling the crystals and directing the energy until, several years later, the prototype for the modern airship was born. Two decades after Ezael’s first flight, airships had replaced sailing ships within many of the shipyards of March Brume. Travel was revolutionized as airships proved they could replace sailing ships and horse-drawn wagons while exceeding both in speed.
The Rovers, who had proved so capable on the high sea, proved equally at home in the air. Their ships were sleek and fast, their captains skilled and courageous. Only the Elves came close to matching the craftsmanship of the Rover shipwrights or the skill of their captains and crews. But the Federation and the Free Born, locked in the beginnings of their war, also realized the enormous potential of the airship. They immediately set out to build and commission ships of their own. They realized that the side who controlled the skies controlled the ground below as well. The war was in its sixth year when the combatants watched hopefully as the first warships lifted off to do battle for the skies. Unfortunately, the early ships fell far short of that hope, often lumbering out of the skies and into each other before ever engaging with the enemy. March Brume doubled in size as its shipyards struggled to keep up with the constant orders for new craft. With the airship technology still in its infancy, there were only a handful of shipwrights who understood the mechanics involved well enough to build airships tha
t would actually fly.
As the war escalated, so did the need for better ships and more-skilled pilots. The Rovers had both but refused both sides when approached to fight for their cause. So far as the Rovers were concerned, the war was a territorial and trade dispute and had nothing to do with them. If either side wanted Rover ships, they could pay for them. If either wanted Rover captains and crews, they could pay for those as well.
After watching their awkward airships fall to the ground while the more graceful Elven airships sailed away unscathed, the Federation grudgingly realized they needed the Rovers. They began to commission Rover-built ships and hire Rover crews to man them. The Free Born also hired Rover mercenaries, but their pockets were not nearly as deep.
The Jerle Shannara
The prototype for a new design of long-range warships, the Jerle Shannara was built by famed Rover shipwright Spanner Frew. Spanner was rumored to have once been the notorious pirate Black Beard. The ship was commissioned by the Elves for a voyage of discovery in search of an ancient treasure of magic. Captained by the infamous Redden Alt Mer, believed by most to be the greatest of captains, the Jerle Shannara is sleek and fast, with much more cargo room than a traditional warship. Her living quarters are set into the decking and, unlike in most airships, extend almost to the waterline. Though she lacks the size and weapons capability of a ship of the line, her speed and agility are far superior to that of any other warship.
The airship Jerle Shannara.
The Rovers were perfectly willing to accept work from either side and honor their contracts. They also understood the importance of keeping a confidence once given. In March Brume, both Federation and Free Born often struck deals with the same shipwrights and traveled the same streets, as if they were not locked in mortal combat miles away on the Prekkendorran.