State of the Commonwealth - Starships and Terminology in the Knights-Marshal 'Verse!
Few Sci Fi settings would be complete without starships and some sort of travel between worlds. In some settings travel might be comparatively slow movement between planets in a single system. In others, vast distances can be traversed quickly and easily at Warp Speed. In the region of space dominated by the Commonwealth, travel between the stars is readily available. But that does not mean it is easy, safe or inexpensive.
The Commonwealth spans a vast territory, in places more than a thousand light years across.The most powerful engines available would spend months traversing it. It is no exxageration to say that the Commonwealth relies on the Void Drive for its very existence. Thus it is only fitting that the Shard, architects of the Commonwealth, are also the developers of the Void Drive itself. Access to Void Drive technology is one of the benefits of membership in the Commonwealth, for thus far, no one has managed to fully replicate the miracle of its workings.
Below you will find a glossary, in progress, of starship and starfaring terminology in use among the Knights-Marshal, and thereby through out much of human occupied space, whether that means the environs of Pembroke, or those of the later additions like Samarkhan, Weyland and the score of others that were discovered after Pembrokian humanity had joined the Commonwealth.
Often, Sci fi starship terminology borrows heavily from American or British naval practice of the 18th century to the present day, in which you have Ships-of-the-Line, Frigates, Commodores, Admirals, and the like. There is nothing wrong with this tradition, but it is hardly appropriate for a setting in which Humanity was removed from Terra Progenitas [Earth] before these terms, or in fact, the political entities that spawned them, had even arisen [and yes, that was a reference to a BIG OPEN SECRET of the KmotC Setting - Humans we re transported to the stars in Earth's more or less distant past by the Elohir].
In any event, we had to come up with terminology that made more sense, given that Pembrokian Humanity was removed from Terra Progenitas in the 13th Century. So we went to the terminology of shipping and ship construction of that time. Instead of Ship-of-the-Line, you have Great Ship, while the duties of a frigate would be served by a mid-sized galley.
N.B. It is likely that more terms will be added as the setting is developing. But this is a taste, at least, of how we are thinking.
Incidentally, for bonus points - would any of you history buffs care to offer a guess as to which historical personage inspired the Elohir to chose to transport people from early 13th century England?
Glossary of Starship Terminology
Atmospheric – a term denoting the ability of a starship to function in atmosphere. Generally, though not always, this means having flight surfaces like wings and a streamlined hull-shape.
Balinger – a small barge-like jumpship generally used for transport or courier work They are most often used for short distance travel.
Barge – a small transport craft, usually not jump-capable, used to ferry people or cargo to or from ships or between a planet and its moons, etc. Other ships are sometimes used in this way, and the term ‘barge-work’ has come to mean tedious but secure employment.
Bomber – larger than a fighter, a bomber is also slower and less maneuverable on average. It may have energy weapons, but is named for the bombs it carries. Generally, bombers are used to attack large, often stationary targets, like cities, weapon emplacements or great ships.
Carrack – a large merchant or transport vessel, comparable in size to the largest warships, but with a small crew complement and most of its internal space given over to cargo. Sometimes referred to as a ‘hulk’. A carrack has so powerful a Void Drive that it is capable of carrying other lesser ships in its ‘wake’.
Cog – A general-purpose ship similar to the galley or war-galley, sometimes turned to war, but primarily of use in transport and merchant service. Heavy and spacious, they are often armed and sometimes serve as escorts for other cargo ships or fleets. Smaller cogs are often engaged for private travel or owned outright by the wealthy. The majority of ships in use would qualify as cogs.
Courser/ Cutter – a small, fast, heavily built ship, the workhorse of the Knights-Marshal. Typically housing a lance, perhaps two. The Courser is generally cramped regarding living quarters and stowage, because of the space required for engines and weapons. Coursers are slightly smaller than cutters, but otherwise they are much alike. They can operate in atmosphere, or in the depths of space. Lances spend much of their time on their courser, and often personalize them to a significant degree. Cutters are sometimes used as escort craft to a larger ship, or pressed into service as a larger ship’s barge. Sometimes also referred to informally as a ‘Lancer’.
Galley/ War-Galley – a mid-sized warship. The smallest are home to a dozen crew, the largest to a few hundreds. All are jump-capable. The galley is the warship equivalent to the ‘Cog’ which refers generally to a cargo or transport ship of the same general size.
Fighter – a small, agile attack ship armed primarily with energy weapons or missiles, and generally not equipped with a Void Drive. They are usually carried aboard great ships or other transports.
Flag Ship – Originating from the heraldic symbol, or flag, that adorned the hull of early ships of noble houses among the Pembroke Originals, the term, or the simpler ‘Flag’ now refers to a great ship [see below] that is captained by a Knight-Commander. Often, flag ships serve as the roaming base of operations for a dozen or more Lances of the Knights-Marshal. The ‘Glaimh Solaich’ under Knight-Commander Ser Maude Willoughby is one of three Flags operating in the troubled Edge Sector Draconis.
Great Ship – A large, heavily armed and armored ship, home to hundreds, even thousands, of crew. Generally fielded only by noble houses, Great Companies, planetary governments or the Knights-Marshal, some have fallen into the hands of marauders over the centuries. A Great Ship has so powerful a Void Drive that it is capable of carrying other lesser ships in its ‘wake’.
Hulk – see ‘Carrack’, above.
Jump – an instantaneous transit through the ‘Void’; made possible by folding space before a ship, ‘jumping’ the ship over interstellar distances.
Jumpship – refers to some older ships still in service that do not possess the capacity for Sustained interstellar travel, and must move across space in a series of jumps and cool-down periods [see below: ‘Limitations of Crystal Drives’].
Longship - The term for the sleek raiding jumpships of the Marauders, built to their own specifications. It is the term in use among the brigands themselves, and has come into Common parlance. Longships appear capable of navigating gravity wells extremely well, allowing them to jump into close proximity to stars and other large celestial bodies.
Pennon Ship/ Banneret – The personal ship of a noble or other powerful individual, this originated from the rank of Banneret, and the priviledge of displaying a pennon, a lesser mark of heraldry similar to the ‘flag’ of a flag-ship. Pennon ships can be of nearly any sort, short of a flag-ship, depending on the means of the owner.
Sustained Travel – A slower continuous, transit across interstellar space. As opposed to the ‘Jump’.
The Void – Colloquially used to refer to the expanse of space traveled in a starship, or simply as the vast emptiness between the stars. It is commonly believed that the Void is an extra-dimensional space that the ship enters when the Void Drive is engaged. This is not actually the case. [See below: Void Drive].
Void Drive– This term refers to the type of stardrive in widespread use in the Commonwealth, but also [colloquially] to the space crossed. The Void Drive created a bubble of Void space, which shields and propels the vessel, either in a ‘Jump’ or via ‘sustained travel’. Also referred to as ‘Crystal Drive’.
Void Dust – the debris that collects and inhibits the function of Void Drives.
Void Ship – the standard in interstellar travel since the Shard Innovation of the Void Drive has become widespread. It refers to a ship that can travel via ‘jump’ or though ‘sustained travel’, as distinct from the jumpship which is incapable of sustained travel.
Wake – Some ships, namely carracks and great ships, have Void Drives so powerful that they can envelope other ships within them, even ships that do not have the capacity for interstellar travel. The carrier ship appears first out of the void on a jump, with its passengers trailing behind. ‘Wake’ refers to this capability, as well as the area of void space in which these ‘passengers’ travel. Pembrokian Great ships originated the maneuver of jumping with all its fighter craft traveling in the wake, as a means of rapid deployment and attack.
Warship – a term referring, rather imprecisely, to a ship, which can be of virtually any size, whose primary purpose is martial. It may serve as a patrol vessel, a battleship, as the home to a Lance of Knights-Marshal, even a pirate vessel.
