The Truth of Psionic Skimmers as Orginally Envisioned by their creator Troy Denning
This is a Discussion post about the Orginal concept of Psionic Skimmers as envisioned by their creator thats never been explored much and never had rules made for it. Im discussing this to paint a clearer picture of their OG Imagining.
3.Psionic Obsidian Floater Dome VS Psionic Obsidian Engine
The Obsidian Engine is not the Original way Psionic Ships move, but rather the Floater device found in Book 4 of the Prism Pentad which is described in all aspects as simply Levitating the ship and not moving the ship
. This is reinforced by written passages about the ship & masts interactions in book 4 as well as book 5 Passages.
“Agis! came Tithian’s voice. You can’t float this ship for long, but I can. Let
me take over.”-This passage says that the job of the Shipfloater is to Float the ship,Indicating thats their job NOT moving the ship.
“But the shipfloaters would have to lift their hulls high enough to clear the
mud crusts at the shoal edges. It wouldn’t be easy.” Here in book 5 in the Shoals,its again talked about the Floaters lifting ships higher then normal. Indictating it would take a LOT of power and Increasingly harder strain on the shipfloaters(PSPS?)
4.The Movement or Forward Motion of these ships are WHOLEY dependent on Sails and Prodding sticks and in NO way is powered by the Psion to move forward. The OSB wanderer’s journal in the silt sea description and movement in it has some passages on prodding sticks,sails and rudders in silt.
Like the following.
The trouble with sails is two-fold. First, when there is enough wind to use a sail, the Sea of Silt is invariably covered with such a haze of dust that it is impossible to navigate. Second, someone using a sail can only travel in the direction the wind is blowing. -The second passage is made however with little understanding of sailing and how experienced sailors get around this wind need by using different sailing methods like Hydrodynamics of Water Flow or Sailing with the Current-
By this means, a would-be traveler uses his abilities to give something (an individual, a group, or an object capable of carrying a group) the ability to “float” on or above the dust. After this is done, the floating object also needs some means to propel it. I have heard of two methods: setting up a sail, or using long poles to push off the sea bed.-As we saw in book 4, BOTH methods were used for ships traveling-
“Cover the boat with silt,” suggested Tithian.
Rikus frowned. “Won’t that sink us?”
The king shook his head. “Why should it? I’m holding us aloft,” he
said. “We won’t be able to move very fast, but with our mast down, we’re
not going any place anyway.”-Passage from Chapter 11 book 5
MANY more passages speak about the sails making the ship go or stop depending on their state of being Furled or not.THIS passage alone States with the mast down,this ship is going NO where. Indictating that EVEN Tithian and ALL the power of the dark lens CANNOT move said ship forward.
4a. Directional control- Prodding sticks do most of the ship turning and Rudders only do the bare minimum as per page 41 of the OSB wanderer’s Journal
Also in Deep silt ,the Following passage says they wont be able to manuaver reliably away from incoming giants. To me this implies only the rudder would turn the this ship at this point and not very well enough to get away from giants. They suddenly loose most maneuverability without prodding sticks.
Book 4 chpt 4:“Not realistically,” Saanakal answered.“We have shallow silt all
around, so we can’t maneuver away from our attackers-and no one has
ever survived a battle with a hundred giants.”This passage implies that the shallow silt(Or deep silt) isnt a option for the Balican Schooner to maneuver in. Which implies its NOT because they can go into it but they cannot steer very will. This goes back to the OSB in which rudders and the like are not very effective and the long poles are used to maneuver the ship. When crossing the deep silt would be fine if their going straight there or have plenty of time for the small shift provided by the rudder to effect its turn radius, But thats a assumption.
My next chapters will cover thingslike Obsidian Engine creation vs Obsidian Dome creation, Sk and allies being the only owners of them and rarity. As well as Who and what psions can control them and Deep silt travel. All will be of course focused on the OG creation of Psionic Skimmers as envisoned by Tory Denning in Prism Pentad Books 4-5 as well as we can see here in the orginal OSB
