The First Elemental Airships Enter Service for House Lyrandar

Technological achievement

For decades, House Lyrandar had made use of elemental galleons, great ships that contained a bound water elemental which allowed them to attain speeds on Eberron's seas and oceans that were impossible for conventional sailing ships to match. The art of binding elementals within Khyber dragonshards and then harnessing them for other uses had long been known to the Zil gnomes, who had secretly stolen the art from the Sulatar drow of Xen'drik long decades before. In the late 980's YK the House of Storm decided to try and advance this concept to its next logical conclusion—elemental airships that made use of bound air or fire elementals contained within powerful rings of swirling winds or raging flame for propulsion. Built in Zilargo using soarwood exported by the elven island of Aerenal and making use of the elemental-binding technology only possessed by the Zil gnomes, these vessels could sometimes be found in privateer hands, but the dragonmarked pilots of House Lyrandar were renowned for their skill and expertise. Airships have the advantage of being able to go anywhere— provided the dragonmarked pilot and crew were willing to make the trip. Travel to a dangerous locale, if the crew agrees, could easily double or triple the already extensive cost. Most Lyrandar airships only fly between the metropolises and large cities of Khorvaire, which have invested in creating and maintaining the necessary mooring towers. To go elsewhere by air, passengers had to find a privateer. Since they were relatively new, airships had not come into widespread use yet even by 998 YK, though just as the lightning rail had for House Orien, the airship promised to open up whole new vistas of profit for House Lyrandar if the heirs of Storm could master the arcane technology and construct large enough numbers of the vessels. An airship powered by a bound elemental could maintain a cruising speed of 20 miles per hour through the sky but could achieve much higher speeds for brief periods of time.