Savant

The savant is a type of sailing vessel unique to the historic Kingdom of Sann'al, that contributed to the island nation's dominance of merchant shipping during its great age of trade and exploration, and hundred or more years ago.

The savant was a development of the carrack, a rounded trading vessel common in the Natorn Archipelago. The savant made several advancements in design.

It was made of golden perian planking, which is tough, flexible, and most importantly, resistant to accumulating weeds and growths such as screw-worms, which can slow down and irreparably damage the hull. Previous ships needed to be regularly scraped below the waterline, but perian-wood savants retained clean hulls for up to ten years without visiting a dry-dock. The Sann'ali kings imported this unusual and difficult to grow virid tree from the Eastern Isles, and created plantations in the island of Iluns, across the bay from Famul harbour where their ships were built.

Savants had longer keels, improved multi-sailed rigging, and a sharper prow than their predecessors. They were visually impressive, made of a rare golden wood, and richly carved in flowing, organic curves. Each prow was given a unique face made of whale-ivory, with massive eyes carved in bas-relief and brightly coloured, with the prow being a long pointed nose often of whalehorn.

There were many myths and legends about savants possessing a will of their own, hence the name, savant, meaning wise. Legends told of ships where the crew had been overcome by a seahar or plague or had been swept overboard entirely, but nevertheless the ship found its way back to its home harbour.

These stories of living ships were apocryphal, but the savants did have one secret. Sann'ali Magister-Navigators embedded a special device, the port-compass, in every savant. This device could point directly to any port that had a Sann'ali presence. When a navigator-adept set the savant compass to locate a particular port, it would point in that direction wherever in the world the ship was. By getting a bearing on various nearby ports, it was therefore possible to triangulate the ship's precise position.

This was only possible because each Sann'ali enclave in every trading port had a unique lodestone, which the port-compass could point to. Sann'al's maritime excellence depended on this important secret. When Sann'ali enclaves in Ororr, Hartheraplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigHarthera

The Hartheran Union, commonly named Harthera, is an imperialist maritime nation state dominating the northeast of Anásthias. It is one of the two great powers of the modern epoch, arguably the most technologically and militarily powerful nation in the world, only matched by the vast size and wealth of its neighbour, viridviridOrorrMEOrorrOrorrOrorrOrorr and the Eastern Isles came under attack, due to fear of their wealth and prowess, the lodestones were lost or destroyed, and the savant-compasses became useless. Sann'al's maritime supremacy endured for a time, based solely on its accumulated wealth and reputation, and skills in shipbuilding and seamanship, but as their power waned, Harthera grew strong, and eventually crushed the entire island of Besoa.