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Llealynarisia
Water time!
Water’s planning capabilities are a balanced mix of long and short term capabilities, although many of their policies emphasize the need for flexibility. It’s not uncommon to see stances change within the government of the Water Flight on various issues as time passes or new information becomes available. In fact, there have even been instances where laws were rewritten to accommodate new opportunities and strategic decisions; such was the case with the rise of sustainable development, with various laws being rewritten to encourage the switch to this new lifestyle when Dragonkind had yet to venture to the celestial heavens.
Diplomatically, Water enjoys very close ties with all flights and even the beast tribes, one of the very few flights to enjoy close ties with their former enemies. Operating on the philosophy that animosity only breeds more hatred and suffering, water was among the first to reach out to establish diplomatic relations and offer aid to their war time enemies. Because of this, the Water Flight enjoys widespread admiration and respect for its citizens, even among pirates.
Water is also well known for its exchange programs, much encouraged by their deity AI, Tidelord. It is their firm belief that there is no better way towards mutual understanding than living and working with others. It is this program that was credited with the rapid normalisation of ties between Dragonkind and most of the Beastkin.
With the recent rise in unexplained anomalies occurring on the outer fringes of occupied space, it also stands as the only elemental faction to have openly declared a joint military alliance with the Beastkin, with the 2 now operating joint patrols among both their territories in a bid to boost security.
Economic wise, Water has a well balanced economy, although financial pundits have come to expect the unexpected from it. Given their flexible nature, particularly close attention is often awarded to the Water flight whenever a new innovative creation is announced with major disruptive potential as they will often be the first to capitalize on it.
Notable economic sectors include materials processing as well as the food & beverage industry. Having evolved to live and thrive in a watery environment, water purification was the first major industry that they developed as clean water was essential to their very survival. The art of removing impurities has also translated into a distinct advantage in the extraction of desirable materials from their impure natural states.
Another advantage with evolving from an underwater environment relates towards the imbuement of flavors in meals that are sometimes served underwater. Whereas other flights had the simple task of seasoning and cooking foods, Water had the added challenge of satisfying some customers with a preference for consuming their meals underwater, which meant finding ways to ensure their flavors simply didn’t dissolve into the surrounding water. After years of trial and error, they’ve become experts at infusing and changing the very tastes of the food they serve. How this is done remains a closely guarded secret among the Water flight. Not that anyone really cares, all their concerned with is the food. Whilst some might argue that they might push the other chefs out of business, their comparatively high prices and unique preparation style has resulted in them carving a unique niche market for themselves.
Of particular interest, Water has also managed to carve its own niche in the business of planetary reformation and colonization. Occasionally expansion into new worlds and boundaries results in the decision to colonize oceanic planets, and they’ve created quite the business for themselves in advising clients in various ways, from the correct methods to build structures in ocean sea beds, maintaining floating colonies both on the surface and underwater, to harnessing gravitational energy from the very waters themselves to sustain a colony. Of particular note is a joint project with the Ice Flight that has recently allowed the expansion of colonies on arctic planets deep below the surface ice, opening up new boundaries for expansion as well as new potential resources and scientific discoveries.
Militarily, Water has a very scattered command system with a very flat command structure. Given its emphasis on maintaining friendly relations with everyone, Water doesn’t have a large military force. In fact it hosts the smallest military among all the various factions. As such, soldiers are trained to take on leadership positions should their own officers or specialists be incapacitated in any way. In combat, it’s often difficult to disrupt the flow of a water unit because each individual is easily capable of leading their peers. Tactics such as assassinating officers and leaders are essentially useless against Water forces. An added bonus from their diplomacy is that attacking the Water flight is an almost guaranteed way to get a swift and angry response from their allies. Regarding its capabilities, Water has notably strong and unique shield technologies, transformative capabilities, and a preference for combining directed energy weapons and their latent elemental abilities.
Its air force is well known for being extremely manoeuvrable and possesses the unique distinction of being the only force capable of operative underwater and as land-based fire support platforms. This allows sea based fighters to engage in air to air combat and for their air combat platforms to turn themselves into heavy artillery units, affording them unrivalled combat flexibility to adapt as the situation changes, something other commanders can only dream of. Whilst other militaries might have sea based fighters for establishing sub-surface, oceanic superiority, such platforms are often restricted to sea-based operations, at most serving as light surface ships. This has also given them a psychological edge over their enemies, as close air support takes on a whole new meaning with their air forces. Even in the air, joint training exercises have often resulted in other pilots struggling to keep Water pilots within their lock on sights, with the Lightning and Wind Flights being the only serious threat to Water pilots in a one on one confrontation.
Its aquatic naval force is something to be feared, boasting some of the best combat ships and submarines amongst all the factions. Coupled with their mastery of the watery elements, it truly makes them a force to be feared on the seas, with enemies having to contend with not just their ships and fighters, but also the very water that they use to deadly effect, dismembering and capsizing enemy ships. Some of its smaller frigates are also designed for amphibious operations, capable of turning themselves into massive land tanks to break enemy lines if needed, although the light armor on such vessels has led some to question the validity of such tactics. But the psychological effect of it can’t be denied. Nothing terrorizes coastal defenders more than seeing enemy ships deploy on land with their oversized weapons alongside their conventional land forces.
They are also the only ones apart from the Shadow and Lightning flights to host submarine carriers, affording them the distinct advantage of being able to launch stealthy strikes in enemy infested waters. Interestingly, Water is the only force to not have any direct fire support capital ships such as battleships and dreadnoughts, with carriers being the sole capital ship in service, something shared with the space naval branch.
Another shared characteristic is the use of Psidar by its naval branches. Whilst other forces rely on long range sensors to monitor any potential incoming threats, Water mystics are also able to “see” short periods into the future. Coupled with its already advanced sensory technologies, surprising Water forces has essentially become nigh impossible. How this is actually done is something of a mystery, with some analysts theorizing that it might be a form of magic whilst others believe it to be some sort of advanced algorithm that they have developed to predict the behaviours of individuals.
Its space fleet also hosts a very unique shield technology, Cyclonic Shields. Whilst the shields of most other forces simply involve layers of ionized plasma or energy to absorb impacts, Water has also developed a way to spin these shields rapidly around the ship. This has resulted in a massive increase in protection for their combat vessels, with glancing glows being deflected or slapped completely away from the ship. The only drawback is that the system cannot operate in gas clouds or ionized storms in space as the system would spin the surrounding gas and ions dangerously around the ship, although work is currently being done to rectify this. Solving this problem would also for its deployment in aquatic naval forces and for space vessels descending into gas planets.
Another drawback is that the emphasis in shield technology has resulting in comparatively weak armor on its ships, both aquatic and space based, as compared to other military forces. Part of the reason is that a large part of the space which would’ve been allocated to armor and other defensive systems in other military ships is occupied by shielding systems on Water ships. With the advent of phasic missiles by the Lightning flight which can bypass shields completely, some of the top leaders have redirected resources towards creating better light weight armor for their ships.
Its army is highly unconventional. Whilst others have land based armies, those of the Water flight are aquatic based. This has resulted in an interesting situation where Water’s armed forces are at a distinct advantage in defending its own aquatic and arctic worlds, but are at quite the disadvantage when forced to fight a land based battle. That’s not to say that they are push overs, far from it as Water infantry have a knack for elemental combos, be it incapacitating enemies by suspending them in water bubbles or flipping entire vehicles over with a wall of watery force. Still, land based combat is clearly not their specialty. The three dimensional warfare tactics that they’re so used to in their aquatic environments, while translating well in learning naval warfare both on the oceans and in space, haven’t seen the same success in the 2 dimensional environments of land based combat. Whilst joint training exercises have helped to alleviate this somewhat, a lot still remains to be done before their army can truly be called an effective land fighting force.
