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DragonFire
There are differences between ships and boats but the principles behind both are the same. In fact the whole reason we have ships is because boats were invented in the first place. So if boats are a possible tool in Sornieth I don't see why ships are not.
DragonFire wrote on 2016-07-11:
Why would a dragon live on a ship? Or even a boat? What if there was a storm? Or some dragon disturbed it because they jumped in the water? Guardians are the second biggest dragon on the site, or third depending on how big it is because of ridgebacks, and they are the water dragon. I'm sure that imperials can like it too, especially water imps. And I'm sure there are some huge fish in Sornieth and can disturb a boat by chasing a smaller fish to eat and running into it.
As I said before, ships (airships precisely) are actually part of my clan lore and here is a little bit from a story from my lore that explains the whole size issue. Also... yes I know this is just my own personal lore and not official site lore but I'm only using it to express how boats and ships in general could fit into dragon lore.
Wysteria Excerpt wrote:
Chimalma gazed out at the sweeping horizons before her from the bow of her airship. It was a magnificent craft built from thousands of light weight bamboo reeds, cedar planks, and ash carved masts that reached far above her head. Being an Imperial, Chim was already among the giants of her kind and so the scope and size of this vessel that held her would look like a craft built for the Gods to someone watching below. The shape of the ship resembled that of the old sailing ships that teams of dragons commanded in the waters across Sornieth. However, the air ship had large kite-like wings fanning out from its sides and golden sailing masts that seemed to reach on forever higher towards the heavens. The body of the ship was painted in hues of rich green and vibrant reds that culminated to the glittering figurehead of a beautiful Sunsea Pseudo.
I mean who says that ships would be small dinky boats if built by dragons as large as Imperials or Guardians? Sure there are lots of dragons who'd prefer just plain living in the water or on land but are we to stereotype the lore to say that all dragons either live somewhere on land or in the water and that's it? There
are probably huge fish and creatures that could destroy ships/boats that we as humans think of but in a world filled with dragons that know how to live and survive in their world...? If they wanted or needed a ship to be strong enough to withstand storms or giant fish than I could totally see them making them. Humans have done it across the centuries so I fail to see why dragons would not also create vessels that could make life easier for them since they are supposed to have human intelligence.
In my lore I explain that the airships are used for several different jobs. For one thing, they are powered by a team of Wind dragons who use special magic wind techniques that sail the ships faster than any single dragon could fly on their own and so for very long journeys they ride the ships to be able to carry more supplies and get to their destination faster than they could if they flew on their own. Plus it would be safer than having to go over land and make frequent rest stops to rest tired wings and risk wandering in to another clan or beastclans' hostile territory.
The ships are also used to perform shows for entertainment purposes. Like during the Wind Festival there's a ship in my clan that is entirely outfitted with all sort of fireworks that are set off at night high up in the sky to be seen from far away. The ship is captained by a smaller plearcatcher dragon whose a wiz with fire and pyrotechnics but who also would never be able to carry that amount of fireworks and set them off on his own if they weren't specially set up on the ship itself.
Also as my clan now has an ancient lair up high in the sky in the Cloudsong I wanted a way to incorporate that into my lore but still be able to have a sort of clan/all-dragons-have-their-own den atmosphere and I was only able to do that by have ships docked up in the harbors of my clan's section of the Cloudsong collectively called Wysteria. Each permanent member that lives in the Wysteria territory (as my clan also has a larger ground territory) has their own small ship that servers as their den/home. Those ships are used primarily for their own personal uses but the larger ships (which are huge and
very expensive) are used for quicker-than-dragon-flight transportation and places where dignitaries and important dragons from other clans are brought for meetings and treaty signings. The larger ships are very impressive and luxurious.
And further, some dragons in my clan also sail from the Plateau to the Tangled Woods across the Sea of a Thousand Currents because we have many clans that we trade hoards of goods and specialty foods that we can only find in each others territories. The journey across the sea is much shorter than the journey it would take to go around but its also a very long distance to fly continuously for some of my smaller merchants (which include faes and nocturnes). Many of those merchants are not water dragons and do not like the thought of having to swim in the sea when too tired to fly across the water. My two Ridgeback merchants especially hate the water, for obvious reasons, and are glad to be able to make the short trip across the water with out having to fly the whole way surrounded by deadly water.
As I said before, I know this is just my own personal lore so don't come back at me with the argument of "that might be your opinion but that's not in the official lore so it doesn't count." Please don't say that to me because I already realize this and its not the point I'm trying to make here. What I'm saying is that there could be so many reasons why dragons could use ships and boats of difference sizes and uses for the same reasons that humans need ships and boats of different sizes and uses. Being able to fly wouldn't change the need to try and make their dragon lives easier. Humans learned how to fly by creating machines that helped us to fly but that doesn't mean we stopped using or inventing other forms of transportation because we learned how to fly.
Dragons in Sorienth were born with wings and learn to fly at young ages but that doesn't mean they might not try and invent something to help make the process easier. Humans are born and learn how to walk and (typically) how to swim efficiently but that didn't stop us from inventing the car or submarine to help us "walk" and "swim" faster than we could on our own.
I just think with a site that has lore as diversified as FR does that it shouldn't be limited by technologies that don't automatically fit the aesthetics of the site when viewed by human eyes rather than what they might look like seen through the filter of a whole different world.
Sorry this got so long. I'm a very passionate story-writer (hoping to be a real author one day!) and world building is something I'm very interested in. I hope this all sounded nice and polite because I wasn't miffed or angry at all by your arguments (on the contrary I love discussing my ideas with others ^_^) so if any of it came across as rude or mean or something then please tell me and I'll change it because this is just an interesting conversation on my side and I'm very glad to be able to hear your thoughts about it!
Its okay if this is too long to respond to though... I admit I type a lot of things sometimes :/
