SHIPS OF THE WEAVE
I was going to do something in-universe originally, a few blurbs with representative pictures, but then I decided that I shouldn’t be the one having all the fun, right? So instead I’m going to blather on about design philosophies and other boring things.
‘Danelaw ships tend to be grounded more in lightsci or ‘hard’ science-fiction than Fen ships. A lot of ‘Danelaw craft are actually viewgraph specials from The Coming Future of Aerospace[tm] that were reworked from old concept art and sketchy blueprints once handwavium came around to make them somewhat cost-effective. Things that were plausible but prohibitively expensive in the old regime suddenly became viable again once the necessary groundwork had been done, and so on.
Visual inspiration for ‘Danelaw spacecraft comes from aerospace ‘what-ifs’ 1979 – 2010 (covering pretty much everything from Gerry O’Neill to Skylon), as well as hard-sf (or ‘hard’-sf) titans like 2001, 2010, 2300 AD, Babylon 5, Mobile Suit Gundam (no, really), BattleTech (no, really), Traveller, Halo/Gears of War/the whole ‘gritty space shooter’ genre, the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, the works of Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Jerry Pournelle, Arthur C Clarke, etc. ‘Danelaw spacecraft tend to be put together pretty well, and they also tend to be big. Not like mile-long monsters or anything – not by 2039 anyway, shit’s still pretty expensive – but the Space Powers generally throw heavier craft around than anybody else. This is a reflection of the lightsci origins of most of this technology, and even if it’s been leavened with graysci engines and darksci artificial gravity, it still tends to be... a bit imposing.
~***~
Fen spacecraft come in two major varieties: backyarders and everything else. Backyarders are the original spacecraft used by the Fen to get into orbit and start colonizing. The name pretty much says it all; they were built in somebody’s backyard out of blackboxes and whatever else might be handy. A decent pilot could make orbit and come back in a backyarder; a skilled pilot could land on the moon with one and a skilled and lucky pilot could land on the moon and return to Earth. Backyarder rockets represent the DIY spirit of the mainline in a lot of ways, and the ones that didn’t crash or explode or were abandoned are still in service in 2039.
Once the Fen established themselves (and more importantly established an industrial base of their own), the backyarders started to fade in favor of a more ‘Conventional’ raygun gothic aesthetic. Visual inspiration comes from many of the great properties of course but also from the old old stuff, the classic Flash Gordon / Dan Dare designs. Lots and lots of unnecessary streamlining and chrome plating. Because the industrial bases are smaller Fen ships also tend to be smaller, relying on darksci engines to make up for lack of fabrication space. Not as often bound by large organizations, Fen craft also have a lot of bespoke work meaning that only the ship’s primary maintainer knows how (or why) any of it works.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
I was going to do something in-universe originally, a few blurbs with representative pictures, but then I decided that I shouldn’t be the one having all the fun, right? So instead I’m going to blather on about design philosophies and other boring things.
‘Danelaw ships tend to be grounded more in lightsci or ‘hard’ science-fiction than Fen ships. A lot of ‘Danelaw craft are actually viewgraph specials from The Coming Future of Aerospace[tm] that were reworked from old concept art and sketchy blueprints once handwavium came around to make them somewhat cost-effective. Things that were plausible but prohibitively expensive in the old regime suddenly became viable again once the necessary groundwork had been done, and so on.
Visual inspiration for ‘Danelaw spacecraft comes from aerospace ‘what-ifs’ 1979 – 2010 (covering pretty much everything from Gerry O’Neill to Skylon), as well as hard-sf (or ‘hard’-sf) titans like 2001, 2010, 2300 AD, Babylon 5, Mobile Suit Gundam (no, really), BattleTech (no, really), Traveller, Halo/Gears of War/the whole ‘gritty space shooter’ genre, the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, the works of Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Jerry Pournelle, Arthur C Clarke, etc. ‘Danelaw spacecraft tend to be put together pretty well, and they also tend to be big. Not like mile-long monsters or anything – not by 2039 anyway, shit’s still pretty expensive – but the Space Powers generally throw heavier craft around than anybody else. This is a reflection of the lightsci origins of most of this technology, and even if it’s been leavened with graysci engines and darksci artificial gravity, it still tends to be... a bit imposing.
~***~
Fen spacecraft come in two major varieties: backyarders and everything else. Backyarders are the original spacecraft used by the Fen to get into orbit and start colonizing. The name pretty much says it all; they were built in somebody’s backyard out of blackboxes and whatever else might be handy. A decent pilot could make orbit and come back in a backyarder; a skilled pilot could land on the moon with one and a skilled and lucky pilot could land on the moon and return to Earth. Backyarder rockets represent the DIY spirit of the mainline in a lot of ways, and the ones that didn’t crash or explode or were abandoned are still in service in 2039.
Once the Fen established themselves (and more importantly established an industrial base of their own), the backyarders started to fade in favor of a more ‘Conventional’ raygun gothic aesthetic. Visual inspiration comes from many of the great properties of course but also from the old old stuff, the classic Flash Gordon / Dan Dare designs. Lots and lots of unnecessary streamlining and chrome plating. Because the industrial bases are smaller Fen ships also tend to be smaller, relying on darksci engines to make up for lack of fabrication space. Not as often bound by large organizations, Fen craft also have a lot of bespoke work meaning that only the ship’s primary maintainer knows how (or why) any of it works.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"