------------- The New Piracy

Before the War of Tryskellias, only the elves had managed to cross the great oceans of the world, and their voyages of discovery had been long lost in legend. The Hergovites had established settlements on Trellheim, but soon lost contact because of the long and dangerous journey. Those left behind became the first inhabitants of the continent that would be known as Hesterland. Even the empires of the east had only dabbled with sailing. World travel it seemed would never be, and no one really cared.

Then the Republic came to Arrallon. As part of their conditioning of the planet, they introduced technology. They brought sailing ships and advanced navigational charts. They followed logical steps, helping the locals to "discover" these new ideas rather than just handing them over. In a relatively short period of time, the seas became the new commodity, populated by one hundred gun ships-of-the-line and four-masted elven clipper ships. International trade was established and goods and supplies began to come from the far corners of the world. A renaissance began, even without the Republic's constant seeding of science and mathematics.

No sooner did the high seas become the new trade routes than those who preyed on legitimate society began to take advantage of sail and cannon. Piracy reached its peak of activity in the early centuries of the nineteenth millennium, best illustrated by the legendary Captain Sadd, a dashing swashbuckler who fought for Carellon in the War of Tryskellias. Soon after, the Shipping Guild was established as an international organization of ship captains and navies that owed allegiance to no nation. Their charter, to keep the seas open to all and to ensure that shipping and trade were regulated world wide.

Around 18525, almost a hundred years after the end of the Republic occupation of Arrallon, a new technology was discovered. It came not from the stars, but from another reality, deposited in the wreck of an Illithid Nautiloid deep in the UnderDark. It was studied, copied and engineered into a new line of ships, airships. The first was a small boat, a test of the paratech's ideas rather than a useful transport. It was built by Tabitha Hayes and the Church of Isis at their temple in the Guild Freeport of Taipai. It was designed not for stellar travel but for fast air travel, and it had no sealed cabin or amenities. It became known far and wide as the Gryphonship, the symbol of the famed Silver Gryphon venture company.

Forty years later, no fewer than fifty such airships ply the airways over Callona, from small skiffs to huge guild passenger highliners. There is even talk of international travel to Beotharn, Gallathia, the Island Federation and the far east. But with the creation of every new source of light for the future, shadows fall somewhere. There is a new piracy afoot, bandits and brigands that now ply the air lanes rather than the sea lanes. And it is only a matter of time before a new Captain Sadd arises amongst their ranks.

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