Re: An Analysis of Elven Ships, Part I

This is excellent, just the sort of article I love.  It sticks to
printed material  while noting and sorting out contradictions, and then
it adds some cools stuff. Brilliant!

At 7:46 PM -0500 10/11/05, Night_Druid wrote:
>Armadas have appeared four times in Spelljammer artwork, each with
>variations with each other.  The best picture of an Armada is on page 45 of
>Lorebook of the Void, which shows the ship's front profile.  This image
>shows a ship with the narrow body of a butterfly with enormous wings that
>soar high above the gravity plane and flatten into landing decks for the
>many flitters.  A large castle, easily three times as wide as the Armada's
>main body, rests on its back, supported by gossamer supports that anchor it
>to the Armada's body.  The Armada is also depicted in the ship cards that
>came with the Spelljammer boxed set.  This image is a side profile of what
>appears to be a shorter, broader ship.  The castle is set much higher as
>well.  An Armada appeared on the Realmspace map, this time seen from the
>aft-quarter.  The body appears to be much broader while the abdomen is much
>narrower and shorter.  The castle appears once more, as a set of four towers
>in a box-like pattern.  The final time we see the Armada is in the Ship
>Reconnection Manual, this time in side profile.  This time, the ship is more
>insect-like than before, with the head and abdomen bent downward.  The wings
>are not as wide-sweeping as before, almost perpendicular to the side
>profile, and the castle sits much lower.


This confused me though,  I found the LotV p45 reference, I agree, it's
the iconic image.  The Armada image in the Ship Recognition Guide of the
War captain's Companion on page 7 is easy to find as well, ad clearly
complements the LotV image, it is the same vessel from a different
angle.  The 'ship card' image you mean is actually one of the stand up
ships provided with the set in lieu of miniatures.  It also appears on
one of the ship size comparison posters, but doesn't get a real image
like the others, but rather a large 'shadow' image behind them. On that
chart it is far larger the any ship save the Spelljammer.
-- 
"...How shall a man judge what to do in such times?!"
"As he has ever judged," said Aragorn "Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear..."
J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer@????????.net