Leviathan

"Leviathan" was the name given to a type of gargantuan warship created by the Parthans during the Great War between their citadels and Rona.

Not truly warships in the classical sense, the Leviathans were conceived as "arcs" of a sort that could be used to transport a great number of troops across the seas. The Parthans had come to realize that their nautical tradition could not match that of the Bamorians, whose skills as shipwrights exceeded that of any of the Duneimen. Recognizing that his war against Rona could not be won purely through a land invasion, the Arch-Primus of Parthus, Kalos, called for the creation of a type of vessel that would never need to best a Bamorian ship… but that could not be stopped by an enemy before it reached its destination, either.

The Parthans of Kaurus, Galos and Tarantreia built a grand total of twelve such vessels. This undertaking was of tremendous scale; tens of thousands of menials and slaves alike were pulled from farmlands and mines to cut timber and haul it to the great shipyards of the sea-side Citadels. Assembling these ships proved to be incredibly dangerous labor, and thousands of laborers perished doing so.

The Leviathans were never meant for maritime combat, nor were they capable of any but the most basic of movements across water. They relied exclusively on the efforts of thousands of rowers who themselves spent months training to achieve the strict synchronicity needed just to propel their vessel. When enemy vessels didn't threaten them, a small flotilla of small, traditionally-sailed vessels served as tugboats for them. No masts or sails were used by the Leviathan itself, for none could be used by a vessel of that size.

The sole purpose of a Leviathan was to serve as a floating city capable of transporting a small army of Parthans from their lands to the Ronan coastline. Within the numerous levels of each Leviathan's hull were entire armories and granaries. Its deck was a feat of engineering that could be raised or lowered in sections, as needed. Each Leviathan required four thousand oarsmen to be moved. In addition, more than two thousand Parthan warriors were transported on each such vessel, along with a few hundred dedicated sailors and engineers, and several priests of the Parthan Order. Whole siege engines were assembled on the deck, intended to be used in sieges against castles once at their destination, but certainly capable of ruining enemy vessels as well.

Each Leviathan was a multi-hulled vessel (a sort of massive catamaran) almost five hundred feet long, seventy-five feet wide and eighty feet tall, as measured from its waterline to the top of its hull. Each of its rowing oars measured almost sixty feet in length. Three massive rams lined its prow, with a fourth, crescent-shaped one protruding well above the waterline, intended for splitting harbor chains asunder. The three rows of battlements lining the hull jutted out several feet and at staggered intervals. After several of these vessels were captured by the relief fleet from Sora, it was discovered these battlements featured "courtesy courtains" and privy holes, being that they also doubled as lavatories for the thousands of warriors sailing aboard each Leviathan.

Historically, the Leviathans succeeded in their appointed task: the fleet arrived at the Ronan coastlines even after the Imperial fleets destroyed or drove the various smaller vessels towing the gigantic arc-ships. Almost twenty-five thousand Parthan warriors arrived to lay siege to Camus, bypassing the Ronan armies furiously engaging Kalos at the frontier more than a thousand miles away. The entry of Sora into the Great War unexpectedly altered the balance, however. Lacking a true navy, Kalos was forced to send his Leviathans against the Soran fleet bearing relief forces, but was unable to send with them their warriors, being unable to raise the siege of Camus. He hoped that the Leviathans' sieges engines alone might carry the day or intimidate the enemy into retreat, but he was wrong. Without men-at-arms to guard them, fully half of the Leviathans were slowly, inexorably, outmaneuvered and boarded. These ships were all sunk, save for one that was kept as a prize-of-war. Of the remainder, two were eventually lost to sea, their depleted crews succumbing to exhaustion and starvation before they could reach the coast. Only four Leviathans made it back to Parthus; one each to Galos and Tarantreia, and two to Sartha.

No Leviathan has been used extensively since the Great War. Each has become an expensive show-piece kept more often than not in tremendous dry-docks rather than the sea. They nonetheless remain potent symbols of power to the people of their Citadels.

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