The trading ship Kwandoyo:
A successful Zaee trading ship. As with all perturber-propelled ships, it's actually not
a ship, in the traditional sense, but a group of smaller craft connected together with ropes. The lead vehicle, called an ivawo, is the only one that's necessarily a part of any instance of the ship; wavi (cargo craft) and ivowe (passenger craft, also used as crew quarters) can be swapped out as needed for a particular run. The
Kwandoyo in particular specializes in cargo rather than passengers, and usually has between ten and fifteen wavi at any given time. Most ship-propelling perturbers also have enough control to assist in moving non-fragile cargo onto wavi, but a small crew is useful for moving fragile cargo, securing cargo below deck, and doing other tasks while the ship is underway; the
Kwandoyo has a regular crew of 8, and generally takes on a second cook and one steward per ivowe (as it's difficult for the unaccustomed to move between craft when the ship is underway) when carrying passengers.
Notable people:
Lalinyo: The owner of the
Kwandoyo, and an accomplished trader.
Teloura: The
Kwandoyo's perturber, and Avana's wingmother. She owns a house in Delo-Kyan, but doesn't actually spend much time there. She's claustrophobic. When she's perturbing the
Kwandoyo, it goes about 600 miles (85 pixels) a day, and could circumnavigate the world in about 42 days if there wasn't any land to navigate around.
Psi stats:
Avana: Wingdaughter of Teloura. She was 25 at the time of Drachumphan's fall (equivalent to a human 10-year-old). (Telolura is 112 years older; Lalinyo is 105 years older.) She intends to be a trader when she grows up, and makes a point of practicing when the
Kwandoyo is in port. When the
Kwandoyo is underway, she spends her time reading about various places, practicing math and navigational skills, writing in her journal and to her pen pals, and playing with her pet skitterling (as of age 24, a black-furred male with green eyes named Dell; skitterlings live about 15-17 years, and she'll get another when he passes). She also helps the crew with their tasks and is familiar with the work of keeping the ship in shape. She formally collects coins and functionally collects reference books, and also keeps a stash of minor trade goods for bartering, mostly jewelry and small pieces of artwork. Personality-wise, she's relatively mature for her age (even for a Mevwani), friendly, and respectful; her attitude when dealing with others is that almost anyone is a potential friend, ally, or trading partner, and that trying to make that more than just a potential is always a good idea. She is - and probably always will be - rather naive when it comes to political machinations. She also tends to be less interested in technology than is strictly optimal - she knows how the tech that she's exposed to regularly is used, and considers it helpful, but tends to discount the usefulness of tech she isn't familiar with, and is likely to outright ignore any advances that don't have immediately obvious applications. (This last bit is more for when she grows up, though, and there's definitely a 'tech that you grew up with is culture, not tech' effect.)
Crew: Zowie, Ilindya, Wanyeh, Jodo, Layaniki, Ibibwe, Owana, Ikapi
Notable supplies:
CB radio
Several large cannonballs (no cannon - Teloura perturbs them)
Zaee-specific food and kitchen; no human food unless they're expecting human passengers
Several flags of different colors, for signaling (ivawo has a mast)
Emergency backup sail
Emergency backup flares
Signaling mirror