In other realms, ships were a mark of beauty. Adventure. Wonder. Opportunity. Each ship would have a story or a dozen, a crew and a captain, and every captain would have sworn to die with the ship, whether it be by hell or high water. The ship, for many, would have been a bride. It would've had a name.

But not here. Here, ships were little more than tools. The Pirates of the Cahayaredupan Archipelago, the true core Cahayaredupan tribes, used their ships as little more than a means to an end, whether it be fishing, trading, or plundering and pilfering. They were true artists in the mizzenwork, to be sure, but there was no heart in it. No love. Just lust - for gold and blood. It'd taken some getting used to, ships were no longer the Blencathra, the Greenwind, or the Badass Whoreson. They were Dipam's ship, Praney's ship, Okesh's ship. Just lengths of rope and timber arranged in a specific way. And they weren't even that. No Captain owned their ship, they merely used it on behalf of their Chieftain, who in turn used it on behalf of Jeruk, who used it on behalf of this god and that god. It'd made Duliddir long for his home.

But his home had lost the war - the realm of Dwarves no longer encompassed Oilfurnaces. Jeruk had put his bronze boot down over the city, built it back up and made it his. Duliddir was an old dwarf, yeah, but even he could see plain as day that Oilfurnaces was now more Cahayaredupa than it'd been Semor Nazom.

But some things had changed for the better! In Old Nazom, he'd been a humble fishtrawler. The Seabreaker had nets and barrels of foul-smelling fish, and Captain Duliddir's pockets were as empty as his own mother's head. Now, Duliddir had joined Jeruk's navy, and it had plenty of perks. Sure, the Seabreaker was technically now the Ti-maan's property, but Duliddir paid only a marginal amount on top of repair fees in order to continue using it for his own fees. Rivers of coin ran through his fingers. His sons were promised to the daughters of chiefs, who towered over them all! Duliddir was well on his way to becoming a chief in his own right, and commanding a small fleet from some beach where he could let his beard grow long. And the best rule of them all: Any coin you can take from anyone who isn't under Jeruk's wing is yours for the taking. You need only go where Jeruk goes when he tells you, do whatever conquering he bids you do, and you can go on with your life however you desire.

It was the latter condition that Duliddir now obeyed. The Seabreaker ran slow, along with a hundred other of the Ti-Maan's ships. Some were small, some were large, and Duliddir's Seabreaker was one of the ninety-odd capable of more than just hauling some of the 14,000 Tribal Warriors going south. There was loot to be had today, aye, loot enough for the all of them. Jeruk was beginning another campaign against another wayward nation that had come to close to his empire.

Duliddir was beginning to enjoy this life. He had a thirst for the plunder of Troia.

I'm attacking Trae, then attacking the other two cities as far as I can go. I've also built 52 ships with my gold, for a grand total of a fleet of 93. My army constitution will be described in another post.