Another Seuthen Universe entry for the ol’ shipyard this week – Shipyard Sunday: Dii Armillaridyne.

In light of the recent release of Ilse’s Game, the shipyard will be focusing on another vessel from the Seuthen Story Universe: the Dii Armillaridyne. At the time of this writing, these Dii constructs are mentioned or appear in the short stories “The Knight’s Game” and, of course, “Repel Boarders!” and the novel The Standard-Bearer’s Oath.

In the Seuthen Story Universe, the Dii are magic-using aliens from a universe far older than the human universe. Their ship designs needed to have the same sort of mysterious, alien vibe that the Dii had and convey a sense of both magic and technology. An armillary sphere seemed like the perfect inspiration for Dii ships, armillary spheres already seem like they could be used to open a magical gateway to other dimensions, and so was born the Dii Armillaridyne.

Dii Armillaridyne – in universe

A “normal” armillaridyne (when discussing magic-using aliens from another universe, I’m not sure anything could really qualify as *normal*, per se) is visually about the same size as a Guardian Star Clipper, about 600 feet in diameter. The interior is a pocket dimension and, given the peculiar and fickle nature of the Dii, will sometimes appear to have more interior space than could possibly be contained within its exterior, or be similar in size and arrangement to a cozy 1-bedroom apartment. The exact size and configuration will depend on what “game” the Dii pilot is playing at the moment and if they have any companions on the vessel with them.

In it’s powered down state, the rings of an armillaridyne will rotate and fold down into a disk surrounding the central sphere. When the armillaridyne is powered up, the rings will rotate and unfold as illustrated below:

While the Dii do use their armillaridynes for interstellar travel, this is not their sole function, indeed there are those who believe that interstellar travel is not even the primary function of these constructs. Every Elder Dii has his, or her, own armillaridyne and they tend use them more as strongholds or places of refuge. The Dii do not leave their armillaridynes in normal space for very long, preferring instead to place them in hidden pockets of Jump Space (or as the Dii call it, the Shadow Realm) in close proximity to a desired location in normal space. Dii will then use magic to transport themselves or others between the armillaridyne and the point of interest or they will psionically project themselves to the point of interest and examine virtually from the comfort of their stronghold.

Armillaridynes appear to lack readily identifiable armaments, however, in combat situations, Dii pilots use the frame of the craft to draw energy from currents of magic running through the Shadow Realm which is then fired off in massive bursts at a target. These energy bursts are highly destructive at closer ranges, but decrease in intensity as range increases.

Elder Dii who become infected with what they call the Darkness will often abandon their armillaridynes when they first begin showing symptoms of corruption. These abandoned armillaridynes are powered down and left in remote, difficult to reach locations in normal space, presumably until worthy successors come along and claim them.

Multi-Phase Assault Construct

To aid them in their war against the Darkness, the Dii have created a special class of armillaridyne known as Multi-Phase Assault Constructs. MPACs are living machines crafted, or perhaps domesticated and bred, within arcane forges located deep within the Shadow Realm of the Dii home universe. In its inactive state an MPAC will appear to be a bronze colored cylinder three feet in diameter and seven feet in height. When activated, an MPAC will begin unfolding and, if activated on a planetary body, will also ascend to a low orbit. Once in space the MPAC will shift itself into phase with the Shadow Realm where it will begin feeding on the magic energy around it and continue expanding until it is roughly the size of Earth’s Moon. Upon reaching full size, an MPAC will enter one of two modes of operation.

In the primary mode of operation, an MPAC will bond with an operator possessing the appropriate magic talents and an innate resistance to the corruption of the Darkness. Once bonded, an MPAC operator (or handler) will be able to direct the MPAC’s offensive and defensive magic and will be able to draw on the MPAC’s energy when channeling magic.

If an operator is not present when the MPAC is activated, or if an MPAC’s bonded operator is killed, the MPAC will immediately begin seeking out worlds corrupted by the Darkness for the purpose of cleansing them. An MPAC will accomplish this by continuously channeling magic into a planet’s ambient magic field until the field becomes unstable. Once this instability is achieved, the MPAC will fire off a burst of energy into the planet’s atmosphere, igniting the planetary magic field, and briefly engulfing the planet in a global plasma storm. Although the plasma storm is short-lived, it essentially ‘resets’ the planetary magic field to a state that is free of the Darkness’ corruption and reduces the planet to a lifeless cylinder as illustrated below. The Dii, having long since mastered the art of turning uninhabitable planets into habitable ones, consider this to be an acceptable end result.