[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/PBf7EAq.png[/img]
[hr][h2]OLD STORIES[/h2][/center][hr]
Once, the Fornacis was a name that spoke for itself. Legends claimed that the crew was over 100 strong altogether, though even a fraction of that was more than enough to be a force of its own. The ship was powered not only with the mechanical internals, but also with a taruva of its very own, and its captain was nothing short of a whirling storm. There were few in Aurenne that didn’t know the name, and fewer still that weren’t in awe of the respect it commanded. 

They were, by all means, one of the greatest empyrean crews in all of Aurenne. That was a declaration that went nigh uncontested, even after the crew changed hands into the charge of a girl with shoes too large to fill on her own.

Their final journey took them on a route through skies then-unconquered by the people of Aurenne, and the world had watched with bated breath as the Fornacis struggled through Ysir’s Void. Dozens of empyreans forced themselves to stay standing, even as Ysir’s curse tore at their vitality, whittling them down as they raced to reach the Cloud Spire, where Ysir threatened to shatter the Skyfather’s final resting place. The backlash would have brought disaster to Aurenne.

So the world watched, breaths held and hearts pounding, as the mighty Fornacis continued driving forward, through hordes of Ysir’s beasts and minions until they reached the Cloud Spire. The world watched as the young captain brought any of her still-standing crew to the peak of the spire. The world watched as she rent time itself with her heroics, and brought Ysir a final death. 

But that crushing strike drained everything from the empyrean, hollowing her out until not even a drop remained in that limitless vessel. She held strong, guiding her crew with the same fervor she always held, but when they docked in the Ortzi taiva at long last to recover, the captain of the Fornacis laid her head down for a well-deserved rest.

She didn’t wake again.

At first, the Fornacis remained firm in solidarity. Much of the crew stayed together, even as the fabric that held them started to fray. Their captain was effectively gone, their vice-captain barely ever present in her own desperate attempts to seek a cure for the affliction, and the ship itself refused to acknowledge a successor. No matter how hard they tried to hold their ground, to salvage whatever they could, a ship that refused to move forward couldn’t last among empyreans. 

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and little by little, the crew began to break apart. They had their reasons, of course. Some wanted to move on, others wanted to return to their pasts, some gave up hope while others clung too hard to it. Everyone had their reasons, and nobody could blame them. Eventually, the once-mighty ship became a husk of the mighty titan that it was supposed to be, abandoned in Cygna’s harbor. 

In the years that passed, the Fornacis and its nigh unstoppable crew became no more than a legend whispered on the wind.
[hr][center][h2]NEW BEGINNINGS[/h2][/center][hr]
It started as a dream. One that every member of the Fornacis’s crew shared, so realistic that it felt more like a premonition than a mere fantasy.

Darkness consumed the Fornacis, their home of many years, rattling the airship to its core as it stretched across the halls, the engine, and finally, the crystal housing their taruva, slowly thickening until a sickening crack shattered the air. The ship rocked, sputtered, heaved as it clung to life.

And then it fell from the sky.

For many, the dream was enough to call them back to the vessel, a certain pressure trying to guide them back after four years. The ship’s taruva couldn’t answer where the dream had come from. He couldn’t even answer why it had come to him too. All he could say with certainty was that it coincided with a letter from their vice-captain, the first sign that the woman had survived the past two years.

She claimed to have found a cure for the captain, one that took her beyond the Boundary. All she needed was for the crew to help open a path back. It was the only excuse they needed to strike the skies again. Their crew was slight, compared to before, but where the Fornacis went, there was always a way to fill the gaps. People in search of adventure, of second chances, of new horizons—the Fornacis was a guarantee for countless ambitions. 

It was time for the mighty ship to cross the skies once more.

But thousands of miles away, in the depths of the Araceli taiva, darkness engulfed a taruva, and an island silently crumbled out of the sky.