From Identifying the Tripoda: A Preliminary Report
by Mari Ness
Other works by Mari Ness appear in Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Apex, Nature Futures, Diabolical Plots, Fantasy and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and have been finalists for the Canopus, Elgin and Dwarf Star Awards. A tiny collection of tiny fairy tales, Dancing in Silver Lands, is available from Neon Hemlock Press, and a poetry novella, Through Immortal Shadows Singing, from Papaveria Press. For more, visit the occasionally updated marikness.wordpress.com, which lists other publications and more or less keeps track of the ever shifting social media accounts.
1. Originally reported as either Norway or France, but this is incorrect. The discovery was made on Mallorca.
2. The word “ship” is perhaps misleading: the vessel, when found, measured approximately ten meters, or 33 feet – the size of a very small mortal yacht or simple sailboat. In historical tradition and the songs from the Court of the Indigo Sun, however, the Tripoda is called a ship, and modern research has tended to follow that terminology.
3. In addition, of course, to avoiding detection by mortal radar – something few enchantment spells are equipped to do.
4. Six other lost or abandoned ships, to be precise, although one of these–the Märchen–is believed to be nothing more than a legend. The descriptions of these ships, however, do not correspond as closely to the vessel found on Mallorca, and several features of the vessel fit what we know or can infer about the Tripoda’s construction.
5. The word “Princeps” does not necessarily indicate any high rank at the Court of the Indigo Sun. At the time, positions and ranks at the various Courts were quite fluid, with individual Courts adding and subtracting titles at will. See Mazoe Glas-Foraize, Grace and Rank: an Introduction, and Gliten Eldritch, A History of the Courts in the Days Before the Iron Storms. We cannot even be certain that the Princeps was directly related to the Queen of the Court, or which Queen ruled the Indigo Sun at the time. It is entirely possible that his duties involved some sort of outreach to other Courts, or to the sea Holts, then just beginning to open communications with their largely shorebound counterparts.
6. Several Courts had, of course, already built ships larger than the Tripoda without a single trace of iron, but none of them were particularly seaworthy.
7. Later claims that Tripoda was built without any mortal assistance must be dismissed; the Court of the Indigo Sun had no skilled shipwrights, or even carpenters capable of carving the boards and fastenings needed to build the ship in the first place.
8. For shipbuilding practices of the period, see Thiten Ambranai, Manufacturing Enchantment in the Early Ages of Empire, and Mazoe Glas-Foraize, A History of Mortal Employment, Volume II: Bronze, Wood, and the Advent of Iron.
9. The Courts of the time had not yet codified, or even considered, laws regulating mortal employment and enchantment, though discretion, then as always, was strongly advised, leading to extensive enchantments and memory distortions.
10. The Court of the Indigo Sun did not typically keep records of mortal employment – a practice that helped conceal their reliance on mortal work, and a custom that continues today. They did, however, keep scattered records of enchantments and purchases of the materials needed for such enchantments. A review of these records suggests that the Princeps hired approximately forty-nine mortal workers over a period of seven years to help build the Tripoda.
11. The Tripoda, of course, was only one of many ships of the period built with individually carved, mismatched wooden nails and bolts, since mortals were engaged in active shipbuilding and seatrade at the time. Our records, however, suggest that it would be the only ship of the period that would have been enchanted to leave the seas for the skies, and the only ship of the period to use ropes bound with starlight.
12. The six other lost ships–assuming, of course, that the Märchen is not merely a legend–were all constructed later, after mortals had developed more standardized methods of shipbuilding. At least three were constructed after mortals began using iron to build their ships, and although the Courts would, of course, have avoided the extensive use of iron, iron in very small amounts, or concealed in wood, was not infrequently used. The vessel found on Mallorca contained not a single trace of iron.
13. The researchers sent to investigate the vessel traveled on powerboats formed from fiberglass and aluminum. They were naturally heavily wrapped in enchantments for the journey.
14. Thiten Amhranai, for one, believes that the Princeps had always intended to sail directly to the stars without once testing the Tripoda out on mortal seas. Mazoe Glas-Foraize, however, citing personal knowledge of the Court, notes that the Court of the Indigo Sun was, even then, well aware of just how distant even the nearest stars were, and would never have authorized payment for the Tripoda had they had even an inkling of this as the original plan, much less allowed the Princeps to enchant mortals to assist with the shipbuilding.
15. Enchantments to hold and control wind would not be fully developed, much less perfected, for at least another two centuries. Seaholt denizens typically made no use of ships at all, instead choosing to swim, for precisely this reason.
16. The art of individual flight is not usually taught at the Court of the Indigo Sun.
17. Ironically, the ropes used to tow the Tripoda back to the cliffs below the court were woven from starlight.
18. A current resident of the Court of the Twilight Herons, she refused to travel to Mallorca to confirm the identity of the shipwreck, saying that she had “no interest in becoming trapped in emerald music.” When pressed for an explanation, she turned the interviewer into a frog, terminating any attempt at further research.
19. At least, if we are to believe the songs. Raidne Seiren, citing oral sources and personal interviews, believes that the Tripoda was taken out on at least six more journeys on sea and air. It proved, however, to be a distinctly cranky vessel, likely to toss those onboard into the winds or waves without notice, as well as taking on dangerous amounts of water. These flaws may also help account for the abandonment of such a vessel.
20. Such a dramatic pronouncement was not unusual at the Court of the Indigo Sun, which had been known to curse persons to hop on only one foot without stopping for five hundred years, to the great detriment of their footwear.
21. Quite how the Princeps managed to accomplish this is unknown; Mazoe Glas-Foraize documents that he told at least seven different stories at seven different courts.
22. Documenting its true location in a footnote was the best way to ensure that it would never be found.
23. During those seven centuries, the Tripoda was reportedly seen in every ocean and sea on the Earth and the Moon. None of those sightings could, however, be confirmed.
24. Beyond the nails, which can be considered sufficient evidence for identification, these included five indigo crystal goblets, barely scratched; and a silver ring that, when touched, played a song often heard at the Court of the Indigo Sun.
25. The starlight ropes vanished when touched.
© From Identifying the Tripoda, a preliminary report: by Mari Ness. 2023. All rights reserved.
