Essay on the Imperial Navy

by Ekanor Falan (Vice Admiral) Otunuk
40th year of the reign of Cledman VI


The Zekresh Imperial Navy is the supreme naval fighting force in the known world. It has had no serious rival since the Bear Wars eight centuries ago. Even then, Imperial ships were far superior and the Bear Tribes had to make up for it with vast numbers of longboats. They had no large ships and did not have the technology for biremes, rams, napthalene, or gangplanks for boarding parties. The Zekresh Imperial Navy had all these technologies back then and subsequently developed advanced navigation techniques, accurate maps and faster ships with three decks of oarmen called triremes. With the destruction of the last of the Silway Siliken pirate fleets in the last century, (in the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Marvinuk I), the navy has no real enemies. Nonetheless, the Navy has continued to serve a vital function exploring, transporting troops, preventing piracy, and providing the primary link between the Overseas Provinces and the rest of the Empire.

There were some important naval actions in the distant past, but very little real naval warfare in recent centuries.

Before the Empire, Zekresh naval forces consisted of primitive boats full of warriors. In the time of the Wars of Fire, Zekresh forces were led by Zekryva himself, founder of what later became Zekran, the Imperial Capital City. But in those days, Zekresh naval forces were not more advanced than the primitive boats of the Fire People, nor more numerous. For nearly five hundred years after the Fire Wars, Zekresh slowly improved the size and quality of its Navy. But during the Firthyva Dynasty, the Fire People still had a strong enough navy to attack Zekran by sea, defeat Zekresh naval and land forces and pillage Zekran. This was still nearly fifty years before the Zekresh Empire was proclaimed.

Naval forces played only a supporting role in the earliest conquests of the Frayeth lands and of Slythia, but they were slowly building up their capabilities. When the Empire was proclaimed, the navy was still just a few primitive boats, but it was built up. Three centuries later, the Imperial Navy had a vast fleet, but the ships were small and primitive by modern standards. They faced an enemy whose ships were larger and more advanced: the Ilanian Royal Navy.

The most sophisticated naval foe ever defeated by the Imperial Navy was the Ilanian Royal Navy which was equipped with biremes, triremes, napthalene, metal tipped rams on ship bows and gangplanks for boarding parties. Fortunately the Imperial Navy possessed a much larger fleet. This was before the Bear Wars and the Imperial Zekresh Navy did not yet have any of these technologies at the start of the war.

The Ravelonian Navy was also technologically sophisticated, but was even smaller than the Ilanian Royal Navy and was easily overcome.

After the defeat of the Ilanians and the Ravelonians, the Imperial Navy adopted their technologies and tactics and captured and reused some of their ships. All this was put to use a couple centuries later to defeat a less advanced foe who had invaded the Empire, captured two entire provinces and laid seige to Nass Umrug, a major city near the Imperial Capital at Zekran. Enemy naval forces even raided Zekran twice, but were repulsed by the Imperial Navy.

This was the Bear Wars and the invading forces were the Bear Tribes who had not only resisted an Imperial effort to annex them, but had invaded the Empire. The seige and blockade of Nass Umrug by the fleet and army of the Bear Tribes posed a dire threat to the Empire. It was the third major Imperial port to be attacked by the Bear Tribes in this manner. The other two fell to the enemy and the Imperial Capital City of Zekran was next. The Imperial Navy defeated the enemy naval forces at Nass Umrug, thereby allowing relief of that port city by sea and the seige ended. Imperial forces then drove the Bear Tribes all the way back to their own territory and within a year had annexed a large part of it. The final defeat of the Bear Tribes required another eight years of war, but eventually it was done. The Imperial Navy prevented the Bear Tribes from building a new fleet and provided logistics and transport for the Imperial Army during the conquest.

Had the Imperial Navy not learned the naval secrets of the Ilanians, the Bear Tribes would have won the battle of Nass Umrug and probably captured Zekran.

All of these battles were eight centuries or more ago. The only recent foes at sea have been pirates and smugglers. Since the defeat of the Silway Siliken pirate fleet in the last century, pirates rarely have more than one or two ships operating together and are easily scared off or defeated. Pirates still haunt the Western Sea, especially on the Far Coast (the West side) and usually have ships that can outrun all but the fastest Imperial Navy vessels. Thus, dealing with pirates is typically a matter of chasing them off or catching them by surprise in port, not fighting them at sea.

Smugglers almost always surrender when caught rather than fight the Navy.

In its entire history of more than 1,300 years, the Zekresh Imperial Navy has never lost a war.

Though the Imperial Navy faces little opposition at sea and has had almost uninterrupted peace for about eight hundred years, its officers are well aware that sea transport is absolutely essential to the economy of the Empire as well as for its political unity. It is because the Empire can transport large armies by sea to almost any part of the Empire that rebels usually dare not strike openly and inevitably lose if they do.