Living ships - controlled by a shipspouse. Left over from the days of the gods. Engineered from whales, semi-sentient, huge ships, originally warcraft but adapted to fast cargo hauling through rough and dangerous waters. Imagine a corrupted one..
In the days of war, some of the gods crafted certain enormous marine animals into living warships. Leviathans are something between a whale, a giant squid and an immense nautilus. The warships that were made from them are called Galleathans.
They are immense creatures the size of galleons, with decks covered by a transparent crystalline nautilus shell, and weapon ports covered by gill-like flaps. They lack any control schemata, instead each is mentally bound to a particular family of sentients. More specifically, they are bound to one person, and on the death or incapacity of that person the bond will pass to the most genetically similar person, usually a child. They can either be forced to obey, or trained to build a bond of trust and obey voluntarily. The Galleathans are relatively strong willed, so forcing obedience is difficult for most.
Pilots must be magically active and trained in order to create the bond in the first place, although they need not be trained to accept a bond passed from another. An untrained person who suddenly finds themselves bound to a Galleathans can actually be taught and trained by the beast itself
Because the nature of the bond is at its heart magical, the Galleathans may be corrupted through the bond to their pilots. Along the same lines, a corrupted ship whose pilot dies, whose bond then passes to another, will in turn corrupt that person.
Sava cannot be pilots, and cannot be bound by a Galleathans. In fact, Galleathans generally will not tolerate having a Sava on board, as their anti-magical field interferes with the bond and causes them pain.
Galleathans are affected by the will and personalities of their pilot. A pilot who is laid back, generally happy, and works with his ship rather than forcing obedience will generally have a playful, happy ship that may stretch its commands but will no seek to break the bond. A brooding, angry pilot who forces it's will on his ship will have an angry ship, difficult to control, that constantly seeks to break its bond or pervert it's pilot's intent.
