Editing Elven Imperial Fleet

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The '''Elven Imperial Fleet''', also known as the '''Elven Imperial Navy''', is one of the largest and most powerful factions in the universe of [[Spelljammer]], and represents the united military/naval forces of all spelljamming [[elf]] nations across the totality of [[Wildspace]]. Generally accepted by fans of the setting as the stand-in for the British Empire in the "Age of Sail" that Spelljammer attempts to emulate, the Imperial Navy can be either a vital ally, a somewhat trustworthy patron, or a pain in the ass... usually the latter. The largest bodies of lore to be found on the faction are, of course, the original Spelljammer boxed set and the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook.

Their symbol is the silhouette of an Elven man-o-war on a gold field.

==Spelljammers==
The EIF is, of course, made up exclusively of elfin models of spelljammer, which are all based on magically shaped starfly plants. The largest of all EIF spelljammers is the Armada model, and the EIF creates command hubs, or "space stations" by having several Armadas physically linked together in a circular arrangement.

==Membership==
The EIF is made up of [[elves]], exclusively, though trusted non-elf hirelings such as [[hadozee]] may be employed by individual ships as mercenaries who formally exist outside of the Fleet's recognized chain of command. Whilst officially open to any of the diffuse elf subraces, in practice the majority of Fleet members tend to be [[High Elf]] and [[Gray Elf]], with a distinct minority of [[Wood Elf]] and Wild Elf members. The [[Drow]] are denied membership because, well, they hate all the other elven races, and the other subraces largely join depending on how common they are and how well they take to the practice of spelljamming at all. In official lore, only the [[Aquatic Elf]] subrace is not found crewing spelljammers, and that's because their need for regular immersion in water makes spelljamming too much of a hassle. Fans have been known to ignore this and create unique water-filled spelljammers crewed by aquatic elves.

Membership in the EIF is lifelong, and recruits are encouraged to think of the Navy as an enormous, Sphere-spanning family. Ships usually prefer to recruit younger elves over older ones, and there is a distinct bias towards spacer-born elves over groundlings.

==Hierarchy==
Despite its grandiose name, the EIF is not really a singular organization, but rather an alliance of the individual fleets maintained by the different spelljamming elven nations scattered throughout Wildspace, each of which patrols its own Crystal Sphere and maybe those parts of [[Wildspace]] and the [[Phlogiston]] within easy reach. As a result, the EIF suffers from a terribly byzantine bureaucracy and horrible internal communication, which means that even the EIF isn't entirely sure of how many damn ships it has or where they're all stationed!

Ultimate authority lies with the Grand Admiral, who during the time of 2nd edition as also the Admiral of the Evermeet Fleet, governing [[Forgotten Realms|Realmspace]]. The Grand Admiral is assisted by the Council of Admirals, or "The Cabinet", which in 2e consisted of eleven admirals in total, most of whom were quite ancient. The Cabinet oversees the Fleet from the mobile space station Lionheart, which is frequently moved throughout Wildspace. Individual fleets center around their own space stations.

Below the Cabinet are the Bench (the judicial branch) and the Accounting Services, which don't hold true power of command but are crucial to maintaining the structure of the EIF as a whole.

From there, the fleet starts getting more individualistic. The highest individual muckety-muck is, of course, the Fleet Admiral, who has dominion over all Captains in a given portion of Wildspace. Normally, a single Fleet Admiral controls a single Crystal Sphere, but in areas or times when the EIF is spread particularly thin, command over a given Sphere may be given to a single Captain. Both Admirals and Captains have complete command over their own personal spelljammers, and are largely left to their own devices outside of periodic check-ins with the higher-ups (their Admiral for a Captain, the Council of Admirals for a Fleet Admiral). To show their rank, an admiral wears silvered platemail, black boots with a speckled "starburst" design, black silk gloves, and a black tabard bearing the navy's insignia against a starfield design.

On a given EIF ship, the internal hierarchy flows thus:
::Captain	
::First mate	
::Navigator/helmsman 1st class	
::Cleric/medic/priest 1st class	
::Quartermaster	
::Battlepoet 1st class	
::Cleric/medic/priest 2nd class	
::Navigator/helmsman 2nd class	
::Battlepoet 2nd class	
::Weapons sergeant	
::Rigging sergeant	
::Battlepoet 3rd class	
::Cleric/medic/priest 3rd class	
::Navigator/helmsman 3rd class	
::Cleric/medic/priest 4th class	
::Crew chief (weapons aimer)	
::Crewman

Crew with a rank of 3rd class generally were in their first through twelfth year with the Navy. An exception were clerics, who started as 4th class and had to serve on average for more than a dozen years before promotion to 3rd class. The rank of sergeant was not attained until beyond one's 20th year. Most 2nd class crewmen had served between thirteen and 30 years. Again, for clerics, it took longer, typically at least 30 years, to reach the rank of 2nd class. First class was achieved after at least 40 years—or 61 years in the case of clerics. The quartermaster held the equivalent of a 1st class rank. There was fierce competition for these positions in the Navy. Applicants made appeals to specific commanders for promotion, who had full power to accept or reject.

==Goals==
The primary goal of the EIF is the protection and promotion of elven interests throughout wildspace. Essentially, a weird mixture of military, communications hub and diplomatic network.

The military applications are the most obvious. The EIF's primary job is to stomp on anyone stupid enough to pick a fight with the elves, whether spaceborne or ground-based. [[Pirate]]s, [[slaver]]s, [[orc]]s, [[goblinoid]]s, [[neogi]], [[illithid]]s, [[beholder]]s, [[scro]], if it threatens the elves, the EIF hunts it down and kicks its teeth in... theoretically, at least. Thus, they tend to be a stabilizing force in Wildspace, keeping the various would-be raiders and bandits of the stars at a manageable level. 

Officially, the EIF avoids meddling with groundlings, even groundling elf nations. But... secretly, sometimes they are called upon (or feel themselves called upon, at least) to contain groundling threats to spacefaring elves, such as sabotaging efforts by a powerful, evil nation to extend its reach into space.

The EIF's secondary job is maintaining a flow of communications between the scattered elven nations of [[Wildspace]]. The Fleet maintains ambassadors in the courts of major elven kingdoms and nations to communicate the wishes of the Admirals to the sovereigns. Likewise, ambassadors from the elven nations invited to Lionheart to communicate the wishes of their sovereigns to the Admirals. In this way, the Fleet facilitates negotiations between elven nations in matters of trade, mutual defense, migrations, and even arranged political marriages.

[[Category: Spelljammer]]