Empress Marava-Class?
 

My simple question is, have anybody uppdated the Empress Marava Class to the 4e rules?

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

It would look very much like the Hero-class from ISW (except in illustrations). the way that ISW upgraded the Hero to J2 took away the Marava's niche.

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

As a side note, it might be nice to have a list of female rulers to name them after.

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

Empresses of the 3rd Imperium (with the order they appear on the Emperor's list and the years of their reign):
7. Porfiria 245-326
11. Nicholle 457-475
14. Jaqueline I 582-606
24. Catharine 619
26. Jaqueline II 619
28. Marava 620
32. Arbellatra 629-666
34. Margaret I 688-736
37. Paula II 768-836
38. Tomutova II 836-908
39. Margaret II 908-945

Marava was one of the "Emperors of the Flag" who reigned for less than a year and was killed in battle by her successor. Interesting choice for a merchant vessel.

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

Maybe some of the more illustrious woman Emperors' names had already been applied to some military vessel or other.

It's also plausible to say that the design itself originated on her home world; neither the origin of the design nor Marava is named in canon. However, I am pretty sure that Olav hault-Plankwell is more fondly remembered in the Spinward Marches than elsewhere, because he was from the Marches, and led a successful military campaign there. If Marava was the most notable person from a given world, she might be the namesake for a notable product designed there, even if she's hardly the most noteworthy emperor.

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

A few more Imperial empresses:

Antiama, wife of Zhakirov.
Elbet, wife of Paulo III.
Iolanthe, wife of Strephon.

And if you'll forgive me sneaking in a non-canonical creation of my own, Charmian, wife of Styryx. She's the empress featured in Celestine Floridore's blockbuster romance, The Three Guardsmen. ;-)

As names for what is supposedly an ubiquitous Imperium-wide workhorse, there aren't nearly enough Imperial empresses to furnish all the names needed even if you come up with wives for all the other emperors (and perhaps even an empress or two). You can expect to have a lot more named for non-Imperial empresses. Maybe even some named for strong female rulers who weren't empresses at all.


Hans

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

I would expect this is the case, due to the sheer number of ships. Although you can have an "Empress Marava II" (or more), and maybe a name repeated per sector, or less, as long as it didn't cause too much confusion. Official records are going to be based on its serial number, not its human-readable name.

If the Empress Marava, registered on Mora, has a more or less regular route through several subsectors of the Spinward Marches, then another Empress Marava could be operating in Deneb without even knowing the existence the other. And if law enforcement ever needs to know about one or the other, heaven forbid, they go by the ship's serial numbers.

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

But every spacer knows that it's Bad Luck for a ship to have the same name as another ship.


Hans

Re: Empress Marava-Class?
 

That is one I did not know. I know about changing a ships name (bad luck unless you do a complex ceremony), shaving (bad luck) and earrings (good luck if its gold).

That must generate an entire cottage industry of researching ship's names. You start building your trader and have to make sure no one, anywhere in the Imperium, has already used that name. A good search could take as long as building the thing.