Monarch armada

Monarch Armada The monarch armada, also known as the monarch-class armada, was an obsolete version of the elven armada. Only six ships of this class were constructed before the design was abandoned shortly before the First Unhuman War.

Description
Monarch armadas had orange-colored wings, the same color as the monarch butterflies from Toril.

The citadel was carved into the ship's body, unlike with the modern armada, which had the citadel placed on top of it. Monarchs that were used by drow had the windows of their citadels covered in a smoky glass that filtered out light that would be otherwise harmful to drow. Because the citadel was limited to the narrow shape of the ship's body, it was much narrower than the modern armada.

Unlike other elven spacecraft, such as flitters, men-o-war, gadabouts, and the modern armada design, monarch armadas were not grown from starfly plants, but were instead made of a nonliving crystalline material. For that reason, they could not regenerate once damaged.

Shaping and growing the crystalline material of the monarch armada required a modified version of the ritual known as elaorman. The same ritual could be used to grow the other elven spelljammers from their seedlings.

History
In the mid‒14 century DR, the elven admiral Icarus commanded a large fleet of elven spacecraft that contained one monarch armada, among other types of spelljammers. Icarus operated exclusively in Realmspace.

Teela Darkcloud, a high priestess of Lolth, captured a monarch armada and modified it for drow use sometime in the mid‒14 century DR.