As it would turn out, and possibly as I should have guessed, having humans added into the academy led to a lot of disruption in the first semester. By happenstance of location, about half of the resultant states that used to be part of Rathland ended up in our alliance, and half ended up in the opposing one. Now, the ones that joined us were ones that showed understanding and sympathy during the demon invasion on the dwarven continent, but that doesn't mean that individual citizens didn't hold grudges.

No one that was explicitly involved in the attacks on Kembora have been back in any capacity. There were dwarven mercenaries that had participated as well back then, and they too have been purposefully excluded from the academy or relocation efforts. That doesn't mean that their relatives or friends were excluded though. So despite having cultivated away a lot of the discrimination and prejudice between dwarves and demons, we ended up sort of reopening some of it again when the first set of humans came to the academy. Thankfully, there were only about 200 humans, and so it wasn't some overwhelming problem, but it was still disruptive.

Further, there are now four languages being spoken around the campus, which is a bit of a problem. By far the most common language is dwarvish. Many demons speak it due to our use of their language for record keeping. Many of the more educated or trade oriented humans from the southern part of the human continent also speak dwarvish due to them being nearby trade partners. Outside of that, there are two human languages that are predominant. They seem to be linguistically related, likely due to proximity to each other, having possibly stemmed from an older language. One centers around the coastal inland sea areas, including cities like Bonbordon and Rathland. Somewhere around half-way across the continent towards the ocean side, the other language is predominant.

I called a meeting of department heads to discuss this matter, and while we haven't made a decision yet, we're leaning towards declaring dwarvish the official language of the academy, and having all the third and fourth year classes taught in it. For the introductory courses, we have significantly more teachers there, and can afford to have some of those classes taught in another language, but ultimately, standardizing things will be beneficial across the board.

Beyond just standardization, it also can help with our image somewhat. The academy is on our island, and while some of the classes and higher level inventions come from us, the majority of the staff are dwarves. The dwarven population is much larger than ours, and if we tried to force everyone to learn and speak the demon language, it'd make for dangerous propaganda for the other side. It'd be incredibly easy to simply say that we've conquered our alliance nations so thoroughly that their leadership all speaks demon, which could easily stoke the flames of rebellion. By making dwarvish the language of choice though, this sort of public relations issue goes away. Logically, it's the best choice if we're choosing one. Only pride and ego stand in the way of such a decision.

Beyond language troubles, I also spent a decent amount of time attempting to draft designs for a new ship. There are a lot of factors I have to consider that go into the design, and a lot of choices that I needed to make early. Since this ship is going to be much larger than our previous ships, a new drydock will have to be constructed to even allow construction to begin. As such, the first thing I wanted to do was conduct new armor tests against our existing artillery. The reason being that the hull and armor make up nearly half of the ship's weight.

By determining the armor thickness I'm aiming for, it gives me a sense of how large the ship needs to be to displace enough armor to actually accommodate that much weight. I didn't want to only plan for the current iteration of our artillery though, my aim was to account for potential future developments the other side may have. After all, it'll take years for this ship to be physically produced. I don't want it to be outdated by then. Since it will house a large mana crystal as well, it needs to be a real monster of a machine.

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I tested armor at different angles, and had two prototype artillery pieces made. One to simulate a much larger artillery piece, and a second one that is a bit smaller, but with a lead fluorite core inside the shell itself, which we positioned inside a quartz and fluorite bunker in the manner that I previously described to maximize the kinetics of such a shell. The conclusion that I came to was that I want armor that is about sixteen inches thick for most of the hull that will sit above water, and a secondary internal armor of eight inches thick around the mana crystal and munitions storage areas.

What I found was that large artillery pieces would sometimes not penetrate armor sixteen inches thick, and if they did, it was repairable. However, the lead fluorite shells would punch through the exterior armor, even when much thicker. What seems to happen, however, is that the impact of the exterior collision shatters the lead fluorite crystal in the center, drastically reducing it's effectiveness moments after impact. In essence, after it punches through the exterior wall, decently sized chunks of shrapnel scatter internally, which can occasionally punch through thicker armor.

While I didn't want to dwell on the test for too long, I think it's hypothetically possible to design those shells to propel a secondary shell through the breach point, which is why I opted for a secondary layer of thick armor wherever it may be necessary. Long story short, I gave Zeb plans for a new drydock for building a battleship that would likely end up between 800 to 1000 feet long and between 100 to 200 feet wide. The specifics are all up in the air based on final design documents, but that's about what my heuristic for hull and armor weight to size tells me I should expect for such a ship.

The idea of designing a battleship when I know that aircraft carriers are far more effective in generalized warfare bothers me to a degree, but there are a handful of factors influencing this decision. First, aircraft don't exist yet. Even if the other side is developing something akin to them, it'll be decades before aircraft capable of challenging a capital ship like this exist. I'll pre-emptively start some work on anti-air gun design when I start working on aircraft, just in case the other side manages something.

Second, magic and leviathans change some of the balance. Larger seems to be better when it comes to magic, and the idea of not having a heavily fortified and protected ship being a flagship with a mana crystal at it's heart seems riskier than normal. Now, it won't be an ordinary battleship, as I want to develop some form of sonar to detect leviathans, and utilize large payload guided torpedoes to enable it to actually engage in combat. A terrifying aspect to consider is that some of the leviathans I've seen grow to over 2500 feet long, which implies that this massive of a ship is still small fry in comparison and will need active countermeasures in case the low mana area in the distance fails to repel some leviathans.

We'll also need to consider what might happen if eagles get attracted to the ship, which is a very real threat. As I design the ship further, I'll be sure to consult with military leadership among the dwarves and Kembora to determine what our policy will be. There are a lot of little things I'll need to work on the design for, while farming out certain aspects of design to those capable of handling it. The plan right now is to hire individuals on to work on the project, but they'll be restricted from leaving Kembora, and be forced to stay at our military installation until construction of the first ship is complete.

The time frame for full blueprinting of the design has been set at 18 months, starting at this summer break which is rapidly approaching. There are a few individuals who I already have my eyes on for development work, and the next graduating class has some promising individuals who should be good for designing the turrets, magazines, and even some of the engine areas. I'm hurrying to lay out all the components I think we'll want on the ship so that I can figure out what I can give to others to work on, and what I need to work on myself.

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